What sort of parts would make for the best Major League Baseball franchise? Here are the best individual pieces, from lineup to rotation to ballpark experience, that would make for the perfect franchise.
By Bryan Pol
The franchise in question? The New York Mets, whose staff has managed a 3.22 ERA, third best in the National League. Despite not being complete–Zach Wheeler is out for the season recuperating from Tommy John surgery, while Steven Matz is presently on the disabled list with a strained lat muscle–the Mets’ rotation has drawn the envy of the remaining 29 teams in the majors.
In constructing a perfect organization, a front office would undoubtedly rely on the Mets’ rotation as its cornerstone. Even so, what other pieces would a phantom front office utilize in order to forge its own rendition of a consummate franchise?
Former Yankee manager Joe Torre always harped on the desire to work with a stocked stable of arms, and always felt “you can never have enough pitching.” While this facet of a ball club is crucial to winning in Major League Baseball, it is clearly not the only thing needed to fathom October glory.
In building a hypothetical organization, we will consider, in addition to a starting rotation, a dynamic lineup, a bullpen, a manager, a front office, a farm system, and a unique ballpark experience. We will scan each of these franchise-building aspects according to various teams in the majors who are currently the best at what they do and offer.
Here is Elite Sports NY’s examination of the consummate ball club.
Lineup: The Toronto Blue Jays
The Blue Jays, looking to return to the postseason for the first time since 1993, the season by which they bested the Philadelphia Phillies for their second straight World Series title, were once, as recently as July 31, seven games behind the Yankees for first place in the American League East, but given their acquisitions at the trade deadline, from starting pitcher David Price to superstar shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, outfielder Ben Revere, reliever Latroy Hawkins, and relieverMark Lowe, Toronto is looming as the American League’s most dangerous team, thanks largely to their stacked and deep lineup, whose accolades have amounted to a +114 run differential, the best in the majors, this, despite having a mediocre starting rotation.
The Blue Jays, having now shaved 2.5 games off New York’s division lead as of Thursday night, have a lineup that is baseball’s best. No other team in the majors comes close to what the Blue Jays have accomplished thus far in 2015. Manager John Gibbons’s club is first in the American League in runs (578), doubles (209), walks (367), on-base percentage (.332), slugging percentage (.445), OPS (.777), total bases (1635), and second in home runs (146), third in batting average (.263) and hits (968), accruing the fourth fewest strikeouts (756) in the league.
For the price of once highly touted infielder Brett Lawrie and three minor leaguers, right-hander Kendall Graveman, left-hander Sean Nolin and minor league shortstop Franklin Barreto, general manager Alex Anthopoulos acquired third baseman Josh Donaldson from the Oakland Athletics, who is in the midst of a MVP-caliber campaign. An All-Star in 2015, the 29 year old Donaldson currently leads the AL in runs scored (77), RBI (80), and extra base hits (58), and is third in Wins Above Replacement (5.7, second amongst all position players), fifth in OPS (.924), sixth in hits (124), second in total bases (240), third in doubles (29), fourth in home runs (29), and third in runs created (86). Should the Blue Jays overtake the Yankees for the AL East behind Donaldson’s bat, the former Athletic will make a serious run at the AL MVP award, regardless of how Mike Trout of the Angels plays the rest of the way.
Catcher Russell Martin, acquired as a free agent in the offseason, is enjoying a relative renaissance in Toronto, slugging 15 homers and managing 49 RBI. Left fielder Chris Colabello, the team leader in batting average (.315), complements sluggers Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion (combined, the pair has mustered 40 homers and 135 RBI, along with an OPS of .833), centerfielder Kevin Pillar (second on the Jays in WAR, 3.1, and hits, 106, with 15 stolen bases), second baseman Devon Travis (hitting .304 and slugging .498, third best in the lineup, despite landing on the 15-day DL), a first baseman reclamation project in Justin Smoak, and newly acquired shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, who was hitting .300 (with a .818 OPS) with Colorado. Only one player, Pillar, is deemed below average according to OPS+ (a figure, taking into account on-base and slugging percentages, that adjusts for ballpark figures–a player with a 100 OPS+ is a league-average player), but given other advanced sabremetrics (especially WAR), the young centerfielder is most certainly not expendable. Furthermore, Anthopoulos added centerfielder Ben Revere, acquired from the Phillies, for his speed (24 steals) atop the order to supplement, if not spell, Pillar.
