Counting down as the ‘23 Orioles match some of the O’s winningest teams

[Frobby]

Tonight the 2023 Orioles entered the top 25 of the modern Orioles’ winningest teams.  It will be fun to see how far up the list they can climb.  As they reach new heights, I’ll give a few details of the team they’ve matched.  Before we start, here’s the whole top 25 (actually 26, as the 2023 O’s are now tied for 24th):

88: 1976, 1996

89: 1960, 1992, 2016

90: 1975, 1978

91: 1968, 1974

93: 2012

94: 1965, 1982

95: 1961

96: 2014

97: 1964, 1966, 1973, 1977

98: 1983, 1997

100: 1980

101: 1971

102: 1979

108: 1970

109: 1969

Tonight the 2023 O’s matched the win totals of the 1976 and 1996 teams.

1976

The 1976 season began with a huge trade, with the O’s acquiring Reggie Jackson and Ken Holtzman in exchange for Don Baylor and Mike Torrez.  Reggie held out for the first month of the year, finally signing for the princely sum of $200,000 in what was the last season before free agency began in earnest.  He got off to a slow start and the team was bogged down as well, sinking as low as 24-31 and playing under .500 as late as 47-48 on July 26.

On June 15, the O’s executed a 10-player trade with the Yankees that brought several players who played key roles for the great Orioles teams of ‘79 and ‘83.  In exchange for Doyle Alexander, Ken Holtzman, Grant Jackson, Elrod Hendricks and Jimmy Freeman, the O’s acquired Scott McGregor, Rick Dempsey, Tippy Martinez, Rudy May and Dave Pagan.  

Around that same time, Reggie began a torrid streak in which he posted a 1.000 OPS over 65 games, hitting 19 homers and knocking in 62 runs in that stretch.  The team still played sluggishly until late July, finally getting going and finishing 40-26 to reach their 88 win total.  They never really made any noise in the playoff race, finishing a distant 2nd in the AL East, 10.5 games behind the Yankees   

Jim Palmer finished 22-13 with a 2.51 ERA that year, winning the Cy Young Award and finishing 6th in the MVP voting.  Wayne Garland came out of nowhere to finish 20-7 with a 2.67 ERA, finishing 8th in the CY voting.  Despite missing almost a month, Reggie finished with 27 homers snd 91 RBI.  Lee May had 25 homers and 109 RBI and finished  9th in the MVP voting.  Palmer, Bobby Grich and Mark Belanger all won Gold Gloves that season.  Belanger also posted a 100 OPS+ that year!

After that season, Reggie, Grich and Garland all were coveted members of the first big free agent class.   Reggie signed with the Yankees for a then-record 5 years, $2.96 mm, Grich signed with the Angels for 5 years, $1.35 mm, and Garland signed with the Indians for 10 years, $2.3 mm.

1996

The ‘96 team had the same record as the ‘76 team, but with the advent of the wild card, made the playoffs despite finishing 4 games behind the Yankees.  The team was 50-51 on July 26, but finished 38-23 to grab the wild card.  The hot streak began about 5 games after the O’s reacquired Eddie Murray, who hit his 500tb homer on Sept. 6 that  year.

1996 was the most hitter-friendly year of the post-WWII era, with the average AL team scoring 5.39 runs/game and a .795 OPS.   For the O’s, Brady Anderson broke Frank Robinson’s team HR record by clubbing 50 homers, and the team hit a then-major league record 257 homers, with 7 players topping 20 homers and 4 topping 100 RBI.  Raffy Palmeiro and Roberto Alomar had spectacular seasons.  Mike Mussina won 19 games.  and finished 5th in the Cy Young voting despite carrying a 4.81 ERA.

In the playoffs, the O’s defeated Cleveland 3 games to 1 in the ALDS, but lost 4 games to 1 in the ALCS in a series that infamously featured young Yankee fan Jeffrey Maier reaching out for a ball that was heading to Tony Tarrasco’s glove, and the umpires ruling it a home run.

