Ever since the end of the 2011 season, when the Giants and Cardinals have been going at each other, I told myself that I should start keeping track of how well each team does throughout the course of the decade so I came up with a little formula to determine a teams ranking for the decade based on their regular season records, postseason records, and individual player accomplishments from the start of the 2010 season until the end of the 2014 season. I figured since the season is about to start soon, I might as well see how some of the best teams so far fare against each other.

The average score is based on how many total points the team averages per season, with one point per regular season win, ten points per major award, and a varying amount of points for postseason appearances.

Here are my rankings.


5. Boston Red Sox Average Score 103.2

The Red Sox went a combined 416-394 between 2010 and 2014 for a .514 winning percentage and had only one playoff appearance in 2013 in which they beat the cardinals to win the World Series. of the last five seasons, 2013 was the only season in which they finished higher than third place and no significant awards have been won by their players during that span aside for David Ortiz winning the World Series MVP.

4. Texas Rangers Average Score 127.4

The Rangers started off the decade strong by winning the American league pennant in both 2010 and 2011 and then beginning to weaken a bit in the A.L. West. Over the five seasons the Rangers have gone a combined 437-373 for a .540 winning percentage and have made the playoffs three times including two World series losses against the Giants and Cardisnals, and a Wild Card round loss against the Orioles.

In 2010, the Rangers boasted a few individual achievements as Josh Hamilton won both the American league Batting Title and Most Valuable Player, and Neftalí Feliz won Rookie of the Year.

3. St. Louis Cardinals Average Score 150.2

The Cardinals have had a very strong decade so far as they have now made it to the National League Championship Series in each of the last four seasons. They have a combined record of 451-359, for a winning percentage of .557. In terms of playoff appearances, they have lost to the Giants in the NLCS twice, lost to the Red Sox in the World Series, and have one World Series championship against the Rangers. No big player achievements aside for one World Series MVP belonging to David Freese.

2. San Francisco Giants Average Score 153.2

Over the last five seasons, the Giants have made it to the playoffs three times and have won the World Series each of those times, against the Rangers, Tigers, and Royals. In each of their five seasons, the Giants have finished in at least third place and have combined for a 436-374 record which results in a .538 winning percentage. The Giants also boast Buster Posey who in 2010 won Rookie of the Year and in 2012 won MVP and the National League Batting Title.

1. Detroit Tigers Average Score 160.4

The Tigers may not have won a World Series this decade but they do boast one of the best regular season record as well as an impressive lineup of major awards. During the five seasons, the Tigers have combined for a 447-363 record which is a .552 winning percentage and the team made the playoffs four times, including one ALDS loss against the Orioles, two ALCS losses to the Red Sox and Rangers, and one World Series loss to the Cardinals.

When you combine the major awards won by Max Scherzer, Miguel Cabrera, and Justin Verlander, the Tigers have won ten awards. Scherzer had won one Cy Young Award, Verlander had won the MVP, Cy Young, and Triple Crown awards all in the same year, and Cabrera had won the MVP twice, the Triple Crown once, and the American League Batting Title three times.

legacyme3 : Go ahead, ridicule it. I already know you will.

zanderlex: I like the teams in your top 5 over the last 5 seasons. However, I have one small problem with the rankings you put the teams in...I think the Giants should be #1. I mean they've won 3 World Series in the last 5 years, and I think that says it all. They may not have accomplished as much as the other teams during the regular season, and they may not have won many awards ( with the exception of Buster Posey of course ), but winning a World Series means they're the champion of the postseason. In my opinion, the Giants are the ones with the targets on their back...not the Tigers, but the Tigers do have a bunch of talent on paper.

I also like your little formula that you came up with to put teams where you think they should be. Its creative to say the least. I just think the Giants should be out in front of everybody right now

MattyIce : I thought the same thing until I actually did the math. I was thinking that the Giants and Cardinals would be 1 and 2.

The giants won the world series 3 times, aside for those 3 seasons, they finished with 2 mediocre seasons.

The Tigers didn't win a single world series, but finished 1st int he division 4 straight years and a .14 higher winning percentage.

