Fantasy Baseball Advice

The Fantasy Baseball Hall of Fame in conjunction with Razzball.com, are electing the All-Star teams of the Fantasy Era. For every season from 1980 to today full 23 man rosters will be created and analyzed. In the second installment the 1983 through 1985 seasons are identified.

Year: 1983
First Time All Stars: 11 – John Denny, Carlton Fisk, Pedro Guerrero, La Marr Hoyt, Jack Morris, Jesse Orosco, Jim Rice, Dave Stieb, Lou Whitaker
3 Time All Stars: 5 – Cecil Cooper, Andre Dawson, Rickey Henderson, Eddie Murray, Robin Yount
5 Time All Stars: N/A
10 Time All Stars: N/A
Future FBHOF’ers: 8 – Steve Carlton, Dawson, Henderson, Dale Murphy, Murray, Tim Raines, Cal Ripken, Yount.
Snubs: Ron Guidry (8.5), Lloyd Moseby (10.9), Mike Schmidt (11.1), Willie Upshaw (11.2)
16 Pt Season: 1 – Murphy (16.6)

By 1983 several players had emerged as recurring fantasy greats. Steve Carlton, Cecil Cooper, Rickey Henderson, Eddie Murray, and Robin Yount each were elected to their 4th consecutive All-Star team, and all but Cooper would eventually be inducted into Fantasy Baseball Hall of Fame. Cooper falls just short of FBHOF requirements only since his 5th best season came one year before the 1980 cutoff.

On offense, Dale Murphy was king, enjoying his best season as a professional – .302, 131 R, 36 HR, 121 RBI, and 30 SB for the #1 batter ranking that year. His 16.6 FBHOF points rank 16th in the fantasy era. The rest of his outfield peers were solid themselves, finishing 9th in the positional rankings from 1980-2007. Two other stars of the 1970’s – Jim Rice and Dave Winfield – joined FBHOF’ers Tim Raines and Andre Dawson to give the outfielders an average of 13.5 points between them.

The 1983 bullpen ranks #1 all time. The names do not conjure up memories of the best seasons ever, but from a fantasy standpoint Dan Quisenberry, Jesse Orosco, and Al Holland delivered over 340 innings of 0.99 WHIP, 1.88 ERA baseball, along with 26 wins and 87 saves.

Starting pitching was relatively weak as Mario Soto, the #1 starter, had just 13.5 FBHOF points, the 5th worst mark for the #1 pitcher in a given year. He’s joined by first time All Stars Jack Morris, La Marr Hoyt, John Denny, and Dave Stieb. FBHOF’er Steve Carlton is the 6th starter, though this was his last great year.

Joe Altobelli’s Baltimore Orioles would win the World Series in 1983, topping the Philadelphia Phillies in just 5 games. Murray and Ripken are their representatives.

Positional Ranking Among the 28 Teams
C: 7th
IF: 21st
OF: 9th
SP: 21st
RP: 1st
Overall: 9th

Year: 1984
First Time All Stars: 8 – Tony Armas, Bert Blyleven, Mike Boddicker, Dwight Gooden, Willie Hernandez, Don Mattingly, Tony Pena, Juan Samuel
3 Time All Stars: 5 – Dale Murphy, Cal Ripken, Mike Schmidt, Mario Soto, Tim Raines
5 Time All Stars: 2 – Eddie Murray, Rickey Henderson
10 Time All Stars: N/A
Future FBHOF’ers: 9 –Gooden, Henderson, Mattingly, Murphy, Murray, Raines, Ripken, Ryne Sandberg, Schmidt
Snubs: Bud Black, Jim Rice
16 Pt Season: None

1984 wasn’t a prime year for great baseball lines and it shows when constructing the fantasy All Star squad. Instead of an all time great Mike Schmidt leading the league in home runs like he did in 1983, it was Tony Armas. Instead of Jim Rice and the RBI crown, it was Armas again. Dale Murphy was a stud in 1983, amassing 16.6 FBHOF points after batting .302 with 131 R, 36 HR, 121 RBI, and 30 SB. One year later the best line in fantasy was just 13.6 FBHOF points when Ryne Sandberg batted .314 with 114 R, 19 HR, 84 RBI, and 32 SB.

