Yankees and the AL East: 25 years as baseball’s best division

At Least in Some Ways

Baseball has changed a lot over the last 25 years; I bet the same could be said of you, dear reader.

First, there were only four divisions in 1992 when our examination begins, only an east and west in each league. There were 26 teams, but only four made the playoffs.

And the postseason was a total of three series: an LCS for each league and the World Series. Today there are thirty teams, six divisions, and four rounds of playoffs. Adding to the difficulty, some teams have changed cities, names, divisions, and even leagues in that time.

Resolution

All of this provides some challenges in making comparisons, and here’s how they were resolved. The league each team is in now was given credit for all that team’s wins over the last quarter century. That means, for the purposes of this analysis, the AL East has always been New York, Toronto, Boston, Baltimore, and Tampa.

That works out well for the teams that have contributed most—NY, Beantown, Toronto—were in this division even way back in 1992. So, I also assigned all of the Braves wins to the NL East because that’s where they are now; Atlanta, Georgia was considered part of the West back in ’92.

And some of the numbers are pointless. Each of the four divisions sent one and only one team to the playoffs in 1992 and ’93, so citing the entrants from those two years is redundant. They are included due to the Blue Jays performances in the World Series, but would by themselves be meaningless.

My guess is some of you have already questioned my math skills. I have repeatedly mentioned 24 titles in the last 25 years. That’s because there was no World Series in 1994, a sad and dreary end to a contentious season.

The More Things Change…

But even then, the pattern holds up. The Yankees were the best team in the AL (70-43), while the Montreal Expos—who were in the NL East and became the Washington Nationals—were the best team in baseball (74-40). Below is a complete list of playoff success by division and World Series success by team.

After that, it’s finally time to look at how each team in the mighty AL Beast has contributed to the overall success over the last quarter century.

World Series titles by division: AL East 10; Central 2; West 1; NL East 4; West 4; and, Central 3.

WS wins by team: Yankees 5; SF Giants 3; Red Sox 3; Blue Jays 2; Marlins 2; Cardinals 2; and, one each for the Braves, Phillies, White Sox, Cubbies, Angels, Royals, and Diamondbacks.

And now, here we go.