Fantasy Baseball Advice

The Indians have been more of a trainwreck than Jeff Conaway and Tom Sizemore doing a community theater production of The Taking of Pelham 123. Now Grady Sizemore hits the DL with elbow inflammation.  For whatever reason, this season he’s shown himself to be a bit of a flight risk.  In 13 attempted steals, he’s been caught stealing 6 times.  (He’s been terrible at stealing bases, but has elbow pain?  Is he running on his hands?  What’s the deal, friend?)  Half of me wants to be the doomsayer, um, saying doom that Sizemore’s going to struggle even when he returns because of what we’ve seen in the past from players with elbow pain.  Then my better half wants to say it can’t be that bad, he hit his 9th home run on Saturday. So the ladies love Grady, but should his fantasy owners?  Unfortunately, if elbow pain is severe enough to send someone to the DL, it’s not a good sign.  So I wouldn’t try to buy him low, unless the deal’s too good to turn down.  Then again, I wouldn’t sell him low, either.  If you own him, I think you need to just hold and hope for the best.  Unless, again, someone’s overpaying you for him.  Basically, you’re in a pickle between a rock and a hard place.  Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Ben Francisco – 2-for-3 with a steal.  Hitting .360 in the last seven games and has 5 homers and 9 steals on the year.  Yawnstipating, for sure.  But Francisco will now be batting in the top of the order while Sizemore nurses his elbow.  Is Sizemore nursing his elbow in public? Gross!

Victor Martinez – Sat out yesterday.  Are the Indians punting this season?

Jhonny Peralta – 3-for-4, 3 RBIs and the Indians batted third their .339 SLG shortstop.  Though I don’t think that lasts.

Chien-Ming Wang – 8 IP, 2 ER and 7 Ks since he’s returned, but, man, it really feels like he’s trying to get you to fall for the old-banana-in-the-tailpipe, right?

Kevin Youkilis – 2 HRs yesterday as he bats .366 on the season and way above where his BABIP says he should be, i.e., the bottom could fall out.

Jon Lester – 6 IP, 1 ER, 12 Ks.  Even if you missed this start because you benched him, this is a good sign going forward… Unless he continues to alternate good and bad starts, then you’re gonna have to wait ten days for another good start, at which time you’ll probably bench him again.

Alex Rios – 5 for his last 8 and a homer and steal yesterday.  In case you don’t own him, which I don’t, you may not know his current stats.  6 homers, 4 steals and a .276 average.  From a 3rd round draft pick in ‘08 to 5th round in ‘09, he’s making a case for the 8th round next year.  Maybe the -is on his first name was his Samson’s hair.

John Maine – 6 IP, 0 ER, 5 Ks.  Besides some early season struggles, he’s pitched well.  Can’t hurt to pitch at Metco.  If he’s out there, he gets the Nats next time out.

Edwin Jackson – 8 IP, 0 ER, 7 Ks.  Falls into those untradeable guys.  You can’t trade him for how valuable he’s been, because no one believes it.  On the other hand, you can’t trade for him either, because you don’t believe it either.  Wait, huh?

Jason Berken – 7 IP, 1 ER.  Didn’t this guy used to date Lauren Conrad?  (BTW, how about that Hills finale?  Tears, pho sho!)  Anyway, Berken’s not worth a pickup in 16 team leagues that only use Orioles.

Josh Willingham – 2 HRs yesterday and 3rd homer in three days.  Had a good May, wouldn’t trust him to have a good June.

Elijah Dukes – Returns Tuesday.  That’s if he doesn’t end up in jail.  I could totally see Phil Spector producing a Dukes album.

Edwin Maysonet – Rod Roddy, “For the next contestant on The Price is Right… A brand new…. Maysonet!”  9-for-20 since being called up to fill-in for Kaz Matsui.  I’m going to go out on a limb and say 9-for-20 is the best string of 20 ABs he’s ever had in pro ball.

Paul Maholm – 7 IP, 1 ER, but lost in a pitcher’s duel to Mike Hampton, who went 7 IP, 1 ER with 3 Ks.  The official attendance was 19,566 people bored out of their mind.  This would be a good test to see if a girl likes you, “Baby, you wanna take in the Astros/Pirates game? I hear the Pirates mascot, Captain Jolly Roger, shoots wieners into the crowd.”

Ben Zobrist – 1-for-4, batting leadoff yesterday.  While it might be nice in theory, let’s not put too much pressure on The Zo.  He’s 25-for-74 with 4 homers batting sixth.  The Zo likes to relax!

Randy Choate – What, no save today?  As I said in the comments on Saturday after Choate notched back-to-back saves on Friday and Saturday, Choate’s a situational lefty.

Kris Medlen – 6 IP, 1 ER, 9 Ks.  The forces of the universe are conspiring against Hanson.

Max Scherzer – 3 2/3 IP, 8 ER.  Ouch… Wait, huh?  Ouch…  Sorry, having a hard time sitting down.

