Last month, I posited a question. What kind of team could you put together if your pool of available players was the best player on any given team? I used FanGraph’s WAR calculation in order to come up with the roster, using the best available at a given position to fill those roster spots. Again, these are only the best players on a given team, so while Anibal Sanchez, for example, is one of the best pitchers in baseball this season, Miguel Cabrera has been the best player on the Tigers this year, so Cabrera was the only player available to my Best of the Best team. If you want to read more, go ahead and read the original post. Here is the roster assembled for the entire season to date.
The starting rotation is ordered by the accumulated WAR for the season. These are the top 5 pitchers who happen to be the best players on their team. Players with an asterisk next to their name are new editions to the team since last month.
1) Adam Wainwright (Cardinals)
2) Derek Holland (Rangers) *
3) Felix Hernandez (Mariners)
4) Clay Buchholz (Red Sox)
5) Matt Harvey (Mets) *
That is a fairly decent young rotation. Adam Wainwright has been the best pitcher overall, by WAR in baseball, so his inclusion isn’t cheapened whatsoever. The relief corps is only 5 strong, because there were only 10 pitchers who clicked in as the best player on a given team. The “Closer” is labeled as such because he had the highest WAR of the remaining pitchers.
CL) Clayton Kershaw (Dodgers) *
RP) Cliff Lee (Phillies)
RP) Jeff Samardzija (Cubs)
RP) Justin Masterson (Indians) *
RP) Chris Sale (White Sox) * – Sale has experience as a closer. He is also the lowest rated player to make the roster so far for the season.
The lineup now through two months of the season features a few new faces, but also now every position will have someone who plays their naturally, unlike last year when a 3b played shortstop. * still represents a new player to the roster, and ** represents a player that has moved to the starting lineup.
1b) Chris Davis (Orioles) *
2b) Robinson Cano (Yankees) – Cano remains the lowest rated position player in the lineup
SS) Troy Tulowitzki (Rockies) *
3b) Miguel Cabrera (Tigers) * – Cabrera has the highest WAR for the season.
C) Joe Mauer (Twins) *
LF) Mike Trout (Angels) ** – …. so take that, Trout.
CF) Carlos Gomez (Brewers) – Gomez is almost tied with Cabrera for the top spot, so he gets first choice when filling in the outfield
RF) Jose Bautista (Blue Jays) *
The bench then contains the top remaining players, again rated by WAR. The only rule here is that there be one backup catcher, no matter what. Call it the Gardenhire rule.(Evan Gattis is the catcher)
Evan Gattis (Braves) *
Joey Votto (Reds) **
Evan Longoria (Rays)
Josh Donaldson (A’s) – Donaldson is still on the team! Incredible!
Paul Goldschmidt (Diamondbacks) *
Andrew McCutcheon (Pirates) *
Hunter Pence (Giants) *
That’s a fairly young, athletic looking roster. I would love to have McCutcheon and Pence coming off the bench, and Joey Votto as a bench bat is crazy sauce. Of course, that’s 25 players for the roster, which means 5 players are left of of our roster.
Bryce Harper (Nationals) – Was on last month’s roster
Justin Ruggiano (Marlins)
Jason Castro (Astros)
Alex Gordon (Royals)
Everth Cabrera (Padres)
Now that we have established our roster for the season to date, I thought I would put together a roster comprised of teams’ best players for the month of May. In two cases, for the Rangers and Yankees, we had a tie between a pitcher and position player, so I included both in the pool, which is why you see two Rangers on this team. Also, there were only 8 pitchers available for this team. Without further ado, here are the players on the May roster, with comments for certain players.
Starting Pitchers (All 5 made the season long roster)
Derek Holland
Felix Hernandez
Matt Harvey
Chris Sale
Clayton Kersahaw
Relief Pitchers
Closer) Cliff Lee
Scott Feldman (Cubs) – Feldman and Samadzija both made teams, which in itself is fairly incredible. Because the Cubs are terrible, you see
CC Sabathia (Yankees) – The Yankees had no real stars in May, which is why Sabathia snuck onto this team, despite what ended up being a mediocre month
Starting linup
1b) Joey Votto
2b) Matt Carpenter (Cardinals) – Like a few of our outfielders, Carpenter made this roster in no small part thanks to his defense
3b) Miguel Cabrera – Cabrera was the best player in baseball in May
SS) Troy Tulowitzki
C) Joe Mauer
LF) Andrew McCutcheon
CF) Carlos Gomez
RF) Jose Bautista
Bench – This is a huge bench. Remember that we had an 8 person pitching staff. There were extra spots in order to get to 25
Jason Castro – Astros! The Astro catcher was the second best available catcher in May. It was the only way an Astro would ever get on this team
Manny Machado (Orioles) – All right, so this is weird. Last I did this post was May 8th, and Machado was on the roster. Machado led the Orioles in WAR this month, but Chris Davis leads the way for the season. If my math is correct, that means Machado ha a monster first week of May, right?
Paul Goldschmidt
Marco Scutaro (Giants) – Well, this is interesting. Since Scutaro was better than Buster Posey by this measurement, we get Jason Castro on our team. And, of course, Scutaro.
Adrian Beltre (Rangers) – All of Beltre’s WAR was accumulated this month. He came back strong, no?
Josh Donaldson – I have Josh Donaldson fever
Evan Longoria
Adam LaRoche (Nationals) – We can get Adam LaRoche on a best of the best team, but not Bryce Harper.
Jason Kipnis (Indians) – We have a lot of 2bs on this squad.
Because of the smaller sample size, we get some unusual names on that squad, but it’s a good way to recognize some underappreciated talent. Of course, there are still a few more names we can mention: Those that didn’t make the May “best of the best” team.
Marcell Ozuna (Marlins) – I will admit that I had never heard of Marcell Ozuna. So congratulations.
Dustin Pedroia (Red Sox)
Mike Trout
Alex Gordon
Jedd Gyorko (Padres) – Along with the Marlins and Royals, the Padres are shut out of both teams
Evan Gattis
Brett Gardner (Yankees) – The Yankees really had no stars this month, did they?
I hope this all made sense. I would love to hear your thoughts on these hypothetical rosters!
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