Should Toronto eke into the playoffs, no staff wants to face this dangerous, fear-inducing, and dynamic lineup.
Starting Rotation: The New York Mets
By mid-2016, the Mets’ rotation will look something like this (in no particular order): Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Zach Wheeler, and Steven Matz. With Jonathan Niese on the books until 2018 and Dillon Gee facing arbitration in 2016, manager Terry Collins could work with a six-man rotation, with a solid arm in the bullpen as a long reliever, unless any of the seven names gets traded. So stacked were the Mets in arms at both the major and minor league levels that they relinquished minor league prospect Michael Fulmer in the Yoenis Cespedes deal; given his control and velocity, Fulmer will likely start in Detroit in 2016. Even with Fulmer’s departure, the Mets are hardly breaking a sweat.
Consider that 22 year old Noah Syndergaard, whose fastball averaged 98 MPH in last Sunday’s win against the Nationals, projects as the Mets’ third starter in 2016. Syndergaard, in 15 starts, has a 2.66 ERA (including 1.32 in five July starts), striking out 100 batters over 94 2/3 innings. Arguably, Thor has the staff’s filthiest stuff, and easily its best velocity.
The team’s ace Matt Harvey, coming along much faster than expected from a Tommy John procedure that deprived him of his 2014 campaign, has a 2.76 ERA (which, mind numbingly, is third on this club). He has 131 strikeouts (second most on the Mets), and based on his last two starts, in which he allowed 1 earned run over 14 2/3 innings, Terry Collins was quick to note that his ace has finally returned to his 2013 peak form.
Last year’s National League Rookie of the Year Jacob deGrom has not fizzled in 2015, leading the Mets in ERA (2.09), strikeouts (135), WHIP (0.89), and has allowed the second fewest home runs (9) despite throwing 39 more innings than the team’s leader (Syndergaard) in that department. Amongst NL pitchers, deGrom is fourth in WAR (4.1), second in ERA, third in WHIP, fourth in hits per 9 IP (6.41), and fifth in bases on balls per 9 IP (1.62). While Max Scherzer, Zach Greinke, and Clayton Kershaw are managing transcendent seasons, deGrom is quietly doing everything behind the power of his arm to avoid a sophomore slump, and is succeeding in that pursuit.
Lost in the mastery of this trio’s success is the solid season that Niese is having: with a 3.51 ERA, a more than respectable figure for a team’s fourth starter, the 28 year old helped the Mets continue its winning ways, throwing 7 innings, allowing only one run, against the Marlins on Tuesday night.
If not for a strained lat injury, Steven Matz likely makes Niese the team’s fifth starter, pushing New York’s weakest link, the still serviceable Bartolo Colon, out of the rotation. In two starts in 2015, Matz hurled 13 2/3 innings, allowing only two runs, amounting to two wins. With a 1.29 ERA and a 0.88 WHIP to accentuate the very young start to Matz’s Met career, the 24 year old gives the Mets the advantage over the Nationals in their hunt for the National League East title. While teams are struggling to piece together a rotation based on frantic trades, call-ups, and waiver moves, the Mets, by adding Matz to the rotation sometime in late August/early September, galvanizes a staff that can use the young hurler to spell the likes of Syndergaard, a young pitcher taxing his arm with many, many innings.
Also consider this, from a recent ESPN.com article, analyzing the merits of the Mets’ and Nationals’ rotations:
Mets starters have—
- made 14 starts in which they pitched at least six innings, giving up no more than three hits in the process.
- compiled 11 starts with no walks, managing at least eight strikeouts.
- thrown 2,504 pitches clocked at 95 miles per hour or faster, with Syndergaard and Harvey doing their part to add to this total.
- accrued 72 quality starts (starts of six innings pitched, allowing only three runs or less).
