Today's team is the Cardinals, and just as always, they come in and grasp the Brewers dominance right out of their hands. In 1881 the Brown Stockings barnstorming club was purchased and renamed the St. Louis Browns. They would join the National League in 1892, and in 1900 took their current name of the Cardinals. They invented farm systems, and have a long list of accomplishments over the years including 11 World Series Titles, 19 NL pennants, 11 Central division titles, 4 AA Pennants, 3 East Division titles and 3 wild card berths. There's a long list of players who have made it to Cooperstown from playing with the Cardinals, and you will see quite a few in here.
This lineup comes in and just one ups the Brewers lineup, and comes in as the second most points yet. Having only one 9 OB, and two 11 OBs will give this team a ton of advantages, and when you consider the power, it becomes absolutely ridiculous. Leading off is Scott Rolen's 2004 card that comes in at 6.27 expected runs, due to his three doubles/HRs chart. Edmonds follows him with a ridiculous four HRs/doubles chart for 6.65 expected runs. Edmonds is a top 50 card ever made and Rolen is top 100, giving them two absolute studs to start the lineup off. Batting third is the 1998 Mark McGwire card that had the entire nation captivated during his home run chase against Sammy Sosa. He comes in at a ridiculous 11 OB, and 6 home run chart for a flabbergasting 7.83 expected runs!! This is the best non Barry Bonds card ever made, which sounds right give how unreal a year he had. Giving him some protection is the 2008 Pujols card that is also a ridiculous 6.87 card, with 11 OB and three home runs. Larry Walker bats fifth with 6.25 expected runs and is a similar card to Edmonds, albeit with worse speed, defense and less extra base hits.
Lance Berkman comes in at 5.55 expected runs, which is just ridiculous for a 6-hole hitter. Molina backs him up with 4.84/+9 arm for a studly catcher card and well deserved given the career he has had. Finishing out the lineup is the interior infielders who are undoubtedly the weakest links in this lineup. They come in at 4.63 and 4.43 expected runs respectively, though both give plenty of speed and defense which makes them still very valuable to have. As if this lineup wasn't filthy enough, the rotation might give just as much power. Led by Hall of Famer Bob Gibson, who is the second best starter ever made behind only Gooden, they come out firing. Gibson comes in at a ridiculous 4.56 expected runs, a number typically reserved for top tier relief pitchers AND he gives you a silly 9 IP. Following him is John Tudor who rolls out an ace level card for 5.16 expected runs giving the Cards a deadly 1-2 punch. Mikolas' 2018 card comes in a bit behind but still very good at 5.88, with Flaherty 2019/Martinez 2015 having identical cards and coming in at 5.93 to round out this rotation.
With Gibson and Tudor giving you plenty of length, the back half of the rotations lack of IP shouldn't worry you much given the level at which this bullpen will perform. Kline leads the way at 5.37 runs, and is immediately follwed by Neshek at 5.38, giving you two different looks for the top dog in the pen. King's card comes in third despite 1/3 IP and can act in a high leverage spot when your top two arms might be tired. Isringhausen and Rosenthal are .02 behind King at 5.49 with identical cards that are studly with 5 control and no doubles- which might be a closer on most teams.
Rounding out the bullpen is Siegrist and Worrell who come in at 5.66 and 5.84 expected runs each, and both give more high control arms in the pen. The entire bullpen comes in between 5.37 and 5.84 expected runs, giving you a wealth of very good arms that will add to the already disgusting rotation. The bench is also going to be a wealth of riches, as the Cardinals have some of the top 1B cards out there. Jack Clark 1987 is the top option who comes in at 6.07 runs and doesn't even make the line up. Goldschmidt's 2019PR at 5.77 expected runs, Holliday 2013 at 5.39, Tatis 2000 5.36, Carpenter 2018 at 5.32, McGee's Classic card at 5.25, Will Clark at 5.20 and Ozuna's 2017TD card all miss the lineup and come in over 5 expected runs which goes to show how disgusting this team is. The top starters are Wacha 2015 at 6.01, Lynn 2014 at 6.04 and Joaquin Andujar's classic card at 6.18. The top bullpen arms are Salas 2011 at 5.93, with Motte 2011 and Lahti's classic both coming in at 5.94. So far we've had 5 starters, 7 relievers and 9 hitters, giving us four more spots to fill. I'm going to go with Wacha to give us essentially the same level of pitcher as the back half of the bullpen, albeit with extra innings in case Flaherty or Martinez get in trouble and you need a long reliever. This gives us three line up spots to fill out. Clark is just too good on paper to pass up, and can act as the de facto bat off the bench, and I'm going to go on the lower end here and roll with McGee for his 24 speed and his versatility in the outfield defensively. Goldschmidt definitely comes in the strongest for the final spot, with Holliday being a half run behind him.
While I know this isn't exactly representative of a MLB team, at the end of the day I'm just trying to show who would give you the best chance to win a given game or perhaps series. With that being said, this team is going to win A LOT. The lineup comes in at 4,590 which is over 500 points higher than the Brewers and trails only the Giant's monster lineup that includes the almost 1,000 point Bonds card. The rotation comes in at 2,880 which is just silly (similarly buoyed by Gibson), and the bullpen comes in at 1,160 which is actually quite low due to the fact that King's 1/3 IP card is only 50 points. The bench is 1,890 points which is high but not as high as you might expect due to the classic cards point deflation. In total this is a ridiculous 10,520 points which is just ahead of the Giants' team.
Hitters
SP
RP
There's really only two players that immediately jump to my mind that we're missing in Roger Hornsby and Stan Musial. Hornsby played in an era that makes it almost impossible to include him, which is a pity because we could use all the middle infield help we can get. To give you an example, in 1924 he slashed .424/.507/.696 with a league leading 222 hits, 121 runs, 89 walks and 43 doubles. The next year he led the league with 39 HRs and 143 RBIs just to prove that he could. A couple of decades later Musial a similarly silly season, although this one might be a bit more createable since other cards have been made during this era. Musial led the league in the following: .376/.450/.702/1.152, 227 hits, 135 runs, 46 doubles, 18 triples, 131 RBIs a 200 OPS and 400 total bases. He also added 39 home runs while striking out 34 times in 611 ABs. Domination. I don't think we're going to get much better than Ozzie at short, although Renteria might've been better offensively, I'll take the defense and solid card. Pitching wise you're getting one of the best pitchers' best seasons and it's hard to find much else that comes close to it. Aside from him, most of these guys are the top seasons in the Cardinals modern era as well. Chris Carpenter's 2009 might crack the rotation however, as he went 17-4 with a league leading 2.24 ERA and 182 ERA+. He struck out 144 in 192 IP and finished second in the Cy Young voting. His 2005 season is also worth noting, in which he actually did win the Cy Young by going 21-5 with a 2.83 ERA over 33 starts, 241 IP and racking up 213 Ks while leading the league with 7 complete games. In the bullpen most of the top performers are here, although Lee Smith had a run in the early 90s in which he led the league in saves with 47 and 43. Overall this team is absolutely disgusting and is firmly placing itself in playoff contention. It will be interesting to see if the remaining teams can catch up.
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