Looking at Franchises' Best Players - National League Central

So I didn't finish before the end of the season. Oh well.

Cincinnati Reds (existed since 1882):

Top Player: Pete Rose (78.1 WAR)

#24 Player: Ernie Lombardi (31.3)

# of Players >30 WAR: 28

# of Players >50 WAR: 7 (Rose, Johnny Bench, Barry Larkin, Frank Robinson, Joey Votto, Joe Morgan, Bid McPhee)

# of Players >100 WAR: 0

Can you make a starting lineup of the Top 9? The Reds don't have a single pitcher in their Top 9, so no. Also, they might have to play Frank Robinson in the OF to make room for Tony Perez and Joey Votto at third and first, which is sub-optimal.

Notes: I didn't expect Rose to finish first. I figured him to be somewhere in the middle of the pack. Of course, I also thought the Reds' all-time WAR leader would have more than 78, for as many great players as they've had.

Votto is the only active guy in here. If he produces at the rate he did this year, he'll pass Frank Robinson in 2020. If he can reach his 2017 level, he'll do it next season.

Frank Robinson placed 17th on Baltimore's list, so as predicted, he finished much higher here.

Joe Morgan was 10th on Houston's list, versus 6th with the Reds.

The highest ranked pitcher is Noodles Hahn, who places 10th with 44.6 WAR. Hahn only played 8 years in the majors, and last played for the Reds in 1905. Jose Rijo is the highest ranking pitcher I've actually heard of, in 18th at 38.1 WAR.

6 of the top 9 are players from the Big Red Machine era, Larkin, Votto, and McPhee being the exceptions. Of the 10-24 players, only four (Dave Concepcion, George Foster, Rijo, and Jim Maloney) played recently enough to have a color photograph. Which probably speaks to the Reds' futility the last 25+ years.

Milwaukee Brewers (existed since 1969):

Top Player: Robin Yount (77.3 WAR)

#24 Player: B.J. Surhoff (15.4)

# of Players >30 WAR: 5

# of Players >50 WAR: 2 (Yount and Paul Molitor)

# of Players >100 WAR: 0

Can you make a starting lineup of the Top 9? Not really. There are two pitchers, no catchers, and one guy who can only play first, plus two others who can play first and third, plus a guy who plays second and third, plus a guy who plays third, short, or second, and only two outfielders.

Notes: There are four active players on the list. Jonathan Lucroy is 19th, Yovani Gallardo is 17th, Carlos Gomez is 13th, and Ryan Braun is 3rd. Braun is the only one still on the Brewers, but considering he's 13.5 WAR behind Molitor, I don't see him moving any further up the list.

Prince Fielder is 21st on the list.

Bill Wegman is 18th on the list. The main reason I remember him is the movie Little Big League, where one of the best friends of the kid managing the Twins is always imploring him to 'use Wegman'. Although Bill Wegman spent his entire 11-year career in Milwaukee, so maybe it wasn't supposed to be the same guy.

Mike Caldwell (20th place) has this look on his face like he wants to sarcastically ask if you're really taking his picture for this. Either that or he's tired 'cause he's seen some shit.

Chicago Cubs (existed since 1876):

Top Player: Cap Anson (84.5 WAR)

#24 Player: John Clarkson (36.5 WAR)

# of Players >30 WAR: 32

# of Players >50 WAR: 9 (Anson, Ron Santo, Ryne Sandberg, Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Sammy Sosa, Fergie Jenkins, Stan Hack, Gabby Hartnett)

Can you make a starting lineup of their Top 9? Not quite, they actually don't have enough outfielders. They have two different potential catchers, three guys who could play first, three guys who could play third, one pitcher, a shortstop, but only two outfielders.

Notes: I considered listing Cap Anson as "noted bigot Cap Anson", but I really would have needed to start that some time ago to be consistent. Ty Cobb would need that label as well, certainly.

Greg Maddux was one of the players with over 30 WAR who didn't make the top 24. Single-season RBI record holder Hack Wilson is another. The Cubs have had some really good players, they just don't seem to have had enough of them at the same time very often.

Carlos Zambrano was about even with John Clarkson on pitcher WAR. Once you added in his ability as a hitter, he jumped up to 17th place. He really annoyed the hell out of me, given how he liked to show off when he struck someone out, but would then get pissy if he thought somebody showed him up when they hit a home run.

The #18 player is named Hippo Vaughn. Played in the 1910s as a pitcher. 

Rick Reuschel finished 10th, at just over 49 WAR. I remember him as a San Francisco Giant, which came later, when he'd grown a solid mustache. Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown is right behind him at 11th place.

Frank Chance, Joe Tinker, and Johnny Evers, of "Tinker to Evers to Chance" all finished surprisingly close to each other. Chance is 13th (45.5 WAR), Tinker is 14th (45.2), and Evers is 20th (39.5). I expected one of them to have been a dud as a player and miss the list entirely. You know, that the ditty was based on one season where all three of them were good, but normally one of them just sucked. Not the case.

Pittsburgh Pirates (existed since 1882):

Top Player: Honus Wagner (120.1 WAR)

#24 Player: Ed Morris (30.0)

# of Players >30 WAR: 23, since Morris isn't at more than 30.

# of Players >50 WAR: 9 (Wagner, Roberto Clemente, Paul Waner, Arky Vaughn, Willie Stargell, Wilbur Cooper, Babe Adams, Max Carey, Barry Bonds)

# of Players >100 WAR: 1 (Wagner)

Can you make a starting lineup of their top 9? Two pitchers and four outfielders, so no.

Notes: Bonds finished 2nd on the Giants' list.

The only active player on the list is Andrew McCutchen, who lands in the 14th spot at 39.3 WAR. If he'd been in Pittsburgh this year, he would have passed Sam Leever and been closing in on Bob Friend in 12th place.

There are not a lot of guys on here I remember. Bonds, obviously, and McCutchen. Jason Kendall is 23rd, and Andy van Slyke is 21st. I remember Dave Parker (18th) from his time in Oakland, and John Candelaria sounds familiar, although he doesn't look it.

Trading van Slyke to get Tony Pena really didn't work out for the Cardinals. Especially since it would be years before that got any consistent quality production out of right field (you'd have to get to Brian Jordan to find someone definitely better, but Felix Jose or Mark Whiten might be in the general ballpark).

St. Louis Cardinals (existed since 1882):

Top Player: Stan Musial (128.2 WAR)

#24 Player: Ted Breitenstein (32.3)

# of Players >30 WAR: 26

# of Players >50 WAR: 7 (Musial, Rogers Hornsby, Bob Gibson, Albert Pujols, Ozzie Smith, Ken Boyer, Enos Slaughter)

# of Players >100 WAR: 1 (Musial)

Can you make a starting lineup of their Top 9? Yes! Only one pitcher, Ted Simmons at catcher, Albert at first, Hornsby at second, Ozzie at SS, Boyer at 3rd, then Curt Flood in CF with Musial and Slaughter on either side. And if Slaughter objects to playing with black players, sub in the #10 guy, Lou Brock.

Notes: When I started this, I really did think there would be at least one other team where the top 9 worked out as neatly as that.

Albert Pujols (4th), Adam Wainwright (16th), and Yadier Molina (15th) are all still active. Molina passed Wainwright this year, along with Jim Edmonds and Ray Lankford.

He should catch Johnny Mize early next year. if he can post a league average (~2 WAR) season, he should make it to 12th place, passing Mize, Joe Medwick, and Harry Breechen. Ted Simmons is the only catcher ahead of him, but it'll take another 7.2 WAR to pass him, and Molina said he was retiring after 2020. I don't think he can make it, although it would be good for the Cardinals if he did (not so good for Carson Kelly, though).

It's harder to predict Wainwright, because I'm not sure what he has left in the tank, or how many chances he'll get. Catching Mize should be doable, but Medwick might be beyond reach. Without his hitting statistics, Wainwright wouldn't have made the Top 24 at all.

Frankie Frisch finished 23rd, with 32.6 WAR. He was 19th on the Giants' list, with 37.8 WAR. Keith Hernandez finished 20th at 34.5 WAR, after finishing 12th with 26.6 on the Mets' list.

Albert Pujols' 86.6 WAR would lead 14 other teams. He's only 4th on the Cardinals. This is your periodic reminder that the version of Albert that was on the Cardinals was really, really outstanding.

Season Over

The Cardinals had the second Wild Card spot in their hands with a week to go, then proceeded to crap it away by losing 5 of their last 6 games. To division rivals Milwaukee and Chicago no less. Well, the Cardinals weren't as good as that 24-6 August they had, so this was probably a good reminder. The young guys either ran out of gas or luck, or both.

Mikolas ended up just reaching 200 innings, with an ERA 37% above league average (and about .45 better than his FIP). He gave them 8 strong innings in the penultimate game to keep their hopes alive another few hours. Flaherty had a bit of a rough September, but was still easily second on the team in starts and innings, and first in strikeouts. Probably needs to get the walk rate down some, definitely try to get the home runs down a little (he gave up four more HRs than Mikolas in 50 fewer innings), but he looks like a solid front of the rotation guy going into next season.

Of course, we thought that about Luke Weaver going into this season, and he was pretty bad. He lost his rotation spot by the end of August, and the bullpen experience wasn't exactly great. His walk rate is about the same as Flaherty's, but his HR and K rates are both much worse, and he surrendered a lot more hits. The breaking pitch doesn't seem to have materialized, but his changeup wasn't as effective this year, either. I don't know where he stands going into next season. The same is true for Wainwright, who came back to make a few solid starts late in August when the rotation really needed them. His velocity mostly held up in the low '90s, and if that was something he could maintain going forward, he wouldn't be a terrible choice to bring back next year. But there's a difference between maintaining it for 4 starts, and 24 starts.

Carlos was kept to the bullpen after he came off the DL, making 15 relief appearances. He walked 11 batters in just over 18 innings, so he control issues were not resolved, and that made his appearances an adventure. Hopefully he gets that sorted out by next season. A trio of Mikolas-Martinez-Flaherty at the front of the rotation could be really good. Beyond that, John Gant and Austin Gomber were both up and down. Each one got better results than you'd expect for most of the season, although Gomber's luck turned late. Just too many hits and walks (walks were a problem for almost everyone besides Mikolas and a couple of the relievers). Wacha never did come back off the DL.

The bullpen pitched over its head in August, or else just got really lucky for how many baserunners they allowed. Then everything flipped in September and went downhill. Norris ran out of gas, which makes me wish even more they'd traded him at the deadline. Hicks, who had been improving as the season went on, seemed to lose his control entirely the last bit of the season. Considering he hadn't pitched above A ball before this year, and threw 77 innings, maybe he was just gassed. Brebbia was one of two relievers who didn't walk too many (Mayers being the other), and was easily the best reliever, but he missed some time with an injury, and Schildt didn't seem to necessarily trust him in big spots consistently. Mayers' ERA is three-quarters of a run worse than his FIP, not sure what happened there.

Brett Cecil was terrible, just completely useless. In less than 33 innings, walked 25 batters, allowed 5 HRs. Mikolas only walked 29 guys all season. Dakota Hudson had an almost even K/BB ratio (19/18). Chasen Shreve walked too many guys (9 in 14 innings) and allowed too many HRs (3). Which are the same problems he's had his entire career, so the Cardinals can't feign surprise. He's not good. Tyler Lyons and Matt Bowman never made it back onto the major league roster. Dominic Leone did, but the results never quite caught up to what his K and BB rates suggested. I think all those homers he allowed in April skewed his numbers too much. Daniel Poncedeleon shuffled between rotation and bullpen. At one point he was at 9 Ks and 9 BBs, but finished the season with 31 and 13, respectively, so maybe he found his footing, despite his irregular use patterns.

