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Eric Gay/Associated Press
When the final four teams were decided in MLB this year, the Atlanta Braves held the longest odds to win the World Series.
They had won the fewest games, and it made more sense to bet on the Dodgers, Astros or Red Sox, who had all won titles in recent years.
But the Braves? Better than they were given credit for, certainly.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at where they stack among the World Series champions of the past 20 years.
For these rankings, we consider factors ranging from regular-season and postseason performance, as well as overall talent.
Dig in.
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Winners of only 83 games in the regular season, the ’06 Cardinals are one of the flukiest champions in recent memory. St. Louis had won 100-plus games the previous two seasons, which included losing to the Boston Red Sox in the 2004 World Series.
In 2006, the Cardinals lost Hall of Fame right fielder Larry Walker to retirement. Left fielder Reggie Sanders, second baseman Mark Grudzielanek and Matt Morris, who had been an All-Star pitcher in St. Louis, all left in free agency.
Those positions were not necessarily upgraded, but it did not matter. Their rotation was surprisingly stout, and Albert Pujols was in his prime.
To get to the World Series, the Cardinals punched above their weight class to beat the San Diego Padres and New York Mets, both teams better than St. Louis in every conceivable way.
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Winning just 88 games over the regular season, the Giants’ third World Series squad of the 2000s relied on the brilliance of Madison Bumgarner, who allowed just one earned run in 21 innings pitched that series.
Bumgarner posted the lowest World Series ERA (0.43) for any pitcher with at least 15 innings of work since Sandy Koufax in 1965 (0.38 ERA).
He also broke the all-time MLB record for innings pitched in a postseason.
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Speaking of Madison Bumgarner, while 2014 was the stuff of legend, don’t forget his World Series debut as a 21-year-old in 2010. It was on Halloween 2010 when Bumgarner allowed just three hits in eight shutout innings
The team’s ace at this point was still Tim Lincecum, who may have pitched his best game against the Atlanta Braves in Game 1 of the NLDS.
At the time, it seemed like the Giants could have a nasty one-two punch for years to come.
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Despite a high-powered offense, which led the National League with 214 home runs, this was a surprisingly unremarkable champion. The best of those Phillies teams in the late 2000s were the ones to never win titles.
Cliff Lee did not arrive until 2009, when Philly lost in the World Series to the New York Yankees. The Phillies traded J.A. Happ for Roy Oswalt in 2010, when they fell to the Giants in the NLCS.
But Brad Lidge had his comeback season, not blowing a save and finishing fourth in NL Cy Young voting, and Ryan Howard was sublime with three World Series homers.
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What a fun team this was. It was one of Pudge Rodriguez’s random single seasons with a team, but he helped lead the young Marlins squad to a title, being named NLCS MVP and providing a dramatic postseason moment when he held onto the ball during a home plate collision with J.T. Snow.
There were also the early looks at youngsters Dontrelle Willis, Josh Beckett and Miguel Cabrera, who was just 20 years old at the time.
The Cubs were up 3-1 in what is remembered as one of the most infamous and classic championship series ever. We all know where this series took a turn in the Marlins’ direction.
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Probably the least memorable Red Sox World Series team, it’s still pretty impressive when you think about how they were transitioning.
Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury were rookies. Jon Lester and Jonathan Papelbon were only in their second year pitching in their roles. But they also still had David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, Curt Schilling and Jason Varitek as holders from the historic 2004 World Series team.
Mike Lowell was also in his second season with the team after being traded from the Marlins for Hanley Ramirez. All Lowell did was hit .400 with four RBI, a homer and score six runs in the Red Sox’s World Series sweep of the Colorado Rockies.
The highlight of this run was Boston coming back from down 3-1 against Cleveland in the ALCS.
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The Angels have been trying to recreate this moment for about 20 years, to no avail. They won the 2002 World Series in one of the most dramatic finishes you will ever see.
The San Francisco Giants, led by slugger Barry Bonds and manager Dusty Baker, held a 3-2 series lead in the World Series and went up 5-0 in Game 6. The Giants had one out in the seventh inning when Baker made a pitching change from Russ Ortiz to Felix Rodriguez.
Scott Spiezio made them pay, fouling off pitch after pitch before barely sending a three-run shot over the right field wall.
The Angels scored another three runs in the eighth inning behind a leadoff homer by Darin Erstad and then a string of hits by Tim Salmon, Garret Anderson and the game-deciding two-RBI double by Troy Glaus.
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Kansas City gave us the small-ball champion of our time. The Royals had lost a scrappy seven-game World Series the previous year against the Giants.
They came right back the next year to beat the Mets in five games. It’s possible none of it happens if Carlos Correa is able to handle this double play in the ALDS, but sometimes you just need a little luck to go your way.
Kansas City had legitimate stars in Lorenzo Cain, Alex Gordon and adding Ben Zobrist to the mix. But they also had Alcides Escobar (.257/.293/.320) leading off and played Omar Infante (.220/.234/.318) at second base.
Remarkable.
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Here is another overachiever that did something special, winning every road game in a seven-game World Series to take the title in Houston.
They did it in heartbreaking fashion for Houston fans, too. A.J. Hinch’s decision to pull Zack Greinke for Will Harris (instead of Gerrit Cole) in the seventh inning of Game 7, after Anthony Rendon’s solo homer cut the Astros’ lead to 2-1, will forever live in infamy for Houston fans.
It’s a decision that will always be second-guessed, especially considering how the Nationals talk about Greinke dealing that night.
But he walked Juan Soto, Harris entered the game, and Howie Kendrick promptly set a 91-mph cutter to the opposite field.
The Nationals squeezed into that postseason as a wild card, where they beat the Milwaukee Brewers. Then in NLDS, they beat the vaunted Los Angeles Dodgers, who had appeared in the two previous World Series.
