Giants All-Time Team v.2012
In addition to our overall review, we are adding an infielder, an outfielder and two starting pitchers to last year's squad as part of our roster revamping.
The All-Time Giants team is certainly one of the best you'll find among our database of All-Time teams. The expanded rotation boasts four pitchers who arguably rank among the top 30 starting pitchers or all-time in baseball history. The outfield consists of three all-timers and while the infield lacks some luster, you'd be hard pressed to find a team with more Hall of Famers.
We did add a current player to the roster... admittedly, this goes against the grain a little bit because the player we added doesn't have an enormous track record, however, we felt that the biggest weak spot of this team was catcher and given the fact that Buster Posey has a ROY, an MVP, a comeback player of the year and two World Series championships under his proverbial belt, we felt that it was appropriate to add him over Tom Haller, who had (essentially) six good seasons with the Giants.
For the infielder, we added Orlando Cepeda, who compiled a 140 OPS+ over the course of nine seasons with the Giants.
Picking an outfielder forced us to reevaluate our stance against PED users... while we may not like Barry Bonds and the fact that his name is synonymous with steroids and the steroid era but Giants fans still have a soft spot in their hearts for the seven-time MVP (five with the Giants) and this is not about us, it's about getting these teams right. It's about picking the right guy at the right position to best represent the franchise.
In a refreshing twist, the starting pitching spots were quite easy for us to fill here. Carl Hubbell and Gaylord Perry just missed the cut on last year's team, so the decision was relatively easy to add them. Again, I'd rank each of these guys among my personal top 30 starting pitchers in baseball history so it's safe to say that this four man rotation would stack up against any.
Here's our team. Tell us what you think.
C - Buster Posey
1B - Bill Terry
2B - Jeff Kent
SS - Travis Jackson
3B - Matt Williams
IF - Orlando Cepeda
OF - Willie Mays
OF - Mel Ott
OF - Barry Bonds
OF/DH - Willie McCovey
SP - Christy Mathewson
SP - Juan Marichal
SP - Carl Hubbell
SP - Gaylord Perry
RP - Robb Nen
Strong pitching and strong lineup. You would think they would have more championships. The team in the 1960's really under performed. They were very talent loaded.
ReplyDeleteYou would think they'd have more championships... even in the early 1900's when they had Christy Mathewson and Joe McGinnity going, they only won one World Series. Mathewson pitched three shutouts in the 1905 World Series (a series that went five games - Christy pitched three games in six days). The won back to back World Series in 1921-22 over the Yankees (a huge deal... the NY Giants were the kings of NY) but you could argue that this era of Giants baseball has been the most fruitful and meaningful (considering the franchise now resides in San Francisco).
ReplyDeleteI like Robbie Thompson at 2B over Jeff Kent although is close. I also like Wil Clark over Orlando Cepeda as reserve IF. Three old time great SP's in Amos Rusie, Mickey Welch and Tim Keefe. OK with Gaylord however.
ReplyDeletev 2017 when you do an all-time team its got to be a 25 man roster so we go: c-Posey/Ewing, 1b-Terry/Connor, 2b-Frisch/Kent, 3b-Lindstrom/Williams, ss-G Davis/Jackson, lf-Ba Bonds/Tiernan, cf-Mays/Van Haltren, rf-Ott/Youngs. sp-Mathewson, Marichal, Hubbell, Welch, Rusie. bullpen-Keefe, Beck, Nen, B Wilson. Mgr-McGraw. Proper stats works for all decades. I know where's McCovey (my childhood fav)very close with Roger Connor but just missed. "by the stats"
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