Molina played almost every day. He ended up with his second-best HR total of his career, and an OPS 3% better than league average. His average was 20 points below his career mark (.261 vs. .282), and sine he never walks, he OBP was a paltry .314, also 20 points below his career mark. When Molina sat, the team insisted on starting Francisco Pena, even when Carson Kelly is sitting right there. Did Kelly kill someone's dog or something? Francisco Pena is terrible. He had a .510 OPS (40 OPS+). He does not hit for average, or draw walks, or hit for power. He can't throw out baserunners (only one caught stealing in 15 attempts). He pitchers got tagged for 20 wild pitches, versus only 2 passed balls for him, which seems sketchy. He does not appear to be any good at pitch framing. Even by the low standards set by Molina's caddies, Pena is bad.

Matt Carpenter's hot streak ended partway through August. He had an OPS of .558 in September, with just one HR. He was very good in the middle of the season, and crap on both ends (the reverse of how Tommy Pham did, oddly). Still set a career high in HRs, plus 42 doubles, walked over 100 times, graded out above-average at third defensively, even went 4 of 5 stealing bases. He didn't end up leading the team in innings at any position for the second time in three years. Kolten Wong graded as outstanding at second defensively, and by year's end, had pulled his OPS+ up to 97. Only 6 of 11 stealing, so we'll have to wait and see if he finally puts it all together next year. he was still the 4th most-valuable position player on the team by bWAR (behind Carp, DeJong, and Bader).

DeJong's power didn't come all the way back after his hand injury, but he also graded as above-average defensively at shortstop, and slightly above-average offensively (102 OPS+). Jedd Gyorko's power wasn't there this year, with an Isolated Slugging of just 154, versus 200 last year and 252 in 2016. However, he walked a lost more often than he had, which pulled his OBP up a bit. It's still his weakest offensive season as a Cardinals by OPS+ (108 vs. 112 and 111), but it's not too far off. Combined with average defense, he came out as basically an average player.

Fowler did not make it back from his foot injury. Ozuna finally found his power in the last two months, hitting 10 of his 23 HRs over that span, with an OPS in the upper 800s. Basically what the team was hoping for when they traded for him. But he finished the season overall with an OPS+ of 106, or two percent worse than Gyorko. Most of the defensive stats say he was very good, even though he apparently has the weakest outfield arm in the league. Harrison Bader, meanwhile, graded out as excellent defensively, ran the bases well (15 of 18 stealing, among other things), and hit well enough. An OPS+ of 106 in fact, same as Ozuna, with a slightly higher Isolated Slugging, even.

As for the rest of the roster, Jose Martinez played less first base and more right field late in the season, as the Cardinals placed a greater emphasis on defense, something Jose is largely unfamiliar with. But in a limited sample of 335 innings, he graded out as average in right field, by one metric at least. They should still probably try to trade him to the AL this offseason. He was still the second-best hitter on the team after Carpenter, although the power wasn't there to the same extent as last year. Yairo Munoz somehow convinced the coaching staff he could play anywhere, which I guess is technically true in that he can stand there if you give him a glove. He just stinks at almost every position. He was, in extremely small samples, terrible in RF, CF, at SS and second base. He was average in LF, and above average at third, again in very small samples. He probably isn't as terrible as he looked everywhere, but I'm not sure he's good anywhere.

And he took most of Greg Garcia's playing time, even though Garcia is a superior infielder. But Munoz hit better, although some of that might be better batted ball luck. He certainly has more power, although that's not saying much. Power isn't Garcia's game, never has been. Tyler O'Neill couldn't seem to keep a consistent spot in the lineup, even though he was competing against two guys (Martinez and Munoz) he was much better defensively than, and he's a much better hitter than Munoz, although he has to work on the strikeout rate. He Ks like Pham did back in 2016 when his eyesight when south and he was trying to play while effectively blind.

The team picked up Matt Adams off the waivers from the Nats, and he had a couple of big hits, but that's about it. Patrick Wisdom got some playing time as a utility infielder, and showed some impressive power. 4 HRs in less than 60 PAs. Doubtful he'll maintain it as the league adjusts, but still nice to have while it lasts. Jose Adolis Garcia was used mostly as a late-inning defensive replacement for Martinez and Munoz, but will unfortunately probably be most remembered for falling down as he was rounding third trying to score in a game the Cardinals really needed, and ultimately lost. Hopefully he gets some time next year, and creates a few more positive memories.


I've seen a lot of comments about how much missing the playoffs hurt this year, compared to the previous two season. I don't really agree. I had given the season up for dead after the trade deadline. They were hovering around .500, all the trades made were building for the future things, with no immediate help acquired (unless you really believed in Chasen Shreve), and they were still playing Fowler every game. That they got hot for a month and climbed back in contention was a fun bonus, but I enjoyed just getting to see some of the young guys, even if they struggled.

The 2017 team was alternating between hot and cold, where they'd play well for 2-3 weeks, then stink for a similar amount of time. It was running in place, but at least you got sustained stretches of good play. And Tommy Pham was kicking all kinds of ass, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Now the 2016 team, that was frustrating. They couldn't play well for more than 5 games at a time. They'd win two series, then lose two, on and on, all season. You could never feel like they'd found a rhythm. And they weren't good at much of anything. They were one of the worst baserunning teams in the league, and one of the worst defensive teams in the league. Which made their pitching staff, which was largely mediocre outside Carlos and Seung-hwan Oh, look even worse, because it kept forcing their pitchers to get 4 or 5 outs in an inning. They didn't hit for average, they didn't draw a ton of walks, but they did hit for power. They were second in doubles and first in homers in the NL, but home runs are about the worst thing you can be good at to hold my interest.

Add to that they were competing for the wild cards with San Francisco and the Mets. 60% of the Mets' roster was on the DL, and the Giants seemed to blow every close lead they had for the last three months of the season. Yet the Cardinals couldn't edge out either of them. That was frustrating, and felt like a missed opportunity. This year there were a bunch of good teams, and most of them were playing very well late in the season, and so it was always going to be tough. So it didn't bother me as much.

Forty Games To Go

Three-quarters of the MLB season is done, and the Cardinals are 66-56. They're nipping at the Brewers' heels, and the Cubs have at least one more team to keep in mind. Matheny was fired, and the bullpen overhauled, as multiple crappy relievers were released, demoted, or put on the DL.

Adam Wainwright and Michael Wacha are still on the DL, and Carlos Martinez returned, only to immediately go back to being injured. Miles Mikolas continues to be the leader of the rotation, and Jack Flaherty has been a solid #2 starter, although his home run rate is a little high. John Gant has manage an ERA of about 3.75, with a FIP almost identical. He doesn't work deep into games, but he's usually solid while he's in there. Luke Weaver has been a disappointment, generally failing to work deep into games and with an ERA at 4.67. His FIP is a little better, but 4.13 still isn't any great shakes. Austin Gomber's been getting starts recently, and is getting good results, but walking way too many guys. That's going to bite him sooner or later. Daniel Poncedeleon made one start, and no-hit the Reds for 8 innings. Tyson Ross started last Sunday and did well, although it was against the Royals, so that barely counts as a Major League game.

The bullpen got a huge boost just by removing the 5 worst members at the same time. Holland released, Lyons waived (and unclaimed so back in AAA), Bowman still in AAA, Gregerson and Cecil on the DL (although Cecil is back). Norris is still mostly pitching well, and the Cards were winning by enough runs recently he was able to have several games off. Hicks is not striking guys out, and the walk rate is still top high, but he's not outperforming his FIP by as much as he was early in the season. Mayers is still here, being OK. John Brebbia's on the DL. Tyler Webb's been called up twice, thrown about 8 innings, hasn't given up a run so far. Chasen Shreve has been better than I figured he would be in 5 innings. Poncedeleon and Dakota Hudson round out the current bullpen. They're both walking too many guys, especially for how few they're striking out, but they've gotten away with it for the most part so far.

Yadier Molina is playing all the time. His defensive stats are down this year, but his OPS+ is 114. He shouldn't be batting second, but he's on pace for probably his third-best offensive season. He still needs a few days off. Although Francisco Pena's .514 OPS argues otherwise. And maybe Shildt figures all these young pitchers need Yadi's steady hand behind the plate.

Matt Carpenter's been on a blistering pace for the last three months. He's up to 33 HRs, which is over twice as many as anyone else on the team. His OPS was over 1.000 for a hot second, it's still .975. He's actually playing pretty good defense at third and first this year, which is nice. Kolten Wong has dragged his OPS up to almost league average while playing excellent defense. Shildt's even moved him up out of the 8th spot in the lineup. DeJong's numbers are pretty far down, he doesn't seem to have come back from the hand injury at full strength. Plus he was making a lot of errors there for awhile.

Greg Garcia's not having a very good year, and Shildt has turned to Jose Martinez as his typical first bat off the bench guy, whereas Matheny favored Garcia. It's a good call, Martinez is a much better hitter than Greg, and Greg has actual defensive versatility, as opposed to Martinez who may stand at different positions, but is awful at all of them. Yairo Munoz has hit well, but is on the DL. He may be the getting ready to take Garcia's job next year. I'd feel better about that if I'd seen any indication Munoz could play any position competently. Gyorko's dragged his offensive numbers up above league average lately, which is nice.

Dexter Fowler has continued to be terrible, yet the team insisted on playing him every game even after they traded Pham. Then Fowler got hurt, which may have been the second-biggest thing to boost the team's fortunes (after ditching Greg Holland). Tyler O'Neill keeps getting hurt every time he starts to earn some playing time. He's not walking, but he's hitting. Bader is playing ridiculously good defense, running the bases well, and hitting decently. I should be more excited about that, but I'm still bummed about Pham getting traded, I guess. I've been slow to warm to Bader. Marcell Ozuna is hitting basically the same as Wong, without playing spectacular defense. Ozuna hits the ball hard, but he hits it on the ground all the time. Shildt, when O'Neill was out, played Jose Martinez in right field and would then sub in Jose Adolis Garcia as a defensive replacement.

The Cardinals' schedule the rest of the way is slightly more home games than away. It is almost entirely against teams also in the playoff hunt. 6 games each against Pittsburgh and Milwaukee, 3 each against Colorado, the Cubs, Braves, and the Nationals. 7 against the Dodgers. On the one hand, it's a chance to make up ground in the wild card race, and bury some other teams. On the other, you're playing other good teams, so there's no guarantee they won't bury the Cards instead. But the team seems more energetic and happy. Guys have mentioned they don't fear getting benched if they have two bad games, Shildt seems to let the team run, but more judiciously. He pulls starters early, before things go too bad, and tries to take advantage of all the guys with starting experience in the 'pen. Guys who can throw multiple innings. Allegedly that's what they'll do with Carlos if he makes it back in time.

That Was Certainly A Trade Deadline

Not much of one from my perspective, but hell, let's see what deck chairs the Cardinals opted to re-arrange.

1) DFA Greg Holland and Tyler Lyons - Holland is about two months overdue on being kicked to the curb. If the Cardinals feel as though they aren't in contention, he's a major reason why. Probably cost them 4-5 games all by himself. Supposedly he thinks he'll get picked up by a contender, but what contending team is willing to risk torpedoing their season letting him pitch? You want someone to pitch in blowouts, just pick random drunks from the stands.

