Baseball's Greatest Offenses
The Greatest Offensive Teams Of All Time
Baseball’s Greatest Offenses
I’ve been on a Domination Index roll lately.
You might remember this post from last week:
We’re going to look at the same sort of thing this week, though this time we’ll focus on the offenses.
We’ll make it simple. We’re just going to look at the top teams of all time in each league, and will be done with this quickly.
National League
Now, remember that these numbers are not adjusted for park factors. The overall Domination Index is, since you’ve got to pitch in the same park that you hit in. In other words, don’t get too excited by all those Colorado Rockies teams.
But you should get excited by the Cincinnati Reds of the mid-1970s.
Want to know how truly great those Reds teams were? The 1975 and 1976 Cincinnati Reds were more dominant relative to their league than the 1953 Brooklyn Dodgers, the 1993 Philadelphia Phillies, the 1902 Pittsburgh Pirates, the 1986 New York Mets, the 1949 Brooklyn Dodgers, and a whole host of Rockies teams.
That’s how good they were.
A few other things should stand out, of course. The 1984 Cubs were actually better offensively in relation to the league than the 2008 Cubs, though I think most people would consider the 2008 Cubs to be the better offensive team.
And, of course, my surprise at the futility of the 1949 Dodgers in my replay comes because of how awesome that offense really is. They rank as the 13th best offense in National League history before adjustments. Once you make the proper adjustments, their 879 runs scored will surely look only more impressive.
American League
The 2015 Blue Jays?
Yep, the 2015 Blue Jays. They had one of the most potent offenses of all time in relation to the league.
I thought the 2015 Blue Jays were so remarkable that I made a video about them:
As you recall, I also wrote about the 2006 Yankees in an earlier post. They were indeed one of the most dominant offenses in baseball history:
There are a few other surprises here, of course. The 1900 Indianapolis Hoosiers, for example, finished in 3rd place, 11 games behind the champion Chicago White Stockings. The 1993 Detroit Tigers weren’t anybody’s definition of a good team — not then, and certainly not now.
As for the 1927 Yankees? Their offense ranked only 37th in run production relative to the league. It’s their defense that helped them become such a formidable powerhouse.