Certain questions have been common as I’ve done my first couple dozen radio interviews for Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises. What criteria did you use? What were some of the harder decisions? Are you getting any reaction yet from readers on social media? And of course questions about the local team(s) for each radio station’s main audience.
Another question that has been asked at times is how much will the 30-man dream team rosters and starting lineups changes over time going forward? In response I always note that Now Taking the Field is not a one-and-done book project, but rather something that will be ongoing and involve updated editions probably every two or three years. I say this for two reasons. First, I’m engaging in a lot of discussion with baseball fans, especially diehard fans of each particular team, both on Twitter at @TomStoneBB, and on Facebook at both the page I created for Now Taking the Field and at various fan group pages for each team. With 900 total player selections in the book (30 players for each of the 30 franchises), I’m sure I’ll get convinced that I made an error here or there. I also might change my opinion on a few players based on more analysis and research of my own, as there certainly were a lot of close calls that I could reverse without too much extra evidence and logic required.
The other reason is that baseball keeps marching on, year after year, and current players that were close to making an All-Time Dream Team roster after the 2018 regular season (which is when the book went to print) could deserve a spot after the 2019 season, or after 2020, and so on. I know this because in October I quickly updated the book to include the 2018 regular season statistics, and that caused a few changes to the rosters. I’ve mentioned a few of these during my interviews when the question arises, but here is the complete list – including one change that I really should have made, but in my haste whiffed on!
Mets – Jacob deGrom
You could make a case prior to 2018 that Jacob deGrom already deserved a spot on the 30-man All-Time Team roster for the Mets. I hadn’t yet included him, but then clearly had to after his outstanding, and eventually Cy Young Award-winning season, in which he posted a 1.70 ERA with 269 strikeouts in 217 innings pitched. The only questions I had was who to drop on the dream team pitching staff, and how high up the ranks of starting pitchers should deGrom be listed? The eighth and final starting pitching on my list was Ron Darling, and the fourth and final reliever was Armando Benitez. Although Benitez was dominating at times, I decided to drop him and go with nine SP and just three RP. With a 10.1 WAR score (9.6 pitching and 0.5 hitting), deGrom’s 2018 season ranks as their fourth best pitching season ever, behind Dwight Gooden (1985), Tom Seaver (1973), and Tom Seaver (1971). But the rank of players at each position isn’t based on the best single season WAR total or total WAR for that matter either. For now I’ve decided to list deGrom seventh, after Seaver, Gooden, Koosman, Matlack, Leiter, and Fernandez, and ahead of Cone and Darling. If deGrom continues to put up numbers even close to his historic 2018 season, he’ll continue to rise on this list.
Mariners – Nelson Cruz and Edwin Diaz
Prior to the 2018 season it was a close call as to who should be the final outfielder for the Mariner’s All-Time Dream Team. Clear choices were Ken Griffey Jr. in CF, and Ichiro Suzuki and Jay Buhner in RF. After that I included Raul Ibanez as the top LF, and Mike Cameron as an additional CF. Deferring to my general desire to have two at each position, I then had gone with Phil Bradley as another LF, even though Nelson Cruz’ HR numbers in three seasons were already adding up. Even though he has played much more as a DH than RF for the Mariners, after hitting 44, 43, 39, and 37 homeruns from 2015-2018 I think Cruz now deserves a spot. His 16.8 total WAR is higher than Bradley’s 12.8, and his WAR per game is higher also (.0277 vs. .0209). That said, Cruz can’t crack the starting lineup for this All-Time Dream Team since Ichiro is in RF and Edgar Martinez is the DH (unless you play Martinez at 3B, but that would painful given the better fielding Seager and Beltre are on this roster as options at 3B).
Closer Edwin Diaz had eye-popping numbers in 2018: 1.96 ERA, 124 strikeouts in only 73.1 IP, and a team-record 57 saves. Given the Mariners relatively short history, that outstanding season combined with his solid first two seasons was enough to warrant inclusion on this dream team pitching staff. I decided to list him behind J.J. Putz and Kazuhiro Sasaki, but ahead of outstanding setup men Jeff Nelson and Arthur Rhodes who I also included on this roster.
Ironically, it seems neither Diaz nor Cruz will be adding to their list of Mariners accomplishments, as Diaz has been traded along with Robinson Cano to the Mets and Cruz is likely to be playing elsewhere in 2019 as well.
Rockies – Trevor Story
With only 25 years of history to draw from, the Rockies All-Time Dream Team lacks the depth of most other franchises in the book: there are strong starters at most positions, but generally less impressive backups. That was the case at SS for sure, where Troy Tulowitzki is a solid top choice, but the backup was Clint Barmes who over 8 years in Colorado (only three of which he played more than 130 games) had accumulated a 9.3 total WAR score.
Trevor Story had a great rookie season hitting 27 HR in only 97 games, but then his production slipped in 2017 when he hit 24 HR in 145 games, saw his average drop from .272 to .239, and led the NL with 191 strikeouts. But then at age 25 he had his first All-Star campaign in 2018 and ended the year with 37 HR, 108 RBI, a .291 average, and even added a legit speed dimension to his game with 27 SB. At this point he clearly deserves the backup spot at SS on this All-Time Dream Team roster, but it will take many more seasons like that one for him to dethrone Tulowitzki as the starter.