As for Lyons, he's been hurt a lot this year, and when he has pitched, all the batted balls are either finding holes in the defense or leaving the yard. It was a small sample size, and maybe it was just bad luck, but the Cardinals have plenty of other guys to try. No reason to keep using guys that can't get anything done.

2) Traded Sam Tuivailala - Tui went to Seattle for a minor league reliever named Seth Elledge. Tui had been one of the Cards' more frequently used relievers this year, but that owed more to how many other guys have been hurt or lousy this year. His ERA was about 3.70, his FIP barely under 4.00. He didn't strike many out, and probably walked too many considering that. He wasn't a bad reliever, but no one the team is likely to sorely miss.

Elledge was in High-A for the Mariners this year, ERA of 1.17 in 38.1 innings out of the 'pen. Allowing 3.5 BB/9, but only about 4 hits/9. That seems good. He's already thrown a scoreless innings for the Cards' AA team. If things go well, maybe he'll be in the big league bullpen by the end of next year. Hard to get excited about relief pitchers, though.

3) Traded Luke Voit - Voit went to the Yankees along with some international signing money the Cards couldn't use, and the Yanks sent back relievers Giovanny Gallegos and Chasen Shreve. I assume Voit might operate in a platoon with Greg Bird at first. Luke was kind of blocked here, with both Matt Carpenter and Jose Martinez playing first and being superior hitters (although Martinez gives most of that back on defense and baserunning). They have a couple of guys in AAA and AA that can also play first and were hitting about as well. So at least this should get Voit some more time in the majors. Good for him.

Shreve is in his 5th year in the majors, and has been worth a grand total of 2.1 WAR in five years. Not exactly a world-beater. He strikes out almost 11/9 IP, but walks 4.5. And those are basically his career averages, and his averages this season. He's allowed 8 HRs in 38 innings, which isn't that far above his career norm (1.9/9 vs. 1/6). His ERA is 4.26 this year, 3.71 career, but his FIPs are 4.98 and 4.76 respectively. Another underwhelming lefty reliever to throw on the pile.

Gallegos has thrown 10 innings in the majors this year, plus 20 last year. He's allowed 17 runs, and 5 HRs, in that span. On the plus side, he's struck out 32 and only walked 8, so he at least appears to have better control than Shreve. Or maybe he leaves too many pitches over the fat part of the plate. He's thrown 119 innings in AAA over the last 4 years, ERA in the low 2s. 166 Ks to 28 walks. So the control seems legit.

4) Traded Oscar Mercado - Mercado goes to Cleveland. Mercado was hitting .285/351/408 in AAA this year, playing at least an average CF, and had stolen 31 bases in 39 attempts. He was traded for a pair of minor league outfielders, Conner Capel and Jhon Torres. Capel seems a lot like Mercado, just younger and further from the majors. Torres might have big power, if he can actually make contact. Yay, more guys who strike out a lot!

The consensus seems to be the Cards just wanted to clear a 40-man roster spot, and with all the other outfielders on the major league and high minors rosters, Mercado was extraneous. That seems stupid to me. It's not as if Adolis Garcia or Arozarena have performed particularly well this year, while at the same level as Mercado. There's no certainty Tyler O'Neill will actually not swing at everything in the majors. And if you wanted to clear space, there are plenty of other guys taking up space.

I suppose I liked Mercado's all-around game. I like guys who at least approach having all five tools. Bulky sluggers don't interest me. Mark McGwire was the ur-example of those types and I didn't give a rat's ass about him. Because he was terrible at defense, and slower than a dead chicken being dragged across a yard by a weasel. One-trick ponys, fooey.

5) Traded Tommy Pham - Pham goes to Tampa for three minor leaguers. I can't recall their names at the moment, and don't particularly care.

I understand the move from a business aspect. The Cardinals have a lot of outfielders. One of the guys they got back in a minor leaguer, albeit only in AA. They want more playing time for guys like Bader and O'Neill. Sure, Pham has been the most productive of the disappointing Pham/Ozuna/Fowler trio. But no team is dumb enough to trade for Fowler's garbage ass, and they'd be selling low on Ozuna. Plus, it would probably look bad to trade away their big offseason acquisition after just half a season. Pham's still three years away from free agency, he's cheap (good for a broke-ass franchise like Tampa), and he was really good a year ago. Might turn out to be a bargain. And from the Cardinals' perspective, he's already 30, has a long injury history, the eyesight issue, and has beefed a bit with management in the offseason over his contract. I get all that.

I just don't care. I have no emotional investment in Fowler or Ozuna, except perhaps annoyance that they've played so badly this year. Pham was my favorite player on this team. I mentioned I like those players that can do it all, and when it was clicking for Tommy, he was a player like that. He seemed to always have the capacity to do something exciting. With his glove, his bat, his arm, on the bases. His recent struggles had really sapped a lot of my interest in watching, because I don't find a lot of the other players on the team potentially exciting. But I was hopeful he was turning around, and ready to get excited when he did. Plus, you never knew if he was going to hold up, so there was always a fear it was going to fall apart. And after all the setbacks, I wanted to see him succeed. Well, he's in Tampa now. Hopefully that works out for him. He'll join the list of former Cardinals whose numbers I'll try to follow as they go forward.

Coming into the deadline, I had a couple of lists of players I thought the Cards could move. First were the ones I thought they absolutely should trade:

Bud Norris (shithead, on an expiring contract, useless to a team not in contention)
Jose Martinez (disaster in the field, better off as some team's DH)
Jedd Gyorko (not bad, but not vital. Cheap contract, useful in a limited role)
Michael Wacha (not a bad starter at all, but the Cards could look to try the new wave of arms while he helps some playoff team)
Marcell Ozuna (they took a chance, it didn't work, shit happens)
Jordan Hicks (he's good, but he's a reliever, ultimately replaceable and highly variable, and he'll probably break down in the next two years)

Obviously several of these were pipe dreams. Wacha's injured, we already discussed why they wouldn't trade Ozuna, Gyorko hasn't played well enough to get much of anything in return. Beyond that was the guys I was OK with them trading if they got a good haul, that might be on the block:

Mile Mikolas (contract expires next year, again there's a lot of potential pitchers in the system)
Matt Carpenter (there must be a team that needs a guy who can lead off and play either corner)
Kolten Wong (I like his defense, but I'm not sure it's ever going to all come together here)

Mikolas and Carp might have brought something good back. But, they traded exactly none of those guys. They traded a reliever, a minor league first baseman, a minor league outfielder, and one of their starting outfielders. The most productive one, actually. In exchange, they got four relief pitchers, three minor league outfielders, and one minor league starting pitcher.

All of which suggests a team not trying to contend. But if you aren't trying to contend, and any team trotting the rotting carcass of Dexter Fowler out there every single fucking night is not trying to win, why the fuck is Bud Norris still here? You are not trying to make the playoffs, ergo you do not need a closer. Trade him.

Overall, a thoroughly underwhelming trade deadline.

Stumbling To The Midpoint

81 games into the season, the St. Louis Cardinals might be garbage. They're 42-39, 5.5 games behind the Brewers in the Central. There are 7 teams with better records, and the Nationals are also 42-39. The Cardinals have been mostly lousy for the last month. They lost four series in a row to, respectively, the Marlins, Padres, Cubs, and Phillies. Managed a split with the Brewers and won 2 of 3 from Cleveland. The Braves have dominated them the last two nights. Even John Mozeliak seems to be out of patience. I'd be a lot more excited about that if I thought Matheny would actually get fired.

Wainwright and Michael Wacha are both on the DL. Carlos Martinez hasn't really pitched well since he came back off the DL. Luke Weaver is scuffling, with an ERA over 5 and a FIP over 4. Alex Reyes came back and made one start, then left because he tore a tendon nearly off the bone. And he had reported pain or discomfort after his last rehab start, which the team apparently ignored. Fantastic!  Miles Mikolas has continued to pitch mostly well, and Jack Flaherty is doing OK, aside from some issues with home runs.

Bud Norris has been mostly good, and Jordan Hicks has stopped walking people and started striking them out instead. Brebbia and Tuivailala have been OK. Greg Holland unfortunately came back from his injury stint, but hasn't been awful. Mike Mayers has been effective in largely a mop-up role. Brett Cecil is back, and not pitching horribly, but not pitching well, either. Austin Gomber, despite having been a starter his entire minor league career, has somehow become Matheny's favorite lefty reliever. Lack of other options I guess. Cecil's been questionable, Lyons is hurt, so is Ryan Sherriff. But Matheny has pitched him either three games in a row, or three in four days on multiple occasions. That doesn't seem like a smart move to make with someone used to a reliever's life, let alone someone used to pitching every five games.

Molina came back from the DL and is hitting pretty well. Which is good, because neither Francisco Pena or Carson Kelly were doing shit with the bat while Yadi was out. Jose Martinez is hitting well while still butchering first base. Kolten Wong, in contrast, is playing spectacular defense, somehow, but not hitting for shit. Matt Carpenter's bat has come alive, or the hits are falling now, and he's holding his own at third.

Paul DeJong was hitting until he was injured. He may not be back for a while yet. In his place, they've been starting Yairo Munoz a lot, rather than Greg Garcia, which seems stupid. Their OPSes are close, Munoz at .704 and Garcia at .696, but I'd trust Garcia's more OBP-driven approach over Munoz' hackfest. Also, I'd trust Garcia's below-average defense over Munoz', but I don't believe defense factors into Matheny's thinking often. Jedd Gyorko has slumped badly after a hot start to the season.

In the outfield, Dexter Fowler has continued to look useless. His OPS is almost as bad as Pena's, and he's playing abysmal defense. Which has meant more playing time for Harrison Bader, who has responded by playing excellent defense, running the bases pretty well, doing just enough with the bat. If you restrict him to facing mostly LHP, he'll probably be OK. In the good news front, Marcell Ozuna's bat, like Carpenter's, has come alive. He's still only slightly above leauge-average by OPS, but that's better than where he was 40 games ago. Unfortunately, Tommy Pham has been mired in a horrendous slump for six weeks and counting. His OPS+ is down to 99, his defense seems to be slipping. He isn't striking much more than before, but he's not drawing walks, and he keeps chopping everything into the ground.

And apparently I put a lot of my emotional investment with regards to this team into Pham. As he's gone into the tank, my interest has nosedived. I turned on a game this week, watched Carp get a leadoff double, only to see Tommy fail to even advance the runner by grounding out to third, got depressed, and turned the game off.

There just aren't a lot of guys I considered exciting on this team. Flaherty and Mikolas are good starters, but not in a spectacular way so far. Weaver and Carlos are struggling, and I haven't bought into Wacha since his arm problems first cropped up. Relief pitchers are whatever; I'm not getting excited about some guy that comes in and throws hard for one inning. Whoop-de-do. Yadi's resilience is impressive, but not spectacular. Carp's a nice player, but walking isn't exciting. I was hoping for a repeat of last season from Pham, where he did everything. That was a lot of fun.

Looking at Franchises' Best Players - National League East

At this rate, I might finish this series sometime before the end of this season. By which point some of it will be out of date. Oh well.

