In the last decade, we’ve had nine different world champions in the Majors. Including a couple of teams that won it for the first time in their franchise history, the Arizona Diamondbacks (2001) and the Los Angeles Angels (2002).

You can’t help but ask yourself what should a team do to win a World Series. That is not an easy question to answer. You will hear people talk about teams needing a solid rotation, bullpen depth, solid defense, effective offense, and a deep bench in order to win a World Series, but to achieve all of the above is merely an illusion.

If you think this through, you can see what a difficult task team owners and General Managers have to build successful franchises. You have to fill every hole you have in the organization with a limited budget (unless you are the Yankees) and try to keep all the players happy and motivated.

Yesterday, I caught a tweet from Buster Olney of ESPN that said that the Giants also have a great rotation, a great bullpen and deeper offense than the Phillies. The Phillies are pinpointed as the early favorites to be the NL Champions and possibly the World Champions by a lot of people, but favoritism has not paidoff very well this last decade. If you don’t believe me I’m going to give you a little history lesson right now.

In 2001, the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the often-picked New York Yankees in a seven-games World Series. In 2003, the Yankees were defeated again, but this time by the Florida Marlins, who reached the post-season as the NL Wild Card. In 2004 although the Red Sox were favorites to win the World Series, they had to overcome a 0-3 deficit in the ALCS against their long-time rivals the Yankees. In 2007 and 2008 two underdogs teams,  the Colorado Rockies and the Tampa Bay Rays reached the World Series but eventually lost. Last season, the Giants beat the favorite Rangers in five games to give the San Francisco city their first World Series title.

So what did those teams have in common the year they won the World Series? I don’t know. They all had good seasons followed by better post-seasons, but the only common denominator I can find is “inspiration”. It definitively helps to have the best players in the league on your team, but even with that you’re not a lock to win a World Series.