- made 29 “dominating starts,” by which starters have pitched at least seven innings, allowing one earned run or less in each of them.
As a collective staff (rotation and bullpen), the Mets are third in in the National League in ERA (3.22), hits allowed (872), and are second in walks allowed (255) and fifth in strikeouts (862), thanks largely to the work of Harvey, deGrom, Syndergaard, Niese, and Matz.
While the Mets have developed something special in 2015, the year to look forward to will be 2016, when their rotation will be at full strength with the addition of Zach Wheeler. While countless teams are pining for just one ace to anchor their staffs, the Mets can legitimately schedule three, if not four of them, in the rotation.
Bullpen: The New York Yankees
Two years ago, the Yankees, despite bidding farewell to an all-time great closer in Mariano Rivera, were in capable hands, relying on the likes of David Robertson and a young Dellin Betances at the back end of the bullpen.
This past offseason, Robertson departed in free agency for the Chicago White Sox, paving way for the acquisition of reliever Andrew Miller, who starred with the Baltimore Orioles, leading them to the ALCS before they bowed out to the Kansas City Royals. Today, Betances setting up Andrew Miller is reminiscent of the Rivera/John Wetteland tandem from the Yankees’ improbable World Series run in 1996. Miller, with 23 saves and a 1.75 ERA, has allowed only 14 hits in 36 innings pitched this season, striking out 54 batters in those 36 innings, putting together a minuscule WHIP of 0.72. Betances, who spelled Miller while he recovered from a forearm tightness ailment that sidelined him for a month, accumulated 7 saves of his own, with a 1.31 ERA and 0.84 WHIP who, over 55 innings pitched, has struck out an ungodly 88 batters, good for a 14.4 strikeouts-per-nine-innings rate. His ERA+ (an ERA figure that accounts for ballparks) is a blistering 299. While the Yankees have seen a resurgence from Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez, Betances has managed a WAR of 2.5, the best of any Yankee pitcher, starter or reliever. Bentances’ WAR rate, in fact, is ninth best in the American League. For what it is worth, Betances is the only reliever amongst those nine.
Prior to Betances and Miller, the Yankees rely on Chasen Shreve (2.13 ERA, 45 Ks in 42 1/3 IP), acquired for one-time hot prospect Manny Banuelos in January, and Justin Wilson (2.61 ERA, 37 Ks in 38 IP), both of whom have mustered an ERA below 2.61.
While general manager Brian Cashman was burned for not bringing in a starting pitcher in light of Michael Pineda’s recent trip to the disabled list (Pineda is likely out until September, although New York now finds hope in recently promoted prospect Luis Severino), the Yankees were a Jorge Mateo throw-in away at the trade deadline from landing Padres’ closer Craig Kimbrel, who has the most saves (217) of any pitcher in his first six seasons, who has also finished in the top-ten in Cy Young voting the past four years, and could very well acquire Cincinnati fireballer Aroldis Chapman, who has struck out 514 batters over 299 1/3 innings in his career, regularly hitting 100 MPH or more on the radar gun, at the waiver deadline.
Even without these potential acquisitions, the Yankees boast baseball’s best bullpen, and could even rely on a solid option in Adam Warren as a long reliever when the team’s staff is at full strength.
Manager: Joe Maddon, Chicago Cubs
While top players often command a haul of prospects (the Phillies acquired FIVE prospects, including an MLB-ready pitcher in Matt Harrison, when they dealt Cole Hamels to the Texas Rangers), very few managers have the ability to garner players as compensation when signed by a club.
Joe Maddon, however, is one of those skippers.
As recompense for opting out of his contract to leave the Tampa Bay Rays and join the Chicago Cubs as manager in 2014, the Cubs dealt a compensatory draft pick to Tampa to acquire Maddon as its leader in the clubhouse.
Consider that the Cubs are in the midst of a dry spell, coming off five consecutive losing seasons, not to mention their 107 year World Series drought. Is the pressure too much for Maddon to manage (no pun intended)? Apparently not.