Truly, I would personally say that the Giants would be 1st, but realistically, the Giants have top notch pitching and mediocre hitting, while the Tigers are powerhouses in both categories, highest batting average in the majors each of the past 2 seasons, and the combinatin of Scherzer/Verlander.

If someone were to just not count all the achievements by Cabrera/Verlander/Scherzer, and base it just on regular season and postseason, then the Giants would be up, but only by a few points.

Actually, if you were tot take away achivements, and do it just based on postseason, and wins, then the Cardinals would have a very slight lead over the Giants because even though the Giants won 2 more world series than the Cardinals, the Cards have made the NLCS 4 straight times and have had like 15 more regular season wins than the giants. Purely based on records and postseason, it would be something like Cardinals, Giants, Tigers, but only a few points separating each.

Winning the world series means you are the best, but it doesn't nesicarily state why you are the best and that you are consistant, like any sport, you can have great teams go on to lose terirbly in the postseason and teams barely make the postseason win it all. The Giants are really known mainly for what they have done in the postseason while the Tigers are known all around.

I wouldn't ridicule it, but I do have a few objections.

Namely, with how you keep score. I'd argue the following:

A half point for a regular season win
-10 points for having a season UNDER .500 (at .500 is fine, barely)
10 points for 100 wins in a season.
Ten points for winning their division
Five points for winning a wild card
No points for major awards, I don't see much correlation between having one really good guy and overall team strength.
And I'd probably give 1 point per ALDS/NLDS game win, 3 points per ALCS/NLCS game win, and 5 points per World Series game win. (With 3 points going to a team that wins the AL/NLDS, 5 going to AL/NLCS winners, and 8 going to WS winners)

Admittedly, the playoffs are a crapshoot. You can get up to 6 points per DS, 17 per CS, and 28 per WS, which would total 51 per playoffs if you win the WS. At that stage, what I'm saying is that it is highly important to be a consistent team, as well as having a team that makes it far, consistently into the playoffs. A team that wins 100 games but loses in the NLDS every year will fare worse than a team that wins 82 and wins the World Series. The WS is the ultimate prize, and winning during the regular season matters, but there's only so far being a "paper champion" will take you.

One last factor I'm not going to list above is what I'm going to call division factor. The AL East is extremely competitive, as every team except the Blue Jays has won a division title recently, but the AL Central is not, as only the Tigers have won division titles. That in itself isn't enough to draw a conclusion, but diving into total records and in division records, I can gleam how difficult a division really is. A division like the AL East or NL Central will gain points for having many competitive teams, whereas the AL Central and the NL West might lose points across the board for fielding weak competition. If I can't safely put say, the Giants, into a stronger division and say they will make the playoffs, then are they really that strong of a team? This factor will be calculated once all teams have a base point total. I will go back, check division standing, and then recalculate based on this now added factor.

With that said, here are the rankings based on what I determine as important. All this said, it's not a perfect list, as I don't take into account team run support, luck, or factors that I can't properly quantify, if this was a topic I cared much about, I'd go really in depth, and find out when a team led the league in runs and the like. Someone else can do that.

Also, this isn't a list of the best teams NOW. This is a running list of the best teams of the decade. There are some obvious instances where a team is low now, but will end up near the top by the end of the decade, whereas there are some teams at the top who will certainly fall down the rankings between now and 2019's conclusion, when the list will end. I doubt I'll update then, but it is what it is.

OK, the list:

1. St. Louis Cardinals (388.5)
2. San Francisco Giants (376)
3. Texas Rangers (324.5)
4. New York Yankees (308)
5. Boston Red Sox (285)
6. Detroit Tigers (280.5)
7. Tampa Bay Rays (272)
8. Philadelphia Phillies (262)
9. Atlanta Braves (261.5)
10. Oakland Athletics (260.5)
11. Washington Nationals (242.5)
12. Baltimore Orioles (242.5)
13. Los Angeles Angels (230.5)
14. Los Angeles Dodgers (230)
15. Cincinnati Reds (223.5)
16. Milwaukee Brewers (208)
17. Pittsburgh Pirates (177)
18. Arizona Diamondbacks (174.5)
19. Kansas City Royals (170.5)
20. New York Mets (166.5)
21. Seattle Mariners (165.5)
22. Toronto Blue Jays (163)
23. Miami Marlins (155)
24. San Diego Padres (145)
25. Cleveland Indians (142)
26. Chicago White Sox (134)
27. Colorado Rockies (130)
28. Houston Astros (129)
29. Chicago Cubs (123)
30. Minnesota Twins (119.5)

