All-BPF Team

Initially I wanted to just put up a poll with maybe 10 guys, and have everyone vote on who they think the top player is (or has been) in our world, just so I could prove to domi that Spahn is a top 5 guy and worth more than a pitching prospect. But when I started looking for guys to put in the poll, I thought it might be more fun to just put together my own list of the top 5 guys to ever play in our world, based on nominations from everyone in the league. Then I quickly realized that a top 5 list would leave off some real studs, so now the idea has morphed into an All-BPF Team, with a player (and alternate) at each position, plus five starting pitchers and one closer.

Trying to find a happy medium between old-timers, and guys in their prime, and guys who are up-and-comers, was probably the toughest part. Do you really want to leave a guy like Ricardo Belliard off the list, simply because he fell off the map after Season 4, and then retired after a couple sub-par seasons when he was well past his prime? The guy won two MVP awards in a row, made three all-star teams, and was the 1B Silver Slugger three years in a row. He hit 74 HR's in Season 1, a feat that has been matched once, and will never be touched by anyone ever again. At the same time, you have guys like Lance Morris, who only has three full ML seasons under his belt, and just signed his first big arbitration deal at the start of this season. He's certainly one of the top players in the world, but the rumor around the league is that he doesn't even have hair on his balls yet. Can we include a guy on our All-BPF Team who has barely hit puberty? That's the line that I'm walking here, and hopefully I don't fall off of it. So without further delay, here is your All-BPF Team.

Catcher: Geronimo Cruz
I thought about this one for a while, and it turns out that we have a slew of top catchers in this world. But in the end, it had to be Cruz. A 5-time All-Star and 4-time Silver Slugger, Cruz has amassed 252 career HR's in the ML, while sporting a lifetime OPS of 1.036, with a good portion of that coming with the Evil Yankees. Essentially traded to NY for Rickey Kidd, the deal worked out for the Yankees, as Kidd has yet to regain the form he had with NY in Season 1, when he posted a 23-5 record on his way to the Cy Young. Meanwhile, Cruz has won two World Series with the Yankees.

Honorable Mention: Julius Neal -- Only in the Big's for three seasons, Neal has already established himself as the next great catcher in the world. With 161 HR's in three seasons with an OPS of 1.006, he is the offensive powerhouse that sagacious predicted he would be when he was drafted second overall in the first season. An everyday guy who calls a great game.

1B: Albert Cairo
Maybe the biggest no-brainer in this entire exercise. Cairo is simply awesome. A 4-time MVP, he has made the All-Star team every single season, he is a 3-time Silver Slugger at 1B, has 2 Gold Gloves, and even won the Home Run Derby in Season 2. Phew. His career totals at the age of 29 look like numbers that the majority of our world can only hope to attain during their entire careers. 413 HR's, 1090 RBI's, 1079 runs, 526 stolen bases, and a 1.042 OPS. My goodness. The only thing that could possibly slow him down would be a major injury, and there is always that potential. But if/when he gets that injury, hopefully it isn't until after he signs a $20M/yr deal after Season 9.

Honorable Mention: Ricardo Belliard who I mentioned earlier. Look at the damage this guy did in the first two seasons of this world, and even the third season. Two-time MVP, three-time All-Star, and three-time Silver Slugger, if he had been five years younger when the world started, he might be pushing Cairo's numbers (minus the SB's).

2B: Rick Halama
A six-time All-Star and five-time Silver Slugger (four at 2B, once at LF), Halama has been a consistent thorn-in-the-side of everyone in BPF. His power and range aren't quite what they were a few seasons ago (hence the move to LF over the last two seasons), but his career .344 batting average and 1.016 OPS were enough to convince Jacksonville to give him a 5-year contract worth $20M/yr.

Honorable Mention/Up-and-Comer: Alejandro Lee Taking a World Series team and barely making the playoffs as a wild card the following season, the only productive thing coonja76 did in Season 3 was sign Lee, and then get out of the way for vector21 to take over. With 3+ seasons at the ML level under his belt, Lee has already shown that he will be one of the all-time greats. Two All-Star games and a Silver Slugger award at the age of 23, only good things await Lee.

3B: Aaron Spahn
A four-time All-Star, three-time Silver Slugger, and a Gold Glove to his name, not to mention his World Series title from Season 2 that everyone forgets about, Spahn is one of the most complete players in the world. His statistics are somewhat skewed from his 2 1/2 seasons in the not-so-friendly confines of Petco Field in San Diego, but his career numbers are still quite phenomenal as a hitter, base runner, and fielder. He's one of those once-in-a-lifetime guys, and yet he has already been traded four time in his short career.

Honorable Mention: Roosevelt Brower No All-Star games and only a single Silver Slugger award to his name, but Brower is a force of nature. Just shy of 350 HR's for his career, he is second on the all-time list behind Cairo. Four consecutive 50+ HR seasons, his power has slowly tapered off the last two or three seasons, but he is still a threat for 40/125, and is hoping to rejuvenate his career with a move to Buffalo. Being paid $20M/yr until the end of Season 10, Buffalo is hoping he rejuvenates his career too.

SS: Domingo DeRojas
Another player who falls into the category of "what could have been." I have a few issues putting DeRojas in here as a SS, since I don't think he has had the defensive ratings of a SS since Season 3 or 4. But since he has logged over 1000 games at the position, with only 20 at any other position, he gets on the list. A four-time All-Star and three-time Silver Slugger, DeRojas has 267 career HR's and nearly 700 RBI's, while also scoring 714 runs and stealing 211 bases.