Chipper Jones – This year might be the first time I’ve owned Chipper in any league in ten years — in fairness, I only own him there because it’s an OBP, and Chipper does the OBP thing almost as well as he does the, “Ow, my v-jay hurts,” thing.  So, my conclusion after owning him for two months is I hate him even more this year.  5 homers is unacceptable.  Seriously.

Yovani Gallardo – I thought I was going to witness something historic when he struckout 8 through the first 9 batters.  Alas, the pitch count was high and he had to get pulled in the 6th.

Zach Greinke – 7 IP, 3 ER, 7 Ks.  Who slipped the Kryptonite into his Prozac?  Not cool, guys.

John Danks – 5 1/3 IP, 4 ER.  Walks haven’t been great, but he’s striking out guys at a solid rate.  The opposing team’s hits are just coming at the wrong time.  His ERA should come down.

Adam Kennedy – 2 HRs yesterday.   Though Nixon demanded a recount.

Josh Hamilton – Headed for a MRI for his abdominal and groin problems.  Hopefully, they’re separate issues.  Otherwise, that would really be a problem.

Andrew Bailey – 1 2/3 IP, 0 ER, blown save, but the Win.  Now not only is he the closer, but he’s also the setup man.  Maybe Ziegler disagreed with the choice of Brad Pitt to play Billy Beane in Moneyball:  The Movie. I, for one, hope Pitt channels his True Romance character for the role.

Scott Hairston – 2-for-4, and a steal.  I know, he’s a Padre, but, seriously, he has value.

Ervin Santana – 5 1/3 IP, 8 ER.  I kinda wish instead of saying you should trade him after a few good starts, I pressed you, dear Razzball reader, to trade him before his first start.  I think a trip to the Disgraceful List is more likely than a turnaround, but you’ll need to bench him and wait it out.

David Aardsma – 2/3 IP, 3 ER, 4 BBs. I didn’t see this outing, but he must’ve been very wild.  It’s hard to walk four Angels in two-thirds of an inning.   Luckily, Morrow’s been erratic as all get-out.

Ichiro Suzuki – 4-for-5 with a homer.  He’s batting .354 so that’s, uh, ya know where you expect it.  But he only has 19 Runs.  Surprisingly, he doesn’t have 19 solo homers.

Chad Gaudin – 6 1/3 IP, 1 ER, 9 Ks.  Threw a masterpiece on Sunday in Colorado.  Of course…  Sonavabench!

Adrian Gonzalez – Hit his 20th homer yesterday.  Padres could clear 200 homers this year.  If Gonzalez hits 180.

Joey Votto – Totally pulling a Kotchman at this point as he heads to the DL with a stress-related issue.  What, he misplaced his ear drops and totally freaked?  What’s the deal, Votto?  Let’s get our shizz together.

Brandon Phillips – 2-for-4, HR yesterday.  I think my concerns about Phillips’s hairline fracture in his thumb were prematurely reported.  Seems to be fine.  I recant. (<–16th Century Word of the Day!)

Micah Owings – 5 2/3 IP, 5 ER.  Nothing really to report with this guy, but the Brewers announcer said something funny during yesterday’s game. (FYI, something is guaranteed to not be funny, when you say it’s funny.  Anyway…) Dusty walks to the mound and the Brewers announcer says something to the effect, “There’s no one ready in the Reds bullpen so this is probably just to talk to Owings about strategy for this next hitter.”  Then Dusty removes Owings from the game after five and two-thirds and 103 pitches.  So the Brewers announcer says, “I wonder what Owings said to get Dusty to pull him from the game.”  This made me laugh.  What on earth could Owings had said to get removed after only 103 pitches?  “Please, Dusty, I’ll wash your car!”  “I’m your man next time Dusty Jr. needs a babysitter on a Friday night.”  “Dusty, I’ll tell you who crapped in your Cubs Dairy Queen sundae helmet.  It was Votto!”

The Fantasy Baseball Hall of Fame has spent an unhealthy amount of time identifying the best fantasy seasons, careers, All Stars, and Hall of Famers of the fantasy era. The Fantasy Era began in 1980, and thus many great players of the 1980’s fall just short of enshrinement since their careers commenced in 1979 or earlier. This, along with the fact it’s just plain fun, has led us down the path of looking back in time, decade by decade, for the best fantasy players in baseballs history. We’ll be following reverse chronological order with the 1950s now taking center stage.

Previous Decades: 1970s, 1960s.

Famous for its pitching splendor, the 1960’s brought runs scoring back down to levels not seen since the deadball era of the 1910’s. Many casual fans do not realize the trend actually began a decade earlier, in 1951, which ushered in a 20-year era that mostly belonged to the starting pitcher.

The image below charts the average runs scored per game in Major League Baseball from 1903 to present. Runs scored declined almost 30% between the high point in 1950 (4.85 r/g) and 1968 (3.42 r/g).