Atlanta Braves (existed since 1876 in three different cities and a bunch of names):

Top Player: Hank Aaron (142.5 WAR)

#24 Player: Billy Nash (28.7)

# of Players >30 WAR: 22

# of Players >50 WAR: 10 (Aaron, Kid Nichols, Warren Spahn, Eddie Mathews, Phil Niekro, Chipper Jones, John Smoltz, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Andruw Jones)

# of Players >100 WAR: 2 (Aaron and Nichols)

Can you make a starting lineup of the Top 9? 5 of them are pitchers, so no.

Notes: I knew the Braves started in Boston, I didn't realize they'd been around as long as they had.

Nos. 6-11 are all players from my lifetime - #11 is Dale Murphy - but after that, it goes back to older players, mostly much older players. Freddie Freeman (#22) is the only guy who played for the Braves in the last 40 years from #12-24.

There's that old baseball saying about "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain," so I expected to see Johnny Sain on here. He was on the Braves for 7 years (plus he lost 3 seasons to military service), but only accumulated about 24 WAR during that time. I'm guessing that refrain was limited to '46-'48, when he was worth 7, 4.1, and 8.5 WAR. The next year he was below replacement level in 243 innings, which is kind of impressive.

As for Spahn, he's at 99.1 WAR, so just missed being the 3rd Brave with 100+ WAR.

Joe Torre is ranked 20th. I can already tell you he won't make either the Cardinals' or Mets' lists.

Smoltz, Maddux, and Glavine are all within 6 WAR of each other. When I was younger, Smoltz was the only one of the three I could stand, because he was the one I thought wasn't relying on the ump calling strikes on pitches six inches off the plate. Friggin' Maddux.

Chipper Jones is at 85.7 WAR, which is more than I would have expected. I think I pictured him as a poor third baseman, and figured his defense would have limited his value more. He is running negative values for his defense for his career, but it's like -0.9 dWAR for his entire career. Over 19 seasons, that's basically holding average.

New York Mets (existed since 1962):

Top Player: Tom Seaver (78.9)

#24 Player: Ron Darling (16.9)

# of Players >30 WAR: 6

# of Players >50 WAR: 2 (Seaver and David Wright)

# of Players >100 WAR: 0

Can you make a starting lineup of their Top 9? 4 pitchers, so no dice. They do have three-quarters of an infield, though.

Notes: I doubt Seaver is going to make it onto the Reds' list. They've had too much good history, too many good players who were with the team longer.

Considering the Mets were almost always bad in the '60s and '70s, it won't surprise you most of these guys are from the '80s or more recently. There's only 6 guys on here from the first 20 years: Seaver, Jerry Koosman (#4), Jon Matlack (#10), Jon Stearns (#18), Bud Harrelson (#19), and Cleon Jones (#20).

Glavine is on here, at #22, right behind John Olerud. Olerud was #13 on Seattle's list, and #19 on the Blue Jays'. Never in any place for too long, and never a phenomenal player, but always steadily productive wherever he played.

Rick Reed's #23. If I remember right, he couldn't be in the MLBPA because he was a replacement player during the brief stint the owners tried that in 1995. I understand they'd see him as a scab, but I can't fault the guy for taking his shot to get to the majors.

Carlos Beltran's ranked 6th on the Mets' list, he was 14th on the Royals list.

As far as active players, Jacob DeGrom is tied with Howard Johnson with 22 WAR for 14th. He should be able to pass Mike Piazza this year, but I doubt he'll catch Al Leiter until next season. Jose Reyes is 9th, but he's played badly enough this year he's sliding backwards. Does David Wright still qualify, or did he officially retire finally?

Philadelphia Phillies (existed since 1883):

Top Player: Mike Schmidt (106.8 WAR)

#24 Player: Chris Short (29.4)

# of Players >30 WAR: 23

# of Players >50 WAR: 7 (Schmidt, Robin Roberts, Steve Carlton, Chase Utley, Pete Alexander, Ed Delahanty, Richie Ashburn)

# of Players >100 WAR: 1 (Schmidt)

Can you make a starting lineup of their Top 9? 3 of their Top 5 are pitchers, so no. They needed a shortstop and a catcher. Jimmy Rollins was 10th, so they were almost there.

Notes: 11 of the 24 are from recent enough their picture is in color, which is better than I would have expected. The Phillies have been around a long time. Of course, they've been pretty miserable for most of their history.

Of active players, Utley is 4th, narrowly ahead of Pete Alexander (61.8 to 61.5). Cole Hamels is 11th. Almost halfway between Rollins and Johnny Callison.

Bobby Abreu is 9th. I knew Abreu was in Philly for awhile, and that he was a stead, pretty good player. It's still weird to see him that high up the list of a franchise that's existed over 130 years. I could Abreu up near the top of some franchise without a lot of history. I underestimated him.

On less a pleasant note, loudmouth buffoon and failed businessman Curt Schilling ranks 15th.

Washington Nationals (existed since 1969, as the Expos):

Top Player: Gary Carter (55.8 WAR)

#24 Player: Bryn Smith (17.2)

# of Players >30 WAR: 7

# of Players >50 WAR: 1 (Carter)

# of Players >100 WAR: 0

Can you make a starting lineup of their Top 9? No. They do have two pitchers, Steve Rogers and Dennis Martinez, but they also have 4 outfielders and no middle infielders.

Notes: Tim Raines (49.2) and Andre Dawson (48.4) both just missed the 50 WAR mark.

Steve Rogers is one of the only guys on here I've never heard of, along with Bob Bailey (#21) and Ron Fairly (#23). I do remember Bryn Smith because he was on the Cardinals for a couple years in the early '90s. 1991 went pretty well, 1990 not so much.

Given that the Nationals have been pretty good this decade, there are quite a few active players on here. Anthony Rendon is #22, and could probably pass Bailey and Rusty Staub this year. Jordan Zimmerman is 13th, with Gio Gonzalez right behind him, but probably not for much longer. #9-11 goes Bryce Harper, Stephen Strasburg, and Max Scherzer. Ryan Zimmerman is #6, but he'll pass Tim Wallach here soon. Or maybe not, he's been exactly replacement level this year. He only needs 0.3 WAR to do it, though!

So many guys I have fond memories of on here. Vlad Guerrero is 7th, Larry Walker is 12th, after ranking 2nd for the Rockies. Vlad was just a lot of fun to watch, even when he's hitting a homer off a pitch your team throws a foot off the plate. Livan Hernandez is 17th, and Pedro Martinez is 19th. I'm certain we'll see Livan on the next team's list, and Pedro was #8 on the Red Sox' list. I thought maybe DeLino DeShields would be on here, but no dice.

Miami Marlins (existed since 1993):

Top Player: Giancarlo Staton (35.2 WAR)

#12 Player: Marcell Ozuna (14.1)

# of Players >30 WAR: 1

# of Players >50 WAR: 0

# of Players >100 WAR: 0

Can you make a starting lineup of their Top 9? Not quite. No catcher, and either no third baseman or no first baseman, depending where you play Miguel Cabrera. Two second basemen though, Luis Castillo and Dan Uggla, which is unusual.

Notes: Best estimate is the #24 player would be Dee Gordon, at 8.9 WAR.

Either I remembered Livan Hernandez as being a Marlin a lot more than 4 years, or being a much better pitcher (3.3 WAR). Both probably. Whoops.

5 of the top 12 are still active, if we count Hanley Ramirez. Of course, because this is the Marlins we're talking about, none of those 5 are actually still with the team. They traded away Nos. 1 (Stanton), 6 (Christian Yelich), and 12 (Ozuna) this offseason. The Marlins: always getting rid of good players before they do something inconvenient like build a winning tradition. Yes, I know it's actually about trading them before they get expensive. The fact the Marlins are almost always a fucking trash fire is merely an unexpected side effect, right?

Kevin Brown's #10 on the list, after being #24 on the Rangers' list. The Marlins let him sign with the Dodgers on a $105 million contract, and I think he made about one start for each million. OK, that's an exaggeration. He made 164 starts over the duration of the contract. Sucks for the Dodgers and Yankees.

Checking In At The Quarter Mark

41 games in, the Cardinals are 23-18, close to the record their run differential says they should have (22-18). The record is mostly bolstered by kicking the shit out of the Reds (7-0), and now roughly half the roster is on the DL, so they're probably fucked. Carlos Martinez, Wainwright, Bowman, Lyons, Leone, Gregerson, Molina, Carson Kelly, Paul DeJong. Especially since the NL Central, other than the Reds, is actually good.

Rotation: Carlos has mostly been good, outside of the season opener, and his last start. Second on the team in innings, first in strikeouts, first in ERA. He has been lucky, judging by the large gap between his ERA (1.62) and FIP (3.38). He's done it to himself, walking 4 batters per 9 innings, along with 9 HBP. Hopefully he gets that under control when he gets off the DL, since he probably won't keep giving up 1 HR every 50 innings like he has so far.

Weaver's had ups and downs. Started well, had a rough patch of 4 starts, but had a good effort in a loss last night. His ERA (4.37) is over a run higher than his FIP (3.33). He's under five and a third innings a start, which isn't spectacular. Wacha's been solid, although a little lucky. He's walking too many guys (3.9/9 IP). Miles Mikolas has been the breakout star, despite striking no one, by not walking people. Basically, he's being the best version of Mike Leake. Of course, Leake was the best version of himself for about 5 weeks last season, and that didn't end well, but maybe this will go better. Given the mounting injuries, the Cardinals have to hope it does.

Of the replacements, Flaherty's made three starts, none where he made it through the sixth, but he's been mostly effective. He has a sub-3 ERA, and the same FIP as Luke Weaver. Their numbers are fairly similar. Same K rate, BB rate, HR rate. Weaver's hit rate is actually slightly lower. John Gant made one start, along with three relief appearances. It wasn't bad, but nothing to write home about.

Bullpen: The Cards have used 13 relief pitchers already, which seems like a lot for 41 games. Bud Norris has been excellent, which is unfortunate, since he's kind of a tool. Rather not be stuck rooting for this guy. He's striking out over 12/9, and walking one batter every 7 innings. His ERA is 2.14, and that's actually worse than his FIP (1.57). Jordan Hicks, who had never pitched above A ball before this season is second in innings among the relievers. Which would be great, if he hadn't walked 14 guys and only struck out 8 across those 19 innings. Can't imagine he'll keep getting away with that. Matt Bowman has an ERA near 6, and hasn't been unlucky. He's walking a batter every other innings, and allowing 11 hits per 9 innings.

Leone would be doing great if he hadn't given up those two HRs back to back to blow that game against Milwaukee. Also if he wasn't hurt. Other than those problems, he's fine. Lyons is suffering from home run and walk trouble. Holland. . . is just bad. Great use of $14 million there, Cardinals. Maybe you should have given it to Tommy Pham instead, actually get some bang for your buck. Ryan Sherriff and Luke Gregerson have both struggled, with home runs and walks. I'm detecting a theme. Perhaps walking batters and surrendering homers is bad for a pitcher.

Brebbia's mostly been good, outside of a couple of scuffles lately. Tuivailala's been better since he took some time on the DL to recover from a knee issue. Mayers is getting by, somehow. Brett Cecil's been good, if he could stay on the field. He's only faced 9 batters so far this year.

Infield: Molina was hitting for power before taking a foul ball to the nuts, but his OBP was still only .292. The Cardinals could use an above league-average hitter, though. Of his two back-ups, Kelly was just 2-for-18 before injuring his hamstring. Francisco Pena is 8-for-34, all 8 are singles. Pena is not demonstrating much ability to drive the ball with authority.

