From 2000 to 2009, we as baseball fans have been lucky to see some great teams match up for the fall classic. We were lucky enough to see some wild card and under dog teams take the gold by beating a team better than them. It was a glorious decade for baseball in that sense, and it’ll be tough for this new one to follow. I thought it might be a good idea to do a 16 team winner take all tournament in terms of who the best team of the decade really was.  Obviously the 10 World Series winners get an automatic bid to my tournament, but finding the best 6 is not going to be an easy thing to do. After much research, this is whom I felt were the best of the rest from 2000-2009.

Click here to read Round 2 of Best of the Best Winner Take All Tournament.
Click here to read Round 3 of Best of the Best Winner Take All Tournament.
Click here to read the Champtionship of the Best of the Best Winner Take all Tournament.

16 teams have a case for the crown, but only 1 will take it down. Lets take a quick look at who won in the last 10 years.

2000- New York Yankees

2001- Arizona Diamondbacks

2002- Anaheim Angels

2003- Florida Marlins

2004- Boston Red Sox

2005- Chicago White Sox

2006- St. Louis Cardinals

2007- Boston Red Sox

2008- Philadelphia Phillies

2009- New York Yankees

Wild Card Teams:

Atlanta Braves 2003, New York Yankees 2001, Chicago Cubs 2003, Oakland A’s 2001, New York Yankees 2004, Seattle Mariners 2001

We’ll be randomly picking the 2 brackets and the match-ups for those 2 brackets. Lets break it down

Bracket A

2003 Marlins vs 2008 Phillies

2000 Yankees vs 2004 Red Sox

2005 White Sox vs 2001 Yankees

2001 Mariners vs 2001 Oakland A’s

Bracket B

2003 Braves vs 2001 Diamondbacks

2003 Cubs vs 2006 Cardinals

2002 Angels vs 2009 Yankees

2007 Red Sox vs 2004 Yankees

Round 1 Bracket A- 2003 Florida Marlins VS 2008 Philadelphia Phillies

The 2003 Marlin team was outstanding and fun to watch. Even though they broke the hearts (again) of Cub fans everywhere, it’s hard to say they weren’t the best team that series or any series. Josh Beckett’s gutsy and dominating performances were some of the best in postseason history. The top of the lineup speed of Juan Pierre and Luis Castillo was killer on teams trying to shut down the running game, Pudge was still in his prime, Derrek Lee was emerging as a threat in the middle, and Miguel Cabrera was called up in mid-season to provide a bat and flexibility as back then he could play a ton of positions. Mike Lowell was an MVP candidate at third base, but I thought pitching was this team’s strength. Josh Beckett, Brad Penny, Dontrelle Willis, Carl Pavano were as good a 4 man rotation of anyone in baseball come a 7 game series. You could hand the ball to any one of these guys and watch them dominate. It was a rotation that shut down the 2003 Yankees and that was a pretty good accomplishment.

The 2008 Phillies I thought caught a break with playing Tampa who beat the Red Sox. I think Boston could have won that series if they defeated Tampa but we’ll never know. Cole Hamels was absolutely outstanding and obviously the lineup of Howard, Utley, Rollins, Victorino, and Werth was nothing to laugh at. Brad Lidge was absolutely devastating  in 2008 which provided the Phillies the luxury of playing a 7-inning game  with Ryan Madson being just as good. I felt like the big question mark for that team was their rotation. Brett Myers was okay, Joe Blanton was okay after being acquired at mid-season from Oakland, Jaimie Moyer was okay and approaching 50. If it wasn’t for Hamels, I don’t know if the Phillies make and win the World Series that year. And that’s a testament to how good Hamels was. Unfortunately for Phillies fans- I’m a firm believer in starting pitching wins in October over offense. As good as the offense in Philly was, Florida’s was just as impressive.