Two young players from New York did have a major impact on the game however, and would eventually become greats, if just for a short period of time. In the National League, Dwight Gooden threw his first major league pitch in April, becoming one of the finest pitchers in baseball over the next 3 or 4 years. The same is true for the Yankees first basemen, Don Mattingly, who won a batting title and drove in 100 runners in his first full time season.

Overall though, the Infielders, Outfielders, and Staring Pitching all rank in the lower half of FBHOF scoring, with the latter two positions coming in with some of the worst scores on record.

A positive about 1983, and of the period between 1982 and 1985, was the quality of the catching crew. The only better 4 year period of the fantasy era was 1997 to 2000 thanks to the likes of Mike Piazza and Ivan Rodriguez. In the early 80’s it was six time All Star Gary Carter (and he’s not in the Fantasy Baseball Hall of Fame?) along with Lance Parrish and Carlton Fisk, both three time all stars.

In the World Series the Detroit Tigers cemented their place in history as one of the great single season teams, winning 104 games and easily dispatching the San Diego Padres 4 games to 1. Not one regular Tiger is on this team, though closer Willie Hernandez was spectacular, reaching 10.5 FBHOF points thanks to a line of 140 IP, 9 W, 0.94 WHIP, 1.92 ERA, and 32 saves. Those were the days for relief pitching.

Positional Ranking Among the 28 Teams
C: 5th
IF: 15th
OF: 26th
SP: 27th
RP: 2nd
Overall: 22nd

Year: 1985
First Time All Stars: 9 – Kirk Gibson, Tommy Herr, Orel Hershiser, Bob James, Willie McGee, Donnie Moore, Dave Parker, Bret Saberhagen, John Tudor
3 Time All Stars: 3 – Dale Murphy, Cal Ripken, Fernando Valenzuela
5 Time All Stars: 3 – Gary Carter, Rickey Henderson, Eddie Murray
10 Time All Stars: N/A
Future FBHOF’ers: Dwight Gooden, Henderson, Don Mattingly, Murphy, Murray, Cal Ripken, Saberhagen, Ryne Sandberg, Valenzuela
Snubs: Tim Raines (11.5)
16 Pt Season: Henderson (16.6), Gooden (18.3)

This was a fun team to explore, one riddled with great seasons. Only 1997 saw more 15-point campaigns, and 1985 is also ranked 4th in 10-point seasons. Rickey Henderson, Dwight Gooden and Don Mattingly were each at the height of their successes while Orel Hershiser, Eddie Murray, and Dale Murphy were in the midst of their second best seasons of the Fantasy Era. Additionally, Gary Carter joins Henderson and Murray to create our first team with three 5-time all stars.

The standouts of 1985 were the infielders who combined to average 13.6 FBHOF points. In the 18 year period between 1877 and 1996, Don Mattingly was the only major leaguer to drive in 145 runners; Sandberg stole 54 while contributing 26 HR and 113; George Brett went .335 / 108 / 30 / 112; Ripken hit 26 HR and had 100+ R & RBI; and finally, Murray drove in 124 and hit 31 HR. Only middle infielder Tommy Herr had less than 12 FBHOF points and he was very good regardless – .302 AVG, 97 R, 110 RBI, 31 SB. Only one infield of the fantasy era ranked better, the 2005 squad of Albert Pujols, Alfonso Soriano, Alex Rodriguez, Michael Young, Derek Lee, and Chone Figgins.

The outfield was great too, ranking 6th overall. Again, only one player scored less than 12 FBHOF points and their collective average stats were 110 R, 28 HR, 100 RBI, and 32 SB.

While not exactly week, starting pitching was an area where the 1985 team did not rank well above average. Gooden was amazing – 277 IP, 24 W, 0.97 WHIP, 1.53 ERA, 268 K and John Tudor and Hershiser made a formidable 1-2-3, but at the tail end Bret Saberhagen and Bert Blyleven couldn’t match Gooden’s FBHOF score between them. And for the first time not a single closer reached 6.5 points, ranking 23rd of 28 teams.

The Kansas City Royals, thanks in large part to All Stars Brett and Saberhagen, bested the St. Louis Cardinals in a hard fought 7 game series. Cardinal All-Star and starting pitcher Tudor, was shelled after two great performances in games 1 & 4.