Diamondbacks – A.J. Pollock and David Peralta move up as starters
Before the 2018 season both A.J. Pollock and David Peralta already had spots on my Diamondbacks All-Time Dream roster. For Pollock, I considered it a close call between him and Steve Finley as to who should be the starter in CF. While Pollock only hit 21 HR with 13 SB and a .257 average in 113 games in 2018, that is enough in my mind to give him the edge at this point. Peralta had a far better 2018 campaign, hitting 30 HR with 87 RBI, a .293 average, and a 124 OPS+. For me that now rates him ahead of Gerardo Parra as the backup in LF (still well behind starter Luis Gonzalez) and as the backup in RF (in a closer race with Justin Upton for the top spot).
Nationals/Expos – Max Scherzer moves up two spots (at least)
One of the challenges of choosing All-Time Dream Teams, especially deep 30-man rosters as I did in Now Taking the Field, is determining in various cases how much to weigh longevity with a team vs. peak performance. Readers will variously agree or disagree with each of my decisions on this in each chapter, and the case of Max Scherzer with the Nationals/Expos franchise is an interesting example. Prior to 2018 he was already included on their dream team pitching staff, but with only three years of playing for the team I had him ranked fourth below Steve Rogers, Dennis Martinez, Stephen Strasburg, and ahead of Pedro Martinez, Jordan Zimmerman, Gio Gonzalez, and Javier Vazquez.
At age 34, Scherzer’s 2018 campaign was his best so far for the Nationals, and indeed the highest WAR season for a pitcher in the franchise’s history as he posted a 9.6 WAR (8.8 pitching and 0.8 hitting) after going 18-7 with a 2.53 ERA, 168 ERA+, and 300 strikeouts in 220.2 IP. An All-Star in all four seasons with the Nationals, he has won two Cy Young Awards for them, and also come in second and fifth in the vote. These accomplishments, even though they come from just four seasons, led me to raise him in the pitching list above Strasburg and Martinez, and into the second spot.
You could make a case for him over Steve Rogers for the top spot, but for now I’m deferring to Rogers’ 13 seasons and 45.1 WAR vs. Scherzer’s 30.7 total. In the book I provide their top three WAR seasons, and here Scherzer’s is superior, but not by as much as you might think: 24.4 vs. 19.1, with Rogers’ W3 being better than any other pitcher in franchise history. If Scherzer can put up one more Cy Young caliber season, or several more strong seasons, then I’ll have to rank him first. But until then, he at least deserves the second spot even with such a short tenure.
Red Sox – Mookie Betts… the one I missed!
I’m very willing to admit when I’ve made a mistake, and that is a good thing for Now Taking the Field given the 900 dream team player selections that the book involves. Even with the book in print for only a few weeks at this point, I have to admit one such mistake already: Mookie Betts.
As I noted earlier, in October I hurriedly updated the stats and text in the book to reflect the 2018 regular season (postseason and awards are not included). In doing so, I of course updated the numbers I had in the RF table and writeup for Mookie Betts in the Red Sox chapter. What I didn’t do was pay close enough attention to the players chosen for the Red Sox outfield, as at this point Betts is clearly deserving. In the book I have Williams and Rice in LF, with Yastrzemski listed at 1B (yes this means Manny Ramirez is not included, something I know some Red Sox fans will disagree with). In CF I have Tris Speaker as the clear starter, and then Fred Lynn edging out Reggie Smith and Dom DiMaggio as the backup. And in RF I have Dwight Evans as the similarly clear starter, but then old-timer Harry Hooper as the backup.
Until recently that was justifiable, as Hooper played for the Red Sox for 12 years, stole 300 bases, and was a solid run scorer. He was also very good defensively, and part of an outfield (with Speaker and Duffy Lewis) that for a while was considered the best yet assembled. But after the 2018 season, it is clear that Hooper needs to come off the Red Sox All-Time Dream Team in favor of Mookie Betts. Hooper still has a slightly higher total WAR, but he accumulated that over 12 seasons compared with Betts’ 5 seasons. So clearly Betts’ peak performance is much stronger, and that is reflected in their W3 (top three WAR seasons) where Betts scores 27.0 and Hooper only 14.1. Betts similarly outpaces Hooper on OPS+ as well, 134 to 114. Betts’ 2018 campaign was his best yet, and is actually tied for second all-time for the Red Sox in WAR for non-pitchers. Yastrzemski’s 1967 season generated a 12.4 WAR, and Williams 1946 season scored a 10.9, which was matched Betts with a 10.9 score after he hit 32 HR with 30 SB and led the AL with a .346 average and 129 runs. After my book went to print he went on to win AL MVP and RF Gold Glove honors, and rightly so.
So this is my first mea culpa for Now Taking the Field, as Betts clearly should be on the 30-man Red Sox roster. While he has played more RF than CF so far, Betts arguably could also platoon with Tris Speaker in CF in the two starting lineups I gave for the Red Sox.