* * *

The 2023 O’s have matched those teams’ win total with 23 games to play.

Edited September 7, 2023 by Frobby

[Satyr3206]

I think they end up with 102 wins. Just my opinion.

[Filmstudy]

2 things about the list:

1.  The Orioles have only won the league of division once with 95 or fewer wins (1974).  They've also had 3 WCs in a total of 13 such seasons.  With 96+ wins, they've missed the playoffs 3 times in 12 such seasons, including twice with divisional play (1977, 1980).

2.  I don't think Fangraphs' projection systems are doing a good job accounting for either the September Effect (good teams/contenders tend to play much better in September) or using what I would call recent historical experience to project rest-of-season results.  Their system projects the Orioles will play .484 ball the rest of the way, the lowest win pct in the AL East.  That would bring the Orioles in at 99.1 wins.  I'll take the over right now on 99.5 wins in part because I think the Rays are likely to be pushing the Orioles (no worse than 5-6 games out and O's have yet to clinch) for most of the rest of the month if not all of it.  Under those conditions, I expect a good boost from the September Effect as the organization maximizes win decisions the rest of the way.

[Moose Milligan]

Fangraphs projections can pick one and suck it.  IIRC they’ve been wrong about us all year. 

[Jagwar]

I hated the 1980 season result. How many 100 win teams in history did not make the playoffs since the advent of the championship series?

[MurphDogg]

2 hours ago, Jagwar said:

I hated the 1980 season result. How many 100 win teams in history did not make the playoffs since the advent of the championship series?

The 1980 Orioles were the first of two teams in the divisional era to win 100 games and miss the playoffs.

They are joined by the 1993 Giants (103 wins).

Edited September 7, 2023 by MurphDogg

[btdart20]

That 1996 team was a fun offense in the heyday of performance enhancement (Brady's 50 being exhibit A).  But marred by Robbie Alomar's infamous spit and Jeffrey Maier/Rich Garcia.  

[vab]

3 hours ago, Jagwar said:

I hated the 1980 season result. How many 100 win teams in history did not make the playoffs since the advent of the championship series?

The Giants missed out with 103 wins or something like that in 1993, the last year before the wild card started. I don't know of any others off the top of my head. 

[vab]

6 hours ago, Frobby said:

Tonight the 2023 Orioles entered the top 25 of the modern Orioles’ winningest teams.  It will be fun to see how far up the list they can climb.  As they reach new heights, I’ll give a few details of the team they’ve matched.  Before we start, here’s the whole top 25 (actually 26, as the 2023 O’s are now tied for 24th):

88: 1976, 1996

89: 1960, 1989, 2016

90: 1975, 1978

91: 1968, 1974

93: 2012

94: 1965, 1982

95: 1961

96: 2014

97: 1964, 1966, 1973, 1977

98: 1983, 1997

100: 1980

101: 1971

102: 1979

108: 1970

109: 1969

Tonight the 2023 O’s matched the win totals of the 1976 and 1996 teams.

1976

The 1976 season began with a huge trade, with the O’s acquiring Reggie Jackson and Ken Holtzman in exchange for Don Baylor and Mike Torrez.  Reggie held out for the first month of the year, finally signing for the princely sum of $200,000 in what was the last season before free agency began in earnest.  He got off to a slow start and the team was bogged down as well, sinking as low as 24-31 and playing under .500 as late as 47-48 on July 26.

On June 15, the O’s executed a 10-player trade with the Yankees that brought several players who played key roles for the great Orioles teams of ‘79 and ‘83.  In exchange for Doyle Alexander, Ken Holtzman, Grant Jackson, Elrod Hendricks and Jimmy Freeman, the O’s acquired Scott McGregor, Rick Dempsey, Tippy Martinez, Rudy May and Dave Pagan.  

