Monday, July 23, 2012
The Hardball Times: Jaffe: The great 28
Last week’s column noted the current question, the one I’ve been building toward ever since I’ve been here at THT: what is the best team of all time? A week ago, my column listed the 28 teams I asked him to sim with and explained why I wanted those teams.
This is the week we get to the final, definitive, and all-time unarguable answer—which, of course, is not final, definitive, or inarguable. Part of the fun in the debate on the best team in history is that there is no clear-cut answer.
This is a little project I helped Chris Jaffe with. Part 1 runs through the teams under consideration, and this part shows the results. The Yankees were represented by their 1927, 1939, 1953, 1961 and 1998 versions.
Comments
I’m not really clear on what this study is attempting to show. Isn’t it virtually certain that even an average MLB team today could whip the butts of the all-time great teams of yesteryear (that is, if you could overcome the problem of time travel and actually have them player one another)?
Isn’t it virtually certain that even an average MLB team today could whip the butts of the all-time great teams of yesteryear
As far as I know, it’s nothing close to certain. Especially if you assume that those older teams would be able to avail themselves of the training and knowledge that teams of today have that was not known in their day.
Anyway, it’s not supposed to be anything close to definitive. It’s more of a chance to look back at some of the best teams of all time, if you define best as how they did relative to their opponents and not how they’d do now on an uneven playing field.
Still pissed about yesterday SG. Did any reporters ask Joe G after the game why he took Phelps out? Why couldn’t he pitch up to four innings if it took that long. The other thing is why isn’t Granderson stealing bases as he did in Detroit. The other night we played station to station and got two runs on four hits. The only guy who tries to get an extra base is Tex and he’s among the slowest afoot. There, I feel better.
One more gripe about Joe G. Sitting Jeter who has a lifetime .368 vs. Colon. Why not sit him against Milwood who he’s .268 vs over the years. What’s one more day?
No mention of the 2011 Red Sox. SG and his Yankee minions at work once again.
Batter vs. pitcher stats are not predictive.
[3] Granderson is stealing bases like he did in Detroit. Four full seasons in Detroit, he stole 8, 26, 12, and 20 bases. So far as a Yankee he’s stolen 12, 25, and so far this season 6 bases. Or basically, he hasn’t been a guy to consistently steal 20-30 bases in a season.
[4] Day game after a night game, and the fact that those numbers aren’t predictive of anything?
I have a gripe about the Yankees losing 4 games by a total of 4 runs. It’s just plain irritating.
But I’m not actually worried. The pitchers really didn’t pitch badly (14 runs surrendered in 4 games, one of which went to extras). The offense is better than this. This was flukey.
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