Basically, I found the above list to be as expected. There are teams that started the decade strong, but that I expect will fall out of the top 10 (Rangers, Yankees, Rays, Phillies) and teams that I expect will rise into the top 10, or threaten to (Nationals, Dodgers, Angels, Pirates).

Over the past half decade, it has been shown the best teams seem to be those with the most money. Surprise! This doesn't mean the best teams buy players, as many have thought. This is true of the Yankees and Dodgers, but many of the success of teams like the Cardinals, Giants, Red Sox, and Rays have been through player development. Drafting good talents, and then using them properly. The above four teams have shown to be the best when it comes to prospect development as well, a blueprint the Cubs hope to follow into the end of this decade.

If I were to do this list again in five years, and compare it to what I have now, I believe it would be very different. Five years isn't much time to base thoughts on, because anyone can be lucky for a 3-5 year stretch and anyone can be unlucky.

This was a fun exercise though, and I only spent 2 hours on it. Surprised I got through it so quick.

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And here's an index where I show my work:

DIVISION FACTORS (based on difficulty of division, strength of teams over 5 year period, and inter divisional play, as well as intradivisional play)

AL East = +35 - History showed that the AL East was not only the most competitive, but also toughest division, as foes often had equal records against each other.

AL West = +25 - This score would be higher than the AL East if not for the addition of the Astros a few years back. Their addition brings the whole division down in difficulty.

NL East = +25 - Not many easy wins here. An underrated division that gains points for the tail end of that old Phillies team that was once on top of the world.

NL Central = +- 0 - This division will be higher at the end of the decade, as the emerging Pirates are just
now making a dent in the lead the other divisions have. If the Brewers or Reds improve, they could threaten for #1 by the end of the decade, maybe even now. One knock on them is they had the Astros in their division at the start of the decade.

NL West = -10 - Only two teams really played so far this decade, and while those two teams have a heated rivalry, there's a reason it's always them. And no, it's not because they are the best. It's because the Padres/D'Backs/Rockies are poor.

AL Central = -30 - This is the weakest division competitively in baseball. Up until recently it was all Tigers. Even still it might be all Tigers. There are three types in this division. The bottom guy, the mid tier, and the Tigers.

AL EAST
New York Yankees = 456 Wins (+228), two division titles (+20), one wild card (+5), 8 ALDS wins (+8), 2 ALDS (+6), 2 ALCS wins (+6). TOTAL POINTS = 308

Boston Red Sox = 416 Wins (+208), two under .500 seasons (-20), one division title (+10), 3 ALDS wins (+3), 1 ALDS (+3), 4 ALCS wins (+12), 1 ALCS (+5), 4 WS wins (+20), 1 WS (+8). TOTAL POINTS = 285

Tampa Bay Rays = 446 Wins (+223), one under .500 season (-10), one division title (+10), two wild cards (+10), 4 ALDS wins (+4). TOTAL POINTS = 272

Baltimore Orioles = 409 Wins (+204.5), two under .500 seasons (-20), one division title (+10), one wild card (+5), 5 ALDS wins (+5), 1 ALDS (+3). TOTAL POINTS = 242.5

Toronto Blue Jays = 396 Wins (+148), two under .500 seasons (-20). TOTAL POINTS = 163

AL CENTRAL
Detroit Tigers = 447 Wins (+223.5), four division titles (+40), 9 ALDS wins (+9) 3 ALDS (+9), 8 ALCS wins (+24), 1 ALCS (+5). TOTAL POINTS = 280.5

Kansas City Royals = 385 Wins (+192.5), three under .500 seasons (-30), one wild card (+5), 3 ALDS wins (+3), 1 ALDS (+3), 4 ALCS wins (+12), 1 ALCS (+5), 3 WS wins (+15). TOTAL POINTS = 170.5

