The 1998 Houston Astros

[Wolf Hopper]

I looked at all teams, 1900-2003, to see which teams had both a "Top 100" team RSAA and RCAA. Four teams stood out:

The 1937 Yankees.
The 1944 Cardinals.
The 1948 Indians.
The 1998 Astros.

The Yanks, Cards, and Indians all won the World Series. The Astros did not. What happened?

[gyb13]

the astros would've had to win 3 playoff series. the others just needed one.

in the NLDS, the 'stros met a strong pads team that won 3-1, with two of their three wins coming by one run.

both those games were started by a dominant Kevin Brown, who had a 0.61 ERA in 14.2 IP in the series (1 ER, 5 H, 7 BB, 21 SO)

[Ytown Tribe fan]

That is exactly right, gyb. More teams in playoffs do NOT increase the chances of winning the World Series, only of making the playoffs. In fact, it is harder to win the World Series since 1969.

[gyb13]

and, of course, they struggled against Brown because of their predominantly right-handed lineup:
HOUSTON ASTROS
SEASON
1998

RCAA RCAA Bats
1 Jeff Bagwell 58 R
2 Moises Alou 57 R
3 Craig Biggio 56 R
4 Derek Bell 27 R
5 Sean Berry 18 R
6 Carl Everett 9 S

[Wolf Hopper]

Funny, the 1998 'stros may have given NY a better fight in the WS.

[tyruschen]

Funny, the 1998 'stros may have given NY a better fight in the WS.

I agree. Since they have one dominating lefty - Big Unit. He beat NY then (95) and now. (2001)

[Wolf Hopper]

Plus, the Houston righty bats may have done better against Pettitte and Wells than the LH hitting Finley, Gywnn and Joyner - - and I know that whoever Houston played at third would have done better than Caminiti.

[WiredTiger]

The playoff as they are setup now are a crap shoot. Any team can win that gets in. It's very hard to win three playoff series and matchups play such an important role.

[Ytown Tribe fan]

The playoff as they are setup now are a crap shoot. Any team can win that gets in. It's very hard to win three playoff series and matchups play such an important role.

Off topic, but it brings up another point -- no matter how you slice it, the odds against winning the World Series are always (the number of teams in both leagues) : 1.

Even if EVERY team was invited to post-season playoffs (almost like the NHL), the odds against winning it all wouldn't change.

When talking about great teams throughout baseball history, that fact gets overlooked sometimes. It's basically twice as hard to win it all nowadays as it was when there were two 8-team leagues.

That doesn't mean that the the teams that DO win nowadays are necessarily twice as good as the '27 Yanks; rather it means that the '27 Yanks aren't necessarily better than the teams with the best records that DON'T win it all nowadays.