Ranking World Series champs since 2000: 10-6
Not every World Series champion is created equal. While the marathon, 162-game schedule often gives a great idea as to which club is truly the best, the postseason is more of a crapshoot - a lesser team can win after getting hot at the right time. With baseball on hiatus, theScore's editors broke down the last 20 years of champions, ranking them according to regular-season records, playoff dominance, and historical significance.
10. San Francisco Giants, 2012
Record: 94-68
World Series: 4-0 vs. DET
This is the best Giants championship team of the 2010s by regular-season record. The Giants won the NL West by eight games, with NL MVP Buster Posey and two aces atop the rotation leading the way. Yet they also needed to overcome plenty of bumps in the road before winning it all.
The team was thrown for a loop when outfielder and NL batting leader Melky Cabrera received an 80-game performance-enhancing drug suspension midseason. Longtime ace Tim Lincecum also wasn't himself, posting a 5.18 regular-season ERA. San Francisco's middle-infield combo of Ryan Theriot and Brandon Crawford was quite weak offensively, too. But midseason acquisitions Hunter Pence and Marco Scutaro helped pick up the slack, while journeyman starter Ryan Vogelsong stepped up on the mound. Even Barry Zito, an overall disappointment as a Giant, unexpectedly chipped in with some big starts in October.
The Giants overcame heavy odds against them in the playoffs. First, they clawed back from a 2-0 NLDS deficit by winning three road games in Cincinnati. In the NLCS, they battled back from a 3-1 hole to eliminate the Cardinals in seven.
However, the World Series was easy. With MVP Pablo Sandoval's three-homer Game 1 providing an immediate push, the Giants swept a powerful Tigers squad aside. Adversity and all, it's easy to see why this was the finest of the Giants' dynastic squads.
9. Washington Nationals, 2019
Record: 93-69
World Series: 4-3 vs. HOU
The Nationals became only the seventh wild-card team in MLB history to win a World Series after defeating a loaded Houston Astros club in seven games last season.
Washington encountered many playoff challenges on the way to a championship. The team proved its mettle by staging a late comeback in the NL wild-card game against the red-hot Milwaukee Brewers, overcoming the 106-win Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS, and then taking down the heavily favored 107-win Astros in the Fall Classic. Los Angeles and Houston owned the two best regular-season records.
Star pitchers Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg dominated throughout the postseason, and the latter was named World Series MVP. Juan Soto and Anthony Rendon were difference-makers offensively, while veteran Howie Kendrick provided some of the biggest hits in franchise history.
The club's only weakness was its bullpen, but the unit got the job done despite a lack of star power. Righty Daniel Hudson ended up leading the Nationals in saves during the playoffs while forming a dependable one-two punch with lefty Sean Doolittle.
8. Boston Red Sox, 2013
Record: 97-65
World Series: 4-2 vs. STL
After their disastrous 2012 campaign and midseason fire sale, the Red Sox sacked Bobby Valentine and signed several veterans to middling contracts with eyes on a rebuild. Instead, the team took off.
Buoyed by emotion following the Boston Marathon bombing and David Ortiz's famous rallying cry, the Red Sox went worst to first while winning 97 games. They owned the American League's best offense (.795 OPS) and received contributions from unlikely sources such as journeyman catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who had a career year. A solid rotation improved after the midseason addition of Jake Peavy, while Koji Uehara and Andrew Miller anchored the bullpen.
The Red Sox experienced some bumps in the playoffs and didn't sweep a series. The Tigers in the ALCS and the Cardinals in the World Series both proved formidable foes. But Boston was a team of destiny. Ortiz was unstoppable, hitting .688 in the Fall Classic to lead the Red Sox to victory. This title was easily their most unexpected championship of this century and, given the circumstances, probably their most emotional win.
It's odd that virtually the same cast of characters sunk right back to the bottom of the AL East the following year. But that doesn't take away from what the 2013 Red Sox accomplished. They were easily the best team that season, both on paper and between the lines.
7. Boston Red Sox, 2007
Record: 96-66
World Series: 4-0 vs. COL
The 2004 Red Sox get all of the glory for being the team that broke the Curse of the Bambino, but the 2007 club was loaded with absolute studs at the plate and on the mound.
Boston had the second-best offense in baseball that year according to wRC+, with David Ortiz posting a career-high 1.066 OPS and six other qualified hitters on the team getting it done at an above-average clip, including rookie Dustin Pedroia. Not to be forgotten, their pitching ranked sixth by FanGraphs WAR, led by Josh Beckett as well as Daisuke Matsuzaka, Jonathan Papelbon, and Curt Schilling.
In the World Series, Boston faced off against the Colorado Rockies, a wild-card team that managed to go undefeated through the first two rounds of the playoffs. That didn't seem to matter to the Red Sox, who promptly swept the Rockies. It helped that Mike Lowell went ballistic - he was 6-for-15 with one homer, three doubles, three walks, and a stolen base.
6. Chicago White Sox, 2005
Record: 99-63
World Series: 4-0 vs. HOU
After 46 years without appearing in a World Series and 88 years without a title, the White Sox finally took home baseball's biggest prize in 2005 thanks to a blue-collar squad that perfectly resembled the city it represented.
Before Ozzie Guillen's South Siders steamrolled their competitors in the playoffs, they endured a topsy-turvy regular season, nearly blowing a 15 1/2-game lead for the division title but ultimately finishing with the best record in the American League.
Though the offense ranked 13th in runs scored, 13th in RBIs, 17th in wRC+, 18th in batting average, 20th in WAR, and 24th in OBP, the White Sox reached 99 wins courtesy of an elite rotation that included four starters who threw 200-plus innings and recorded at least 14 wins (Mark Buehrle, Freddy Garcia, Jon Garland, and Jose Contreras).
This same rotation was responsible for just one combined playoff loss and four complete games in the postseason.
Add in a tremendous campaign from Paul Konerko (both regular season and playoffs), the torrid stretch that made Jermaine Dye the World Series MVP, and an unforgettable postseason from the speedy Scott Podsednik, and this gang of misfits deserves to be remembered as one of the best postseason teams of the last two decades.