All Time All Stars - NY Yankees

Before the days of Nintendo, kids (and adults) had to find ways to entertain themselves during the rainy days of summer and the cold days of winter. In the 1970's my dad and uncle gravitated to two specific games.  Sports Illustrated created a board game for college football and for Major League Baseball.  The MLB version had two formats: the single season and the All Time All Stars.  The single season games were nice but playing as the All Time All Stars could be really fun.  Imagine how cool it was to play as the Yankees.  Try building a lineup where you get to include Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Mickey Mantle. Joe DiMaggio too. Yogi Berra! Well, a lot of time has passed since SI put out this game and I've begun doing a little exercise where I update the rosters for each team and maybe even add the expansion teams.
I started with the Yankees and for roster spots that I'm having trouble with I'll put a poll up asking for input.  The guidelines for roster construction are:

• Each team must be composed of fifteen (15) position players and ten (10) pitchers.
• At least one pitcher must be a relief pitcher
• Each position must have at least two players on the roster who can capably fill it.  Think of this as having a starter and a backup. 
• At least one player chosen to represent a position must have played that position as their primary defensive position.  For instance, Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth cannot be chosen as the only two representatives at first base since neither played there for the majority of their career.
• Players must have been active no earlier than 1901.  I chose 1901 since that was the first year of the American League.  We need a cutoff at some point and this seemed logical to me. If a player accumulated stats prior to 1901 (Cy Young for instance) these stats will be disregarded.
• To be eligible for a position a player must have played one full season as a starter there or 10% of his career games.  The same goes for starting and relieving.
• The team a player represents should be the one that makes the most sense for that player. For instance, Alex Rodriguez has played for three teams but he's played 300 more games as a Yankee than a Mariner. He won an MVP as a Yankee and has more career WAR as a Yankee.  Therefore, he's going to be on the Yankee roster.
• Batter handedness should not impact the players chosen.

With those guidelines set, let's get started.

Major League Steroids

I'll save the longer, more in-depth analysis for Anderson, but with the announcement last night that 2011 NL MVP Ryan Braun has been busted for juicing, I had to write something.

I've heard there are studies out there that "prove" that steroid use does not correlate or cause increased performance. There is also the res ipsa loquitur approach of "the thing speaks for itself" that players getting busted are the ones putting up outstanding performances.

Whatever side you fall on, I need to say this...

• Top 6 single-season Home Run Performances: Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, McGwire, Sosa, Sosa. All either proved, admitted, or super-duper highly suspicious users.
• All-Time Home Run Leader: Barry Bonds. Also in the top 10: McGwire, Sosa, A-Rod...see above.
• Oldest pitcher to win a Cy Young: Roger Clemens...same story. Also #3 all-time in strikeouts.

Even if you don't think PEDs can make you swing harder or throw faster, most people would agree that they speed recovery. That's the type of thing that can keep you on top of your game late into your 30s or even your 40s, thus padding the career/all-time stats.

If you take the "suspect" players off the single-season HR records list, only Babe Ruth (twice) and Willie Mays have hit more than 51 HRs after age 31. That's 3 completely honest performances by guys over 31 out of the top 31 overall. That should make you think that maybe power-hitting after 30 is quite a rare, HOF-worthy feat.