The best MLB rosters of all time (Part 5/5)

They say that when you’re developing a metric or whatever, the best ones give you more or less exactly what you would have imagined, but still give you a couple surprises. You know, “Mike Trout was good, Barry Bonds was good, and WAR tells us that, but holy crap look what it tells us about Ben Zobrist.” That sort of thing.

My little experiment in building the best all-time Major League Baseball rosters out of single-season WAR totals did not do that. It would have been interesting if, say, the Brewers had had just enough pop-up seasons from surprising names that, combined with the Younts and Molitors and such, they put together the best roster. But no. The teams in today’s top six will not come as much of a surprise, especially the top four.

That doesn’t mean it’s not an interesting exercise! I doubt anyone handicapping this little game would have guessed Snuffy Stirnweiss would appear, or that the Yankees’ top pitcher was a guy named Ford but not Whitey, or that Rogers Hornsby would appear on more teams than there are atoms in the universe. It doesn’t have to be educational to be entertaining.

To recap, check out Part 1 (Teams 25-30 plus an explanation of approach), Part 2 (Teams 19-24), Part 3 (Teams 13-18), and Part 4 (Teams 7-12). And thanks as always to Baseball Reference for making this easy to track down.

On to the top of the heap.

6. Detroit Tigers (cumulative WAR: 141.2)

C: Bill Freehan 1968, 6.9
1B: Norm Cash 1961, 9.2
2B: Charlie Gehringer 1934, 8.8
3B: Miguel Cabrera 2013, 7.5
SS: Alan Trammell 1987, 8.2
LF: Rocky Colavito 1961, 7.6
CF: Ty Cobb 1917, 11.3
RF: Ty Cobb 1909, 9.9
DH: Ty Cobb 1911, 10.7
SP1: Hal Newhouser 1945, 11.3
SP2: Mark Fidrych 1976, 9.6
SP3: Hal Newhouser 1946, 9.6
SP4: Dizzy Trout 1944, 9.3
SP5: Justin Verlander 2011, 8.6
RP1: John Hiller 1973, 7.9
RP2: Willie Hernandez 1984, 4.8

In 1973, Hiller pitched in 65 games, all out of the bullpen. He had 38 saves and a 1.44 ERA. He finished fourth in both the Cy Young and the MVP voting. None of that would be wildly out of the ordinary even in today’s game, except for the fact that in his 65 games he pitched 125.1 innings (almost two innings per appearance), which helped him put up a whopping 7.9 WAR, the second-most WAR for any pitcher with zero starts in baseball history (only Goose Gossage’s 1975 produced more) and comfortably ahead of 1984 Cy Young and MVP winner Hernandez. After that, there aren’t many huge surprises in the Tigers history, except that Cabrera does make it as a third baseman but not as a first baseman, where he peaked at 7.6 WAR.

5. Minnesota Twins (cumulative WAR: 143.2)

C: Joe Mauer 2009, 7.8
1B: Rod Carew 1977, 9.7
2B: Chuck Knoblauch 1996, 8.7
3B: Corey Koskie 2001, 6.3
SS: Joe Cronin 1930, 8.5
LF: Goose Goslin 1928, 7.5
CF: Kirby Puckett 1992, 7.1
RF: Bob Allison 1963, 7.4
DH: Rod Carew 1975, 7.9
SP1: Walter Johnson 1913, 15.1
SP2: Walter Johnson 1912, 13.2
SP3: Walter Johnson 1914, 11.7
SP4: Walter Johnson 1915, 11.5
SP5: Walter Johnson 1919, 10.6
RP1: Doug Corbett 1980, 5.7
RP2: Ron Perranoski 1969, 4.5

The Twins join the White Sox as the only two teams to get more total WAR from the seven pitchers than from the nine position players, and in the Twins’ case it’s almost entirely due to ol’ Big Train’s contributions to the Senators back in the day. No other team had a pitcher even make the list four times, but I would have had to go down to Bert Blyleven’s 1973 in ninth place to find a non-Walter Johnson starter on the Twins list. Also, it tickles me to no end at all that the third baseman on the fifth-best MLB roster in history is somehow Corey Koskie, who was surprisingly good in his prime in Minnesota but didn’t last very long. Still, this isn’t the No. 27 team. This is No. 5, and Corey Koskie is on it? Wild.