With relief pitchers not yet stereotyped solely into late inning roles, and starting pitchers routinely going the distance, the fantasy game was nothing like we see today. The best batting stats of the decade seem rather typical:

AVG:   .365 – Mickey Mantle (1957)
RS:    132 – Mickey Mantle (1956)
HR:    52 – Mickey Mantle (1956)
RBI:   145 – Al Rosen (1953)
SB:    56 – Luis Aparacio (1959)

However, the effect of the era is apparent once we move to the pitching side of the equation:

W:     28 – Robin Roberts (1952)
ERA:   1.97 – Billy Pierce (1955)
WHIP:  0.95 – Warren Hacker (1952)
SO:    263 – Herb Score (1956)
SV:    27 – Ellis Kinder (1953)

Wins are up significantly and saves are down to the lowest levels we’ve come across. Not shown here are the incredible innings pitched totals as well. No pitcher since 1980 has reached 300 innings pitched, while the 1950s alone had seven.

(An interesting side note, though not germane to a discussion on the 1950s, is the fact 300 inning occurrences increased through 1969, before declining into non existence about a dozen years later.)

Finally, before getting to the players, below is our customary graph of the basic fantasy batting stats. As expected, batting averages declined throughout the1950s, starting off at around .265 and ending 10 points lower. Stolen bases increased significantly, starting at one stolen base ever 130 at bats, and ending at a stolen base every 92. Home runs were fairly constant, though occurring at a higher rate in the earliest part of the decade.

Keep in mind that this decade was the last in which every year featured the 154 game schedule. In 1961 baseball expanded to 162 games, more than a 5% increase, allowing season totals forever after too look a bit better than those that came before.

Top-10 Players of the 1950s

10) Eddie Mathews, 3B
Peak Avg in Decade: 12.1
Overall FBHOF Score: 71.7

Mathews smacked 25 home runs in his 1952 rookie year and 16 “fantasy worthy” seasons later ended his career well past the 500 HR plateau at 512. He reached 40 or more four times in the ‘50s and is currently ranked as the 3rd best third bagger of all time, behind Mike Schmidt and George Brett

His fantasy finest season came in ’59. Batting .306 / .390 / .593, he also added 118 R, 46 HR, and 114 RBI in his stat line, and finished the year as the 5th best batter in baseball. A cross decade star, Mathews has four 11+ FBHOF points seasons to his credit in the 1950s, and two 13 point seasons to start the 1960s.

9) Minnie Minoso, OF
Peak Avg in Decade: 12.4
Overall FBHOF Score: 68.0

A very good major leaguer, Minoso was even better as a fantasy baseball player. The seven time all star had the same number 10+ point seasons in the decade and was a rare 5-tool star. I am reminded of a modern day Bobby Abreu at his peak, only with a longer period of success.

During his career Minoso scored 90+ runs nine times; batted over .300 eight times; stole 17 or more bases seven times; and hit 19+ home runs or drove in 90 or more runners five times. His best season came in 1954:.320 AVG, 119 R, 19 HR, 116 RBI, 18 SB, 13.4 Points.

8. Stan Musial, 1B
Peak Avg in Decade: 13.3
Overall FBHOF Score: 71.9

“Stan The Man” is sold short by when analyzing his tenure within the 1950’s only. His career actually spans three decades and a few of his great seasons came in the 1960’s. Musial was pure hitter, one of the best baseball has ever seen. Including batters from the 1800s, Musial is among the all time greats in many career statistics:

.331 AVG – 30th
.417 OBP – 23rd
.559 SLG – 21st
.976 OPS – 14th
1949 RS – 9th
1951 RBI – 6th
725 2B – 3rd
6134 TB – 2nd

Fantasy wise, Musial was incredibly consistent in the 1950s, recording five seasons between 12.8 and 13.9 points. His 5 year peak during the decade was .341 AVG, 116 R, 29 HR, 109 RBI.

7) Hank Aaron, OF
Peak Avg in Decade: 13.5
Overall FBHOF Score: 98.8

You may recall Aaron was ranked as the 2nd best player of the 1960s as well, and now that we’ve completed the review of the 1950’s, his career stat line is complete. It’s pure gold. Aaron is the second best fantasy baseball player we’ve ever seen, and he currently owns the all time mark for total career points.

In a span of 11 years, the outfielder has an unheard of ten seasons of 15 or more FBHOF points. I would be surprised if any player, even going back through the 1920s, could duplicate this feat. Six of Aaron’s best seven seasons occurred in the 1960s, the one outlier being 1959: .355 AVG, 39 HR, 116 R, 123 RBI, and 8 SB.

Aaron became fantasy eligible in 1954. One year later he reached 11 FBHOF Points and only dipped below 10 points eighteen years later in 1972.

