All-Decade Team: 2010's NL

Today, we're going to dive into the 2010's All-Decade team for the National League.  

This team was fairly easy for us to agree upon, with the exception of a couple positions.  There are a few players that didn't make the cut because of prime years spent in other decades/leagues; Brandon Phillips and Carlos Beltran could have made a stronger argument on this team had they played the entire decade in the NL.  

There are certainly some holes in this lineup that make it lack some luster, comparatively speaking.  Shortstop, second base and third base aren't particularly strong so the lineup probably wouldn't hold up against some of the better all-decade teams we've put together) but it was a fun team to look at and there is some decent depth in the outfield and within the rotation.

The most challenging position to agree upon was probably catcher, where we had Buster Posey eking out Yadier Molina.  Buster's hardware (3x WS Champ, MVP and batting title) gave him the edge, in our mind but Yadi is certainly worthy of a mention (8 All-Star appearances and 7 Gold Gloves).    

There was also some discussions at 1B which caused us to pause a bit.

There have been a lot of solid National League first basemen over the past decade so it's not a surprise that a second first baseman made the team in our infield spot.  Unfortunately, Freddie Freeman and Anthony Rizzo weren't able to crack this lineup but we felt both were worthy of mention, as well as Matt Carpenter (who might be one of the most underappreciated players in the National League over the past decade).

We agreed on the first two outfielders rather easily; Ryan Braun * and Andrew McCutchen have the numbers and hardware to anchor the outfield.  The last two spots were up for debate with Justin Upton, Carlos Gonzalez, Charlie Blackmon, Christian Yelich narrowly missing the cut.  

The rotation is strong enough to hold up against most; there are some big arms and personalities on this staff, with Clayton Kershaw the undeniable ace and Craig Kimbrel serving as the lock down closer.  We considered Adam Wainwright, Cole Hamels, Johnny Cueto, Stephen Strasburg and the beloved Jose Fernandez but inevitably, felt that Zack Greinke and Max Scherzer had done enough in the NL to warrant spots on this staff (hard to argue against Max Scherzer's two Cy Young's).

Without further adieu, here's your 2010's NL Squad. 

C - Buster Posey

1B - Joey Votto

2B - Daniel Murphy

SS - Troy Tulowitzki

3B - Nolan Arenado

IF - Paul Goldschmidt

OF - Andrew McCutchen

OF - Ryan Braun

OF - Bryce Harper

OF - Giancarlo Stanton

SP - Clayton Kershaw

SP - Madison Bumgarner 

SP - Zack Greinke

SP - Max Scherzer

RP - Craig Kimbrel

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