The Game of World Series Domination: If MLB GMs Played Risk
If you or someone you love is or has ever been a nerd, then you are undoubtedly familiar with Risk, the classic board game in which players send tiny plastic Roman numeral pieces into dice battles to achieve world domination. For decades, Risk has provided power-hungry children and socially inept adults with important geographical knowledge—Afghanistan is bigger than China, Mongolia has a coastline, and a clipper ship the size of Australia is permanently docked between South Africa and Brazil—and inspired countless assertions that all the other players are mispronouncing the territories that end in “-kutsk.”
Whoever colored this map must not know the difference between water and Europe.
While every game is different, the strategies don’t change much from one game to the next. Someone’s always trying to conquer Asia too early. Someone else is hiding in a corner and slowly amassing an imposing army. And everyone wants Australia.
Interestingly, as the rumors have swirled on baseball’s Hot Stove this winter, the attitudes many MLB general managers have taken towards improving their teams have borne strong resemblances to the approaches my friends take when we gather around the Risk board. This led me to wonder: What would happen if 12 baseball GMs sat down to challenge each other for world domination? Using the events of the last few months as my guide, I did my best to paint a picture of what each executive would do and how the game would play out.
Ruben Amaro, Jr. (Phillies): The Guy Who Won Australia. “Hmmm…let’s see here…Western Australia? Nice! Now I’ll just dump all of my troops there and take the continent on my first turn. That’ll give me a huge leg up for the rest of the game.”
MLB Trade Rumors: New York Yankees a Fit for Travis Hafner?
Last week, after we learned that the Cleveland Indians were looking to trade Travis Hafner, I suggested the Washington Nationals could be a potential fit. Given that Hafner’s shoulder problems impair his ability to play the field, the idea was admittedly a bit of a stretch even before the Nats signed Adam LaRoche.
But, as promised, I will continue to offer my matchmaking services until a move is made or I run out of ideas. And so, I present my next potential partner for pawning Pronk: the New York Yankees.
After last year’s Nick Johnson signing didn’t work out and the Yankees had to give a plurality of DH starts to Marcus Thames, New York seems content to fill the lineup spot internally. As of now, Jorge Posada is the favorite to get the majority of at-bats there, as some combination of Austin Romine, Jesus Montero, Francisco Cervelli, and Russell Martin will take over behind the plate.
End of an ERA: The Superiority of Sabermetric Pitching Statistics
When the BBWAA announced that Felix Hernandez had won the 2010 American League Cy Young Award in November, there was widespread excitement in the sabermetric community. That the voters had overlooked New York Yankees ace CC Sabathia’s superior win-loss record and proclaimed a starter who earned just 13 victories for the lowly Seattle Mariners to be the best pitcher in the league was a sign of progress—10 years ago, King Felix wouldn’t have stood a chance, despite beating Sabathia in virtually every other major statistic.
But while Sabathia’s snubbing was cause for celebration, the statheads’ endorsement of Hernandez is puzzling, as the newfangled numbers showed that Cliff Lee was clearly superior. Sure, Felix had the edge in baseball-card stats like strikeouts (232 to 185) and innings pitched (249.2 to 212.1), but Lee came out on top in more important places, like control (0.76 BB/9 and 10.28 K:BB to 2.52 BB/9 and 3.31 K:BB) and Wins Above Replacement (7.1 to 6.2).
In addition, Lee (and, for that matter, Francisco Liriano and Justin Verlander) had a superior mark in Fielding Independent Pitching—a statistic that looks like Earned Run Average but is based solely on walks, strikeouts, and home runs allowed. But that didn’t matter, because Hernandez had a lower ERA. The little debate there was over Lee’s candidacy was framed in the false dichotomy of “what should have happened” (FIP) versus “what really happened” (ERA). When put that way, of course FIP sounds stupid.
The Cleveland Indians All-Decade Team
Over the last couple days, I’ve assembled an All-Star team of the best Cleveland Indians players of the decade piece by piece. The results have now been compiled into a full 25-man roster.
When considering quantity versus quality of player contributions I tend to weight the latter more heavily than most, but neither was a silver bullet for making the team; the No. 3 starter has the best ERA in the rotation, while the hurler with the longest Tribe tenure came in at just No. 4.
In order for a player to qualify for this project, he had to have appeared on the Indians’ big-league roster in at least two different seasons since 2001. So no complaining that I forgot Roberto Alomar, Kevin Millwood, or John Rocker (just because he had more losses than saves doesn’t mean he was a bad closer).
The starting lineup and rotation were made up of the best players, period, but the bullpen and bench were compiled with specific roles in mind. For example, Ricardo Rincon was not one of the top six Cleveland relievers of the last 10 years, but he was the best choice to be the lefty specialist (click the section headings for full breakdowns).
The Cleveland Indians All-Decade Team: The Rotation
Yesterday, I began constructing a roster of the Cleveland Indians’ best players of the decade with the starting lineup and the bench. Today, we move past the position players and tackle the pitching staff—starting, of course, with the starting rotation. We’ll look at the bullpen later this afternoon.
Any player who appeared on the Tribe’s roster at some point in at least two different seasons since 2001 was eligible for consideration (sorry, Kevin Millwood).
Without further ado, here is the all-decade rotation:
[picappgallerysingle id="338143"]
No. 1: CC Sabathia. Carsten Charles wasn’t a great pitcher for most of his Cleveland career—his ERAs didn’t settle below 4.00 until his sixth season—but his 106 wins and 3.83 ERA in over 1,500 innings with the Tribe from 2001-8 are impossible to ignore. With 33.6 WAR, he is the team’s decade MVP.