6) Ernie Banks, 1B
Peak Avg in Decade: 13.6
Overall FBHOF Score: 77.4

“Mr. Cub’s” three best seasons came while he manned shortstop, but for his career he played more games at first base (1534 vs. 1050) than short and thus is considered a corner infielder for our purposes. I fibbed a bit as well; in fact, he was eligible at shortstop over the course of his six best season, a consecutive year stretch from 1955 through 1960.

During this time he averaged 41 HR, 101 R, 116 RBI, 5 SB, and batted .294. He was also a top-5 batter four times.

5) Warren Spahn, SP
Peak Avg in Decade: 13.7
Overall FBHOF Score: 74.7

The first pitcher on our top-10 list, Span was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973, alongside Roberto Clemente, the only two voted in by the BBWA this year. Like Musial, Spahn’s career covered three decades but he Spahn at lease, was at his best in the 1950’s. His best season came in 1953: 23 W, 1.06 WHIP, 2.10 ERA, and 148 K in 266 IP. As with most of his peers, he didn’t maintain a high (by today’s standards) strikeout rate.

Interestingly, and perhaps unfortunately, Spahn also saved three games. In 1953, only four major league pitchers recorded 15 or more saves, and Spahn therefore gets an inordinate amount of credit for his three. This nuance will be typical with many of the pitchers of his era and earlier. No doubt, had fantasy baseball been invented in 1950, Saves would not have been a core scoring statistic. We’re stuck with it though, and Spahn’s 29 career saves make positively impact his overall score.

4) Mickey Mantle, OF
Peak Avg in Decade: 14.7
Overall FBHOF Score: 90.8

Moving from 5th place into 4th marks the beginning of a new tier of 1950s greats. The 8th through 5th slots are differentiated by just 0.4 FBHOF points. The jump into 4th is a full 1.0 FHBOF points. Deservedly so – Mantle was a hitting machine, and as we saw in the introduction, owns the best single season results in the decade in 3 of the 5 offensive fantasy stats.

Mantle was still great heading into the early 1960’s, but few in the history of the sport match his 19.0 point season in 1956.

His peak 5-year average during the decade: .322 AVG, 121 R, 39 HR, 99 RBI, 15 SB. His scores by year:

1951- 3.8
1952 – 10.8
1953 – 9.1
1954 – 10.9
1955 – 12.1
1956 – 19.0
1957 – 15.6
1958 – 15.8
1959 – 11.1

3) Duke Snider, OF
Peak Avg in Decade: 14.8
Overall FBHOF Score: 80.0

Snider typically falls short in his inevitable comparison to Mantle and Willie Mays. All three were of course New York centerfielders during the 1950’s and all three were no brainer Hall of Fame selections, but at least in terms of fantasy baseball, Snider can run with Mantle – during the 1950’s at least.

When lining their best years up side by side, in order of greatness as opposed to chronological, the similarities are striking:

Snider        Mantle
17.67          18.98
15.11           15.80
14.68          15.58
14.65          12.06
11.98          11.14
10.80         10.94
10.16          10.83
9.64            9.07
5.98            3.84
3.70

In one of the most underrated seasons of all time, Snider in 1954 batted .336 with 132 R, 42 HR, 126 RBI, and 16 SB. He was the best fantasy batter of the season, for the second consecutive year. Mantle and (mostly) Mays would take honors in five of the next six seasons.

2) Robin Roberts, SP
Peak Avg in Decade: 16.7
Overall FBHOF Score: 92.0

Really. In his New Historical Abstract, Bill James ranks Roberts as the 16th best pitcher of all time. He’s a Hall of Famer and a six time 20 game winner. He led his league 27 times in various important statistical categories. Yes, to this day, he gets little credit as one of the all time great pitchers.

Perhaps it was the era in which he pitched. Following Roberts good fortunes in the 1950’s came the greatest pitching era of all time. With this of course, came some of the greatest pitching names of all time – Koufax and Gibson plus significant single season performances of historical importance – Denny McLain’s 31 wins in 1968 and superb seasons out of Juan Marichal and Don Drysdale. Roberts never struck out 200 batters, never had an ERA under 2.50, nor a WHIP below 1.00.

What he did do was finish 6 of the 10 seasons in the Top-3, and four consecutive as the best overall pitcher in the game. From 1952-1955 he averaged 24 W, 1.07 WHIP, 2.90 ERA, 172 K’s, and 4 saves per season.

He’s on his own plane when looking at 4-year peak scores among starting pitchers of the 1950s:

17.4 – Robin Roberts
14.1 – Warren Spahn
11.8 – Early Wynn
11.7 – Billy Pierce
11.2 – Mike Garcia

1) Willie Mays, OF
Peak Avg in Decade: 17.5
Overall FBHOF Score: 102.3

Through the 1950’s, Willie Mays is the greatest fantasy player of all time. His stats speak for themselves. Please pay particular attention to the sheer number of double digit FBHOF Point seasons, identified in the “score” column.

