This may become a regular feature on The Daily McPlay the more we come across stupid things posted on the interwebs. Exhibit A is this list of “the 10 “best” “Chat GTP’s Top 10 Teams Since 2000″that Fox Sports stupidly published. And yes, Fox was so dumb, it misspelled “GPT”! Enough said? Perhaps, but let’s look at the list, which is the featured photo above by the way:

  1. 2001 Seattle Mariners
  2. 2004 Boston Red Sox
  3. 2009 New York Yankees
  4. 2016 Chicago Cubs
  5. 2018 Boston Red Sox
  6. 2002 Anaheim Angels
  7. 2005 Chicago White Sox
  8. 2010 San Francisco Giants
  9. 2019 Washington Nationals
  10. 2020 Los Angeles Dodgers

Well, the Mariners didn’t win the World Series, despite setting the all-time record for single-season wins. The ’04 Red Sox were PED users, as were the ’10 Giants. The ’18 Boston team cheated with sign stealing. Clearly, not a lot of thought went into this list as all the champions listed come from big markets with droves of bandwagons fans. That’s why you don’t see the St. Louis Cardinals here (2006, 2011), for example.

Sabermetrically? Let’s look at the best MLB teams in each of those seasons listed above, too, because we all know the “best” team rarely wins the World Series: it’s about payroll, TV markets, and (too often) cheating. Either way, here’s the details on each of those seasons above:

  1. 2001: The Mariners were No. 1 in the SRS rankings, but they lost to the Yankees in the playoffs.
  2. 2004: The Cardinals were No. 1 in the SRS, even though No. 2 Boston swept them in the World Series.
  3. 2009: The Yankees were No. 1 in the SRS, and they did win the World Series.
  4. 2016: The Cubs were No. 1 in the SRS, and they did win the World Series.
  5. 2018: The Houston Astros were No. 1 in the SRS, but the Red Sox out-cheated them in the playoffs.
  6. 2002: The Angels surprisingly were No. 1 in the SRS, and they did win the World Series. Wow!
  7. 2005: The White Sox were No. 7 in the SRS, which really demonstrates they shouldn’t be on this list.
  8. 2010: The Giants were No. 6 in the SRS, which definitely proves they shouldn’t be on this list.
  9. 2019: The Nationals were No. 4 in the SRS, so they shouldn’t be on this list, either.
  10. 2020: The Dodgers were No. 1 in the SRS, and they did win the World Series.

Overall, of the teams on this list, the 2020 Dodgers had the highest sabermetric rating—by almost 40 percent! But that was a small sample size of games (60) during the Covid-delayed season. Still, it’s impressive, and for the record, the 2001 Mariners were just a smidge behind those 2020 Dodgers sabermetrically. The worst teams above? The 2010 Giants, by far, with the 2005 White Sox next. Go figure.

In fact, for this entire century up to date, the best sabermetric teams have been those 2020 Dodgers, those 2001 Mariners, and oddly the 2022 Dodgers. At least the Houston Astros didn’t make “Chat GTP” look even more foolish, eh? Just remember, humans are still going to be producing the best analysis and commentary in sports for a very long time. ChatGPT and other AI content generators will not catch up to us for decades.

Just keepin’ it real … for those who want it real.