Jose Martinez is getting all the starts at first base, where he is not very good. He's been so bad, it's basically canceling out any value from his hitting. Considering his OPS+ is 133, with 11 doubles and 4 HRs already, that really says something about how putrid his defense is. Wong is struggling, with a sub-600 OPS, but playing excellent defense at second. So, Bizarro Jose Martinez. Matt Carpenter has gotten most of the innings at third so far, where his defense has been adequate, but he's hitting as well as Wong. Supposedly he's hitting the ball hard, but it's being caught. Of course, they're using the shift against him 90% of the time, and he's pulling the ball right into it, soooooo. . .

DeJong was hitting very well, tied with Pham for team lead in HRs, and actually walking some. His walk rate is around 9%, which is solid. He's playing solid defense at shortstop as well. Baseball-Reference says he's been the Cardinals' most valuable position player. I have my doubts about that, but he's been valuable no doubt. Jedd Gyorko's been getting regular playing time since he came off the DL. It's only 74 PAs, but he has a .930 OPS. The concern is that Matheny will play him at SS with DeJong out. Gyorko is passable at second, and was very good at third last season, but he's not got the range for shortstop.

But there's a lack of options. Greg Garcia is passable defensively at SS, maybe average if you're lucky. And he's actually hitting for a surprising amount of power this season. His career ISO, including this season, was 101. This year, it's 180. Probably won't last if he gets more at-bats, but it's nice to have while it lasts. While the injury to DeJong, they've brought Yairo Munoz back up. He looked great in Spring Training, but completely overmatched once the real games began. Like Kelly, he was 2-for-18, but with 11 Ks in 20 PAs. He'd only struck out 18 times in 100 PAs in AAA, but also only walked 5 times. So he probably hasn't rediscovered plate discipline. Put him together with Garcia, and they'd probably have an acceptable player.

Outfield: Marcell Ozuna is hitting basically as well as Carpenter and Wong, meaning terribly. He's not walking much, and he's not driving the ball. Swinging at basically everything. Fowler, remarkably, is hitting worse than all of them. Like Carpenter, he's drawing enough walks to prop his OBP to almost bearable levels. He just can't get any flippin' hits, and his defense is grading out as horrible, even after being moved out of centerfield. Harrison bader has been getting more playing time as a result, and so far is rating as an excellent fielder, while being an above-average hitter. Like Garcia, that probably won't last with increased playing time (Bader has never shown much knack for hitting righthanded pitching). Tyler O'Neill is coming back up. Maybe he can get a hit this time.

Tommy Pham is basically propping up the outfield. He's batting leadoff now, has scored almost 10 more runs than anyone else on the team, second on the team in batting average to Jose Martinez. Tied with DeJong for lead in HRs, first in stolen bases, but also first in times caught stealing. OBP of .412, OPS+ of 161.

It's ahrd to see how this team is going to keep it's head above water with all the injuries. Granting that most of the guys getting hurt in the bullpen weren't doing great, and Wainwright is done. He was on the DL for weeks, and when they brought him back, his elbow flared up before he even finished his warm-up throws. Flaherty and Gant would be hard-pressed to be worse, and Alex Reyes may be on the horizon.

But the Cardinals have so many hitters struggling, and so few doing well, that losing two of the above-average hitters they did have - Molina and DeJong - is a blow they probably can't afford. We'll see.

Looking at Franchises' Best Players - National League West

I have some actual free time this weekend, so let's try and finish another of these. Moving to the NL West, with a couple of stories franchises, and three, let's say less-storied teams and leave it at that.

Los Angeles Dodgers (existed since 1884):

Top Player: Don Drysdale (67.2 WAR)

#24 Player: Pedro Guerrero (32.7)

# of Players >30 WAR: 29

# of Players >50 WAR: 8 (Drysdale, Pee Wee Reese, Duke SNider, Jackie Robinson, Clayton Kershaw, Zack Wheat, Dazzy Vance, Willie Davis

# of Players >100 WAR: 0

Can you make a starting lineup of the Top 9? Four pitchers - Drysdale, Kershaw, Vance, and Koufax -say no. But they do have a complete outfield, and 3/4ths of an infield.

Notes: I would have expected the Dodgers' top player to have more WAR than that. A bit like the White Sox and the Athletics. Not a high peak, but a lot of guys bunched together. It drops off fast in the last third of the list, though. Gil Hodges is 14th at 44.3 WAR, but by 16th, Fernandomania is down to 36.9 WAR.

Koufax and Don Sutton tied with 49 WAR apiece.

I remember Guerrero from his years with the Cardinals, which, outside of his first full season in 1989, did not go well. Across 5 seasons, he was worth 1.7 WAR total. But that 1989, he hit .311 with 17 HRs and 42 doubles. His poor defense negated a lot of the value of his hitting, though. Steve Garvey, who is 17th, is in a similar boat. He spent his last five years with the Padres, and was worth 1.4 WAR total across those years.

The next three guys after Guerrero would have been Davey Lopes, Maury Wills, and Mike Piazza.

Kershaw is the only active player on the list. He should pass Jackie Robinson in the next month. If he can post a 5.5 WAR season, he'll pass Duke Snider. So he has a real good shot of surpassing Drysdale, ultimately. Also, I didn't realize Kershaw had been worth almost 2 WAR with his bat.

San Diego Padres (existed since 1969):

Top Player: Tony Gwynn (69.2 WAR)

#24 Player: Will Venable (12.8)

Players with >30 WAR: 2

Players with >50 WAR: 1

Players with >100 WAR: 0

Can you make a starting lineup of their Top 9? There's 5 pitchers on the list, including one closer (Trevor Hoffman naturally), so no.

Notes: That is pretty disappointing. Just for comparison, the Royals have also been around since '69. They also have one player above 50 WAR, but Brett is almost 20 ahead of Gwynn. And they had 8 players above 30 WAR. Hell, the Mariners have existed 8 years less, and they have 4 players above 50 WAR.

For the record, the other player above 30 WAR is Dave Winfield.

Chase Headley (11th) and Adrian Gonzalez (6th) are the only active players on the list. Neither is doing well so far this year. Gonzalez has been worth -0.4 WAR so far for the Mets, and Headley is back with the Padres, and at -0.1 WAR. If Headly could manage even 1 WAR this year, he'd jump to 8th, behind Andy Benes, and ahead of Randy Jones. If he can manage 1.5 WAR, he'd pass Gonzalez. He was worth 1.8 last year for the Yankees, and 2.6 the year before, so there's a decent chance he has that in him.

One advantage to the Padres being a young franchise is I at least vaguely remember most of these guys. Benes was a Cardinal for 5 years. Jake Peavy is third on the franchise list. Ryan Klesko is 18th. I hated Ryan Klesko when he was on the Braves. I think because he seemed like a such a big, clumsy, swing-and-miss guy, and I hate watching those guys play ball.

As low as the bar is for entry, I thought Ozzie Smith might make the list, despite only being a Padre for 4 seasons, and not being able to hit a lick while he was there. He ended up at 11 WAR, so if he'd stuck around one more year, maybe. 5 of those 11 came in 1980, his best season hitting (when he was still almost 30% below league average by OPS).

San Francisco Giants (existed since 1883):

Top Player: Willie Mays (154.8 WAR)

#24 Player: Art Devlin (34.3)

# of Players with >30 WAR: 34

# of Players with >50 WAR: 11 (Mays, Bonds, Mel Ott, Christy Mathewson, Amos Rusie, Carl Hubbell, Juan Marichal, Willie McCovey, Bill Terry Roger Conner, Mickey Welch)

# of Players with >100 WAR: Mays, Bonds, Ott, Mathewson

Can you make a starting lineup out of the Top 9? Too many pitchers and outfielders, not enough middle infielders. As in, no middle infielders or catchers.

Notes: Matt Cain just missed 30 WAR. Madison Bumgarner is a good enough hitter it boosted him by 6 WAR above what his pitching stats provide. If he'd been healthy this year, he would almost certainly made it to the Top 24.

Position players with >30 WAR outside the Top 24 included Matt Williams, Robby Thompson, Jeff Kent, and Jack Clark.

There's an almost 35 WAR drop from Mathewson to Rusie, but Rusie was valuable enough he'd have been top player on several of the teams we've looked at so far.

Frankie Frisch is 19th on the Giants' list, with 37.8 WAR. He was almost that valuable for the Cardinals, so we'll see if he make it on their list.

I'm also curious to see how high Bonds ranks on the Pirates' list. They've had some pretty great players, though. Barry's father, Bobby Bonds, is 18th on the Giants.

All I know about Travis Jackson, who is 13th at 44 WAR, is his picture makes him look a little like actor Telly Savalas.

Will Clark is 21st. A lot of Cardinals' fans hated him for the issues the Giants and Cardinals had in the late 1980s. I don't really remember those years, other than I liked Will Clark's swing. Designed for line drives, with just a slight uppercut. Jim Edmonds' swing reminded me of it a little, although Jim had more of an uppercut on his. Clark did have one really great half-season for the Cardinals before he retired, filling in for an injured Mark McGwire on the 2000 Cardinals.

Buster Posey is the only active player in the top 24, at 17th. He's been worth 9 wins the last two years, so about 4.5 per year. He's already at 0.6 this year, so he's probably good for another 4 this season. That'd be enough to get him to 14th, moving past Mike Tiernan, Art Fletcher, and Larry Doyle.

Colorado Rockies (existed since 1993):

Top Player: Todd Helton (61.2 WAR)

#12 Player: Jhoulys Chacin (14.9)

# of Players with >30 WAR: 3

# of Players with >50 WAR: 1

# of Players with >100 WAR: 0

Can you make a starting lineup of their Top 9? Very close. But they have two pitchers - Ubaldo Jimenez and Aaron Cook - and two third basemen - Nolan Arenado and Vinny Castilla. No catcher, no second baseman.

Notes: My rough estimate is that Armando Reynoso is 24th, at around 8.5 WAR.

Larry Walker is 2nd in the franchise, at 48 WAR. I expect he'll be on the Expos' list as well. Arenado is 4th. He probably won't catch Tulowitzki this year, as Tulo is about 11 WAR right now, but probably by the end of next year. Carlos Gonzalez is 5th, but I doubt he'll climb any higher.

DJ Lamehieu and Charlie Blackmon, 10th and 11th, respectively, will both probably pass Cook and Castilla this season. Jimenez and Matt Holliday will probably take another year.

Arizona Diamondbacks (since 1998):

Top Player: Randy Johnson (50.8 WAR)

#12 Player: Stephen Drew 13.2

# of Players 2ith >30 WAR: 4

# of Players with >50 WAR: 1

# of Players with >100 WAR: 0

Can you make a starting lineup of their Top 9? No. Four starting pitchers and three centerfielders.

Notes: The 4 pitchers were Big Unit, Brandon Webb, Schilling, and Dan Haren. The centerfielders, Steve Finley, A.J. Pollock, and Chris Young.

The #24 spot probably goes to one of the following three pitcher: Patrick Corbin, Ian Kennedy, or Byung-Hyun Kim. Probably Kim, as both Corbin and Kennedy were able to add to their 8.3 pitching WAR with some hitting. Plus, Corbin is still playing for the D'backs.

Matt Williams couldn't make the Giants' Top 24, but he'd have been 23rd for Arizona. Zack Grienke is moving up the list as well, at roughly 9 WAR right now.

