Greatest Team in their Prime?

[Majingir]

Posted it on the NBA section, so thought it'd be interesting to discuss for MLB too.

Basically the topic is about which team(in any single season) would have the best roster, had every player on that team been in their prime. Don't factor in how they'd do in a specific season or against other teams in that season. It's just simply which single season roster was the best if everyone there was in their prime.

I'd be willing to guess Yankees will appear quite often due to their history of having old players(who used to be great) on their team combined with their current players around their prime.

I don't think it's the best, but in terms of hometown team for me:

Imagine the 93 WS Jays team but with guys like Ricky Henderson,Dave Stewart,Jack Morris all in their prime instead of being 34+ years old.

1998 Jays is another one that'd be GREAT. 4 guys won CY Young Awards,13 players made all star team,2 players won MVP Award,7 players won Silver Sluggers.

SP
Clemens(86 Cy Young/MVP season)
Hentgen(96 Cy Young season)
Carpenter(05 Cy Young season)
Halladay(2010 Cy Young season)
Stieb(85 All Star season)

RP:
Myers(97 All Star Season,4th in Cy Young voting)
Plesac(89 All Star Season)
Quantrill(03 season(made all star team in another year,but this was easily best season of career)
Hanson(90 season(made all star team another year,but this year was better)
Escobar(07 season)
Risley(94 season,4th in ROY voting)


And their offense:
C-Santiago(87 ROY/Silver Slugger season)
1B-Delgado(00 All Star/Silver Slugger season)
2B-Samuel(87 All Star/Silver Slugger season)
3B-Sprague(99 All Star Season)
SS-Fernandez(86 All Star/Gold Glove season)
LF-Stewart(03 Season,finished 4th in MVP Votes)
CF-Cruz(01 season)
RF-Green(99 All Star/Silver Slugger/Gold Glove season)
DH-Canseco(88 MVP/Silver Slugger Season)

Bench:
Phillips(93 season where he got MVP votes)
Samuel(87 All Star and Silver slugger)
Stanley(93 Silver Slugger)

[SPTO]

Re: Greatest Team in their Prime?

I would replace Risley with.....

1985 Dennis Lamp (3.32 ERA 11-0 record with 68 Ks to 27 BBs and a 1.164 WHIP and over 100 innings logged out of the bullpen except for one start)

I'd also replace the '87 Samuel on the bench and put in '79 Dave Winfield.

[DrJones]

Re: Greatest Team in their Prime?

I wouldn't want to play the 2005 Prime-Yankees in a short series.

Lineup

C: Jorge Posada
1B: Tino Martinez
2B: Robinson Cano
SS: Derek Jeter
3B: Alex Rodriguez
LF: Hideki Matsui
CF: Bernie Williams
RF: Gary Sheffield
DH: Jason Giambi

Bench

RF Ruben Sierra
LF Melky Cabrera
2B/SS Tony Womack
2B/3B Mark Bellhorn
SS Rey Sanchez

Rotation

SP 1: Randy Johnson
SP 2: Mike Mussina
SP 3: Kevin Brown
SP 4: Al Leiter
SP 5: Carl Pavano

Bullpen

LR: Tom Gordon
LR: Mike Stanton
SR: Paul Quantrill
SR: Felix Rodriguez
SU: Ramiro Mendoza
CL: Mariano Rivera

[Majingir]

Re: Greatest Team in their Prime?

I would replace Risley with.....

1985 Dennis Lamp (3.32 ERA 11-0 record with 68 Ks to 27 BBs and a 1.164 WHIP and over 100 innings logged out of the bullpen except for one start)

I'd also replace the '87 Samuel on the bench and put in '79 Dave Winfield.

You're missing the concept.It's not about best all time team. It's about the best team if every player on that teams roster in a specific year was in their prime.

My example,ALL those guys played for the 1998 Blue Jays. But I said which "version" of them would've been best to have. So in the pitchers case, 86 Clemens,96 Hentgen and so on. Clemens and Hentgen were on the 98 Jays,but their best years were different seasons.