Positional Ranking Among the 28 Teams
C: 3rd
IF: 2nd
OF: 6th
SP: 13th
RP: 23rd
Overall: 4th

The inaugural inductions to the Fantasy Baseball Hall of Fame are now complete.  In all, 43 players were enshrined and many of them, no doubt, were childhood heroes for a good percentage of the Razzball.com readership.  Fantasy baseball is largely about having a good time and it makes sense to take a step back from time to time and make sure we aren’t taking ourselves too seriously.  Remembering great players and great seasons should be about memories above all else.  I hope it has been.

At the end of each year FBHOF.com will scour through the latest batch of stats to see if any others deserve to be remembered in this manner as well.  However, one may view the actual inductions as a relatively minor part of what FBHOF is all about.  Anything ‘great’ is eligible for discussion and if there is anything you would like to see, please drop me a line.

In this vein, the next topic to explore is the Fantasy All Stars from each season.  In the coming weeks we’ll construct the best 23 players from each season and elect them to an “All Star” team – keeping track of trends, snubs, and eyeing the great seasons of each year.  When we through with each of the 28 teams I hope to crown a champion based upon the results of an extremely popular online historical baseball simulation.  More on this later as the details are ironed out.

All Star roster construction will be determined by FBHOF Score with a keen eye towards positional requirements.  The standard Fantasy team requires:

2 Catchers,
1 First Basemen,
1 Second Basemen,
1 Third Basemen
1 Shortstop
5 Outfielders
1 Middle Infielder
1 Corner Infielder
1 Utility
6 Starting Pitchers
3 Closers

Our All-Star squads will strictly adhere to the above.  This means each year several players, batters mostly, will be in among the top scorers but not elected due to positional requirements.   Interestingly, one player has been snubbed more than any other and his FBHOF situation parallels his real life career where he may find himself on the outside looking to the Cooperstown Hall of Fame.

Year: 1980
First Time All Stars: All
3 Time All Stars: N/A
5 Time All Stars: N/A
10 Time All Stars: N/A
Future FBHOF’ers: 5 – Steve Carlton, Rickey Henderson, Eddie Murray, Mike Schmidt, Robin Yount
Snubs: Tony Armas Jr. (10.4), Al Bumbry (10.2), Andre Dawson (10.4), Keith Hernandez (11.2)
16 Pt Seasons: 1 – Carlton (17.5)

The inaugural season of the Fantasy Era wasn’t exactly a banner year for the few die hard Rotisserie players of the day.  Sure, with Mike Schmidt, Robin Yount, Reggie Jackson, Rickey Henderson, George Brett, Eddie Murray, and Steve Carlton on the roster there was plenty of superstar talent to spread around, but what was lacking in 1980 was superstar statistics.

I tabulated team points for each season based upon the All Star’s FBHOF Score, and further delineated each team into Catchers, Infielders, Outfielders, Starting Pitchers, and Relief Pitchers.   For the 1980 team only catchers scored above average, and just barely, with a ranking of 13th out of 28 teams.  The balance ranked between 18th and 24th, with an overall ranking of just 26th.

Among batters, first basemen Cecil Cooper scored the most points (14.5) by batting .352 with 96 R, 25 HR, 122 RBI, and 17 SB.  This was good, but by no means great even when considering the low offensive era of the early 1980’s.  Schmidt and Brett scored over 14 themselves but infielders Willie Randolph and Alan Trammel were black holes totaling just 16 points between them.

Perhaps the lone bright spot was a gem of season by Steve Carlton who won 24 games, struck out 286 batters, and held his ERA under 2.50.  #2 starter Mike Norris had his career year as well (22 W, 1.05 WHIP, 2.53 ERA, 180 K) scoring 13.2 points.

The Philadelphia Phillies took home the World Series title in 1980, besting the Kansas City Royals in 6 games.  FBHOF’ers Schmidt and Carlton were the Phillies representatives to this All Star team.

