I was kicking around the idea of making this a poll, but it feels like I would leave out some teams. To me this feels like a blend of 92 and 2000. Lots of home grown talent making a huge impact, pitching was surprisingly doing their part in a solid not spectacular way outside of a few great performances. But much like the 2000 team they are currently taking it to the better competition in the league.

It’s fun to muse about this stuff again. Curious as to what anyone else thinks

I was gonna say 2000

I am thinking 1990, good young position players, good bullpen, not enough starting pitching, 2nd year manager.

1 hour ago, Lukakke Appling said:

I was gonna say 2000

That team started way better, but from a team build perspective it is definitely similar to this year. Weirdly enough I think that team solidified itself as for real around mid June when they had to play Cleveland and the Yankees for 4 straight series and they came out of that stretch with a 11-3 record. Kind of similar to this gauntlet we're going through now. We're half way through it and we're 4-2. Hopefully we can finish strong and mirror that 2000 team.

1990

Definitely the 2000 Kids Can Play plus a few teams from the GO GO years who didn’t have the power but just won a lot of games.

Edited Saturday at 04:33 PM4 days by The Mighty Mite

1990 the "Doin' the Little Things..." club.

I’ll also say 1990. Another breakout season after several horrible seasons and with JR threatening to move the team a few years earlier both times (though it was more of a veiled threat this time).

It’s a damn shame that 90 team was before the wild card era. They had the 2nd best record in the AL with 94 wins and missed the playoffs. IMO, they could have gone very deep into the playoffs if they got in.

2 hours ago, Falstaff said:

I am thinking 1990, good young position players, good bullpen, not enough starting pitching, 2nd year manager.

I'm a little to young (don't say that much anymore) to remember that season but that sounds about right. Lotta home grown position players, short pitching. That team I see won 94 games and didn't win a pennant. different era when we are thinking 86 might get a playoff spot.

Seeing that I was born in 94, and didn’t really start following the team until 2004…I don’t know if I have a team to compare this one to. Only real good teams I saw were 05, 06, I guess 2012 but they fell apart, and 2021. None of those teams really compare to this 2026 one. I guess maybe 2021 because there were a lot of young and exciting players that as we all know inevitably just didn’t pan out for multitudes of reasons, injuries being the main one. But for me this is definitely a first.

Edited Saturday at 06:12 PM3 days by AntMan26

10 minutes ago, chitownsportsfan said:

I'm a little to young (don't say that much anymore) to remember that season but that sounds about right. Lotta home grown position players, short pitching. That team I see won 94 games and didn't win a pennant. different era when we are thinking 86 might get a playoff spot.

The A’s were just too much to overtake.

35 minutes ago, chitownsportsfan said:

I'm a little to young (don't say that much anymore) to remember that season but that sounds about right. Lotta home grown position players, short pitching. That team I see won 94 games and didn't win a pennant. different era when we are thinking 86 might get a playoff spot.

24 minutes ago, Kyyle23 said:

The A’s were just too much to overtake.

What I remember being one of the more galling things about 1990 was that the White Sox were in Boston when the Red Sox clinched the AL East even though they ended up winning only 88 games that season vs. 94 for the Sox.

The A's regular season record (103 wins) was too much for the Sox to overtake in the standings, but the Sox were 8-5 vs. Oakland that season. If there were an AL Central and Wild Card spot back then, it's not a given that the Sox wouldn't be able to get past the A's.

Edited Saturday at 06:46 PM3 days by 77 Hitmen

5 hours ago, Kyyle23 said:

I was kicking around the idea of making this a poll, but it feels like I would leave out some teams. To me this feels like a blend of 92 and 2000. Lots of home grown talent making a huge impact, pitching was surprisingly doing their part in a solid not spectacular way outside of a few great performances. But much like the 2000 team they are currently taking it to the better competition in the league.

It’s fun to muse about this stuff again. Curious as to what anyone else thinks

2000 for me.

On 6/13/2026 at 1:45 PM, 77 Hitmen said:

What I remember being one of the more galling things about 1990 was that the White Sox were in Boston when the Red Sox clinched the AL East even though they ended up winning only 88 games that season vs. 94 for the Sox.

The A's regular season record (103 wins) was too much for the Sox to overtake in the standings, but the Sox were 8-5 vs. Oakland that season. If there were an AL Central and Wild Card spot back then, it's not a given that the Sox wouldn't be able to get past the A's.

As I recall the A’s were unbeaten vs the Yankees. 13-0 or something like that.

3 hours ago, JTB said:

As I recall the A’s were unbeaten vs the Yankees. 13-0 or something like that.

Didn't realize that, they were 12-0 vs. the Yankees.

Sox were the only team that year to post a winning record against them.

1 hour ago, Lip Man 1 said:

Didn't realize that, they were 12-0 vs. the Yankees.

Sox were the only team that year to post a winning record against them.

And then A’s went on to get swept by the Reds in the World Series. 😁

Everyone will probably say 1990, but that team had Thomas Ventura McDowell Alvarez Fernandez Radinsky…this current team still has to prove they have that kind of staying power.