Over at FBHOF.com, I’ve been lamenting my inadequacies from the past 2+ years which resulted in an inordinate amount of time number crunching in Excel.  My quest – a draft day “war room” that allowed me to keep my finger on the pulse of the league while minimizing my effort.  I don’t know about you, but I prefer to keep track of more things as opposed to fewer, this path can ultimately take precious minutes away from thinking about your next pick.

Presenting the Fantasy Baseball Hall of Fame War Room.   It’s an auto-updating Excel workbook that keeps track of all the necessaries:

• Color Coded Dashboard that “crosses off” selected players
• Team by Team analysis of players taken, players left.
• League wide finances – how much was spent, how much can still be spent, and that all important “Max Bid”
• Real time projected totals, along with real time projected league standings.
• “Traffic Light” Goal Tracking Dashboard
• Auto updating Draftee List for you team, that includes both the projected dollar amount and winning bid amount so you can keep track of your value gained or lost.

There is a more on the project here, including screen shots and instructions on how to download. It’s free too, though that might not live up to the grand prize of $50 dollars worth of stomach pain and quick moving bowels.

The Fantasy Baseball Hall of Fame has spent an unhealthy amount of time identifying the best fantasy seasons, careers, statistics, Fantasy All Stars, and Hall of Famers of the fantasy era. As mentioned ad nauseam, the fantasy era began in 1980, and thus many great players of the 1980’s fall just short of enshrinement since their careers commenced in 1979 or earlier. This, along with the fact it’s just plain fun, has led us down the path of looking back in time, decade by decade, for the best fantasy players in baseballs history. We’ll be following reverse chronological order with the 1960s taking center stage today. As you may recall, earlier in October. Joe Morgan was crowned best fantasy player of 1970s.

The tail end of the 1960s is famous for its strong favoritism towards the pitcher. In 1968 the average NL batter had a slash line of .243 / .300 / .341. The AL batters were worse off still – .230 / .297 / .339 and the league’s runs scoring was at its lowest point in the 20th century. Throughout the decade, as one moves closer to the 1970s, stolen bases and batting average were on the decline, though home runs were on the rise:

This created an environment where the fantasy standouts were relatively low average power hitters with a good deal of speed. The word relative is key however, as a .300 batting average in 1968 is more like a .335 average in today’s batting environment. As we did with the 1970s, here are a few examples of Fantasy Era players and their FBHOF scores:

• 90+ Points: Only two players have ever amassed 90 or more FBHOF points: Randy Johnson and Barry Bonds
• 80-89 Points: 7 Players are in this grouping, think Roger Clemens
• 70-79 Points: 15 players score in this bucket, the most common. Think of them as the average FBHOF’er – Ryne Sandberg, Jeff Bagwell, and Curt Schilling types.
• 65-69 Points: 12 Players. The low-enders such as Don Mattingly and Jose Canseco
• 52-64 Points: Only pitchers can score as low as 52 and get elected, David Cone is a great example

The ten best players of the 60’s were all Outfielders, Starting Pitchers, and First Basemen. Before admiring this group, a few words on the best of the rest at each position.

Catcher – Johnny Bench had the highest average peak score of the 1960s, but only played in 1968 and 1969 and two years a dynasty does not make. When looking at the 1970s, his FBHOF score was a fine 68.61 and adding these two new seasons in jumps his score up to 76.7, 24th best all time regardless of position.

The best fantasy catcher of the decade was Joe Torre. His 68.6 FBHOF points is well within the range of Hall of Fame criteria and he was at his best in 1964 with 13.1 FBHOF points. He batted .321 with 20 HR, 87 R, and 109 RBI. Torre also has two other 10 point seasons and currently sits second all time at the position. This is a bit unfair though, since his best season was as a third baseman in 1971.

Second Base – There are no offensive stars here as only two times did a second bagger record 10-points in the entire decade. In 1961 as a rookie, Jake Wood stole 30 bases and scored 96 runs amassing 12.0 FBHOF points in the process. Two years later, Tony Taylor batted .281 with 102 runs scored for exactly 10.0 FBHOF points. Neither had noteworthy fantasy careers however, and the prize for best of the decade falls to Don Buford. While never a star, he did have four seasons of 7.7 or more points and his peak 5-year average of 7.5 points is easily best in the decade.

Third Base – No player at the hot corner meets FBHOF requirements but Ron Santo comes awfully close. The life long Chicagoan scored between 10.9 and 12.5 FBHOF points each year between 1963 and 1968, with an overall score of 63.6, 5th best all time from what we’ve investigated. He was routinely capable of 30 HR, 100 RBI, and 90 Runs Scored.

Shortstop – While not as weak of a position as their middle infield counterparts, the shortstops of the 1960’s weren’t very good either. The best of them was Maury Wills, he of the best fantasy stolen base seasons ever.

Closer – 32 saves was the highest recorded in a single season, and Hoyt Wilhem reached 152 on the decade.

