The next team to be introduced was a collaborative effort. Because each of them were only available sparingly during the time when the draft was done, Brian, Mark and Frank each had a hand in building this roster. They had the 3rd overall pick and chose to go contemporary with the first two rounds, taking Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez. I'll turn it over to Mark who introduces the rest of their roster.
Team notes:
We definitely drafted one of the nastiest hitting teams of all time. Our lineup alone features players totaling 20 MVP seasons and Dick Allen contributes one more MVP award off the bench. We feature a balanced lineup with speed, power, speed AND power, four righties, four lefties, and the greatest switch-hitter that ever played.
Our defense is average overall, with standout defensive players like Robinson, Bonds and Campanella, and we feature 11 gold gloves overall among our starters. This team wasn't designed to take away runs, it was designed to score them. And with the pitching staff assembled, our defense won't have much to worry about.
Our rotation is completely ridiculous. We feature the top two strikeout pitchers of all time in Ryan and Johnson, the pitcher with perhaps the best pure stuff ever in Koufax and two dominating workhorses in Blyleven and Halladay.
The bullpen only gets better with the all-time saves king, the former all-time saves king and an assembly of great starting pitchers that were willing to take a pay cut and a seat in the bullpen for the sake of being on this team.
Lineup:
2B Jackie Robinson - career OBP of .409, lightning fast and a great overall hitter
SS Alex Rodriguez - power AND speed and a chance to break the all-time HR record.
LF Barry Bonds - the definitive power/speed player, 7 MVP awards and both HR records.
DH Manny Ramirez - yeah, he's nuts, but he's a hitting savant with a career OPS+ of 155
CF Mickey Mantle - best switch-hitter ever, could've been the best ever if he'd laid off the sauce.
3B Harmon Killebew - hit 40 homers or more 8 times.
1B Willie McCovey - his 1969 MVP season was insane: 320/453/656 with 45 HR, 121 RBI and only 66 SOs
C Roy Campanella - Great combo of offense and defense, won 3 MVPs in just 10 seasons.
RF Joe Jackson - Career .356 hitter with a lifetime OPS+ of 170. Overqualified here to be a "second leadoff hitter"
Bench:
C Gary Carter - 11-time all-star and the only Expo in the HOF, 3 Gold Gloves and 5 Silver Sluggers.
1B Mark McGwire - We seem to have drafted a lot of steroids-related players, but nobody hit homers like Big Mac, who was also underrated defensively.
SS Phil Rizzuto - 1950 MVP winner and Yankees fan-favorite. He'll fill a backup role off the bench and will provide color commentary on off-days. Holy Cow!
1B Johnny Mize - Led the league in homers 4 times, won a batting title in 1939 and probably lost about 150 homers while serving in WWII.
IF/OF Dick Allen - Controversial but with a lethal bat, hit .308/.420/.603 in his 1972 MVP season.
Rotation:
LHP Randy Johnson - 6'10" physical freak dominated both leagues with his slider and fastball, awesome mullet.
RHP Nolan Ryan - fierce competitor pitched for 27 years, owns the records for most strikeouts and most no-hitters with 7
LHP Sandy Koufax - 7th all-time in strikeouts despite pitching only 12 seasons. 4 no-hitters including a perfect game. Jewish. Hell yes.
RHP Bert Blyleven - best pitcher not in the HOF, great curveball, 5th all-time in strikeouts, 9th all-time in shutouts.
RHP Roy Halladay - throwback workhorse, led the league 5 times in complete games in the modern era, 2 20-win seasons and still going strong.
Bullpen:
RHP Trevor Hoffman (Closer) - Holds the record for most saves all time, pitching for 17 seasons with one of the best change-ups ever.
RHP Lee Smith (Setup) - One of the modern eras most dominating relievers, recorded 478 saves and a career 8.7 K/9 ratio.
LHP Hal Newhouser - Won back-to-back MVP awards in '44 and '45, going 54-18 with a 2.01 ERA over 625 innings those years.
RHP Curt Schilling - One of the greatest big-game pitchers of all time. Played second-fiddle to Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez at different points, but was just as great on his own.
RHP Don Drysdale - Koufax's wingman, intimidating presence with a hard, side-arm fastball, led the league in HBP four years in a row.
RHP Roy Oswalt - diminutive bulldog, has the most wins in MLB since 2001 and a large repertoire of nasty pitches.
Manager - I know it sounds biased coming from a Yankee fan, but I feel that Joe Torre would be best suited to handling this ballclub. We ended up with a lot of high-maintenance players from Arod to Bonds, Manny, Unit and Mantle. Torre's success managing the odd personalities that came through the Yankees clubhouse in the late 90's and 00's would suit this team well. Also his bullpen-managing deficiencies would be well-hidden by the fact that everyone in our bullpen can pitch a ton of innings.
Captain - I had a hard time deciding this one but ultimately chose Curt Schilling to be the captain. Schilling doesn't take shit from anyone, has a big mouth, and knows what it takes to win ballgames and championships. He'd be the first one to slap Arod upside the head for doing something stupid, or to pitch in a playoff game despite having surgery on his ankle the same day.
Ballpark - With this lineup I was almost tempted to see if this team could be successful at Coors Field, but ultimately I want to go with pre-renovation Yankee Stadium. The short left-field plays well with Bonds, Arod, Mantle and McCovey, and the history of the stadium is undeniable.
Some personal observations now about this team...
- The lineup does have a ton of power and patience. There are some guys who run well, but it is mostly full of sluggers.
- This turned out to be the worst defensive team by a fair margin, with the corner infield spots being particularly problematic.
- The defensive problems are made worse by the fact that they do not have a natural third baseman on the bench, or a good outfield glove either. The best option appears to be have Rizzuto take over at SS, shift Rodriguez to third, and maybe Killebrew to first, although that does not help the corners much.
- The bench, while powerful does not really work nearly as well in a real life situation as many others. There are two slugging first baseman, and a slugging corner outfielder. While they are all great hitters, does a team really need this many defensively challenged home run hitters?
- The pitching staff, particularly the rotation, will strikeout tons of people allowing for more defensive lapses than most teams.
- The bullpen is very solid, made up mostly by starters who were just not quite good enough to find a rotation slot.
- The worst pick by this team was almost definitely Koufax in the fourth round. Considering you were getting these players for their career Koufax's value is minimal because: he was only a full time starter for nine years, missed a good deal of time during his career because of injuries even during those nine years, was really only better than league average in his career for six seasons, played during the pitching friendly 60s that made his numbers look better than they were, and played in one of the most friendly pitcher's parks ever further skewing his raw numbers.
- The best pick was Johnny Mize. The often forgotten first baseman had a career that paralleled Hank Greenberg's, but was actually better than Greenberg's in many ways. After crediting him with a few seasons for time missed due to the war, he ranked higher than many starting first basemen.
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