All-Time Baseball Team

Recently I used an objective measure of time played at positions to craft a lineup for the all-time Yankees team and posted that on this blog. I decided to look at this across all teams, for an all-time baseball team. I had no agenda in mind, just a curiosity of what the results would look like.

This started off hairy, thanks to the multiple positions played by Pete Rose over his long career, but thanks to online statistics I simply took the most games played at a position as his primary position (outfield, surprisingly). Likewise Robin Yount played his most games as a shortstop rather than as an outfielder, etc.

Starting lineup:
Catcher = Carlton Fisk
1st Baseman = Eddie Murray
2nd Baseman = Craig Biggio
3rd Baseman = Brooks Robinson
Shortstop = Cal Ripken
Outfielder = Pete Rose
Outfielder = Carl Yastrzemski
Outfielder = Hank Aaron

Bench:
Catcher = Ted Simmons
Corner Infielder = Rafael Palmeiro
Middle Infielder = Robin Yount
Outfielder = Rickey Henderson
Outfielder = Ty Cobb

Rotation:
Starting Pitcher 1 = Cy Young
Starting Pitcher 2 = Nolan Ryan
Starting Pitcher 3 = Don Sutton
Starting Pitcher 4 = Phil Neikro
Starting Pitcher 5 = Steve Carlton

Bullpen:
Middle reliever = Jesse Orosco
Middle reliever = Mike Stanton
Middle reliever = John Franco
Middle reliever = Dennis Eckersley
Middle reliever = Hoyt Wilhelm
Set-Up Man = Lee Smith
Closer = Trevor Hoffman


Obviously this method reveals the objective measure of gametime played at a position is not necessarily representative of the best talent. Any all-time baseball list that positions Carl Yastrzemski ahead of Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, and Ted Williams, (let alone omits those three from the top five outfielders) is clearly not examining talent. However, this lineup does reflect what has been the most active lineup in baseball history and roughly reflects the most oft seen faces at these positions. In a sense, this is the face of baseball over the past 100 or so years.

What do we have? A pair of chubby catchers, a bat at first base, a little guy at second base, good gloves at shortstop and third base, outfielders that can run and hit, speed and a bat on the bench, and a reserve versatile middle infielder. That sounds about what we'd expect in most baseball teams. Even the pitchers are close to realistic expectations. There's three solid starters and two fillers, a bunch of durable middle relievers including one that can reliably start games, a solid set-up man, and a lights out closer. At first glance I was disappointed in this objective method's reflection of baseball talent, but I have come to appreciate its simplistic capture of the essence of the all-time lineup.