Pollock (6th) and Paul Goldschmidt (2nd) are the only active players currently on Arizona in the top 12. Pollock is at least a couple years away from catching Schilling for 5th. Goldschmidt, even at his 5+ WAR per season pace, is at least 3 years away from catching Randy Johnson.

Looking At Franchises' Best Players - American League East

Well, I kind let this fall by the wayside. Whoops. Moving on to the American League East.

Baltimore Orioles (existed since 1901, counting the St. Louis Browns and Milwaukee Brewers, for one year):

Top Player: Cal Ripken Jr. (95.9 WAR)

#24 Player: Ned Garver (26.8)

# of Players with >30 WAR: 19

# of Players with >50 WAR: 5 (Ripken, Brooks Robinson, Jim Palmer, Eddie Murray, George Sisler)

# of Players with >100 WAR: 0

Can you make a starting lineup of the Top 9?  No. They have 3 pitchers - Palmer, Mike Mussina, and the excellently named Urban Shocker - and between Ripken, Robinson, and Mark Belanger, they have three guys who play either third base of shortstop. No catchers, not enough outfielders.

Notes: Given what I've always heard about the Browns being a lousy franchise, there are more of them on this list than I would have expected. Only 8 of the 24, but the franchise has been the Orioles for over 60 years now, so you'd expect Baltimore players to dominate. My dad's always told me his dad was a St. Louis Browns' fan. So bad choices in teams runs in the family.

Two active players on the list, Adam Jones (18th) and Manny Machado (22nd). Of course, Machado probably won't be an Oriole after this season. If he repeats his 2017, he'll move up to 18th or 19th. If he can replicate his 2015 or 2016, he could to at least 16th. 16th is probably about as far as Jones can move up, unless he can turn the clock back to 2013-2014.

Frank Robinson is on here, at 17th. I expect he's going to place much higher on the Cincinnati Reds' list when/if I get there.

Mark Belanger is basically the only guy in MLB history to have been worth as many runs defensively as Ozzie Smith. Smith has him beat by about 25 WAR, because while Ozzie was 13% below average as a hitter in his career, Belanger was 32% below average. Also, Ozzie was worth about 80 runs as a baserunner, Belanger 16. Still, Belanger was good enough to be part of some World Series winning teams.

Boston Red Sox (since 1901):

Top Player: Ted Williams (123.1 WAR)

#24 Player: Tim Wakefield (32.4). Whoo, knuckleball pitcher represent!

Players with >30 WAR: 31ish. I looked up their Top 50 in WAR for Batters and Pitchers, and added on everyone over 30 WAR. That might not be taking into account negative offense value for pitchers from pre-DH, though, but it's the best estimate I've got.

Players with >50 WAR: 11 (Williams, Yaz, Clemens, Boggs, Cy Young, Dwight Evans, Tris Speaker, Pedro Martinez, David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia, Bobby Doerr).

Players with >100 WAR: 1 (Williams)

Can you make a starting lineup of the Top 9? Well, Clemens, Cy Young, and Pedro are all pitchers, so no. Plus, four outfielders, and David Ortiz, who basically plays no position. Friggin' DHs.

Notes: Pedroia is the only current player on the list, although there are several guys that were playing recently. Clemens, Pedro, Ortiz, obviously. Also, Wakefield and Manny Ramirez (23rd), and Nomar (14th). Pedroia can probably pass Pedro and Big Papi this year, but unless he puts up 3.5 WAR, he won't catch Tris Speaker.

Babe Ruth is 15th on the list, behind Nomar (41.2) and ahead of Carlton Fisk (39.5 WAR). I expect Ruth is going to finish a lot higher on the next team's list.

Jimmie Foxx is 20th on Boston's list, after being 3rd on the Athletics'. Lefty Grove, who was 4th for Oakland, is 13th for Boston. Tris Speaker is 7th here, and 2nd for Cleveland. I'm curious if Clemens is going to make Toronto's list, because he had a hell of a two years there.

15 guys on the list have color photos, 6 that were part of the post-2000 teams. Which seems about right. This has been one of the most extended periods of the Red Sox being a relevant franchise.

New York Yankees (since 1903):

Top Player: Babe Ruth (142.4) Yeah, that's quite a bit higher of a finish.

#24 Player: Earle Combs (42.5 WAR). Christ, that's their 24th best player?

Players with >30 WAR: 36. 12 guys didn't make the Top 24, including Don Mattingly, Mike Mussina, and Rickey Henderson.

Players with >50 WAR: 13, same as Detroit. Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, DiMaggio, Jeter, Yogi Berra, Red Ruffing, Whitey Ford, Mariano Rivera, Bill Dickey, A-Rod, Willie Randolph, and Andy Pettitte.

Players with >100 WAR: 3 Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle.

Can you make a starting lineup of the Top 9?  Actually, not too bad, but no. Got the outfield, the catcher and first baseman, and Jeter will stand at SS. But the last three guys are pitchers, so they're missing a second and third baseman.

Notes: Robinson Cano is 19th, between Thurman Munson and Graig Nettles, the only active player left. Although Brett Gardner was one of the 12 guys over 30 WAR not in the Top 24. Maybe he can make his way further up the list.

Alex Rodriguez finishes 11th, higher than he did with the Rangers, but lower than with the Mariners.

DiMaggio looks so forlorn in his picture, while Gehrig has this skeptical look on his face. Really, you're going to take my picture?

Red Ruffing's position is listed as pitcher and pinch hitter. His OPS+ is only 81, but he did collect over 500 hits and 36 HRs.

I read an autobiography for Whitey Ford when I was in junior high. I mainly remember the parts when his velocity was falling off and he was trying to use his wedding ring to doctor the ball without getting caught.

Toronto Blue Jays (existed since 1977):

Top Player: Dave Stieb (57.1 WAR)

#24 Player: Aaron Hill (17.1 WAR)

Players with >30 WAR: 5 (Stieb, Roy Halladay, Tony Fernandez, Jose Bautista, Carlos Delgado).

Players with >50 WAR: 1

Players with >100 WAR: 0.

Can you make a starting lineup of the Top 9? 4 starting pitchers says no.

Notes: Edwin Encarnacion (12th, 24.3 WAR), and Josh Donaldson (18th, 20.9 WAR) are the only two active players on the list. Although Jose Bautista retired just last year, and Aaron Hill played last year as well. But Hill had been below replacement level 4 of the last 5 seasons of his career. If this "dead arm" thing doesn't impact Donaldson's value too much, he might pass Encarnacion on the lis by the end of the season.

Clemens wound up 20th on the Blue Jays' list, after only two seasons.

I always liked Dave Stieb. Maybe because I briefly considered picking Toronto as my American League team back in the 80s, when I was thinking about having an AL team. So there are a lot of guys on here I remember from their early baseball cards, but I couldn't tell you anything about Jesse Barfield, for example. As for Stieb, he kept coming so close to getting no-hitters, and then they'd get broken up in the 8th or the 9th. My parents and I were at a Twins/Royals game in Minneapolis one year, when he had one going against the Yankees. Mattingly broke it up in the 9th, I think. I think Stieb got one eventually, though.

Pat Hentgen formed a heck of a tandem with Clemens for those two years. But he didn't have anything left in the tank by the time he came to St. Louis in 2000.

Speaking of former Cardinals, I was hoping Todd Stottlemyre would be on here, but no dice. He was worth just under 11 WAR for the Jays.

Tampa Bay Rays: (since 1998):

Top Player: Evan Longoria (50.0 WAR)

#12 Player: Aubrey Huff (11.8 WAR).

Players with >30 WAR: 3.

Players with >50 WAR: 1. Technically Longoria isn't over 50, but it's close enough.

Players with >100 WAR: 0

Can you make a starting lineup of their Top 9?  Nah. Three pitchers, no catchers.

Notes: For these franchises that haven't been around long, Baseball-Reference only went to Top 12. My rough estimate is Jeremy Hellickson (7.2 WAR) would be #24.

If it did go to 24, Fred McGriff would be on here, around 20, which is roughly where he was for Toronto as well.

Seven of the Top 12 are still in the league, the exceptions being Carl Crawford, Julio Lugo, Carlos Pena, Desmond Jennings, and Aubrey Huff.

Kevin Kiermaier is the only guy on this list still playing for the Rays. Unsurprising given their teardown of the last few seasons. Chris Archer will probably be on here soon. Based on his pitching WAR, he should already be ahead of Huff, which I guess means his scant batting chances have tanked his value just enough.

An Offseason Check-In

Somehow I thought for sure I'd typed up a post about the St. Louis Cardinals' offseason back in December. I did type up one during a lull at work, but I guess I never posted it. Anyway, in what's been a fairly quiet offseason overall, the Cardinals have been one of the more active teams. Whether it's been enough to close the gap on the Cubs is questionable, and now the Brewers have upgraded their outfield quite a bit with Christian Yelich and Lorenzo Cain. But let's take a look at where the Cards stand at this point.

Rotation: There are only two moves of note here. Lance Lynn was offered a one-year contract, which he turned down, understandably. He's yet to receive a contract from anyone else, though. And the Cardinals signed Miles Mikolas to a two-year contract. Mikolas spent the last three seasons in Japan, where he was quite effective: 62 starts, 424 innings, 2.18 ERA, 8 K/9, 1.5 BB/9. Prior to that, he'd spent parts of three seasons with the Phillies and Rangers, where things didn't go so well: 37 appearances, 10 starts, 91 innings, 5.32 ERA, 4.81 FIP, 6 K/9, 2.8 BB/9. His home run rate in Japan was also half of what it was in the States.

So the question is whether he figured something out in Japan that will translate to greater success here, or if he's a AAAA player, good enough to succeed there, but not here. If he does work out, it'll probably be as a poor man's Mike Leake. As you may recall, I was not a fan of the Mike Leake signing, but that was because of the years on the contract and the no-trade clause. I expected that he'd block the advancement of some young starter with more potential, but it turned out to be much easier to trade him than I anticipated. In Mikolas' case, his contract is short enough, and for few enough dollars the team shouldn't have any trouble setting him aside if he flops. If he succeeds, great. There are enough question marks about the remainder of the rotation that Mikolas doing well would be a pleasant outcome.

Because as it stands, the other starters are Carlos Martinez, Michael Wacha, Adam Wainwright, and Luke Weaver. I'm probably always going to be concerned about Wacha's shoulder. Wainwright may be done, and we've yet to see if Weaver can be a successful major league starter for a whole season. He threw 138 innings across AAA and the majors last year, and did fine, but they're going to need it for a whole year at the big leagues this year. The Cardinals don't have anyone else who'll be ready before midseason. Alex Reyes probably needs to be brought back slow, let him get his form back in AAA. Jack Flaherty needs more time at AAA as well, ditto guys like Jordan Hicks or Dakota Hudson. I guess they could use John Gant, though he hardly inspires confidence.

I don't want the Cardinals to go sign another mid-rotation guy, because those prospects are close, and can probably fill the gaps soon. It's just that even in the best-case scenario, there's going to be a brief period where the available depth is lacking. If the Cards wanted to grab a frontline guy to pair with Martinez, say Yu Darvish or Chris Archer, I'd be OK with that, depending on the dollars or prospect cost. I was pretty excited about that five-minute rumor the Diamondbacks were shopping Grienke.