After sweeping the Cardinals in the championship round, Washington put in a World Series performance for the ages.
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Not much needs to be said about this team beyond the David Freese Game 6 in the World Series.
Freese tied the game with a two-run triple in the ninth inning to force extras. When he stepped to the plate in the 11th, he hit a walk-off home run to force a decisive Game 7.
St. Louis also had an impressive collection of veterans on this team with Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina, Lance Berkman, Chris Carpenter and Matt Holliday.
The frustrating part about this team was how they spent so much time not living up to their potential that season and then turned it on when lights were the brightest.
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This group rode Madison Bumgarner, Matt Cain and Ryan Vogelsong as Tim Lincecum started to decline. The Giants swept the Detroit Tigers to win their second World Series in three years.
Trading for Hunter Pence was an important move, as he became a key member of the ’12 and ’14 championship squads.
Barry Zito also briefly made good on one of the worst contracts in baseball toward the end of a seven-year, $126 million deal and dominated that postseason.
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Boston boasted the most wins in baseball in 2013 behind a good offense and outstanding bullpen. The backstory, and David Ortiz more specifically, really make this run memorable.
The Red Sox became a rallying point for that city after the Boston Marathon bombing, and Ortiz took on the role of unquestioned leader and team’s spokesman.
Then Ortiz hit the game-tying grand slam in Game 2 of the ALCS and turned in an absurd World Series slash line of .668/.760/1.188.
Truly fun times.
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Hopefully the Braves winning 88 games to lead a weak NL East division is merely a footnote in what they actually accomplished this year.
They did not look anything like contenders once Ronald Acuna Jr. went down with a torn ACL in July.
Alex Anthopoulos, however, moved around enough chess pieces to completely reshape Atlanta’s outfield. He traded for Adam Duvall from Miami, Joc Pederson from the Chicago Cubs, Eddie Rosario from Cleveland and World Series MVP Jorge Soler from Kansas City.
The Astros were the overwhelming favorite going into this series but had not run into so much lethal left-handed pitching like what Atlanta produced.
The Braves also outperformed the best offense in baseball with a lopsided home run margin, 10-2.
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Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press
This team comes with controversy because the 2020 Dodgers could be considered one of the best teams of our lifetime. They scorched through the pandemic-shortened 60-game season with the highest winning percentage of the post-1960 era (.717).
But because of the peculiar season, the likes of which we had never seen, everyone was harder to evaluate in 2020.
They could easily be ranked higher, and perhaps some would place them lower. In the end, we settled for seventh, but only because of the abbreviated season.
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It is odd the 2005 White Sox are not discussed more often. This was one of the more dominant postseason runs ever. Only the Angels in Game 1 of the ALCS could even touch this squad with a 3-2 win.
Otherwise, the White Sox rolled. They swept the ALDS and won every game after dropping Game 1 to the Angels, including a World Series sweep of the Astros.
Jermaine Dye had been signed that offseason, which saw a lot of changes for the White Sox, and became World Series MVP.
They also brought in left fielder Scott Podsednik and catcher A.J. Pierzynski to help lead Chicago to a 99-win season.
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This team was so loaded and the Red Sox have been so successful ever since, it’s actually wild there was ever considered to be a curse.
Boston trotted out a one-two punch of Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez, with Manny Ramirez being Manny Ramirez, and David Ortiz, and Johnny Damon in his prime.
Ninety-eight wins that season was only good enough for the wild card since the Yankees turned in 101 wins.
The two rivals met in the ALCS , with the Yankees taking a 3-0 series lead and outsourcing the Red Sox 32-16 in those three games.
But they stayed alive in those next two games at Fenway Park and then leaned on one of the gutsiest performances in postseason history from Curt Schilling in Game 6.
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For a lot of people, this World Series comes with an asterisk because of the sign-stealing scandal attached to it.
Don’t let that cheat you out of appreciating how good the ’17 Astros really were. Perhaps the most infuriating part about the scandal is that Houston was already good before it and has been very good since.
This was the year it all seemed to come together for Carlos Correa. Marwin Gonzalez had a career season. Justin Verlander was traded for right as the deadline approached. Jose Altuve won the American League MVP, and George Springer was the World Series MVP.
It was a star-studded group that won a seven-game shootout with the Dodgers.
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Eric Gay/Associated Press
The last Yankees team to win a World Series was an excellent one. This was the year they retooled the roster with some major shakeups to address holes in their starting pitching and at first base.
They signed C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira to major multiyear deals. They had also traded for Nick Swisher in the offseason.
This team won 103 games in the regular season, cruised past the Minnesota Twins in the ALDS and beat the Angels in six games in the ALCS.
Most impressive was beating a reigning World Series champion Phillies team that was even better than the year before.
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What a disappointment to consider this young group of players won just one title and was broken up five years later.
If you asked me at the time, I would’ve guessed the Cubs were the National League team of the future, set to compete for pennants with the Dodgers for years to come.
We will settle for what was still one of the greatest teams we’ve seen in decades.
Kris Bryant won the NL MVP. Jon Lester and Kyle Hendricks contended for the Cy Young, and the Cubs traded Gleyber Torres to the Yankees for Aroldis Chapman.
Runs against this team were hard to come by.
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Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images
The most recent Red Sox championship team had no weaknesses. Their lineup was downright scary one through nine. Chris Sale was in his best form, and the postseason bullpen was nails.
Their defense was also elite.
There are heavier emotional attachments to the 2004 Red Sox who broke the curse; rising above tragedy after the deadly marathon in 2013; and the ’07 squad sandwiched in between.
But this ’18 group won a franchise-record 108 regular-season games. Then they made really good Yankees, Astros and Dodgers teams bow at their mercy on their way to the title.
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