Maddon has lead his new club to 58-48 record, good for third place in the National League Central. Although the Cubs are 9.5 games out of first place, behind the red-hot, MLB-leading St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago is a half-game behind the San Francisco Giants for the National League’s second wild card, 3.5 games behind the top wild card spot (NL Central rivals, the Pittsburgh Pirates, hold that position).
Aside from acquiring ace Jon Lester and the ascension of Jake Arrieta as a viable NL Cy Young candidate, the team Maddon came to was relatively the same as the 2014 edition, and very, very inexperienced.
Catcher Miguel Montero is the team’s oldest regular at 31, although he has recently been replaced by 22 year old stud prospect Kyle Schwarber, with only 24 games of MLB experience to his name, as a result of Montero’s recent trip to the DL. The likes of third baseman Kris Bryant and second baseman Addison Russell were in the minors last year, and in 2015, right fielder Jorge Soler was entering only his second year in the majors. First baseman Anthony Rizzo and shortstop Starlin Castro, veterans on the squad at 25, averaged five years of MLB experience between them. Shortstop Javier Baez, who may one day replace Castro, awaits in the minors, despite having already played 52 games at the major league level in 2014 at the ripe age of 21. In short, the Cubs are young.
Despite the Cubs’ collective age, the team does not appear to buckle beneath the pressure of playing behind hot teams like the Cardinals and Pirates. Joe Maddon has much to do with it.
Having already lead a young and inexperienced Rays team to a World Series (in 2008) and two AL East titles (in 2008 and 2010) despite competitive years from perennial contenders like the Yankees and Red Sox, Maddon, a two-time AL Manager of the Year, is looking to repeat his Rays’ successes with the Cubs.
Consider that Maddon, two years after inheriting a 101-loss team, had a Rays team competing in the World Series in 2008. The Cubs, a last place team in the NL Central division in 2014, welcomed Maddon, MLB’s best manager, both tactically and motivationally, to lead the Cubs to a World Series, likely sooner than later. When coupled with president of operations Theo Epstein, who revived the Red Sox, leading them to their first World Series championship in 86 years (2004) and again three years later, and general manager Jed Hoyer, Maddon has brought legitimacy to the North Side of Chicago, and then some.
With Maddon doing what he has accomplished already in 2015, just imagine what the skipper will be when the likes of Bryant, Soler, Baez, Schwarber, and Russell finally all live up to their full potentials. With Maddon as their manager, anything is possible for this Cubs organization.
Front Office: St. Louis Cardinals
At 68-39, the Cards, despite losing ace Adam Wainwright to a torn Achilles in April, boast MLB’s best record, to go with a 9.5 game lead in the NL Central division, the largest edge of any division winner. How a team loses an ace and pitcher who has finished in the top-3 in NL Cy Young voting four times and is still able to complete, let alone lead a division, is a testament to the work of general manager John Mozeliak and president of operations William O. DeWitt III, son of the team’s owner.
Despite losing three-time (twice with St. Louis) MLB Executive of the Year in general manager Walt Jocketty, fresh off a World Series win in 2006, the Cards plugged in Mozeliak into the position, and the GM, who once traded an icon in Jim Edmonds (for eventual World Series hero David Freese), pulled off one of the largest trades in recent memory, acquiring outfielder Matt Holliday from the Oakland Athletics in 2009. Holliday has been a constant on two NL champion teams, and a World Series title winner.
Mozeliak allowed a legend in Albert Pujols to leave (the St. Louis star was demanding a 10-year, $300 million deal), and despite winning a World Series with Pujols in 2011, five years after Jocketty’s departure, Mozeliak brought the Cardinals back to the Fall Classic again in 2013.
Mozeliak has made shrewd, efficient moves, landing Lance Berkman, thought to be washed-up at 34 after his worst season in 2010 (Berkman would later hit .301 with 31 home runs, 94 RBI, and a 164 OPS+, the best of his career, all at the cost of a one-year, $8 million deal, in 2011) and Carlos Beltran, who channeled Babe Ruth in leading the Cards to a World Series berth in 2013, all on a cheap two-year, $26 million contract.