Cleveland Indians = 394 Wins (+197), three under .500 seasons (-30), one wild card (+5). TOTAL POINTS = 142

Chicago White Sox = 388 Wins (+194), three under .500 seasons (-30). TOTAL POINTS = 134

Minnesota Twins = 359 Wins (+179.5), four under .500 seasons (-40), one division title (+10). TOTAL POINTS = 119.5

AL WEST
Texas Rangers = 437 Wins (+218.5), one under .500 season (-10), two division titles (+20), one wild card (+5), 6 ALDS wins (+6), 2 ALDS (+6), 8 ALCS wins (+24), 2 ALCS (+10), 4 WS wins (+20). TOTAL POINTS = 324.5

Oakland Athletics = 433 Wins (+216.5), one under .500 season (-10), two division titles (+20), one wild card (+5), 4 ALDS wins (+4). TOTAL POINTS = 260.5

Los Angeles Angels = 431 Wins (+215.5), two under .500 seasons (-20), one division title (+10). TOTAL POINTS = 230.5

Seattle Mariners = 361 Wins (+180.5), four seasons under .500 (-40). TOTAL POINTS = 165.5

Houston Astros = 308 Wins (+154), five seasons under .500 (-50). TOTAL POINTS = 129.

NL EAST
Philadelphia Phillies = 426 Wins (+213), two under .500 seasons (-20), one 100 win season (+10), two division titles (+20), 5 NLDS wins (+5), 1 NLDS (+3), 2 NLCS wins (+6). TOTAL POINTS = 262

Atlanta Braves = 449 Wins (+224.5), one season under .500 (-10), one division title (+10), two wild cards (+10), 2 NLDS wins (+2). TOTAL POINTS = 261.5

Washington Nationals = 429 Wins (+214.5), two seasons under .500 (-20), two division titles (+20), 3 NLDS wins (+3). TOTAL POINTS = 242.5

New York Mets = 383 Wins (+191.5), five seasons under .500 (-50). TOTAL POINTS = 166.5

Miami Marlins = 360 Wins (+180), five seasons under .500 (-50). TOTAL POINTS = 155


NL CENTRAL
St. Louis Cardinals = 451 Wins (+250.5), two division titles (+20), two wild cards (+10), 12 NLDS Wins (+12), 4 NLDS (+12), 12 NLCS Wins (+36), 2 NLCS (+10), 6 WS wins (+30), 1 WS (+8). TOTAL POINTS = 388.5

Cincinnati Reds = 433 Wins (+216.5), two seasons under .500 (-20), two division titles (+20), one wild card (+5), 2 NLDS wins (+2). TOTAL POINTS = 223.5

Milwaukee Brewers = 412 Wins (+206), two seasons under .500 (-20), one division title (+10), 3 NLDS wins (+3), 1 NLDS (+3), 2 NLCS wins (+6). TOTAL POINTS = 208

Pittsburgh Pirates = 390 Wins (+195), three seasons under .500 (-30), two wild cards (+10), 2 NLDS wins (+2). TOTAL POINTS = 177

Chicago Cubs = 346 Wins (+173), five seasons under .500 (-50). TOTAL POINTS = 123

NL WEST
San Francisco Giants = 436 Wins (+218), one season under .500 (-10), two division titles (+20), one wild card (+5), 9 NLDS wins (+9), 3 NLDS (+9), 12 NLCS wins (+36), 3 NLCS (+15), 12 WS wins (+60), 3 WS (+24). TOTAL POINTS = 376

Los Angeles Dodgers = 434 wins (+217), one season under .500 (-10), two division titles (+20), 4 NLDS wins (+4), 1 NLDS (+3), 2 NLCS wins (+6). TOTAL POINTS = 230

Arizona Diamondbacks = 385 Wins (+192.5), two seasons under .500 (-20), one division title (+10), 2 NLDS wins (+2). TOTAL POINTS = 174.5

San Diego Padres = 390 Wins (+195), four seasons under .500 (-40). TOTAL POINTS = 145

Colorado Rockies = 360 wins (+180), four seasons under .500 (-40). TOTAL POINTS = 130.