Top-10 Players of the 1960s

10. Bob Gibson, SP
Peak Avg in Decade: 12.9
Overall FBHOF Points: 71.6

Though still great at the start of the 1970s, Gibson turned in his finest work between 1966 and 1969. In total, the pitcher had seven 10+ FBHOF points seasons, tied for 5th best we’ve seen. He recorded the 6th best pitching season of the decade in 1968 – 22 W, 0.85 WHIP, 1.12 ERA, 268 K.

9. Jim Bunning, SP
Peak Avg in Decade: 13.0
Overall FBHOF Points: 68.5

Bunning won at least 17 games six times between 1961 and 1967 and was incredible during the last two in which he averaged 18 W, 1.02 WHIP, 2.35 ERA, and 252 K’s

8. Orlando Cepeda, 1B
Peak Avg in Decade: 13.6
Overall FBHOF Points: 72.2

Went .311 with 46 HR, 105 R, 146 RBI, and 12 SB in 1961. Averaged a very good 31 HR, 93 R, 105 RBI, and .315 Average in his next best four years.

7. Don Drysdale, SP
Peak Avg in Decade: 13.8
Overall FBHOF Points: 71.7

Had three 14+ FBHOF seasons between 1960 and 1964. During these three years he averaged 19 W, 1.05 WHIP, 2.62 ERA, 238 K’s. During the decade Drysdale won 18 or more games four times; had an ERA under 3.00 seven times, and a WHIP better 1.20 eight times.

6. Lou Brock, OF
Peak Avg in Decade: 3.9
Overall FBHOF Points: 83.1

His career spanned 18 years and was very good in both the 1960’s and 1970s. In the earlier part of his baseball life from 1962 to 1969 he totaled 89.2 FBHOF points, and ended his career in 1979 with an additional 85.6 FBHOF points. Between 1964 and 1974 he recorded at least 10 FBHOF points per season for 11 straight seasons. 1967 was his finest – .299 AVG, 113 R, 21 HR, 76 RBI, 52 SB.

5. Juan Marichal, SP
Peak Avg in Decade: 14.8
Overall FBHOF Points: 79.4

A devastating pitcher in both 1963 and 1965, but was only an elite fantasy pitcher for a total of 5 seasons. His 5 year peak ranks 6th all time among starters, during this stretch he averaged 23 W, 1.00 WHIP, 2.29 ERA, and 225 K’s.

4. Frank Robinson
Peak Avg in Decade: 15.5
Overall FBHOF Points: 80.1

Played from 1956 through 1976 but his greatest seasons came in the 1960s. They are prolific enough to admire individually:

1962 – 17.8 Pts, .342 AVG, 134 R, 39 HR, 136 RBI, 18 SB
1966 – 16.4 Pts, .316 AVG, 122 R, 49 HR, 122 RBI, 8 SB
1961 – 15.9 Pts, .323 AVG, 117 R, 37 HR, 124 RBI, 22 SB
1965 – 13.6 Pts, .296 AVG, 109 R, 33 HR, 113 RBI, 13 SB
1964 – 13.6 Pts, .306 AVG, 103 R, 29 HR, 96 RBI, 23 SB

3. Willie Mays
Peak Avg in Decade: 16.4
Overall FBHOF Points: 88.5

Only two batters since the 1960s have recorded 5 seasons of 15.5 FBHOF points. Given that Mays’ career started in 1951 and has five Top-5 MVP seasons during the decade, it is safe to assume he’ll end up with more. His power was awesome, reaching 40+ home runs four times in the 1960s. Two others matched this accomplishment, but Harmon Killebrew batted .267 and Hank Aaron is next up on this list.

2. Hank Aaron
Peak Avg in Decade: 16.8
Overall FBHOF Points: 92.9

Aaron is the new single season record holder for most FBHOF Points in a season for a batter. In 1963 he went .319 with 121 R, 44 HR, 130 RBI, and 31 SB for 19.7 FBHOF points. He had eight additional seasons of 14 or more FBHOF points, reaching the 30-HR plateau an incredible eleven times. Like Mays, Aaron too had his share of great seasons in the unexplored 1950s and both have a great chance at being named the greatest fantasy player that ever lived when all is said and done.

1. Sandy Koufax
Peak Avg in Decade: 17.5
Overall FBHOF Points: 89.1

In 1994 Greg Maddux was masterful, and few pitchers have dominated batters as often and as easily as he did. In 202 innings batters were held to a .502 OPS (.207 / .243 / .259) and routinely looked silly getting bad wood on the ball. His ERA was 1.56 and his WHIP 0.90, only Doc Gooden had a better ERA during the fantasy era and nobody topped his WHIP until Pedro Martinez in 2000. The Mad Dog, in a strike shortened season, gave up 3 runs or less in 24 of his 25 starts (13 of which were 1 run or less).

He was unhittable. From a fantasy standpoint, the only knock on his season was a relatively low 156 strikeouts. This mattered little in real-life, but this K/9 rate of “just” 6.95 did hold back his fantasy scoring.