Stieb also came back just for that 1998 season, so it just added to the 1998 prime roster.

[SPTO]

Re: Greatest Team in their Prime?

You're missing the concept.It's not about best all time team. It's about the best team if every player on that teams roster in a specific year was in their prime.

My example,ALL those guys played for the 1998 Blue Jays. But I said which "version" of them would've been best to have. So in the pitchers case, 86 Clemens,96 Hentgen and so on. Clemens and Hentgen were on the 98 Jays,but their best years were different seasons.

OHHHH

I feel stupid.

I'll come up with something late tonight or tomorrow.

[OSUFan_88]

Re: Greatest Team in their Prime?

The 1995 Cleveland Indians?

C: Sandy Alomar
1B: Paul Sorrento
2B: Carlos Baerga
SS: Omar Visquel
3B: Jim Thome
LF: Albert Belle
CF: Kenny Lofton
RF: Manny Ramirez
DH: Eddie Murray

BN: Tony Pena
BN: Dave Winfield
BN: Wayne Kirby
BN: Álvaro Espinoza

SP: Dennis Martinez
SP: Orel Hershieser
SP: Charles Nagy
SP: Chad Ogea
SP: Ken Hill

CL: Jose Mesa
RP: Julian Tavares
RP: Eric Plunk
RP: Jim Poole
RP: Paul Assenmacher

Not sure who to add. There were guys who made a quick appearance with the team who were pretty damn good in their prime, but I'm not sure they would qualify. Other wise, there is Paul Shuey, Bud Black, Alan Embree and Brian Giles.

[24]

Re: Greatest Team in their Prime?

This Years Yankees Lineup would probably be one of the best ever. Assuming A-Rod Would be playing

Catcher : Brian McCann
1st Base : Mark Texeria
2nd Base : Alfonso Soriano
3rd Base : Alex Rodriguez
Short Stop : Derek Jeter
Left Field : Jacoby Elsbury
Center Field : Carlos Beltran
Right Field : Ichiro
Designated Hitter : Brett Gardner

If were taking each players best season the lineups Total WAR would be insane. Going in the same order of the above list

5.5 2008
7.2 2005
6.1 2006
10.3 2000
8.0 1999
8.1 2011
8.2 2006
9.2 2004
7.4 2010

Brian McCann is technically the worst player in the lineup with measly 5.5 WAR. Just boggles my mind. They would average so many runs a game.

[SPTO]

Re: Greatest Team in their Prime?

1994 Expos could be an interesting team. Not the strongest but with an in his prime managing Felipe Alou heading the team you never know:

Starting Rotation

1994 Ken Hill (hah that's funny)
2000 Pedro Martinez (just one of the most dominating seasons ever. Honestly you can't go wrong with either the '99 or '02 versions of him either)
1997 Jeff Fassero (16-9 1.323 WHIP. I could probably go with the '96 version of him as well)
1994 Butch Henry
1998 Kirk Rueter (He always had a high ERA but he had a pretty good season that year)


Bullpen

1996 John Wetteland (43 saves that year)
1996 Mel Rojas (36 saves, great WHIP)
1999 Gil Heredia (he was a starter that year but his numbers would translate well to the pen as he had a great k/bb ratio of 117 Ks to 34 BB)
1997 Jeff Shaw (another guy that became a closer, this is uncanny. He had 42 saves that year and his numbers suggest he'd be a good guy in tight situations)
1994 Tim Scott


Every Day Lineup

C- 2000 Darrin Fletcher (.320/.355/.514. with 20 HR and 58 RBI)
1B- 2001 Cliff Floyd (.317/.390/.578 with 31 HR and 103 RBI)
2B- 1997 Mike Lansing (.281/.338/.472 with 20 HR and 70 RBI)
SS- 1997 Wil Cordero (.281/.320./.432 with 18 HR and 72 RBI)
3B- 1996 Sean Berry (.281/.328/.492) with 17 HR and 95 RBI)
LF- 2000 Moises Alou (.355/.416/.623 with 30 HR and 114 RBI)
CF- 1992 Marquis Grissom (.276/.322/.418 with 14 HR and 66 RBI including 78 SB)
RF- 1997 Larry Walker (MVP season .366/.452/.720 with 49 HR and 130 RBI)


Bench

OF- 1999 Rondell White (.312/.359/.505 with 22 HR and 64 RBI)

[Majingir]

Re: Greatest Team in their Prime?

