25 for 25: Rockies
I am actually a St. Louis Cardinals fan, but over the past few months I've been working on a roster for each franchise in the National League, composed of players over the last 25 years*. The way this works is that I pick one player from each season and I have to fill out an entire roster (2 catchers, 2 infielders at each position, 6 total outfielders, 5 starting pitchers, 4 relievers). I can't take more than one player for each year, I have to take one player each season even in the bad years, and I can't use the same player for multiple positions. If a player played the majority of his games at one position, I can't use that season for another position even if he's played it before. And I used basically minimums of 60 innings or 250 PA's (prorated for strike seasons).
*Because the Rockies have only been in existance since 1993, I picked two players for each of eight different seasons, otherwise the rules are the same.
The interesting part with this are the decisions that have to be made, whether it is, "Dang there are some really nice outfielder seasons to choose from, who gets left out?", or, "Does this team even have two decent catchers in a 25-year span?", or, "This guy had so many great years - which one do I choose?" Sometimes a great year gets left out, sometimes a fluke, partial season gets tabbed for the team.
I actually posted the entire NL East and NL West on the SB Nation site Viva El Birdos, as well as a fully researched extended version for the Cardinals from 1910 to 1934 and (eventually) a post just like this at all of the other NL sites. You're welcome to pick apart my choices and make suggestions of your own. I'm looking forward to hearing from everybody.
P.S. After completing the whole process and receiving comments last week, I realized that I should have utilized both BP's WARP1 and B-R's WAR numbers instead of just WARP1 along with Win Shares and OPS+/ERA+. (Fangraphs' WAR numbers only go back to 2002, so that would not have helped.) There were a couple players with differences of 2+ wins, so there might be a couple head-scratchers. My apologies.
C – Jeff Reed (1997), Chris Iannetta (2008)
1B – Andres Galarraga (1993), Todd Helton (2003)
2B – Eric Young (1996), Jamey Carroll (2006)
3B – Vinny Castilla (1998), Garrett Atkins (2008)
SS – Neifi Perez (2000), Troy Tulowitzki (2007)
OF – Dante Bichette (1995), Ellis Burks (1996), Larry Walker (1997), Juan Pierre (2001), Matt Holliday (2007), Seth Smith (2009)
SP – Marvin Freeman (1994), Pedro Astacio (1999), Joe Kennedy (2004), Aaron Cook (2008), Ubaldo Jimenez (2009)
RP – Steve Reed (1995), Gabe White (2000), Jose Jimenez (2002), Brian Fuentes (2005)
Notable exceptions: Jeff Cirillo (2001), Brad Hawpe (2006), Armando Reynoso (1993), Kevin Ritz (1995), Roger Bailey (1997), Jason Jennings (2006), Jason Marquis (2009), Curtis Leskanic (1995), Manny Corpas (2007)
Eat. Drink. Be Merry. But the above FanPost does not necessarily reflect the attitudes, opinions, or views of Purple Row's staff (unless, of course, it's written by the staff [and even then, it still might not]).
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Simply using Rally/B-Reference WAR would be a very easy way to do this
The writer formerly known as Jabberwocky
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Eschew Obfuscation!
Check this link for some work I've already done on this subject
The writer formerly known as Jabberwocky
READ and LEARN about the business of baseball at Purple Row Academy
Eschew Obfuscation!
Good stuff
That covers a lot of the bases in regard to this sort of thing. The 25 for 25 exercise just forces you to look at every year, regardless of how bad it was.
Take a look at the work I did for the 1910-1934 Cardinals team. Obviously the Rockies don’t have the history to draw from like St. Louis, but it is an interesting idea to educate your fellow fans about the team and players you follow.
I was reading about how countless species are being pushed toward extinction by man's destruction of forests. Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us. - Calvin, Scientific Progress Goes "Boink", Watterson
The only change I would make is in 2006 and 2008..
Garret Atkins had a monster year in 2006 compared to 08:
2006 – .329/.409/.556 for an OPS of .965
2008 – .286/.328/.452 with an OPS of .780
Meanwhile Clint Barmes’ 2008 was slightly better than Jamey Carrol’s. Especially when you consider Carrol was supplanted by Kaz Matsui in the second half and finished 06 with an OPS of .896, but with only 126 PA.
08 Barmes – .290/.322/.468 OPS of .790
06 Carroll – .300/.377/.404 OPS of .781
Basically Carroll and Barmes are a wash but the 06 Atkins was much better than the 08 model. Some people were arguing the 06 Garrett was a much better 3B than David Wright while the 08 version was just waiting for Ian Stewart to supplant him.
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You got all the Blake Street Bombers,
so how could anyone argue? ;)
I think most that have looked into historical Rockies stats will agree with having guys like Marvin Freeman, Joe Kennedy, and Gabe White. In fact, they might insist on them over some other popular pics.
-Joe
Ubaldo Fact of the Week: He has an arsenal of 6 pitches (Fastball, Curve, Slider, Change, Splitter, Cutter). Olivo had to get creative before the season in giving each pitch a sign, and so he uses his middle finger for the cutter.
Marvin Freeman was unbelievable in 1994
In fact it may have been the greatest season by a Rockie pitcher ever. He had an ERA of 2.80 but remember that was before the humidor so his ERA+ was 179. To give you and idea of how good this is Ubaldo’s ERA+ this season is 172.
If the 2007 Rockies can win 21 out of 22 to reach the World Series and the 2009 Rockies can come from 12 games under .500 in June to make the playoffs, why can't the 2010 Rockies make the postseason after being 51-50?
Yankee Haters Encouragement Group Member #1
by RhodeIslandRoxfan on Aug 5, 2010 8:04 AM MDT up reply actions
Absolutely agree with that statement..
Freeman also hit a HR in 1994. He also once threw a ball at Jim Rome while he was trashing the Rockies on a live Rome feed they were working before a game.
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