Brett’s Selection- 2003 Florida Marlins move on to the 2nd round

Round 1 Bracket A- 2000 New York Yankees VS 2004 Boston Red Sox

The 2000 New York Yankee team I felt over achieved. I don’t believe they were the best team on paper, but what put them ahead of the pack was how they responded to tough situations. They had the leadership and chemistry to overcome any obstacle in their way. If anything, it was just simply their destiny that year. The lineup wasn’t bad in any sense of the word bad, but it wasn’t as spectacular and star studded as other teams in this tournament. Even the pitching wasn’t all that outstanding. They had guys who knew how to perform in the clutch and that’s always going to be a difference maker. Led by Derek Jeter, Tino Martinez, Jorge Posada  and Bernie Williams, the Yanks were able to scrap and survive by taking down Oakland and Seattle before taking the train to Shea to face the hated Mets. If you pull up the numbers of this team, you’ll wonder how they won that year. Only 2 guys had 100 RBI’s and only Bernie Williams hit more than 30 home runs. Weird huh? The rotation of Rocket Roger Clemens, David Cone, Andy Pettitte, and El Duque was okay, but far from outstanding. Andy Pettitte won a staff high 19 games for the bronx bombers, Clemens is a hall of famer with or without steroids and Mariano is the best closer of all time. It just might have been the best year to play in the World Series.

The 2004 Boston Red Sox were a fun group to watch. Led by Manny and Ortiz, they were primed for a deep postseason run…as long as the curse didn’t come up. The lineup to begin the season and the postseason lineup was a tad different. In mid season. Theo Epstein shocked the baseball world by trading Nomar Garciaparra in a 4 team trade. He was under a fire from Boston faithful, but without that trade, the Red Sox don’t win. He brought over Orlando Cabrera, Dave Roberts, and Doug Mienkiewicz who all improved the defense and overall team speed. “The Idiots” were on a roll and could beat you in many ways. Their pitching of Pedro, Schilling, Arroyo, and Wakefield was outstanding and extremely gutsy. Throw in a healthy Keith Foulke in the 9th and your doing okay in that department. What I really liked about that team is they were having a great time playing, and simply wouldn’t take no for an answer. Johnny Damon and Kevin Millar kept the clubhouse loose, and Manny was always being Manny. It was a team that overcame a 3-0 hole in the ALCS and just completely dominated the Cardinals. It was awesome.

I don’t think the 2000 Yankees would have had the firepower to stop the Red Sox train.

Brett’s Selection- 2004 Boston Red Sox.

Round 1 Bracket A-2001 New York Yankees vs 2005 Chicago White Sox

The 2001 Bronx Bombers had a chance to repeat, but were stifled and shocked by a bloop single from Luis Gonzalez off Mariano to give the snakes from the desert the crown. The 2001 team was pretty much the same other than the emergence of Alfonso Soriano, so it was and wasn’t a shock at the same time that they got back to the fall classic. Mike Mussina was signed to a monster contract that offseason and with the moose, Pettitte and a 20-3 Rocket, the Yankees were primed for a 2nd straight title. Unfortunately, Bob Brenly’s (Bob!) Dbacks team roared back and closed out the series with a game winning hit. Gotta love those. I’ll go more into Arizona later on. I don’t want to ruin the surprise now.

The 2005 Chicago White Sox team was an outstanding baseball team from top to bottom. They swept the defending champs (Boston) in the division round, than after AJ’s sprint down the first base line after striking out, were able to get on the roll that led them to the title. Carlos Lee was traded to Milwaukee in the off season for lead off speedster Scott Podsednik who followed it up with the best season of his career. Tadahito Iguchi and El Duque were signed, Bobby Jenks was claimed off of waivers from the Angels, and Jermaine Dye was signed. All of those players had big roles in winning the ring. The thing I loved most about this team was their pitching. Mark Buerhle had emerged as a top of the rotation guy. Freddy Garcia was still dealing, Jon Garland was that soft tossing guy who could throw anything anywhere, and Jose Contreras finally learned how to pitch outside the spotlight that is New York city. The overall stuff wasn’t all that impressive from this group, but frankly- guts and the bulldog mentality led this team to the series. I thought the Angels were a better, more talented team, but the Sox had the heart, the smarts, and chemistry to overcome it. How do you not like that?

Brett’s Selection- This is probably the easiest one for me to claim. 2005 Chicago White Sox are moving on to the second round

Round 1 Bracket A- 2001 Seattle Mariners vs 2001 Oakland A’s.

The 2001 Seattle Mariners team led by now Cub manager sweet Lou Piniella, set the mark when it comes to regular season victories with a ridiculous 116. What was that? MLB the show? I mean seriously, how do you win 116 games and NOT win the World Series? It marked the beginning of the “Ichiro era” in the northwest as they brought him over from Japan. Bret Boone had to be doing something illegal with a 37 homer 141 RBI campaign in a pitchers park. Mike Cameron and Edgar Martinez both had over 110 RBI’s and John Olerud had 95 RBIs. Well I guess it’s easier to drive in that many runs when Ichiro is hitting 350 with 242 htis at the top of the lineup. Freddy Garcia, Jaime Moyer, Aaron Sele, Paul Abbott (really?) all had over 15 wins and Kaz Sasaki had 52 saves. The team of destiny quickly became the team of choke as the 2001 Yankee team beat them in 5. I find that insane as Seattle was much better than the Yanks that year- but that’s why you play the game right?