Honorable Mention: Tony Tejada I was somewhat surprised at how many people nominated this guy. Then I went back and looked at his numbers. A five-time All-Star, two-time Silver Slugger(!!) and four Gold Gloves at the SS position, his career fielding percentage at SS is .990, which ain't too bad. Before the wheels came off, he was also a base stealing machine, with 413 for his career, which puts him third on the all-time list.

LF: Hootie Flanagan
Who the hell is Hootie Flanagan? Maybe it's because he plays in the AL and I don't pay attention to much that goes on over there, but I had honestly never heard of this guy until I started doing this research. Did you know that he has been to the All-Star game five times, and was the MVP of the game in Season 3? Or that he has won four Silver Slugger awards? Or that he has two Gold Gloves to his name? And with a name like Hootie, how the F did I miss this guy all of these seasons? His performance has started to fall off a bit over the last couple of seasons, as he only hit 24 HR's last season and only managed 23 SB's, but he is still the best LF this world has seen so far.

Honorable Mention: Alexander Starr One of the few guys left from the Season 2 World Series team, Starr leads the franchise in virtually every major hitting category for his career, and should continue adding to those numbers until he retires, as he is most likely an Insurance Man for life.


CF: Kent Rivera
Do you know how hard it is to find a competent CF? Do a search for CF's at the ML level, I dare you. After you sort through the guys who are listed as a CF but are sporting a 70 glove, you'll find Rivera and his lifetime .985 fielding percentage in CF, along with his four All-Star appearances and three Silver Slugger awards. An outstanding lead-off guy (drew, why are you not using him as a lead-off guy?), Rivera has 804 career runs, 264 SB's, and a .373 OBP.

Honorable Mention: Willie Strickland Honestly, these guys were 1a and 1b, and they easily could have flip-flopped. Rivera got the nod because of his extra ML experience, but Strickland could certainly move past him in the coming years. He hits for power and average at the same time, while also fielding in CF at a .989 clip, which has helped earn him two Gold Gloves already to go with his four All-Star games and two Silver Slugger awards.

RF: Delino Hall
Wow, this one was tough. Do you know how many studs are playing RF in our world? My "short list" for this position was longer than any other position, and even then I felt like there were three or four guys who were still getting left off the list. In the end, Hall rose to the top with his two MVP awards, five All-Star teams, and five Silver Slugger awards. I hesitated for a moment, because the majority of his playing career has been at 2B. But recently he was moved to RF, and that seems to be where he will continue playing. What is amazing is how many times this fantastic player has been traded in his short career.

Honorable Mention: Rob Dickerson and Delino Ryan I couldn't pick just one of these guys, and either could have been the overall winner in this category. If Ryan hadn't been injured last season, we might have him in the same breath as Hall, and if Dickerson hadn't gotten so old so fast, he might have killed both of the Delino's in this position. Despite all of that, Dickerson still has three MVP awards, six All-Star appearances, and three Silver Sluggers on his mantle, so he doesn't care if he is on the inactive list of the KC Triple-A squad. "If those guys want to pay me $4.4M to act as the unofficial hitting coach down here, I don't give a shit." Meanwhile, Ryan won an MVP award in Season 6, is a three-time All-Star, and has two Silver Sluggers to his name. Drafted number 18 overall by Baltimore, then traded to Oakland, and now traded to Montreal, he is hoping to regain his form.

Starting Pitchers, in no particular order:
Jumbo Long -- Two Cy Young awards, five All-Star appearances, 120 wins with a 2.98 ERA...and he's only 30 years old. I can almost guarantee that he will demand a max contract when his current deal runs out at the end of this season, and even at 31, he'll deserve it.

Oscar Dunham -- Two Cy Young awards, four All-Star appearances, 107 wins, 1300 strikeouts (third all-time) and a 3.42 ERA. His fastball isn't what it was a few seasons ago, and he's 37 years old now, but he is still one of the all-time greats.

Chris Matthews -- Five All-Star appearances and a Cy Young to compliment his 119 wins (59 of which he did entirely on his own) and 2.75 ERA, Matthews is on his second(!) max contract, which will take him to the ripe age of 38yo. If Indy treats him right, he should still be winning double-digit games by the time his contract runs out, with some of those wins still being CG's.

Dummy Wayne -- Three All-Star teams, ROY in Season 2, and 85 wins in 186 starts, Wayne has really benefited from Oakland's recent rise in offense. Only 7-16 during his first full season with the franchise, Wayne has since posted a 60-27 record, and a sub 3.00 ERA during each of those four seasons.

Rico Rivera -- "Only" a single Cy Young award to his name, Rivera has a record of 62-30 for his career, and is top 3 in the world's history when it comes to OAV, OBP, SLG, WHIP and ERA.

Closer: Danny Erickson -- Another "what if" guy, Erickson was used mostly as a setup pitcher during the first few seasons, and wasn't turned into a closer until he came to Memphis in Season 4. Since then, he has made the All-Star team every season, and won the Fireman of the Year award in Season 5. He has 208 saves in 230 opportunities, while posting a 1.72 ERA and .183 OAV, with OBP and SLG at .250 or lower. Even at the age of 38, this guy could step into any clubhouse and be the best closer in the building. His fastball is way down from where it was a few years ago, but he isn't a one-pitch kind of guy, he can get it done a number of ways.

Phew. Well that was fun. I hope you learned something.
-nj