4. St. Louis Cardinals (cumulative WAR: 145.8)

C: Yadier Molina 2012, 7.2
1B: Albert Pujols 2009, 9.7
2B: Rogers Hornsby 1924, 12.2
3B: Scott Rolen 2004, 9.2
SS: Rogers Hornsby 1917, 9.9
LF: Stan Musial 1951, 8.8
CF: Willie McGee 1985, 8.2
RF: Stan Musial 1948, 11.3
DH: Rogers Hornsby 1921, 10.8
SP1: Bob Gibson 1968, 11.2
SP2: Bob Gibson 1969, 10.4
SP3: Dizzy Dean 1934, 8.9
SP4: Bob Gibson 1970, 8.9
SP5: Harry Brecheen 1948, 8.7
RP1: Lindy McDaniel 1960, 5.9
RP2: Bruce Sutter 1984, 4.5

For a team with the storied history of the Cardinals to have Molina and Rolen pop up on the list might be a bit of a surprise, but then both are Hall of Famers (shut up, I said what I said) so I guess it isn’t too shocking. Musial and Pujols and Gibson and … look, the Cardinals have had a lot of big names do a lot of big things, and I could go on about all of them, and I really want to talk about Rogers Hornsby, but I need to get to one more team before I can, so just marvel at how good the Cardinals have been and read one more quick list for me …

3. San Francisco Giants (cumulative WAR: 148.6)

C: Buster Posey 2012, 7.6
1B: Will Clark 1989, 8.6
2B: Rogers Hornsby 1927, 10.2
3B: Mel Ott 1938, 8.9
SS: Art Fletcher 1917/Dave Bancroft 1921, 7.4
LF: Barry Bonds 2001, 11.9
CF: Willie Mays 1965, 11.2
RF: Mel Ott 1932, 8.3
DH: Barry Bonds 2002, 11.7
SP1: Christy Mathewson 1908, 11.8
SP2: Joe McGinnity 1903, 11.7
SP3: Juan Marichal 1965, 10.3
SP4: Christy Mathewson 1903, 9.9
SP5: Carl Hubbell 1936, 9.7
RP1: Greg Minton 1982, 5.4
RP2: Gary Lavelle 1977, 40

So Rogers Hornsby was known as a tough-to-get-along-with dude, basically the National League’s answer to Ty Cobb. He entered the league with the Cardinals, where he played from 1915 to 1926 (age 19 to age 30) and was just incredible. As you saw above, he had two of the three best WAR totals for a position player in the Cardinals long history. Despite all that, and after a seven-year batting line of .386/.456/.638 from 1920 to 1926, the Cardinals traded Hornsby before 1927 to the Giants, where he promptly hit .361/.448/.586, led the National League in runs scored, and put up the best season by an infielder in the history of the Giants. Pretty good, right? Well, between an inability to get along and Hornsby’s refusal to stop going to the track, the Giants couldn’t deal with it and they traded him to the Braves. In 1928 in Boston, he led the league in all slash line stats, hitting .387/.498/.632, drawing a league-leading 107 walks, and putting up the best infielder season in Braves history as well. Okay! Good times! That offseason, financial troubles led to the Braves offloading him to the Cubs. So now Hornsby’s a 33-year-old playing for what had once been his biggest rival. And what did he do there? He played four years, slashed .350/.435/.604, won an MVP, and had the best season (by WAR) for a position player in baseball history. What I’m saying is, there are like 15 movies to be made about Rogers Hornsby’s baseball life, and the fact that as far as I know we have zero is incredible.

