Betsafe
Olympic Sports
News, Blog and GuidesThe 100-game mark is arguably the mark of an MLB season. Teams either win or lose that many games, separating them into the cream of the crop or not.
Jeffrey MayJeff_DiarioASUpdate: Sep 25th, 2023 07:49 EDT
MITCHELL LAYTONAFP
Historically, baseball’s high-water mark has been the 100-game-win season. Teams who have accomplished it have gone to the Series in nearly two-thirds of the cases.
In the last 127 years of record keeping, ignoring, of course, the strike- and COVID-shortened seasons of 1981, 1994, and 2020, there have been 114 teams who have finished with three digits in the win column.
The @Braves have reached the 100-win mark for the second consecutive season! pic.twitter.com/nRUhoqcCyH
— MLB (@MLB) September 25, 2023
That may seem like a ton, but it breaks down to less than one a season, and when you factor in seasons when two or more teams have accomplished the feat, it becomes a slightly higher bar to hit.
Some teams have done this multiple times, with the Yankees topping that list with 21 different 100-plus win seasons. Somewhat incongruously, the Oakland A’s, those perennial bridesmaids, come second in this category, having won over 100 games ten times in their history.
While it is generally seen as the top level a professional ball club can play at, winning over 100 games doesn’t always guarantee you the top spot in the division. This season’s examples are the Mets and Braves, who are almost assured of breaking that threshold, but one must finish in second place. Historically, there have been eight occasions where a team finished with over 100 wins and still did not qualify for the playoffs. Harsh medicine, indeed.
The most teams who have ever finished above 100 games in a single season have been three, a feat accomplished nine times since 1894. Unless things go spectacularly wrong, this season will see that record tied, and quite possibly broken, with the Dodgers and Astros already above 100 and the Mets and Braves needing three and four wins, respectively, to hit it.
Wins for both the @Orioles and @RaysBaseball keep the AL East race tight with 8 days left in the regular season. #SeptemberBaseball pic.twitter.com/j87TruupRb
— MLB (@MLB) September 24, 2023
