The Best CPL Teams of ALL TIME

I had an idea a few nights ago, to make a ranking of the best CPL teams of all time. It’s always stuck in my craw that I had some very good teams in the early 2010’s, and didn’t win a title, and I’ve always wanted to know just how good those teams really were. I always thought titles were a complete crapshoot, and the best teams in the league rarely win it all. 

Turns out I was right.

I rotisserie ranked the entire history of the CPL. All 200 teams that played, and shook it out to see who the best teams of all time *really* were. Here a snippet of the best 20 teams of all time, and here’s my color coding system.
Yellow- World Series ChampionGreen- Best Regular Season RecordOrange- BothRed Letters- Best Roto team of that season. 

Now, there’s some obvious caveats here. Before expansion, the talent pool was smaller, so of course those teams have a leg up here, but there’s only 5 of the 20, which probably speaks to how popular rebuilding became after expansion, keeping the talent pool among competing teams trim.

Here’s a few fun observations

-2009 really was an arms race in the NL, with 3 of a best 10 teams ever in the NL that season. But who had the best record and won the title that year? Ray, of course. However, the 2009 Your Mom team was only the 41st best of all time, and the only team outside of the Top 10 on this list to have the best regular season record and win the title.

-On that note, only 4 teams with the best regular season record have won the title, ever. And only the three pictured above have won the title with the best Roto team of that season. New strategy for winning a CPL title- DON’T have the best team in the league. It’s like the President’s Trophy curse in the NHL, apparently.

– Shue has 4 of the best 14 teams of all time, a staggering number. His 2011 team is really a sight to behold, finishing a mind-blowing 178 points ahead of the second best team ever, nearly the same amount between teams 2 and 13. Of course, Shue’s team lost in the first round of the playoffs that season, to Cale 13-3.

-The worst Championship team? Sorry, Fred, but it’s your 2010 squad. The 93rd best team of all time cemented its status as a scrappy squad that overcame all the odds. The 2014 Holy Moly team wasn’t that far behind, only being the 80th best team of all time. 2014 was a down year altogether in the CPL (we may have been a week shorter that season, I’m not sure), as Cale’s 48th ranked 2014 team was the worst Roto champion and worst Best Record team as well.

– The best offense of all time was the 2007 Motley Shue squad while the best pitching of all time belongs to the 2015 Your Mom team. Both won the regular season title and best roto team, but failed to win titles.

-The biggest disparity between hitting and pitching? Look no further than the 2019 Kelly’s Heroes, whose hitting scored a damn fine 1108 points, 50th best of all time. But- his pitching staff was 198th, yes, third worst of all time with a mere 274 points.

-Yes, Zobrack’s 2019 team is the worst team in history. Good job, Chris. Not to be outdone, Jeff’s 2018 and 2019 teams are 4th and 3rd, respectively. Rick’s inaugural 2010 team is second. All by design, obviously.

That’s all I’ll bore you with today. If you’re somehow here without seeing my email, I have the full spreadsheet attached for your perusing pleasure.

-Rem