Keep this season in the back of your mind. Now picture the same thing only with the pitcher punching out 382 batters, almost two and half times as many, then picture that same pitcher doing it three times in four years.

Sandy Koufax’s FBHOF score surpassed 20 points, a new record in and of itself, three times – in 1963, 1965, and 1966. His fantasy lines:

No player in fantasy history (that we’ve seen) has been remotely as good as Koufax during their three year peaks. The Top-10 three year peak scores:

20.8 – Sandy Koufax
17.9 – Randy Johnson
17.5 – Hank Aaron
17.3 – Pedro Martinez
17.1 – Alex Rodriguez
17.0 – Joe Morgan
16.8 – Greg Maddux
16.7 – Frank Robinson
16.7 – Willie Mays
16.6 – Steve Carlton

All Time Baseball (ATB) is a fantasy league played using a computer simulation called, Diamond Mind Baseball. Owners draft any player-season in the history of the sport (within some playing time limitations) and then create lineups, rotations, and depth charts, and finally turn their managerial preferences loose on the game egine to simulate a full seasons worth of games. All results, box scores, and statistics are posted weekly to a centralized website.

You may recall my request for new owners a few weeks ago and our league had the good fortune to have several Razzball readers apply for ownership. With this in mind I thought a general update would hold some interest and while our draft is still going strong, round 20 of 30, we can pause and take a look back at the all important first round. There is no need to dissect all 20 picks and commentary will provided for the more interesting ones.

Please note that while similar to fantasy drafts, ATB requires a full 30 man squad with all positions filled (i.e., RF, CF, LF not 3 OF) plus defense counts. It isn’t only about which player had the best offensive statistics as all owners have to take into consideration offense, defense, and league context.

Pick #1 – Babe Ruth, 1921 – LF
.378 / .509 / .846, 59 HR, 177 R, 171 RBI, +4 NSB, 1.355 OPS, Av LF

Historically in ATB, Ruth is the common number one overall draft pick with the only question being the year chosen. Many point to Ruth’s 1927, sixty-home run season as his best, though most ATB’ers recognize that 1920 and 1921 were better seasons, and one can even make a case that 1923, 1926, and 1919 where superior when taking league and park context.

Ruth 1921 was the choice for this draft and it was of course a monster. One item to note however, is that he played in the Polo Grounds in a year that inflated HR totals for lefties by about 70% which is taken into consideration by the game engine. The right field line was just 256 feet away from home plate this year.

Pick #2 – Barry Bonds, 2002 – LF
.370 / .582 / .799, 49 HR, 117 R, 110 RBI, +7 NSB, 1.381 OPS, Av LF
It’s an interesting question – which of Bonds’ seasons is his best. This owner chose to foresake the moster 74 HR year of 2001 but was it the right choice? Let’s see how each season compared to the league average in their slash stats:

2001 2002 2004
AVG 27% 45% 39%
OBP 57% 77% 84%
SLG 114% 105% 100%

These figures depict how much better each is when compared to the league average player at the time. 2001 lags behind both 2002 and 2004, and the choice between the latter two are a matter of preference – what would you rather, a better batting average and slugging or a better on-base percentage?

Pick #3 – Mickey Mantle, 1956 – CF
.353 / .464 / .705, 52 HR, 132 R, 130 RBI, +9 NSB, 1.169 OPS, Vg CF
Mantle likely isn’t as good of an offensive player as Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig, or perhaps even Jimmie Foxx, but his combination of high average, power, and Very Good defense is very hard to pass up. ATB is a league that considers many aspects of the game, and defense is key.

Pick #4 – Pedro Martinez, 2000 – SP
18-6, 1.74 ERA, 217 IP, 128 H, 32 BB, 284 K, 5.3 H/9, 11.8 K/9
Hands down, Martinez is easily the best pitcher in the 10 year history of ATB. Year in and year out he performs better than any pitcher, and some believe with two offensive studs in Bonds and Ruth, Pedro is the most unique player in the game and is a #1 overall pick. In 2000, his incredible 0.74 WHIP was 114% better than the league average; the next closest pitcher of all time relative to league average is Greg Maddux, whose figure is ‘only’ 70% better. Further, Martinez had an extremly high strikeout rate and the two combined make him unstoppable.

Pick #5 – Ted Williams, 1941 – LF
.406 / .549 / .735, 37 HR, 135 R, 120 RBI, -2 NSB, 1.284 OPS, Av LF

Pick #6 – Randy Johnson, 1999 – SP
17-9, 2.48 ERA, 271 IP, 207 H, 70 BB, 364 K, 6.9 H/9, 12.1 K/9
Johnson’s selection is our first potential owner error. It’s a matter of preference in roster construction as to which direction you want to go in – best batter, best pitcher, positional scarcity – but Johnson is historically not the second best pitcher in the game. Maddux is “1 B” to Martinez’s” 1 A” and while Johnson is a very good pitcher, his WHIP was 1.02, by no means of historical significance.