Bullpen: This is where the Cardinals have overhauled things the most. They'd already released Broxton and Siegrist during the season, and sent Socolovich back to AAA. This offseason, they've let the injured Trevor Rosenthal walk, and didn't bother to offer contracts to Zach Duke or Seung-hwan Oh. Instead they signed Luke Gregerson to a three-year deal at $5 million per season. Gregerson's coming off a rough year in Houston, mostly due to his home run rate more than doubling from his career numbers. It seems as though four or 5 of the 13 HRs he gave up were cheap ones, owing to pitching in the funhouse mirror version of a stadium the Astros call home. So there's reason to hope he'll rebound. His K and BB rates really didn't change much from the previous year.

Not long ago, they traded Randal Grichuk to the Blue Jays for Dominic Leone and prospect Connor Greene. Greene has a big arm, but his control is mostly poor, and his mechanics are iffy. He's basically another version of Sandy Alcantara, who they traded to the Marlins. Leone is coming off an excellent season in Toronto, 70 innings with a 2.56 ERA and 2.91 FIP. 10.4 K/9 and only 2.8 BB/9. Slightly concerning is that his 2015 and 2016 were terrible: 42 innings total, 36 runs allowed, 32 Ks, 21 BB, 9 HRs! But his 2014 was good, if not on the same level as his 2017. Still, two good years, two horrendous years. I don't know what happened in the bad years, if he was hurt or what. Hopefully he doesn't follow fellow ex-Jay Brett Cecil's example and blow a bunch of leads.

As it stands now, the bullpen has Leone, Cecil, Gregerson (who was named closer, for what that's worth), Tyler Lyons, whatever is left of Matt Bowman's arm, and Sam Tuivalala. Which, if the Cardinals didn't employ a dipshit as manager, would leave one spot open for John Brebbia, Ryan Sheriff, maybe Alex Reyes if they want to try that (they should not try that). But Matheny is apparently insistent he needs 8 relievers, even though he never uses more than 3 at any given time. He picks three guys he trusts, and runs them into the ground. So why have five guys sitting around waiting for their one chance every 10 games to pitch?

Infield: Molina says he's going to retire after his contract runs out in 2020. I'll believe that when I see it. Still, it may be enough time to reach 2,000 hits. Carson Kelly hasn't been included in any trade for Chris Archer - yet. So he's probably the backup again. Matheny isn't even pretending they'll get him regular playing time, saying he'll start whoever he thinks gives them the best chance to win that day. So, another 140 starts for Yadi, then. Again, if the Cardinals did not employ a dipshit for a manager, they'd give Kelly at least one of the starters to be the personal catcher. Mikolas maybe, or Weaver. Or both. Reverse the Ozzie/Royce Clayton arrangement, with the veteran getting two-thirds of the starts. I mean, at some point, someone other than Yadier Molina is going to have be to be catcher.

Matt Carpenter's still set up to play first, and is to be trying to be a smarter baserunner by getting suggestions on which other players he should be emulating in approach. And he may not be batting leadoff next year. Kolten Wong is still here, and we're still hoping he'll put all his skills together in the same season for once. Jedd Gyorko has not been traded as part of a deal for Josh Donaldson or Manny Machado - yet. Paul DeJong is still the projected shortstop, we'll see if he can improve his plate discipline and maintain his average defense. The Cards traded Aledmys Diaz to the Blue Jays (separately of the Grichuk trade) for a minor league outfielder named J.B. Woodward. So the fallback is, Greg Garcia? Maybe Breyvic Valera, who is still on the 40-man roster.

Outfield: The Cardinals traded for Marcell Ozuna from the Marlins, in exchange for four minor leaguers: Magneruis Sierra, Zac Gallen, Alcantara, and Daniel Castano. Ozuna's coming off the best season of his career, having been worth over 5.5 WAR. He provided most of that value with the bat, crushing 37 HRs and posting a 145 OPS+. I would expect he'll bat 4th, behind (in some order) Carpenter/Tommy Pham/Dexter Fowler. Given the skill those three have at getting on-base, he should have plenty of chances to drive in runs. Although if Molina continues to bat 5th, they may just pitch around him.

Past that, Pham is apparently going to be starting centerfielder, with Fowler moving to right, I think. Ozuna's at least an average corner outfielder, Fowler should probably be above-average in a corner, and Pham should be at least average in CF, possibly better, if his eyesight holds up. Pham and Ozuna are a couple of the big question marks for the season. They project as the two best position players, but are only being projected for 3 and 3.5 WAR, respectively. Of course, Pham was worth 6 WAR last year, and Ozuna 5.5. If the projections are right, they're good, but a ways behind the best players on the Cubs (Bryant and Rizzo). If they match last year's numbers, much of the projected gap between the Cards and the Cubs vanishes.

We already mentioned Grichuk being traded. Prior to that, they traded Stephen Piscotty to the Athletics for two prospects, Yairo Munoz and Max Schrock. Schrock's a second baseman very good at making contact, but with not much power so far. Munoz has some power, and some speed, but strikes out a lot and has questionable plate discipline. He's been playing shortstop in the minors, but is probably more of a third baseman or utility infielder.

If they're going to have an 8-man bullpen, then they only have a 4-man bench. One of them is Kelly, one is Garcia. Jose Martinez makes three. I don't know who the fourth is, given the trades of so many of the outfield crew. Fowler could cover CF if Pham needs a day off, or they could put Harrison Bader on the roster. He'd probably benefit from getting regular at-bats in AAA, though. Between the versatility of Garcia, Gyorko, and Carpenter, they can cover all the infield spots. Valera might provide a little more versatility. Luke Voit would be a possible power bat. Of course, if Mozeliak tells Matheny to just live with the 7-man bullpen, you could have two of those guys, but I should probably resign myself to that not happening.

I think they've improved overall, though not by as much as people would like. It's hard to tell, because they were supposedly, by run differential and neutral sequencing, a much better team than their record suggested. If that evens out this year, they might be better by quite a bit. Or it might not turn around and they'll flail hopelessly behind the Cubs and possibly the Brewers again. I prefer the Weaver/Mikolas pair to Leake/Lynn, but I'm hard pressed to say it's an upgrade. Who knows with the bullpen. Could be great, could be a disaster. Jhonny Peralta and Matt Adams aren't around to steal at-bats from better players, but we don't know if DeJong can repeat his success. Ditto with Pham and Ozuna, and Jose Martinez. There are just a lot of question marks, given the level of turnover in the last year.

Looking At Franchises' Best Players - American League Central

I had honestly almost forgotten I was doing this. Let's move on to the AL Central, a division with a few more teams with long histories than the AL West. So expect deeper lists here.

Chicago White Sox (existed since 1901):

Top Player: Luke Appling (74 WAR)

#24 Player: Gary Peters (26 WAR)

# of Players with >30 WAR: 19

# of Players with >50 WAR: 8 (Appling, Ted Lyons, Frank Thomas, Eddie Collins, Ed Walsh, Red Faber, Wilbur Wood, Eddie Cicotte)

# of Players with >100 WAR: 0

Can you make a starting line up of the Top 9? Well, six of their Top 9 are pitchers (Appling, Eddie Collins, and the Big Hurt being the exceptions), so no.

Notes: I expected the White Sox would have someone with a higher total, but they're like the Athletics: deep, but not a real high peak. Frank Thomas (34d, 68 WAR) and Mark Buerhle (in 9th at 48 WAR) are the only two players from the last 50 years, maybe longer than that, in the Top 10.

Eddie Collins comes in slightly higher (#4) on the White Sox list than he did the A's (#5), but he also has 9 more WAR for the ChiSox.

Going by the picture Baseball-Reference used, Ed Walsh had seen some shit. Guy looks scary intense.

Shoeless Joe came in at #23. Paul Konerko finished tied at 28 WAR with Carlton Fisk and Ray Schalk. Luis Aparicio is in 15th place, and Minnie Minoso is 12th, with 41 WAR. I know Fisk was in the later days of his career by his time in Chicago, but I'd pictured him having more in the tank than that.

Chris Sale is the only player currently active on the list. He was 18th, at 31 WAR.

Minnesota Twins (existed since 1901, cripes we're giving them credit for the Washington Senators?):

Top Player: Walter Johnson (165 WAR).

#24 Player: Frank Viola (27 WAR).

# of Players >30 WAR: 20.

# of Players >50 WAR: 6. (Johnson, Rod Carew, Harmon Killebrew, Joe Mauer, Sam Rice, Kirby Puckett)

# of Players >100 WAR: 1

Can you make a starting lineup of the Top 9? Close. Don't know what the defense would be like, but put Killebrew at 3rd and Carew at 2nd, you're only missing a SS and LF. 3 pitchers, though.

Notes: Walter Johnson is over 100 WAR ahead of Carew, which is staggering. Carew is a Hall of Famer, and the gap between him and Johnson is an equal to an even better Hall of Famer. Probably that gap in the level of competition rearing its head again. But regardless, you've got to be damn good for a long time to accumulate that kind of value.

Brad Radke was the 3rd pitcher in the Top 9 besides Johnson and Blyleven.

Johan Santana came in 19th at 35 WAR, just behind Jim Kaat. My dad's a big fan of Kaat, who spent the last four seasons of his 25-year career with the Cardinals. As B-R lists him as below replacement level for those years, he will not be making the Cardinals' list.

Joe Mauer is the only currently active player. He's 7 WAR behind Killebrew, so I'm not sure he can catch him. Two more years like last year would do it, but if he regresses to his 2016 performance, it'll take 4 more years.

There's a clump of 7 guys in the 40s, which isn't too shabby. I thought having the Senators' history as part of theirs would give the Twins a deeper list, but I think I underestimated how miserable the Senators were for most of their history. The Twins' players account for 15 of the 24 on the list, even though they've existed for a few years (57) less than the Senators (60).

Kansas City Royals (existed since 1969):

Top Player: George Brett (88 WAR).

#24 Player: Johnny Damon (17 WAR).

# Players >30 WAR: 8

# Players >50 WAR: 1. Brett, obviously.

# Players >100 WAR: 0

Can you make a starting lineup of the Top 9? The 3 pitchers (Appier, Saberhagen, Gubicza) say no, but you could get close if you were willing to play Alex Gordon at 3rd and Brett at 1st. Still no C or SS, though.

Notes: The Royals do have 4 (Appier, Saberhagen, Willie Wilson, Amos Otis) players in the 40s, which isn't terrible. It isn't great, either. The Mariners have more guys above 50 WAR than KC, and they've existed 10 years less. Although the Mariners beat the Angels and Rangers on that score, too, and they both predate the Royals.

Only having 3 players in the 30s is unimpressive, though. Really fast drop off on this list.

I've read a lot of Royals' fans over the years talk about how underappreciated Kevin Appier is. I hadn't ever really bought in, but 47 WAR is pretty good.

Dan Quisenberry is 12th with 25 WAR. He spent a couple years near the end with the Cardinals, where I really dug that submarine delivery.

As far as currently active players go, there are quite a few. Alex Gordon, obviously, although maybe for not much longer if he doesn't regain the ability to hit. Zack Greinke is in 10th, Lorenzo Cain is tied with Quisenberry right behind him. Recently retired Carlos Beltran is 14th with 24 WAR. Salvador Perez is in 21st with 19 WAR. Since I assume Cain is going to sign elsewhere this offseason, Perez is the only one likely to keep climbing the ladder. If he can match the ~2.5 WAR he's been worth each of the last 3 years, that should get him to 18th next year, between Charlie Liebrandt and Mike Montgomery.

