The Misery Index is based on The Athletic's MLB Franchise Rankings (link here, with a paywall.) However, unlike the Franchise Rankings, the Misery Index is going to give some press time to the teams that might not otherwise be getting any, because they've been struggling for a bit. In other words, I used the same scoring method as The Athletic (more or less, details below) and took a look using a 32-1 lens rather than the traditional 1-32 perspective. The scores below are calculated using data from Seasons 1-12. Now, let's get to the nitty-gritty:
For those of you who don't subscribe to The Athletic, or just didn't click the link, here's the scoring system they came up with: 11 points for a World Series Win, 5 for winning the pennant, 3 for losing the LCS and 1 for making the playoffs. I adopted that and then added a couple of tweaks: first of all, I implemented a penalty for manager turnover since having different owners in the world is basically the equivalent of having a real life team "sold"...so the more that happens the "higher" you climb in the Misery Index. The penalty is -1 point per owner after the original one, so a team that has had 2 owners gets a -1 penalty, a team that has been managed by 3 people gets a -2 penalty etc.
I also brainstormed a series of tiebreak criteria. When doing so, I tried my best to keep the following observation made by author Stephen Nesbitt in mind: "in the long run, that’s the best way to measure franchise success: not in single-season results or in farm system rankings, but in postseason experience and in rings. So, let’s see how all 30 clubs stack up." He certainly has a point, so I went with Division Titles as the first tiebreaker and then Winning Seasons as a second tiebreaker since I figured we'd need at least two given that we only have at 12 seasons of data to work with. In the end, this is how things broke down:
The Bottom Ten: Curses In The Making
32. Tacoma: -4 points (no postseason appearances, 5 owners)
31. Cheyenne: -3 points (no postseason appearances, 4 owners)
30. New York: -2 points (no postseason appearances, 3 owners; 0 division wins, 0 winning seasons)
29. Albuquerque: -2 points (no postseason appearances, 3 owners; 0 division wins, 2 winning seasons)
28. Pawtucket: -1 points (2 postseason appearances, 4 owners)
27. Seattle: 0 points (no postseason appearances, 1 owner)
26. Burlington: 0 points (2 postseason appearances, 3 owners)
25. Little Rock: 1 point (1 postseason appearance, 1 owner; 0 division titles)
24. Honolulu: 1 point (2 postseason appearances, 1 LCS loss, 5 owners; 2 division titles)
23. Chicago: 2 points (1 postseason appearance, 1 LCS loss, 3 owners; 1 division title)
The Middle Portion: Those Stuck In Neutral
22. Las Vegas: 2 points (3 postseason appearances, 2 owners; 3 division titles)
21. Boston: 3 points (3 postseason appearances, 1 owner; 0 division titles)
20. Louisville: 3 points (4 postseason appearances, 2 owners; 4 division titles)
19. Toledo: 3 points (5 postseason appearances, 3 owners; 5 division titles)
18. Texas: 4 points (3 postseason appearances, 1 LCS loss, 3 owners; 1 division titles, 5 winning seasons, 953 reg. sea. wins)
17. Trenton: 4 points (1 postseason appearance, 1 LCS loss, 1 owner; 1 division titles, 5 winning seasons, 979 reg. sea. wins)
16. Tucson: 7 points (3 postseason appearances, 2 LCS losses, 3 owners; 2 division titles)
15. Hartford: 7 points (4 postseason appearances, 1 LCS loss, 1 owner; 5 division titles)
14. Ottawa: 8 points (4 postseason appearances, 1 pennant, 2 owners)
13. Nashville: 9 points (7 postseason appearances, 1 LCS loss, 2 owners)
12. Cleveland: 10 points (1 postseason appearance, 2 LCS losses, 1 pennant, 3 owners)
11. Rochester: 11 points (5 postseason appearances, 2 LCS losses, 1 owner)
The Top Ten: Dynasties In The Making
10. Iowa City: 12 points (5 postseason appearances, 3 LCS losses, 3 owners)
9. Oklahoma City: 13 points (6 postseason appearances, 1 Championship, 5 owners; 1 division win, 9 winning seasons)
8. Huntington: 13 points (4 postseason appearances, 1 Championship, 3 owners; 1 division win, 10 winning seasons)
7. Charlotte: 14 points (2 postseason appearances, 1 LCS loss, 1 Championship, 3 owners)
6. Kansas City: 16 points (5 postseason appearances, 1 Championship, 1 owner; 5 division wins, 8 winning seasons)
5. Portland: 16 points (6 postseason appearances, 2 LCS losses, 1 pennant, 2 owners; 5 division wins, 9 winning seasons)
4. St. Louis: 17 points (9 postseason appearances, 3 LCS losses, 2 owners)
3. Detroit: 36 points (4 postseason appearances, 2 LCS losses, 3 pennants, 1 championship, 1 owner)
2. Houston: 45 points (1 postseason appearance, 1 LCS loss, 2 pennants, 3 championships, 3 owners)
San Juan: 64 points (2 postseason appearances, 1 LCS loss, 3 pennants, 4 championships, 1 owner)