Pick #7 – Rogers Hornsby, 1924 – 2B
.424 / .503 / .696, 25 HR, 121 R, 94 RBI, -7 NSB, 1.199 OPS, Av 2B

Pick #8 – Greg Maddux, 1995
19-2, 1.63 ERA, 210 IP, 147 H, 23 BB, 181 K, 6.3 H/9, 7.8 K/9

Pick #9 – Addie Joss, 1904
14-10, 1.59 ERA, 192 IP, 160 H, 30 BB, 83 K, 7.5 H/9, 3.9 K/9
Joss is one of my all-time favorites, a deadball era pitcher that pitched in a ballpark that slightly favored batters in 1904. He didn’t strike out a lot of batters, a common theme during his era, but that doesn’t really matter if one keeps his ERA under 2.00, a feat Joss accomplished an incredible four times.

One quibble with this selection is in the choice of year. In 1908 Joss went 24-11 with a 1.16 ERA and 0.81 WHIP. This year, 1904, he went 14-10 with a 1.59 ERA. Either appear to be great however.

Pick #10 – Honus Wagner, 1908
.354 / .411 / .542, 10 HR, 100 R, 109 RBI, +32 NSB, .954 OPS, Ex SS
Is a batter who hits just 10 HR a stretch for the 10th pick overall? Not when it fills a need at the most scarce offensive position in the game, save catcher. Plus, Wagner is one of the few middle infielders awarded the best defensive rating available and it’s not as if he was weak with the stick.

Roughly speaking, his batting line in 1908 is equivalent to a current line of .385 / .450 / 750. Now imagine Ozzie Smith with this line and you have the Flying Dutchman.

Pick #11 – Jimmie Foxx, 1932
.364 / .466 / .749, 58 HR, 151 R, 169 RBI, -4 NSB, 1.215 OPS, Vg 1B
I am not a fan of counting stats when evaluating players, but my goodness – 58 HR, 151 R, 169 RBI all with Very Good defense .

Pick #12 – Willie McCovey, 1969
.320 / .453 / .656, 45 HR, 101 R, 126 RBI, 0 NSB, 1.108 OPS, Av1B
McCovey is not good enough for the 12th overall pick, but there’s a reason he was selected here. An owner dropped out of the league the day of the draft and didn’t let the commissioner know. We scrambled to find another owner, and did, but he didn’t get a chance to make his first round selection until well into the second round.

The laugh’s on us though, in pre-season exhibition play McCovey’s ‘regular season pace’ was 76 HR and 173 RBI. He’s since been traded to another division.

Pick #13 – Lou Gehrig, 1927
.373 / .471 / .765, 47 HR, 149 R, 175 RBI, +2 NSB, 1.236 OPS, Av1B
Only three players in history have slugged as high as Gehrig, and him dropping outside the Top-10 makes the Yankee first basement a steal. Further, his ATB track record is extremely good making him a low risk pick as well.

Pick # 14 – Ty Cobb, 1909
.377 / .427 / .517, 9 HR, 116 R, 107 RBI, +34 NSB, .944 OPS, VgCF

Pick # 15 – Arky Vaughan, 1935
.385 / .488 / .607, 19 HR, 108 R, 99 RBI, +2 NSB, 1.095 OPS, VgSS

Pick #16 – Walter Johnson, 1913
36-7, 1.14 ERA, 346 IP, 232 H, 38 BB, 243 K, 6.0 H/9, 6.3 K/9
The “Big Train” was awesome in 1913, and he is widely regarded as one of the Top-5 pitchers of all time, many believe he’s the best ever.

Pick #17 – Tip O’Neil, 1887
.435 / .494 / .691, 14 HR, 167 R, 123 RBI, +15 NSB, 1.185 OPS, AvLF
A relative unknown, Tip O’Neill was a star in the American Association during the mid to late 1880s. His batting average is the second best single season mark of all time. While displaying little power, O’Neill is an ideal #2 hitter in a potent lineup, and a #3 batter in a moderate one.

Pick #18 – Christy Mathewson, 1905
31-9, 1.28 ERA, 339 IP, 252 IP, 64 BB, 206 K, 6.7 H/9, 5.5 K/9

Pick #19 – Joe DiMaggio, 1939
.381 / .444 / .671, 30 HR, 108 R, 126 RBI, +17 NSB, 1.115 OPS, ExCF

Pick #20 – Tommy Bond, 1876
31-13, 1.67 ERA, 408 IP, 355 H, 13 BB, 88 K, 7.8 H/9, 1.9 K/9
The last pitcher taken in the first round of the 10th ATB draft is the first “deadball era” hurler we’ve seen. Bond was a work-horse, pitching in over 400 innings and starting 65% of his team’s games. As a testament to the times, be assured his 13 BB in so many innings is not a typo. Bond also has three seasons of 500+ innings to his credit and in 1878 started 59 of 60 games for his Boston Red Caps.