The All-Time MLB Player draft part III: Jimmy's Team

I figure I might as well cover my team next. I had the fifth overall pick and was happy to select my favorite player in history, Honus Wagner. I really liked the way my team shaped up from there, here it is:

Lineup

2B Eddie Collins - .424 career OBP, 7th all time in steals
SS Honus Wagner - Led the league in OPS 8 times, 10th all time in steals
1B Jimmie Foxx - Led league in OPS 5 times, 4 seasons of 155+ RBI
LF Stan Musial - Led league in OPS 7 times, 1st or 2nd in MVP voting 7 times
DH Frank Thomas - 9 seasons of 35+ HRs, .419 career OBP
3B Mike Schmidt - Led league in HRs 8 times, 3 MVP awards
C Mike Piazza - Most Hrs ever by a catcher, also hit .308 for his career
CF Earl Averill - OPS+ over 100 every year until 38, .318 career hitter
RF Vladimir Guerrero - .300+ average, 25+ HRs 11 straight years

Bench

C Bill Dickey - .313 career hitter with power, 678:289 career BB:K ratio
IF Arky Vaughan - .406 career OBP, led league in walks/runs 3 times each
OF Sam Crawford - Played before HRs were common, led league in triples 6 times
UT Jeff Bagwell - 135 ops+ every year of his career until age 35
UT Tim Raines - 5th all time in steals, caught less than half as many times as Henderson

Rotation

SP Lefty Grove - Led league in ERA 9 times, in K's 7 times
SP Roger Clemens - 7 Cy Young awards, 22 straight years of ERA+ better than 100
SP Mordecai Brown - 2.06 career ERA, 1.06 career WHIP
SP White Ford - More than twice as many wins as losses in career, 2.75 career ERA
SP Jim Palmer - 3 Cy Young awards, 8 time 20 game winner

Pen

CL Hoyt Wilhelm - Nearly 900 innings of 156 ERA+ AFTER 40th birthday
SU Billy Wagner - 11.8 K/9, Only 1 season in entire career with ERA over 2.85
LHP Billy Pierce - Maybe the best left-handed curve ever, 7 time all-star as a starter
RP Smoky Joe Wood - 2.03 career ERA, only arm injury prevented him from being Walter Johnson
RP Dizzy Dean - Won an MVP, finished 2nd two other times, led league in K's first 3 years of career
RP Brandon Webb - 64.2% of balls in play are grounders for career, over 140 ERA+ career

Comments: A heavy right-handed lineup is balanced by five superb left-handed hitters on the bench. I have three of the top 10 base-stealers of all time and 7 players with 400+ career HRs. The lowest career OBP in my lineup is .386. This team can beat you with power, speed or patience. Every starter except Piazza was significantly above average on defense, and several were among the best ever at their positions. Between Vaughan and Bagwell I have two guys that can play every infield position off the bench, and obviously Raines/Crawford can cover any spot in the outfield as well. Raines can pinch run for any number of guys if necessary in a late game spot.

My rotation is as diverse as it is talented. I have a power-lefty in Grove, a power-righty in Clemens, a finesse-lefty in Ford, a finesse-righty in Brown and someone in between in Jim Palmer. They all struck out tons of guys for their time and still had good control.

My bullpen can handle any situation that gets thrown at them. I have two lefties with vicious breaking pitches, two laser-armed righties to blow the ball by hitters, and I have the greatest groundball pitcher in the history of the game to get a double play if needed. Finally I have maybe the craftiest pitcher in baseball history as my closer. Wilhelm had probably the best knuckleball ever, but it wasn't his only pitch and he was so good he was an effective pitcher into his late 40s.

Captain: Honus Wagner - The Flying Dutchman played every single position on the diamond at some point in his career, giving him a unique perspective on the team and allowing him to relate to everyone on the roster. He was also the hardest worker in the game and a gentleman off the field. Although not extremely vocal he served as a mentor to many young players including Arky Vaughan. He is also believed to be the first player to lift weights in the off-season. He has a rare combination of being able to lead both by voice and by example.

Park: Fenway Park - With an everyday lineup containing only 2 left-handed hitters (one of them with minimal power and the other very adept at taking the ball the other way) the green monster is too tempting to resist. Foxx, Thomas, Schmidt, Piazza and Guerrero will rack up extra bases routinely in this hitter's haven. I also have a ground-ball/strikeout pitching staff, three of whom are right-handed which should limit opposing teams ability to take advantage of the park. The favorable calls the teams inevitably get due to the intimidating atmosphere is also hard to pass up.

Manager: Earl Weaver - There are so many tempting choices here, and even though I do not think he was the best manager ever, Earl Weaver fits my team's style perfectly. He had a .583 career winning percentage, managing teams with patience and power like this one. His hands off approach would be perfect for this team of mostly low-maintenance personalities. While my team does have speed, it probably will not need to use it often because of the meat of my lineup, further fitting Weaver's preferred style. And finally, since most of my position players are generally laid back, we need someone fiery to get in umpires faces when they blow calls.



So, some after the fact comments about my team:

- I have a lot of really early-era players on my team, probably the most of any team. I don't find this that surprising since I am probably more familiar with the players of that era than most, but I did manage to get at least a few from each generation

- My starting lineup's OBP is insane, every single player walked a ton in their career other than Guerrero, who made up for it by hitting .330.

- Other than Averill and Guerrero I feel like everyone in my lineup is the best or second best player at their position ever.

- Averill sticks out like a sore thumb in that lineup, but the CF's got snatched up very quickly (Dennis alone took like 4 of them) and I got stuck without an all-time great one. Averill is very solid though, certainly deserved to be on one of these teams, but probably not in a starting lineup.

- My defense in my starting lineup, other than Piazza is incredible. My entire infield was known for their glove work, and so was Averill. Piazza was a bad thrower but did other things well. Musial and Guerrero were not gold glovers but both were solid in the field.

- My best pick was probably Jimmie Foxx in the 6th round, that was far too long for him to be sitting out there, although I thought the Piazza and Thomas picks were also steals.

- My worst pick was probably Stan Musial in the second round. Musial is simply a phenomenal player, he was the best player in his league probably more times than anyone, but taking him over some of the elite CF's like Cobb, Mantle and Speaker came back to haunt me later when I got stuff without a great CF and there were still some great LF's on the board.