In an interesting draw, the 2001 Oakland A’s team who won 102 games had to match-up up with a team that beat them by FOURTEEN games in the regular season. How do you win 102 games and finish 14 out? Ridiculous. I’m not going to lie. I loved this A’s team. I thought they could have beat Seattle heads up in the ALCS but that darn Yankee team took them out in the ALDS. Anyone remember Derek Jeter’s backhanded flip? The offense was led by Jason on ‘roids Giambi, Eric Chavez prior to his back injuries, and Miguel Tejada. Johnny Damon was brought over that offseason from Kansas City and frankly he wins wherever he goes. The reason why I loved this team so much was due to the big 3. Tim Hudson, Barry Zito, and Mark Mulder. All 3 had a case for the “Cy Young” that year as all 3 won 17 games or more. Awesome. And that big 3 I believe beats Seattle in a best of 7.

Brett’s Selection- 2001 Oakland A’s.

Round 1 Bracket B- 2003 Atlanta Braves vs 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks

The 2003 Braves were upset in the first round by a heavily favored underdog Chicago Cubs team and what a team it was. Offensively, Gary Sheffield, Javy Lopez, Andrew Jones, and Chipper Jones led the offense with 25 homers or more, Rafael Furcal, Vinny Castilla, Mark DeRosa, Robert Fick, and Marcus Giles filled out the other holes with better than average seasons. This team was absolutely stacked. The pitching wasn’t exactly bad either. Russ Ortiz won 21 games prior to some arm injuries, Greg Maddux was Greg Maddux, Mike Hampton was still a cy young like left hander, Horacio Ramirez was a decent 4. John Smoltz was closing games and doing it as well as anyone ever to have the role, and them losing in the first round was a shock to most. I mean- 4 guys drove in over 100 runs. That’s insane. The 5 game series is a crap shoot. As a Cub fan I was estatic over the victory, but being realistic- I don’t know if the Cubs had the fire power to win 1 of the next 2 games against Atlanta.

The 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks team was simply unstoppable on the mound. Has there ever been a better 1-2 punch in October than Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling? I would have loved to see those guys go up against the Braves offense. Offensively, we’ve seen better. Only Reggie Sanders and Luis Gonzalez had over 30 homers, so I do think the Braves pitching could have stifled them a bit. It’s tough to say Curt and Randy would not have lost against the Braves offense, but in a 7 game series, you need more than 2 pitchers against an offense like the Braves. The Braves offense was better than the 2001 yanks by A LOT which is why I’m going with my first upset.

Brett’s selection- 2003 Atlana Braves

Round 1- Bracket B- 2003 Chicago Cubs vs 2006 St. Louis Cardinals

The 2003 Chicago Cubs team was on it’s way to it’s first Series since 1945. All was well. They were up 3-0 in the 8th with Ace Mark Prior on the mound. The city was rocking. The Campaign was ready to flow. The riots were beginning. Then everything changed. Everyone wants to blame Steve Bartman for what happened to the team in 2003 against the Marlins. I refuse to. Alex Gonzalez booted a routine double play ball. A 2 hopper ground ball that he’s made probably 1 million times in his life. After that- Dusty Baker decides to leave a tired Mark Prior in the game and the Marlins erupted. By the time Farnsworth was brought in- the momentum had changed, and the game was over. The cubs had 3 chances to close out the series and failed all 3 times. I give Florida all the credit in the world. They were the best team- and they finished the job. My hat went off to them. However, I was proud to be a Cub fan that year. All the right moves were made, and when Corey Patterson went down in July with a torn ACL- Jim Hendry pulled the trigger for Aramis Ramirez and Kenny Lofton for…Bobby Hill? The rotation was as good as anyones with Wood, Prior, Matt Clement won 14 games and Carlos Zambrano had become a pretty good 4. The pen had it’s question marks, but Farnsworth had a heck of a year in a set up role. And Joe Borowski went 33-37 in saves.

