I was doing the dishes the other day and listening to a hockey game featuring the Columbus Blue Jackets, and I couldn’t help but wonder, “Who the heck is a fan of the Blue Jackets?” If you live in central Ohio, I suppose you have a reason due to geography. But, how fervent could that fan base be, given what they have (or, more accurately, haven’t) done on the ice?
Columbus entered the National Hockey League in 2000, so this is their 25th season (remember, 2004-05 was completely lost due to a lockout
by NHL owners). They have made the playoffs six times, and won a total of two rounds, including in the weirdo 2020 playoff bubble. That’s not exactly inspiring. Pretty “meh,” really.
meh (interj.): an expression of annoyed ambivalence towards an idea, person or situation
That got me thinking…
Research Question
Who is the most “meh” team in Major League Baseball?
Rationale
A “meh” team has given their fans the least to cheer about in recent memory. I think making the playoffs is a good way to quantify this, and a deep playoff run should be worth more to the fanbase than an early exit. So, a method will be established to determine “mehness.”
Methodology
The current set of 30 Major League Baseball teams first took shape for the 1998 season with the addition of the Arizona Diamondbacks and the then-Tampa Bay Devil Rays. That’s 29 seasons including the one just concluded, and holy moly that makes me feel old.
Since a deep playoff run means more to a team’s fanbase than, say, losing in the Wild Card round, point values will be assigned for different playoff outcomes. The Wild Card round in its current form started in 2022; before that the Wild Card was a one-and-done game starting in 2012. (The 2020 playoffs were obviously strange, with all teams having to go through a best-of-three Wild Card round.)
You don’t want to penalize teams for not taking part in something they either didn’t have to, or for something that did not exist at the time. I think this covers all the possibilities.
Data was from Baseball Reference, of course, and errors may have been made. If I shorted your favourite team, I apologize.
Results
Conclusion
The Pittsburgh Pirates have been the most “meh” team in Major League Baseball in its current form.
Discussion
Here are a few things that jumped out at me while gathering and analyzing the data.
- The Dodgers really didn’t have a lot of playoff success until about 2010. They’d get in but almost always flame-out right away. Had they not learned how to spend oodles of money yet? Sheesh. Even so, it wasn’t until 2020’s short season that they finally broke through.
- The only teams above the Tigers in points that have not won a World Series are Cleveland and the Rays.
- And about those Tigers: right at the median number of points. Half the teams are above them, half are below. (The Yankees skew the average upwards.)
- The National League Central contains the bottom two teams.
- The Marlins are the lowest team on this list to have won a World Series in this time-range. So, they don’t make the playoffs often, but when they do, they might just win it all.
- Philadelphia kinda snuck up on me. They’ve had some decent teams recently, and they won it all once. The 2008 World Series championship came amid a pretty good run with a strong rotation. Still a bit surprised they finished that high.
- I’m also surprised the Rockies were as high as they were. They made a World Series but they’ve been miserable in recent memory.
- Bob Nutting needs to sell the Pirates. Bob Castellini in Cincinnati? You’re on thin ice.
- If there are any other Bobs that own MLB teams, you better watch your back too.
Does anything else jump out at you? Is my methodology flawed? Is there something I forgot? Feel free to leave a comment.