Positional Ranking Among the 28 Teams
C: 13th
IF: 18th
OF: 24th
SP: 24th
RP: 20th
Overall: 26th

Year: 1981
First Time All Stars: 11.  It is just the second year where there was an all star game, so we’ll not list all 11.
3 Time All Stars: N/A
5 Time All Stars: N/A
10 Time All Stars: N/A
Future FBHOF’ers: 7 – Carlton, Andre Dawson, Henderson, Murray, Tim Raines, Schmidt, Yount, Fernando Valenzuela
Snubs: Tony Armas (2nd time, 10.7), George Hendrick (11.1), Carney Lansford (11.2), Gary Mathews (10.7), Mario Soto (8.8)
16 Pt Season: 1 – Schmidt (18.8)

This was a great team, though a caveat needs to be made since it was a strike season.  Is it likely that Schmidt would have finished with 18.8 FBHOF Points given another 60 games to work with?  No probably not, and the same can be said for any player enjoying a great 1st half – the odds of a hot start continuing diminish each day as season progresses.  At the same time though, I am sure many a great 2nd half never saw the light of day which could be argued held scoring down, at least in some instances.

The key to the 1981 squad was its outfield, a truly superb group of starting five, three of which were future FBHOF’ers.  In addition, Dwight Evans, George Foster, and Tom Paciorek were all excellent and provided enough points to rank this outfield first overall thanks to an average score of 14.3, best of all time among not just outfielders, but any positional grouping.

In the infield, Schmidt’s historic season made up for mediocre (by All Star standards) years from middle infielders Robin Yount and Dave Concepcion.  Starting pitching was a bit top heavy though Fernando Valenzuela and Carlton made a formidable #1 and #2.

Rollie Fingers led a dominant relief corps, enjoying one of the few double digit seasons recorded by a reliever.  The 1981 team ranks 5th overall, a vast improvement from their predecessors.

Only 1 player, future FBHOF’er Fernando Venezuela, came from the World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers.  Valenzuela, a 20 year old rookie won 13 of 25 starts and led the league in strikeouts, Innings, Shutouts, and Complete Games.  For fantasy purposes, his 1.05 WHIP was 2nd in the league.

Positional Ranking Among the 28 Teams
C: 23rd
IF: 16th
OF: 1st
SP: 15th
RP: 3rd
Overall: 5th

Year: 1982
First Time All Stars: 10 – Joaquin Andujar, Bill Caudill, Damaso Garcia, Hal McRae, Greg Minton, Joe Niekro, Lance Parrish, Dan Quisenberry, Cal Ripken, Lonnie Smith, Mario Soto,
3 Time All Stars: 6 – Carlton, Cooper, Gary Carter, Henderson, Murray, Yount.
5 Time All Stars: N/A
10 Time All Stars: N/A
Future FBHOF’ers: Carlton, Dawson, Henderson, Paul Molitor, Dale Murphy, Murray, Cal Ripken, Yount, Valenzuela.
Snubs: Bill Buckner (10.9), Pedro Guerrero (11.8) Al Oliver (11.9)
16 Pt Season: 1 – Yount

Two aspects of this team stand out – the starting pitching was very strong and the outfield was deep, perhaps too deep.  Here we find the first instance where all 6 starting pitchers scored 10 or more points, a feat matched only 5 other times.  They rank just 9th since Steve Carlton was the only elite pitcher during the year, but Rogers and Soto more then held their own, combining for a 33 wins and an ERA of 2.63.

Al Oliver and Guerrero combined for 23.7 points giving them the dubious record for the best jilted players in a single season.  Very little separated these two from most of the other outfield crew – Lonnie Smith, Andre Dawson, Dwight Evans, and Hal McRae averaged 12.2 points to the snubs 11.9.  This wasn’t a positive though, collectively the All Star outfielders rank 23rd mostly due to a lack of a dominant season.

The best season of the year belonged to the shortstop, Robin Yount, who was appearing on his 3rd consecutive All-Star team.  Yount was an all around stud in 1982 – .331 AVG, 129 R, 29 HR, 114 RBI, 14 SB.  Damaso Garcia and future FBHOF’er Cal Ripken made their All-Star debuts with relatively low scores to round out he middle infielders.  FBHOF’ers Paul Molitor and Dale Murphy also made their first All Star appearances in 1982.

Joaquin Andujar (15 W, 2.47 ERA) and Smith were the two elections from the St. Louis Cardinals, who bested the American League’s Milwaukee Brewers 4 games to 3 in the World Classic.

Positional Ranking Among the 28 Teams
C: 8th
IF: 19th
OF: 23rd
SP: 9th
RP: 4th
Overall: 12th