Detroit Tigers (since 1901):

Top Player: Ty Cobb (144 WR)

#24 Player: Rudy York (31 WAR)

# of Players >30 WAR: More than 24, probably.

# of Players >50 WAR: 13, crap. Cobb, Al Kaline, Charlie Gehringer, Lou Whitaker, Alan Trammell, Harry Heilman, Sam Crawford, Hal Newhouser, Justin Verlander, Hank Grennburg, Norm Cash, Tommy Bridges, Miguel Cabrera

# of Players >100 WAR: 1.

Can you make a starting lineup of the Top 9? Nope, and it's not really having too many pitchers (they have two). They have 3 guys B-R lists as Rightfielder/First baseman. No catcher, no third baseman.

Notes: Now that's a deep team. 13 guys with at least 50 WAR? Damn. 8 of those guys have more than 60, and the Top 5 are all at 70 WAR or more. I had the impression Hank Greenburg was one of the greatest players in history, and he barely makes Detroit's Top 10.  It's what you'd expect though. The Tigers have had a lot of stretches of being really good over their long history.

John Hiller, Chet Lemon, and Lance Parrish would all be players with more than 30 WAR who didn't make the Top 24. Parrish is at 29.9, but I assume they'd round up.

Jack Morris is on here, 21st place, with 38 WAR. So he's in the same place on this list as Salvador Perez was on the Royals', but with twice the WAR.

Mickey Lolich's (15th, 47 WAR) picture makes him look a bit like Paul Newman.

The guy just ahead of Lolich is called Dizzy Trout, which is a fantastic name. Pitch like Dizzy Dean, do everything else like Mike Trout. And if the Angels had him, they probably still couldn't make the playoffs.

Verlander and Cabrera are the only two active guys on the list. Verlander was traded away, but Cabrera's still there. Of course, he was below replacement level last year, and has 6 years left on that contract, at about $30 million per. Ouch. If he doesn't turn things around, he's going to descend the list, rather than climb it.

Cleveland Indians (existing since 1901, albeit as the Blues, Bronchos, and Naps the first 14 years):

Top Player: Nap Lajoie (79 WAR)

#24 Player: Elmer Flick (31 WAR).

# of Players >30 WAR: At least 30.

# of Players >50 WAR: 5. Lajoie, Tris Speaker, Bob Feller, Lou Boudreau, Stan Coveleski.

# of Players >100 WAR: 0

Can you make a starting lineup of the Top 9? Nope, too many outfielders. 3 CFs (Speaker, Kenny Lofton, Earl Averill), plus Lajoie (sine Thome would have to play first).

Notes: Not quite what I was expecting. It's a deep list, but a low peak, like the Athletics. They do have two players with more than 70 WAR in Lajoie and Speaker, and Feller and Boudreau are both in the 60s. 9 players between 40 and 50 WAR, though, which isn't bad. On par with the Twins. I'm guessing the 50 years of being terrible post-World War II have something to do with the state of this list.

There are at least four players who would qualify as having more than 30 WAR who didn't make the list, including Omar Vizquel and Manny Ramirez. Well, Manny's at 29.9, but as with Lance Parrish, I'm assuming they'd round up.

There's Shoeless Joe again, this time at 19th with 34 WAR. Larry Doby is 13th, at 43 WAR.

As you might have guessed from my comment about the lack of color photos, there are no active players on this list. I would have expected another couple of guys from the late '90s teams to have made it on here, at least at the bottom.

Boredom Versus Disaster

The St. Louis Cardinals still haven't accomplished much this offseason. Lance Lynn rejected the qualifying offer, surprising no one. They tendered contracts to Wacha, Lyons, and Grichuk. They've made an offer to the Marlins to acquire Giancarlo Stanton, and the Marlins like it, but Stanton has little interest in playing in St. Louis, and he has a no-trade clause. The Giants are also in the mix, though there are of course rumors Stanton is hoping the Dodgers jump in. The Dodgers, thus far, seem reluctant to take on the kind of salary the Marlins would want them to.

I assume the Marlins will break first, since the new ownership apparently really wants out from under Stanton's contract. That won't mean a thing if the Dodgers aren't interested, though.

The Cards added 4 players to the 40-man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 Draft: Tyler O'Neil, Oscar Mercado, Derian Gonzalez, and Austin Gomber. Which left one open spot, until they traded Aledmys Diaz to the Blue Jays for another minor league outfielder. Because they don't have enough of those. They could open up some more spots on the 40-man by removing dead weight like Mike Mayers, or OK but not essential types like Breyvic Valera.

As for Arizona, they lost to the Rams again last weekend, and fell to 5-7. They've been outscored by about 100 points, and are starting Blaine Gabbert. Their lead rusher is Adrian Peterson, still with less than 500 yards. None of their running backs average even four yards per carry. Larry Fitzgerald is the only one catching any passes. Nelson and Jaron Brown combined have fewer catches and yards than Fitzgerald. Whether that's because they're bad (probably) or because none of the Cardinals QBs are any good throwing downfield (also true), or because the O-line is too shitty for the QBs to even try throwing downfield (always true), the fact is. . . well, everything is bad.

Looking At Franchise's Best Players - American League West

Baseball-Reference has started including, on each team's franchise page, a list of their top 24 (or 12, in a few cases) players, as measured by Wins Above Replacement. So I'm going to go through each division and look at some of the results. We'll take it one division at a time.

Los Angeles Angels (existed since 1961):

Top Player: Mike Trout (55 WAR)

#24 Player: Doug DeCinces (18 WAR)

# of Players with >30 WAR: 10

# of Players with >50 WAR: 2 (Trout and Chuck Finley)

# with >100 WAR: 0

Can you make a starting lineup out of the Top 9? No. Four pitchers (Finley, Nolan Ryan, Jered Weaver, Frank Tanana).

Comments: Does it speak more to how great Mike Trout is that he's already the most valuable player in team history, or to how the Angels have had any longtime standout players in their 55+ year history? There are some pretty good players on there - Nolan Ryan (#5), Brian Downing (#6), Vlad Guerrero (#16), Jim Edmonds (#22) - just none of them were there for long. Everybody from #11-22 has a WAR somewhere in the 20s, which suggest either they were really good for a few years, or unspectacular for several years.

Rod Carew's number was retired by the team, but is not in the top 24, as he generated 17.3 WAR for the Angels (versus around 64 WAR for the Twins).

Oakland Athletics (counting time in Philadelphia and KC, existed since 1901):

Top Player: Eddie Plank (76 WAR)

#24: Barry Zito (30 WAR)

# of Players with >30 WAR: 24

# of Players with >50 WAR: 8 (Plank, Rickey Henderson, Jimme Foxx, Lefty Grove, Eddie Collins, Sal Bando, Al Simmons, Eddie Rommel).

# of Players with >100 WAR: 0

Can you make a starting lineup out of their Top 9? No. Three pitchers (Plank, Lefty Grove, Eddie Rommel), only two outfielders.

Comments: It appears the A's need to look into exploiting the untapped "Eddie" market. Seems to have worked out pretty well for them in their Philly days.

I expected the A's to have someone with a higher total, but instead it's a deep roster, but with a low peak. Their 24th most valuable player would be 11th on the Angels list. Eddie Collins, their #5 player, would be first on L.A.'s, (until about one month into next season at the rate Trout accumulates value).

The list skews old, which may be a recurring theme. It seems like it was easier for players in the early 20th Century to accumulate value compared to now. Maybe because there was so much bigger of a gap between guys who were actually good, and the guys who wouldn't have been in the league if black players weren't barred from playing. The best guys padded their numbers against the Sisters of the Poor.

Anyway, only 10 of Oakland's guys played recently enough to get a color picture. Sal Bando and Bert Campaneris played long enough ago to have been Kansas City Athletics. Eric Chavez, Tim Hudson, and Barry Zito are the only ones to play for them in the 21st Century. Rickey Henderson finished 2nd overall; I expect to see him on at least one more team's Top 24.

Texas Rangers (since 1961, including time as the Washington Senators):

Top Player: Ivan Rodriguez (49 WAR)

#24: Kevin Brown (17 WAR)

# of Players with >30 WAR: 10

# of Players with >50 WAR: 0

# of Players with >100 WAR: 0

Can you make a starting lineup out of their Top 9? No. Two pitchers, two catchers, no outfielders

Comments: With all the big offensive numbers members of the Rangers have put up, I'd expected somebody to be further up there. I also expected Nolan Ryan to be on here somewhere, but no, he generated 15 WAR for the Rangers. Still got his number retired by them. Someone who will be on two lists is Fergie Jenkins, who ranks 17th here, and will come in significantly higher on the Cubs' list.

Alex Rodriguez is tied with Michael Young for 13th on the list. Adrian Beltre is third, behind Pudge and Rafael Palmeiro. He's only three WAR behind Palmeiro, so he might be able to catch him, depending on how much he's got left in the tank. I keep expecting him to show his age. Other than him, Elvis Andrus is the only person currently on their roster on the list, at #11.

Charlie Hough and Kenny Rogers are the most valuable pitchers in franchise history, at 33 and 32 WAR, which puts them 7th and 8th, respectively. Fairly light on pitchers, only 5 total (Yu Darvish being the only one I haven't mentioned so far).

Seattle Mariners: (since 1977):

Top Player: Ken Griffey Jr. (70 WAR)

#24 Player: Nelson Cruz (13 WAR)

# of Players with >30 WAR: 7

# of Players with >50 WAR: 4 (Griffey, Edgar Martinez, Ichiro, King Felix)

# of Players with >100 WAR: 0

Can you make a starting line of their Top 9? While I'm loathe to doubt Ichiro, three pitchers (Felix, Randy Johnson, Jamie Moyer), no catcher, and they'd have to risk playing Edgar Martinez somewhere on the field.

Comments: It drops off fast. Felix is at 52 WAR, the next guy is the Big Unit at 39 WAR. By the time you reach Alvin Dark in the 12th spot, you're below 20 WAR. Which reflects the relatively short time the franchise has existed, as well as the fact they were pretty awful for the first 15 years.

Alex Rodriguez is on here, at #6. Adrian Beltre is also here, at #10 (21 WAR). Robinson Cano is #11, if he replicates last year, he'll jump to 9th. If Nelson Cruz can duplicate his results last year, that would get him to around 17th or 18th. Kyle Seager is in 8th, he's probably a couple of seasons away from catching Moyer, maybe more if this year is indicative of his level of play going forward.

Speaking of people on multiple teams' lists, Mark Langston is on here (19 WAR) and on the Angels' (26 WAR) list, and he's in 13th place for both teams. Kind of a neat coincidence.

Houston Astros (since 1962):

Top Player: Jeff Bagwell (79 WAR)

#24 Player: Richard Hidalgo (17 WAR)

# of Players with >30 WAR: 10

# of Players with >50 WAR: 3 (Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Jose Cruz)

# of Players with >100 WAR: 0

Can you make a starting lineup of the Top 9? Nope. Two pitchers (Roy Oswalt and Larry Dierker), and no shortstops or third basemen.

Comments: Jose Altuve is 11th right now, at 29 WAR. He should pass Dierker (32 WAR) in 8th easily next year.

Nolan Ryan may not have made it with the Rangers, but he does qualify with Houston, coming in 15h with 23 WAR. J.R. Richard in 18th is the last player above 20 WAR. There's a pretty big drop between Jim Wynn at 7th and Dierker, from 41 to 32 WAR. Cesar Cedeno and Lance Berkman both got close to 50, but didn't quite make it.