During his time, Mozeliak catapulted St. Louis’s farm system to the top of ESPN’s Keith Law and Baseball Prospectus’s list as the number one minor league system in 2013. During his time, the Cardinals have drafted or acquired postseason hero Michael Wacha, Stephen Piscotty, the Cards’ number one prospect as of early 2014, third baseman Matt Carpenter, second baseman Kolten Wong, first baseman Matt Adams, pitcher Carlos Martinez, pitcher Lance Lynn, closer Trevor Rosenthal, reliever Kevin Siegrest, outfielder Randal Grichuk, and the late Oscar Taveras, all of whom, save for Taveras, are top flight players who have the Cardinals competing despite the club not having a top-ten payroll (the Cardinals’ payroll is eleventh in the majors, at $120,869,458). Additionally, Mozeliak, in a trade with the Atlanta Braves, brought in once highly touted outfield prospect Jason Heyward, enjoying a resurgence as the Cardinals’ right fielder (he leads the team in WAR at 3.7).
While teams like the Boston Red Sox, who tout a top farm system, but a massive payroll, have been up and down despite winning World Series championships, the St. Louis front office has their club competing every single year, even despite losing top names to free agency (Pujols) and injury (Wainwright in 2015, and one-time ace Chris Carpenter in previous years).
Farm System: Chicago Cubs
Much has already been made of the Cubs’ farm system, who was rated by Baseball America as the best farm system in all of Major League Baseball, prior to the start of the 2015 season. The minor league system was responsible for producing Kris Bryant (Baseball America‘s number one prospect), Addison Russell (the Cubs’ second-best prospect, Baseball America‘s third), Jorge Soler (the Cub’s third-best prospect, Baseball America‘s twelfth), and Kyle Schwarber (the Cubs’ fourth-best prospect, Baseball America’s nineteenth), all of whom are playing key roles in 2015 with their top club.
Rounding out the Cubs’ top ten prospects are pitcher C.J. Edwards (the Cub’s fifth best prospect, Baseball America‘s thirty-eighth), outfielder Billy McKinney (the Cubs’ sixth-best prospect, Baseball America‘s eighty-third), outfielder Albert Almora, shortstop Gleyber Torres, pitcher Pierce Johnson, and pitcher Duane Underwood (top shortstop prospect Javier Baez, having already played over 50 games in 2014, is no longer considered a true prospect, and is also no longer considered a rookie).
Given who is already at the position, from Starlin Castro to Baez and potentially Russell, currently playing second for Chicago, the Cubs are loaded at shortstop, and will be forced to move any one of them in a year or two.
Given what the Cubs have in the game’s best manager (Joe Maddon), a sound general manager (Jed Hoyer), and a president of baseball operations that has resuscitated a cursed franchise twice over (Theo Epstein), the Cubs stand to be an incredibly special ball club for years to come, should all their pieces live up to their promise.
Ballpark Experience: Oriole Park at Camden Yards
Oriole Park at Camden Yards, open for the first time in 1992, set the mold for the way ballparks are constructed. Miles away from Baltimore’s beautiful Inner Harbor district, Camden Yards, featuring the iconic warehouse in right field, just along Eutaw Street, was a sight to behold when Cal Ripken broke Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games streak, and has remained one of the best parks to visit in all of major league baseball, recently ranked by Comcast Sportsnet in Washingon as the third-best ballpark in the majors.
Other ballparks in the mold of Camden Yards have been designed, including the Mets’ Citi Field, the Astros’ Minute Maid Ballpark, the Reds’ Great American Ball Park, the Mariners’ Safeco Field, the Twins’ Target Field, and the Pirates’ PNC Field, providing a tremendous, cozy experience, but the stadium that set the trend, the Baltimore Orioles’ home field, is truly the best ballpark experience, offering cheap, thorough, and intimate ball park tours (for less than ten dollars) and delicious food from Boog Powell’s barbecue pit, a few hundred yards away from the Babe Ruth Museum.
It certainly helps that the Orioles remain competitive, allowing droves of fans to enjoy the splendor that is Camden Yards.
I was all for the St. Louis Cardinals until they got caught breaking into another teams data base. Great Front Office but major strike against them as ultimate front office.