Tuesday, July 3, 2007

The Twilight Zone All-Star Game




In the Twilight Zone, anything is possible as long as it bears some semblance to the real world. I thought it would be fun to put together starting lineups for the 2007 MLB All-Star game comprised of all-time players who are most similar to the real starters, accoring to baseball-reference.com

Starting Lineups:

NL
OF Bonds (most similar = Willie Mays)
OF Griffey (Sammy Sosa!)
OF Beltran (Tommy Henrich, Yankees OF in the 1940's)
3B Wright (Garrett Atkins)
SS Reyes (Bill Dahlen, SS from 1891 to 1911)
2B Utley (Alfonso Soriano)
1B Fielder (Kent Hrbek)
C Martin (Terry Steinbach)

AL
OF Ordonez (Wally Berger, Red Sox OF in the 1930's)
OF Guerrero (Albert Belle, not Joey)
OF Ichiro (Mike Donlin, OF 1899 - 1914, .333 career AVG)
3B A. Rodriguez (Eddie Matthews)
SS Jeter (Alan Trammell)
2B Polanco (Julio Franco)
1B Ortiz (Mo Vaughn)
C I. Rodriguez (Yogi Berra)

The AL looks to have the immediate offensive advantage, with HOF'ers Matthews and Berra.

The NL definitely has some pop, too, with Mays, Sosa and Soriano. For the NL, I like a batting order of Soriano, Dahlen, Atkins, Mays, Sosa, Hrbek, Henrich and Steinbach.

For the superior AL squad, I envision a batting order of Donlin, Franco, Belle, Matthews, Berra, Vaughn, Berger and Trammell.

If somebody has one of those simulators that allows you to combine players from different eras, you might try filling out the rosters, and letting me know how the game turns out.

2 comments:

Butch said...

This was a really interesting idea.

I wish BaseballReference would maybe keep the comps to post-WWII, or post-'61 expansion, some other cutoff point... it's hardly meaningful to compare modern players to 19th century guys, the game is so much different now. Bill Dahlen and Turkey Mike Donlin? Come on...

Baseball Prospectus does a similar thing with player comps where they're more modern. Jose Reyes = Jimmy Rollins, Bert Campaneris, Cristian Guzman(?), Luis Aparicio

One interesting thing about Guzman though. He did have one Reyes-like season:

Guzman at age 23: .302/.337/.477, 10 HR, 25 SB

well, ok, Reyes-lite like:

Reyes at age 23: .300/.354/.487, 19 HR, 64 SB

For Ichiro you get Lance Johnson, Matty Alou, Mickey Rivers, Lou Brock

A little more interesting because you know who they're talking about, although the pool is smaller, and they make it even tighter by always comparing guys within the same position.

I think it's more illustrative to say Joe Blow is a shortstop but he hits like Albert Belle, than to say Joe Blow is a shortstop who hits sort'a kind'a like Derek Jeter.

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