25 for 25: Twins

by Solanus on Sep 3, 2010 7:39 PM EDT

I'm actually a St. Louis Cardinals fan, but over the past few months I've been working on a roster for each franchise in the majors, 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 (for AL teams, 2 catchers, 2 infielders at each position, 5 total outfielders, one designated hitter, 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 or years. 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 basic minimums of 60 innings or 250 PA's (prorated for strike seasons). I primarily utilized WAR from Baseball-Reference (Fangraphs numbers only go back to 2002), WARP1 from Baseball Prospectus, Win Shares, and OPS+/ERA+ to determine season value.

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 a fully researched extended version for the Cardinals from 1910 to 1934. The NL versions for this era are there as well (linky, linky, linky, linky).

You're welcome to pick apart my choices and make suggestions of your own. I'm looking forward to hearing from everybody. (NOTE: This is the last team on my list - over 300 hours into this project and I'm done. It's been fun, but it's also good to stop.)

C – Brian Harper (1989), Joe Mauer (2008)

1B – Kent Hrbek (1990), Justin Morneau (2006)

2B – Chuck Knoblauch (1996), Todd Walker (1998)

3B – Gary Gaetti (1986), Corey Koskie (2003)

SS – Greg Gagne (1987), Pat Meares (1997)

OF – Kirby Puckett (1992), Shane Mack (1994), Marty Cordova (1995), Jacque Jones (2002), Torii Hunter (2007)

DH – Jason Kubel (2009)

SP – Frank Viola (1988), Kevin Tapani (1991), Brad Radke (1999), Joe Mays (2001), Johan Santana (2004)

RP – Ron Davis (1985), Rick Aguilera (1993), LaTroy Hawkins (2000), Joe Nathan (2005)

Notable exceptions: A.J. Pierzynski (2003), Cristian Guzman (2001), Jason Bartlett (2007), Rich Becker (1996), Matt Lawton (1998), Chili Davis (1991), Bert Blyleven (1986), Allan Anderson (1988), Francisco Liriano (2006), Jeff Reardon (1988)

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Ron Davis?

I don’t remember him, just the horror stories… I can think of a few relievers who should be considered… LaTroy Hawkins, JC Romero and Grant Balfour circa 2004 put up some pretty sick numbers in the pen.

by diehardtwinsfan on Sep 3, 2010 9:19 PM EDT reply actions

Pick a different guy in 1985

Mike Smithson? Better options at SP. Bert Blyleven? A partial year. Gary Gaetti? Pick ‘86. Mark Salas? One spot available other than Mauer; is he better than Harper? Frank Viola? ’87 or ’88. Kent Hrbek? Maybe (’90 for him isn’t much better – try it on for size). Kirby Puckett? No way. Steve Lombardozzi? Nope. Tom Brunansky? Uh-uh. Tim Teufel? Replacement level. You have one option, by downgrading a little bit for Hrbek – and who do you get? Juan Berenguer or Terry Leach, neither one of which is a significant improvement over Davis.

Jesse Crain and Juan Rincon would be interesting choices in 2004 (Hawkins is already on the team, Romero’s OK, Balfour is nothing special), but trying to grab a reliever from that year is not a good idea – that’s Santana’s season and trying to bump him further down the calendar is just a mess (in consecutive years: Nathan, Morneau, Hunter, Mauer, Kubel – who are you kicking out of that group?). Going earlier nets you Guardado & Romero, but you’re stepping on Koskie and Jones; you don’t have any replacements for them in ’85.

For all the teams I’ve done here, there is at least one reliever that you can scratch your head over. It’s just that the bullpen ends up filling in the gaps. You don’t want to waste a really good player by sticking them with a down year and you don’t want to take one of the lesser players because they aren’t worth it. But you can always find some guy who threw 70 innings with a 3.00 ERA & decent peripherals and say, “Yeah, he’ll have to do.”

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

by Solanus on Sep 3, 2010 10:23 PM EDT up reply actions

Go with Hrbek

Its not a great season for him, but it was the top WAR on the team that year and Hrbek is a fan favorite (and had other better years).

by DavidRF on Sep 4, 2010 7:14 PM EDT up reply actions

wow thanks for this you're a great baseball fan GOOD WORK!

its funny because the Twins

JUST celebrated their 50 greatest twins in the last 50 years I believe its the Twins 50th anniversary of being a franchise
it’ll be interesting to compare this with that

Literally JUST today agaisnt the rangers many of the ‘guys’ -stars were at the Twins VS. Rangers game today

I called on the exact pitch - Joe Mauer's first career Home-Run at Target Field !!!

Why Oh Why did the D'Backs select A.J. Pollock over Mike Trout?

by SteveHoffmanSlowey on Sep 3, 2010 10:26 PM EDT reply actions

2009

Kubel had a good year, but Mauer had an historic year at catcher. It is a shame to not include that season.

by Alexi Casilla All-Star on Sep 4, 2010 12:33 AM EDT reply actions

Mauer

I would have preferred to keep that season for him, but it made more sense for filling out the roster.

by Solanus on Sep 4, 2010 7:06 AM EDT up reply actions

Well done sir!

This is compiled as probably many a Twins fan would, at least for the most part. Your Cardinals fanhood is appreciated…I consider them to be the best franchise in Major League Baseball, yet they don’t get credit for their legacies, achievements, and legends because of the Yankee stranglehold on everything.

by MarshalltheIrish on Sep 4, 2010 1:28 AM EDT reply actions