Thought it'd be good idea to bump this seeing how it's MLB season now compared to when the thread was created.

[AdamJones113]

Re: Greatest Team in their Prime?

Trust me, I understand the concept of this thread, but...

1927 Yankees.

How many of those guys made the HOF? 7, and most of the others are still feared names. Ruth hit 60 homers, Gehrig won MVP, Combs set the Yankees' record for 3Bs, etc. Guess who didn't make the HOF? Mark Koenig and Bob Meusel, who hit .309 with 1,067 RBIs.

110 wins. Add ten games, they would have had more than the record of 116 (To anyone who brings up the 1908 Cubs, I say in all sincerity: shut up. They lost the most important games the WS). Outscored opponents by 371.

http://baseball.about.com/od/All-Time-Lineups/tp/Kansas-City-Royals-All-Time-Lineup.htm

About.com does a thing like this, based on season performance.

[Rosie23]

Re: Greatest Team in their Prime?

the 95 indians make a serious case for the best offense of all time, lead all of baseball in runs scored, hits, HRs, RBIs, stolen bases, batting average and slugging percentage, they finished 2nd (or 3rd i dont remember which) in OBP as well.

Now if every player was in their prime?

Jim Thome
Albert Belle
Manny Ramirez
Eddie Murray
Kenny Lofton
Omar Vizquel
Carlos Baerga
Dave Winfield
Brian Giles
Sandy Alomar
David Bell

[doubledeuceR6]

Re: Greatest Team in their Prime?

1991 Texas Rangers, while they didn't have as much success as the '10 and '11 teams they were still pretty good and would be cool to think what might of been had they all been in their prime.

Starting Rotation
1973 Nolan Ryan (21 wins and 2nd in the Cy Young)
1996 Kevin Brown (17 wins, 1.89 era, 2nd in Cy Young)
1992 Bobby Witt (17 wins, 3.36 era)
1998 Kenny Rogers (16 wins, 3.17 era in 238 IP)

Bullpen
1977 Goose Gossage (11 wins as a reliever, 26 saves, 1.62 era)
1989 Jeff Russell (38 saves,1.98 era)
1995 Terry Mathews
1984 Mike Jeffcoat
1992 Jose Guzman (swapped him and Kenny Rogers)

Position Players
1985 Gary Pettis
1992 Jeff Huson
1991 Julio Franco
1998 Juan Gonzalez
1989 Ruben Sierra (My favorite player growing up, no telling how many cards I have of him)
1999 Ivan Rodriguez
1991 Steve Buechele
1999 Rafael Palmiero

DH
1987 Brian Downing

[twl221]

Re: Greatest Team in their Prime?

How about the 2011 Phillies?
I'll add up the fWAR for their starting 8 and some pitchers:
Roy Halladay (2011): 8.9
Cliff Lee (2011): 8.6
Cole Hamels (2011): 6.6
Roy Oswalt (2002): 6.9
Joe Blanton (2005): 3.8
Ryan Madson (2003): 2.2
Brad Lidge (2004): 3.8
Carlos Ruiz (2012): 4.5
Ryan Howard (2006): 5.2
Chase Utley (2008): 9.0
Jimmy Rollins (2007): 6.1
Placedo Polanco (2007): 6.1
Raul Ibanez (2006): 4.5
Shane Victorino (2013): 5.8
Hunter Pence (2009/2013): 3.9

So, disregarding bench players (Dom Brown, John Mayberry, Ben Francisco, Danys Baez, Kyle Kendrick, to name a few), just those 14 combine to have a fWar of 85.6. That team was loaded.