Extreme teams: Phillies and Pirates

Each Pennsylvania club has won two world titles in the Modern Era

Aug 25, 2023

My week-by-week examination of extreme seasons — the very best and very worst — arrives today in Pennsylvania, the home of the Philadelphia Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates.

It’s merely coincidental that these two clubs are the subjects of this installment, the 10th in a 15-part series. I’m looking each Friday at a successive pair of major-league clubs, as determined by alphabetical order, and it just so happens that the Phillies and Pirates are back to back in that regard

Both franchises have won a pair of world championships during the Modern Era, spanning the years from 1961 to 2022. Philadelphia’s titles came in 1980 and 2008, Pittsburgh’s in 1971 and 1979. Their number of playoff qualifiers are also virtually the same, with the Phillies making the postseason 13 times since 1961, as opposed to 12 for the Pirates.

I’ve calculated team scores (TS) for all 1,656 big-league clubs — including 62 apiece for Philadelphia and Pittsburgh — that played between the era’s initial season and 2022. (Click here to learn more about the TS formula.) Scores are plotted on an equalized 100-point scale, allowing direct comparisons of teams from different seasons, thereby making it possible to determine the best and worst versions of each franchise.

The following were the top and bottom Modern Era squads for both teams, as determined by TS.

Best year for the Phillies: The Phillies rolled to their second consecutive National League East title in 2008, then zipped through the postseason with an 11-3 record, ousting the Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Tampa Bay Rays en route to a world title. First baseman Ryan Howard clouted 48 home runs. Second baseman Chase Utley batted .292 with 104 RBIs. Shortstop Jimmy Rollins stole 47 bases. And Cole Hamels anchored the pitching staff with a 3.09 ERA and 196 strikeouts.

Worst year for the Phillies: The era dawned in dismal fashion for the Phillies, who finished last in the National League in 1961 with a 47-107 record. They trailed NL champion Cincinnati by 46 games. The Phils reached their nadir during a seemingly endless losing streak that spanned 23 games from late July to late August. Pitcher Art Mahaffey somehow won 11 games, while outfielder Don Demeter hit 20 homers.

Best year for the Pirates: The world championship didn’t come easily for the Pirates in 1971. Yes, they won the National League East by a comfortable margin of seven games and then pushed aside the San Francisco Giants in the NL Championship Series. But the World Series was a dogfight. The Pirates overcame a 2-0 deficit to outlast the Baltimore Orioles in seven games. Left fielder Willie Stargell blasted 48 homers and drove home 125 runs. Right fielder Roberto Clemente batted a blistering .341. Starting pitcher Dock Ellis went 19-9.

Worst year for the Pirates: Pittsburgh played nearly .500 ball in the first month and a half of 2010, going 18-22. Then the bottom fell out. The club slipped into last place in the NL Central in early June — and stayed there. The Pirates went 39-83 over their final 122 games. Center fielder Andrew McCutchen, who was just 23 years old, batted .286 and stole 33 bases. Second baseman Neil Walker had a .296 BA and 66 runs batted in.

Scroll down to see the top and bottom 10 lists for both franchises between 1961 and 2022. Rankings for all 30 big-league clubs can be found in the print edition of Baseball’s Best (and Worst) 2023 Yearbook.

Each team is listed below with a specific season in brackets, followed by its regular-season win-loss record, postseason results (if any) in parentheses, margin between runs scored and allowed per game, and Modern Era percentile.

Postseason outcomes are abbreviated this way: P for a playoff appearance, L for a league title, and W for a World Series championship.

The Modern Era percentile is the share of all 1,656 teams between 1961 and 2022 that the given club outperformed, based on relative scores.

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Top 10 for Phillies (1961-2022)

1. Phillies [2008], 92-70 (WLP), plus-0.73 margin, 96.6% in era
2. Phillies [1980], 91-71 (WLP), plus-0.55 margin, 95.3% in era
3. Phillies [2011], 102-60 (P), plus-1.14 margin, 94.9% in era
4. Phillies [1993], 97-65 (LP), plus-0.85 margin, 94.0% in era
5. Phillies [2009], 93-69 (LP), plus-0.69 margin, 93.1% in era
6. Phillies [1983], 90-72 (LP), plus-0.37 margin, 91.9% in era
7. Phillies [1976], 101-61 (P), plus-1.31 margin, 90.7% in era
8. Phillies [1977], 101-61 (P), plus-1.10 margin, 90.5% in era
9. Phillies [2010], 97-65 (P), plus-0.81 margin, 87.6% in era
10. Phillies [2022], 87-75 (LP), plus-0.38 margin, 84.7% in era

Bottom 10 for Phillies (1961-2022)

1. Phillies [1961], 47-107, minus-1.37 margin, 0.3% in era
2. Phillies [1989], 67-95, minus-0.65 margin, 5.2% in era
3. Phillies [1997], 68-94, minus-1.06 margin, 5.9% in era
4. Phillies [2015], 63-99, minus-1.13 margin, 6.3% in era
5. Phillies [1988], 65-96, minus-0.85 margin, 6.7% in era
6. Phillies [1996], 67-95, minus-0.86 margin, 7.7% in era
7. Phillies [1972], 59-97, minus-0.85 margin, 8.3% in era
8. Phillies [1971], 67-95, minus-0.80 margin, 9.1% in era
9. Phillies [2000], 65-97, minus-0.75 margin, 9.8% in era
10. Phillies [1970], 73-88, minus-0.84 margin, 10.1% in era

Top 10 for Pirates (1961-2022)

1. Pirates [1971], 97-65 (WLP), plus-1.17 margin, 99.2% in era
2. Pirates [1979], 98-64 (WLP), plus-0.81 margin, 98.2% in era
3. Pirates [1991], 98-64 (P), plus-0.84 margin, 93.9% in era
4. Pirates [1972], 96-59 (P), plus-1.15 margin, 90.9% in era
5. Pirates [1990], 95-67 (P), plus-0.70 margin, 90.3% in era
6. Pirates [1992], 96-66 (P), plus-0.60 margin, 88.8% in era
7. Pirates [2015], 98-64 (P), plus-0.62 margin, 86.3% in era
8. Pirates [2013], 94-68 (P), plus-0.35 margin, 82.9% in era
9. Pirates [1975], 92-69 (P), plus-0.91 margin, 82.7% in era
10. Pirates [1966], 92-70, plus-0.73 margin, 82.1% in era

Bottom 10 for Pirates (1961-2022)

1. Pirates [2010], 57-105, minus-1.72 margin, 0.1% in era
2. Pirates [2001], 62-100, minus-1.24 margin, 2.7% in era
3. Pirates [2020], 19-41, minus-1.32 margin, 3.1% in era
4. Pirates [2006], 67-95, minus-0.65 margin, 5.3% in era
5. Pirates [2009], 62-99, minus-0.82 margin, 5.7% in era
6. Pirates [1995], 58-86, minus-0.74 margin, 5.9% in era
7. Pirates [2021], 61-101, minus-1.38 margin, 6.1% in era
8. Pirates [2007], 68-94, minus-0.75 margin, 6.3% in era
9. Pirates [1985], 57-104, minus-0.87 margin, 7.3% in era
10. Pirates [2008], 67-95, minus-0.92 margin, 8.6% in era

Baseball's Best (and Worst)