The 2006 Cardinal team snuck into the postseason with 83 wins. Pick another year, and they don’t even make the postseason. However, that’s not what I’m going to argue here. They got in- they upset 3 teams. They got hot- they earned it. However, this team had it’s flaws. Adam Wainwright was moved to the closers role out of need. Mark Mulder went down for the year. Jim Edmonds missed a ton of time. Anthony Reyes and Jason Marquis had strong postseasons, and Jeff Weaver was a blessing. Offensively, Pujols was the man. Scott Rolen and David Eckstein both picked up the slack in the World Series, and they were able to sneak away with a title. The question I pose is- Could that team beat any of the other teams in this decade in a 7 game series? Sure Chris Carpenter was darn good- but I don’t know if Jeff Weaver and Anthony Reyes could shut down better offensive teams. This was not an easy decision and I don’t want to look biased by taking a team I’ve loved since birth over a World Series winner- but I firmly FIRMLY believe that the Cubs of 2003 were better in every area of the game than the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals. I feel like Mark Prior and Kerry Wood could have shut down the 2006 lineup. I feel like the 2006 Cardinal postseason rotation wouldn’t have been able to shut down a pretty under rated Cubs offense. The Cubs took down the Braves who were better than the teams the Cardinals beat and took the 2003 Marlins to 7. Regardless of the “choke”, A team has to win 4 games in a best of 7 to win the series- it doesn’t really matter in what order the wins come in.

Brett’s Selection- 2003 Chicago Cubs

Round 1 Bracket B- 2002 Anaheim Angels vs 2009 New York Yankees

I loved that Angels team of 2002. Who doesn’t like the rally monkey? The main reason why I loved that Angel team is that they took the whole “starting pitching wins in October” rule and shoved it. Their rotation was average at best. Washburn had a great season and Lackey emerged as a rookie to be nails, but other than that- who? Kevin Appier? Aaron Sele? Come on. They won because they shortened games to 5 and 6 innings with Donnelly, KRod,  Scot Shields, and Troy Percival. Offensively, they weren’t a great club, but they got the job done. Garrott Anderson and Tim Salmon had solid years and postseasons, Troy Glaus was money, and when u can shorten up a game to 5-6 innings….Well your going to be tough. Just ask the Yankees, Twins, and Giants.

2009 New York Yankee team was one of the better teams in the past 25 years. They could mash. (Jeter, Arod, Tex, Damon, Matsui, Posada) and they could pitch. (Pettitte, Burnett, Sabathia). They had a pretty solid 7th and 8th inning guys (Hughes, Joba, Coke, Marte, Robertson) and the best closer of all time in the 9th. CC Sabathia was a difference maker, and Burnett was as good as anyone when he’s on. Andy Pettitte has the most wins in the postseason history so he can obviously pitch under the bright lights. That Yankee team beat an outstanding Phillies offense in 6 games. As good as the Angels bullpen was in 2002, I think the Yankee offense could have lit them up a little bit at times. I believe the Yankees of this year were as good as any other team out there this decade.

Brett’s Selection- New York Yankees 2009

Round 1 Bracket B- 2007 Boston Red Sox vs 2004 New York Yankees

The 2007 Boston Red Sox team was….good. Real Real Real Real good. Manny, Ortiz, Lowell, JD Drew, Dustin Pedroia, and Jason Varitek formed a solid lineup. The postseason rotation of Beckett, Dice K, Schilling, and Jon Lester was absolutely devestating on the Rockies and Angels as both were swept out. CC Sabathia  almost led the Indians past Boston in 2007 but lost games 6 and 7 to give the crown to the Bosox.

2004 New York Yankees. The only team to ever lose a 7 game series after going up 3-0. Jon Lieber, Javy Vazquez, Mike Mussina, Kevin Brown, El Duque, and Jose Contreras were okay but not spectacular, the offense was another story. The offseason trade that brought Arod to New York to pair up with Jeter and Giambi was supposed to give the Yankees the title before the season started. Throw in Gary Sheffield and it should have been a no-brainer. Off the field issues followed the Yanks that year. Giambi was hurt. Sheffield didn’t like the media. Arod and Jeter were feuding. Cashmen was getting in Torre’s way of managing the club. It had to have been a nightmare. With all that going on- the Yanks still were only 1 game from the Series. I just don’t see them being able to beat that 2007 World Series winning team from Boston

Brett’s Selection- 2007 Boston Red Sox

Check back in a few days to see who moves on to the Bracket Finals!