What’s the best team you can build with these circumstances?

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make hers mark
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It’s a flawed stat of course, but as inspired by Twitter, what’s the most bWAR you can get out of a team of nine players, from 1871 to today? With no DH, but yes to pitcher.

The catch is, each player has to have played at least 30% of their career games at the position you list them at (thus LF/CF/RF, not just OF) and also their careers cannot overlap, meaning if they played at all in the same season, they cannot be on the same squad here. The record appears to be 827.0 at present.

I’d think it makes the most sense to start with a Ruth/Bonds/Nichols combo but beyond that I’m genuinely flummoxed.
 

PC Drunken Friar

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It’s a flawed stat of course, but as inspired by Twitter, what’s the most bWAR you can get out of a team of nine players, from 1871 to today? With no DH, but yes to pitcher.

The catch is, each player has to have played at least 30% of their career games at the position you list them at (thus LF/CF/RF, not just OF) and also their careers cannot overlap, meaning if they played at all in the same season, they cannot be on the same squad here. The record appears to be 827.0 at present.

I’d think it makes the most sense to start with a Ruth/Bonds/Nichols combo but beyond that I’m genuinely flummoxed.
Why Nichols over Cy Young?
 

Max Power

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Cy Young pitched until 1911 versus 1906 for Nichols, so maybe someone else is lost there. I was thinking of starting with Tim Keefe and going to Nap Lajoie, but that loses you Babe Ruth.

My first thought was Bonds and Trout, but it's way easier to find productive outfielders earlier in baseball history versus infielders. It's a tricky one.
 

PC Drunken Friar

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Cy Young pitched until 1911 versus 1906 for Nichols, so maybe someone else is lost there. I was thinking of starting with Tim Keefe and going to Nap Lajoie, but that loses you Babe Ruth.

My first thought was Bonds and Trout, but it's way easier to find productive outfielders earlier in baseball history versus infielders. It's a tricky one.
So you have an 8 year window to get someone in (Ruth started in 1914) Is there someone obvious?
 

Cesar Crespo

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Dec 22, 2002
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Cy Young pitched until 1911 versus 1906 for Nichols, so maybe someone else is lost there. I was thinking of starting with Tim Keefe and going to Nap Lajoie, but that loses you Babe Ruth.

My first thought was Bonds and Trout, but it's way easier to find productive outfielders earlier in baseball history versus infielders. It's a tricky one.
Tim Keefe would allow George Davis at SS. Wagner, Arod and Ripken Jr are probably off the table.
 

Devizier

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1) A big amount depends on whether Ruth played more games in RF (1923) or LF (1921) in a given season.
2) You need to find short career guys (e.g. Jackie Robinson, a bunch of guys from the 19th century)
3) It's insane how great Buster Posey was at age 25
4) Gotta have Jim Devlin 1876 on this team (P). He only played for 3 official seasons.
 
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Time to Mo Vaughn

RIP Dernell
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Mar 24, 2008
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You probably want to start with a career bwar/(seasons played) on a spreadsheet with Start Year and End Year of the players plus position. Someone handy could probably generate that from baseball reference into excel and then this would become a much easier exercise.
 

PC Drunken Friar

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I'd be open to participating in a SoSH (on your honor) contest.

Give people a week to submit? The winner can be fact checked by the group as a whole.
 

DJnVa

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1) A big amount depends on whether Ruth played more games in RF (1923) or LF (1921) in a given season.

4) Gotta have Jim Devlin 1876 on this team (P). He only played for 3 official seasons.
It's career numbers, not single season. That's why the record is 827.0 for 9 players.
 

singaporesoxfan

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Man, this is a tricky one. You want to maximize WAR/season to over 5.5 per season, and you want to avoid gaps in the years. Best I have so far is 789.8, which was achieved by taking some absolute monsters (Cy Young, Ruth, Morgan, Bonds, Trout), adding Mize, and then throwing in some scrubs

SS George Wright 1871-1882 23.3
C Chris Fulmer 1884-1889 6.5
P Cy Young 1890-1911 163.6
RF Ruth 1914-1935 182.5
1B Johnny Mize 1936-1953 71.3
3B Jim Finigan 1954-1959 3.4
2B Joe Morgan 1963-1984 100.4
LF Bonds 1986-2007 162.7
CF Trout 2011-2021 76.1
 

Leskanic's Thread

lost underscore
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This has been a nice little game to procrastinate from me editing the conference proposal I said I'd finish today. I took the same basic approach as @singaporesoxfan -- going big at a few positions and then trying to fill in the gaps. I kept trying to see if there was a more productive use of 1890-1935 than Cy and Babe...but never found it. I tried a lot of different arrangements -- many with George Wright and Jonny Mize. I also circled Musial and Carew a lot. But eventually I landed on this:

1B Joe Start 1871-1886 - 32.5
P Cy Young 1890-1911 - 163.6
RF Babe Ruth 1914-1935 - 182.5
2B Joe Gordon 1938-1950 - 55.7
3B Eddie Matthews 1952-1968 - 96.1
C Thurman Munson 1969-1979 - 46.1
SS Jerry Dybzinski 1980-1985 - 2.1
LF Barry Bonds 1986-2007 - 162.7
CF Mike Trout 2011-2021 - 76.1

The total is 817.4. Doesn't beat the stated record, but I was glad to get over 800 after a few misfires.
 

kieckeredinthehead

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1871-1882, George Wright, SS, 22.3 WAR
1886-1889, Chris Fulmer, C, 6.5 WAR
1890-1911, Cy Young, P, 163.6 WAR
1914-1935, Babe Ruth, RF, 182.5 WAR
1938-1950, Joe Gordon, 2B, 55.7 WAR
1951-1973, Willie Mays, CF, 156.1 WAR
1974-1985, Mike Hargrove, 1B, 30.4 WAR
1986-2007, Barry Bonds, LF, 162.7 WAR
2008-2021, Evan Longoria, 3B, 57.2 WAR

837.96 WAR
 

Murderer's Crow

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Imagine a player like George Wright, plays in 1871 and 150 years later a bunch of dudes using a technology you can't even conceive are making a trivia question out of you.
 

singaporesoxfan

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Imagine a player like George Wright, plays in 1871 and 150 years later a bunch of dudes using a technology you can't even conceive are making a trivia question out of you.
More George Wright / Boston trivia: he helped found America’s second public golf course, in Franklin Park