Where these Giants rank among World Series winners

The World Series can be a let down. A sweep is no fun for anyone other than fans of the winning team. A really good series, with lots of momentum swings that come down to a great Game 7 is very rare.

I was too young to appreciate 1975. The Twins-Braves series of 1991 was pretty epic. The Royals-Giants this year is going to be remembered, especially the ninth inning with the two-out triple that kept people on their feet until the final pop fly.

In terms of baseball greatness, well neither the Royals nor the Giants are going to go down as one of baseball's greats. The Giants won just 88 games during the regular season and the Royals won 89. Both teams were only playing because of the wild card, which still rankles purists but truthfully does create added excitement in October when many fans are tuning out.

I created a quick analysis a couple of weeks ago to rank all of the winners of the World Series in the multi-division era, which began in 1969. Ever since baseball created two divisions in 1969 and added a third along with a wild card team in 1995 the road to winning the World Series is much harder. Since 1969, the team with the best record in the major leagues went on to win the World Series just 11 times.

In fact, since the wild card was added in 1995, a team that didn't even manage to win its division now has won more World Series -- seven -- than the teams that entered the playoffs with baseball's best record -- four. That's an interesting phenomenon.

What is true baseball greatness? I spent a couple of hours today creating a quick ranking of all World Series winners since 1969. I gave points for:

* Regular season winning percentage. My 1990 Cincinnati Reds won .562 of their 162 games so they get .562.

* A ranking scale. If the team had the best record in the major leagues it received 1.000 points. If it had the best record in its league it received .800. If it was a division winner it received .600. If it was a wild card team but had a better record than at least one division winner it received .400. If it was a wild card team with a record worse than all division winners in its league it received .200.

* Playoff points based on wins times opponent winning percentage divided by total games played. My 1990 Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates in six games in the NLCS that year. The Pirates had a .586 winning percentage that year. So the formula reads (4*.586)/6 for .391 points.

* World Series points based the same way. The 1990 Reds swept the mighty Oakland A's that year. Oakland had a .636 winning percentage in 1990 so the formula reads (4*.636)/4 for .636.

Obviously, sweeps against teams with great records scores more points.

I added one more column, bonus points for wins. It is undoubtedly more difficult to get through the playoffs now. In 1976, the Reds swept the Phillies and Yankees to go a perfect 7-0. The Phillies won 101 games in 1976 and the Yankees won 97 during the regular season so it was an impressive pair of sweeps.

To balance things out for teams in the wild card era, I added .01 for each total win, regular season and playoffs. So the 1990 Reds, who had to win eight games to win the playoffs and World Series, received .990 points. In 2013, the Boston Red Sox won 108 games between the regular season and the playoffs so Boston received 1.08 points.

Got it? Good. Here's my list:

		Win Pct.	Scale	Playoffs	World Series	Win bonus	Total
1998	New York Yankees	0.704	1.000	0.425	0.605	1.250	3.984
1976	Cincinnati Reds	0.630	1.000	0.624	0.610	1.090	3.954
1970	Baltimore Orioles	0.667	1.000	0.605	0.504	1.150	3.926
1975	Cincinnati Reds	0.667	1.000	0.571	0.339	1.150	3.727
1984	Detroit Tigers	0.642	1.000	0.518	0.454	1.110	3.724
1989	Oakland A's	0.611	1.000	0.439	0.568	1.070	3.688
1999	New York Yankees	0.605	0.800	0.510	0.636	1.090	3.641
2007	Boston Red Sox	0.593	1.000	0.411	0.552	1.070	3.626
2009	New York Yankees	0.636	1.000	0.444	0.383	1.140	3.603
1969	New York Mets	0.617	0.800	0.574	0.538	1.070	3.600
2005	Chicago White Sox	0.611	0.800	0.513	0.549	1.100	3.573
1986	New York Mets	0.667	1.000	0.395	0.337	1.150	3.549
1978	New York Yankees	0.614	1.000	0.426	0.391	1.070	3.501
2013	Boston Red Sox	0.599	1.000	0.399	0.399	1.080	3.477
1995	Atlanta Braves	0.625	0.800	0.496	0.463	1.010	3.393
1979	Pittsburgh Pirates	0.605	0.800	0.559	0.366	1.050	3.380
1982	St. Louis Cardinals	0.568	0.800	0.549	0.335	0.990	3.242
1992	Toronto Blue Jays	0.593	0.800	0.395	0.403	1.040	3.232
1971	Pittsburgh Pirates	0.599	0.800	0.417	0.365	1.040	3.221
1993	Toronto Blue Jays	0.586	0.800	0.387	0.399	1.030	3.202
1991	Minnesota Twins	0.586	0.800	0.450	0.331	1.030	3.197
1990	Cincinnati Reds	0.562	0.600	0.391	0.636	0.990	3.179
2004	Boston Red Sox	0.605	0.400	0.420	0.648	1.090	3.163
1983	Baltimore Orioles	0.605	0.600	0.458	0.445	1.050	3.158
2012	San Francisco Giants	0.580	0.600	0.331	0.543	1.050	3.104
2008	Philadelphia Phillies	0.568	0.600	0.416	0.479	1.030	3.093
1972	Oakland A's	0.600	0.800	0.331	0.353	1.000	3.083
1988	Los Angeles Dodgers	0.584	0.600	0.357	0.514	1.020	3.075
1977	New York Yankees	0.617	0.600	0.378	0.403	1.070	3.068
1974	Oakland A's	0.556	0.600	0.422	0.504	0.970	3.052
2010	San Francisco Giants	0.568	0.600	0.408	0.445	1.030	3.051
1996	New York Yankees	0.568	0.600	0.427	0.395	1.030	3.020
2000	New York Yankees	0.540	0.600	0.358	0.464	0.980	2.942
2001	Arizona Diamondbacks	0.568	0.600	0.389	0.339	1.030	2.927
2002	Anaheim Angels	0.611	0.400	0.473	0.337	1.100	2.921
1981	Los Angeles Dodgers	0.573	0.600	0.333	0.367	1.020	2.893
1980	Philadelphia Phillies	0.562	0.600	0.343	0.399	0.980	2.884
1987	Minnesota Twins	0.525	0.600	0.484	0.335	0.930	2.874
1985	Kansas City Royals	0.562	0.600	0.351	0.357	0.980	2.850
1973	Oakland A's	0.580	0.600	0.359	0.291	1.010	2.840
1997	Florida Marlins	0.568	0.400	0.463	0.305	1.030	2.766
2003	Florida Marlins	0.562	0.400	0.367	0.416	1.020	2.765
2014	San Francisco Giants	0.543	0.200	0.455	0.314	1.000	2.511
2011	St. Louis Cardinals	0.556	0.200	0.387	0.339	1.010	2.492
2006	St. Louis Cardinals	0.515	0.200	0.366	0.469	0.940	2.490

The win bonus was enough to push the 1998 Yankees slightly ahead of my 1976 Reds.

This year's Giants settle in just above the 2011 and 2006 Cardinals. If that seems low then consider that of all the World Series winners since 1969, only three have had a worse regular season winning percentage -- 1987 Twins, 2000 Yankees and the 2006 Cardinals. And although they had to get through the toughest the National League had to offer in the playoffs and did it in fine fashion, winning 9 of 11 games, the Royals were hardly royalty and it took seven tough games and a historic performance by one pitcher to get the win.