Around that same time, Reggie began a torrid streak in which he posted a 1.000 OPS over 65 games, hitting 19 homers and knocking in 62 runs in that stretch.  The team still played sluggishly until late July, finally getting going and finishing 40-26 to reach their 88 win total.  They never really made any noise in the playoff race, finishing a distant 2nd in the AL East, 10.5 games behind the Yankees   

Jim Palmer finished 22-13 with a 2.51 ERA that year, winning the Cy Young Award and finishing 6th in the MVP voting.  Wayne Garland came out of nowhere to finish 20-7 with a 2.67 ERA, finishing 8th in the CY voting.  Despite missing almost a month, Reggie finished with 27 homers snd 91 RBI.  Lee May had 25 homers and 109 RBI and finished  9th in the MVP voting.  Palmer, Bobby Grich and Mark Belanger all won Gold Gloves that season.  Belanger also posted a 100 OPS+ that year!

After that season, Reggie, Grich and Garland all were coveted members of the first big free agent class.   Reggie signed with the Yankees for a then-record 5 years, $2.96 mm, Grich signed with the Angels for 5 years, $1.35 mm, and Garland signed with the Indians for 10 years, $2.3 mm.

1996

The ‘96 team had the same record as the ‘76 team, but with the advent of the wild card, made the playoffs despite finishing 4 games behind the Yankees.  The team was 50-51 on July 26, but finished 38-23 to grab the wild card.  The hot streak began about 5 games after the O’s reacquired Eddie Murray, who hit his 500tb homer on Sept. 6 that  year.

1996 was the most hitter-friendly year of the post-WWII era, with the average AL team scoring 5.39 runs/game and a .795 OPS.   For the O’s, Brady Anderson broke Frank Robinson’s team HR record by clubbing 50 homers, and the team hit a then-major league record 257 homers, with 7 players topping 20 homers and 4 topping 100 RBI.  Raffy Palmeiro and Roberto Alomar had spectacular seasons.  Mike Mussina won 19 games.  and finished 5th in the Cy Young voting despite carrying a 4.81 ERA.

In the playoffs, the O’s defeated Cleveland 3 games to 1 in the ALDS, but lost 4 games to 1 in the ALCS in a series that infamously featured young Yankee fan Jeffrey Maier reaching out for a ball that was heading to Tony Tarrasco’s glove, and the umpires ruling it a home run.

* * *

The 2023 O’s have matched those teams’ win total with 23 games to play.

The 1989 Orioles won 87 not 89. 

[OrioleMagic79]

Great post, thanks Frobby! Looking forward to following this as the O's move up the list!

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

14 minutes ago, vab said:

The 1989 Orioles won 87 not 89. 

That should be updated to the 1992 Orioles who won 89 games.

[now]

Great list and writeups. Thanks Frobby for the walk down memory lane. 

[Aristotelian]

This is definitely going to be one of our winningest teams. I love that this team combines the youth and likability of the '89 and '12 teams, with the strength and dominance of '83 and '97. I think the (more) balanced schedule is a factor in the raw win total. This team against the '97 team would be a great matchup!  

[InsideCoroner]

The most exciting thing as a fan about this team is that it was mostly unexpected. Of course we knew this team was on the rise from last season, but given the middling off-season acquisitions compared to our rivals, I expected them to be competitive, but hardly dominant. The way they have outperformed both expectations and predictive stats (suck it, run differential), the obvious fun they're all having, the obvious fun that WE are having... I couldn't be happier. Even if they get knocked out early in the postseason, I have had a hell of a lot of fun with this team this year. If they would somehow bring home the trophy... my head just might explode, Scanners style. And after 40 years I think I would be okay with that.

[Frobby]

4 hours ago, vab said:

The 1989 Orioles won 87 not 89. 

You’re right, it’s the 1992 team that won 89.  I must have had “89” on the brain when I typed 1989.   Thanks for the correction.