History of the Reds in the Postseason

(updated 4/7/15)

The Cincinnati Reds are widely considered one of the most "history-rich" franchises in baseball.  Unfortunately, the decade of the 1970s was the only one in which the team enjoyed sustained success in the form of postseason appearances.  

Of course, it was more difficult to make it to October baseball in the past.  Until 1969, there was no League Championship Series - only a World Series for the top team in each league.  And the first Division Series (other than its temporary implementation in 1981 strike year) didn't occur until 1995.

The Reds have made it to the playoffs 15 times.  They've won 9 NL pennants (5 by winning a series, 4 by simply having the best regular season record).  

And of course, the Reds have 5 World Championships - 1919, 1940, 1975, 1976 and 1990.

In their 15 appearances, the Reds' records are as follows:

11 series wins, 9 series losses overall

49 game wins, 46 game losses overall

0-1 record in the Wild Card play-in matchup

1 series win, 2 series losses (5-6 game record) in NLDS

5 series wins, 3 series losses (18-14 game record) in NLCS

5 series wins, 4 series losses (26-25 game record) in World Series


The teams the Reds have met, listed by most wins against them:

13-8 vs. Pittsburgh Pirates (beat them in NLCS in 1970, 1972, 1990, but swept by them in 1979, lost 2013 play-in)

7-4 vs. Oakland Athletics (lost World Series in 7 games in 1972, swept them in 1990)

5-3 vs. Chicago White Sox (won 1919 "Black Sox Scandal" World Series)

5-8 vs. New York Yankees (lost 1939 and 1961 World Series, won 1976 World Series)

4-3 vs. Detroit Tigers (won 1940 World Series in 7 games)

4-3 vs. Boston Red Sox (won 1975 World Series in 7 games)

3-0 vs. Los Angeles Dodgers (won 1995 NLDS)

3-3 vs. Philadelphia Phillies (won 1976 NLCS, lost 2010 NLDS)

2-3 vs. San Francisco Giants (lost 2012 NLDS)

2-3 vs. New York Mets (lost 1973 NLCS)

1-4 vs. Baltimore Orioles (lost 1970 World Series)

0-4 vs. Atlanta Braves (lost 1995 NLCS)

As you can see, the Reds have actually played more playoff games against American League competition (51 games, with a 26-25 record) than against the NL (44 games, with a 23-21 record).  That's because a few of their appearances came before the existence of the NLCS - plus, until 1985, the NLCS was only best-of-five.

Finally, here are the specific series results listed chronologically:

1919 - Won World Series 5-3 vs. Chicago

1939 - Lost World Series 0-4 vs. New York

1940 - Won World Series 4-3 vs. Detroit

1961 - Lost World Series 1-4 vs. New York

1970 - Won NLCS 3-0 vs. Pittsburgh, Lost World Series 1-4 vs. Baltimore

1972 - Won NLCS 3-2 vs. Pittsburgh, Lost World Series 3-4 vs. Oakland

1973 - Lost NLCS 2-3 vs. New York

1975 - Won NLCS 3-0 vs. Pittsburgh, Won World Series 4-3 vs. Boston

1976 - Won NLCS 3-0 vs. Philadelphia, Won World Series 4-0 vs. New York

1979 - Lost NLCS 0-3 vs. Pittsburgh

1990 - Won NLCS 4-2 vs. Pittsburgh, Won World Series 4-0 vs. Oakland

1995 - Won NLDS 3-0 vs. Los Angeles, Lost NLCS 0-4 vs. Atlanta

2010 - Lost NLDS 0-3 vs. Philadelphia

2012 - Lost NLDS 2-3 vs. San Francisco

2013 - Lost Wild Card play-in game to Pittsburgh

The best- and worst-run MLB franchises

I've been looking at payroll vs. results from a variety of angles. Some argue, based on the Rays' ability to make the playoffs and the Marlins' two World Series titles, that the class disparity in MLB is overblown. While it's true that high-payroll teams can struggle if poorly managed and low-payroll teams can succeed with good management, scouting and a little luck, it's still much easier to win big if you pay big. I'll show a couple graphs to support my viewpoint in some upcoming posts. For now I wanted to focus on the teams that have been managed well and managed poorly.

I examined the period from 1998-2011. The dramatic payroll class disparity started forming in the mid-90s, but since 1998 was the most recent expansion and I wanted to average evenly across years for all teams, I started with that timepoint. I then broke the teams down into four tiers based on the average number of millions spent in payroll for each regular season win achieved.

Tier 1 ($1.1 million or more per win) - Yankees, Red Sox, Mets and Cubs
Average playoff appearances per team out of 14 seasons - 7
Best-managed - Yankees (13 playoffs/4 titles), Red Sox (8/2)
Worst-managed - Mets (3/0), Cubs (4/0)

Tier 2 ($900,000 to 1.099 million per win) - Cardinals, Braves, Angels, Phillies, Giants, White Sox, Astros, Rangers, Orioles, Tigers, Mariners
Average playoff appearances per team out of 14 seasons - 4.36
Best-managed - Cardinals (8 playoffs/1 title), Braves (9/0), Angels (6/1)
Worst-managed - Orioles (0/0), Tigers (2/0), Mariners (2/0)

Tier 3 ($700,000 to 899,000 per win) - Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Indians, Blue Jays, Reds, Rockies, Brewers
Average playoff appearances per team out of 14 seasons - 2.57
Best-managed - Diamondbacks (5 playoffs/1 title)
Worst-managed - Blue Jays (0/0), Reds (1/0)

Tier 4 (less than $700,000 per win) - Twins, Athletics, Rays, Padres, Marlins, Nationals/Expos, Pirates, Royals
Average playoff appearances per team out of 14 seasons - 2.25
Best-managed - Twins (6 playoffs/0 titles), Athletics (5/0)
Worst-managed - Nationals (0/0), Pirates (0/0), Royals (0/0)

So during this 14-year period, if I had to rank the teams based on overall results achieved for money spent, I'd list them as follows.

The best:
1) Yankees
2) Cardinals
3) Twins
4) Braves
5) Red Sox
6) Diamondbacks
7) Athletics
8) Angels

The worst:
1) Orioles
2) Mets
3) Blue Jays
4) Cubs
5) Mariners
6) Tigers
7) Reds
8-10) Nationals/Pirates/Royals

Teams that don't appear on either list but are trending upward: Phillies and Rays (especially if either wins a title this season)
Teams that don't appear on either list but are trending downward: Dodgers, White Sox, Astros

MLB movers, 2010 to 2011

So far, the biggest gains in winning percentage:
1) Arizona (+ .149)
2) Pittsburgh (+ .139)
3) Milwaukee (+.079)
3) Cleveland (+.079)
5) Boston (+.069)

And the biggest drops:
1) Houston (-.136)
2) San Diego (-.127)
3) Minnesota (-.121)
4) Cincinnati (-.076)
5) Chicago White Sox (-.070)

Cincinnati has had the worst follow-up season of any 2010 NL playoff team. Philadelphia, Atlanta and San Francisco all look playoff-bound again.