Also, look! Will Clark! (Yes, I waited to do the Giants ‘til last in my research, and I waited to do the team’s first basemen ‘til last as well, in hopes I could finish things off with Will Clark — though I wasn’t sure — and it worked!)

2. Boston Red Sox (cumulative WAR: 151.5)

C: Carlton Fisk 1972, 7.3
1B: Jimmie Foxx 1938, 7.6
2B: Dustin Pedroia 2011, 8.0
3B: Wade Boggs 1985, 9.1
SS: Rico Petrocelli 1969, 10.0
LF: Carl Yastrzemski 1967, 12.5
CF: Tris Speaker 1912, 10.1
RF: Mookie Betts 1918, 10.6
DH: Ted Williams 1946, 10.6
SP1: Cy Young 1901, 12.6
SP2: Pedro Martinez 2000, 11.7
SP3: Lefty Grove 1936, 11.2
SP4: Roger Clemens 1990, 10.4
SP5: Smoky Joe Wood 1912, 10.1
RP1: Jonathan Papelbon 2006, 5.0
RP2: Bob Stanley 1982, 4.7

Since 1901, there have been 119 player-seasons with double-digit WAR. And while I’m not sure Petrocelli is the most surprising one on the list (Jose Rijo had one, just to name a name), it’s definitely close to it. Petrocelli hit .297/.403/.589 in 1969 (46 points above his career batting average, 71 ahead of his career OBP, 169 ahead of his career SLG), making the All-Star team (one of only two times he did so in his career) and finishing seventh in the MVP voting. He never had even 5.0 WAR in a season otherwise. He’s also 76 and still kicking, so if you ever seen Rico Petrocelli on the street, give him a high-five for an incredible 1969 season.

In other news, how crazy is the Red Sox history that Williams couldn’t even make the team outside of basically an honorable mention as the team’s DH? Red Sox, y’all been real good.

1. New York Yankees (cumulative WAR: 154.4)

C: Thurman Munson 1973, 7.8
1B: Lou Gehrig 1927, 11.8
2B: Snuffy Stirnweiss 1945, 8.8
3B: Alex Rodriguez 2005/Alex Rodriguez 2007, 9.4
SS: Derek Jeter 1999, 8.0
LF: Babe Ruth 1921, 12.6
CF: Mickey Mantle 1957, 11.3
RF: Babe Ruth 1923, 14.1
DH: Babe Ruth 1928, 12.5
SP1: Russ Ford 1910, 11.4
SP2: Jack Chesbro 1904, 10.6
SP3: Ron Guidry 1978, 9.6
SP4: Lefty Gomez 1937, 9.2
SP5: Lefty Gomez 1934/Andy Pettitte 1997, 8.4
RP1: Mariano Rivera 1996, 5.0
RP2: Sparky Lyle 1982, 4.5

What, you were expecting the Marlins? Borins as it is, of course the Yankees finished first in this little game, and of course they could have just dropping a position or two altogether and still comfortably been top-five. More interesting are the surprise names: Russ Ford, not Whitey, with the best starting pitcher season. Pettitte popping up. Rodriguez tying himself atop the third-base list. Only one Rivera season and not two. No Joe DiMaggio.

But my favorite, unsurprisingly, is Stirnweiss. It’s not like he’s a household name these days, but what fame Stirnweiss does have he can almost entirely credit to World War II. Joe Gordon left for the war, and that meant Stirnweiss inherited the job. In one season before Gordon left, Stirnweiss hit .219/333/.288 in 325 plate appearances. In seven seasons after 1945, he his .247/.353/.323. But in 1944-1945? Snuffy Stirnweiss his .314/.387/.468 as the leadoff hitter for the Yankees and finished fourth and third in the MVP voting. In 1945, he led the American League in plate appearances, at bats, runs, hits, triples, stolen bases, batting average, slugging percentage, OPS, OPS+, and total bases. And then everyone came back from war (not WAR) and he was bad again. World War II was bad for most of the world, but it worked out okay for the Stirnweiss family.