Diamondbacks Bullpen

[shoewizard]

C- Mike Piazza 1997: .362/.431/.638 for a 186 OPS+, 40 HR 124 RBI all while playing in one of the better pitchers parks in the league. A truly remarkable performance.

Honorable mention here has to go to Johnny Bench, either 1972 or 1970. Fantastic hitting numbers and terrific defense.

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1b- Lou Gehrig, 1927: .373/.474/ .765 for a 221 OPS+, 47 HR 175 RBI

Honorable mention: Mark McGwire 1998.

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2b: Rogers Hornsby 1922 .401/.459/.722 for a 207 OPS+ 42 HR 152 RBI

A case can be made 1924 was better, .424/.507.696 222 OPS+ 25 HR 94 RBI

Honorable Mention: Joe Morgan 1976, second of his back to back MVP seasons.

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3b: George Brett 1980 .390/.454/.664 for a 202 OPS+ 24 HR 118 RBI

Honorable Mention: Mike Schmidt, also 1980....heck of a year for 3rd baseman.

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SS-Alex Rodriguez 2002 .300/.392/.623 152 OPS+ 57 HR 142 RBI just 10 errors and the AL Gold Glove.

Honorable Mention: Honus Wagner 1908 or Cal Ripken Jr. 1991

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Lf- Bonds 2001 or 2002, take your pick. If you can't accept Bonds for Obvious Reasons, then Ted Williams 1941

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CF-Mickey Mantle 1956: .353/.464/.705 for a 213 OPS+ 52 HR 130 RBI

Honorable Mention: ty Cobb 1911

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RF- Babe Ruth 1920: .376/.533/.849 256 OPS+ 54 HR 137 HR. He had more homers and rbi in 1921, but relative to his league, this was his best season.

Honorable Mention: Sammy Sosa 2001

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Right Handed Starting Pitcher: Pedro Martinez 2000 18-6 1.74 ERA 285 ERA+

That ERA+ is the highest ever recorded. His 1.74 ERA in the 2000 American League, in Fenway Park stands as an incredible mark.

Runner up, Bob Gibson 1968 (258 ERA+)

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Left Handed Starting Pitcher: Lefty Grove 1931 31-4 2.06 ERA 219 ERA+

People tend to overlook Grove because he pitched his prime in the 30's which were extremely hitter friendly. However he ranks second all time to Pedro in ERA+, and his .680 Win Percentage is the highest of any 300 game winner. The greatest lefty of all time

Honorable Mention: Steve Carlton 1972 27-10 1.97 for a last place team

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Closer: Eric Gagne 2003 55 saves, 1.20 ERA, 82 IP 37 hits 20 walks 0.695 WHIP! 137 K's.. are you kidding me???

Honorable Mention: Mariano Rivera 2005

[1golfer1]

good stuff! would make for xlnt stratomatic cards!

[shoewizard]

My first Strat game was the 1971 season.

Hank Aaron, Willie Stargell and Joe Torre had the best hitting Cards.

EDIT: Oh and of course Bobby Murcer had an AWESOME card in 1971

Tom Seaver and Vida Blue had the best pitching cards

That was the year Baltimore had 4 20 game winners....but their cards were not really that dominant.

I learned at a very early age to look at walks, K';s and homers.....It was ALWAYS intuitive to me that ERA and Wins were in large part luck, because I could see that often the Periphs did not seem to "match" the ERA and Win Totals.

You never selected a pitcher in Strat based on his Won Loss or ErA, you always just looked at how many guys he k's, walked, and how many homers he gave up.

Thats why FIP and DIPS have always made so much sense to me.

[TAP]

[nystro]

Here's another honorable mention for closer.

Dennis Eckersley 1990
48 saves, 0.61 ERA, 73.3 IP, 41H, 4BB, 73K's, 0.614 WHIP

[shoewizard]

Good catch....I think you can even replace Rivera with that season by Eck.

[nystro]

[1golfer1]

i still have the '74 game somewhere...
bought extra orange 1-20 cards to make it really random. we'd put 'em in a big bowl...
we had a draft and a 40-game season and playoffs...drove wives nuts!
i think jack clark had a great card. i batted the best guys at the top of the lineup, knowing they would see more ab's...i think that's why i believe most teams would be more successful if they did that...i mean, how often is the leadoff guy actually batting leadoff except the 1st inning?

[shoewizard]

I used 2 or 3 decks of orange cards too! I was too lazy to have to keep shuffling them...LOL

One of the things I used to like to do was combine a couple of seasons, and take the better card for players that played in both years. You could make some super strong teams that way...LOL

I had 71,72,73......a friend of mine had 74.....I think I skipped 75, bought 76, and then lost interest for a while.

Got back into it with the 83 season.....played a 50 something game season solo while living in Taiwan. Bought the 88 game, and then, just for Nostalgia, the 98 game.

One thing that was cool about the 83 game......Henderson and Raines both had AAA SB base ratings. Safe was 1-17 and holding them on didn't affect their chances!! And they walked so much.....man, I had them go every time possible, without exception. They were ALWAYS on second base.

[Dangerfield]

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Left Handed Starting Pitcher: Lefty Grove 1931 31-4 2.06 ERA 219 ERA+

People tend to overlook Grove because he pitched his prime in the 30's which were extremely hitter friendly. However he ranks second all time to Pedro in ERA+, and his .680 Win Percentage is the highest of any 300 game winner. The greatest lefty of all time

Honorable Mention: Steve Carlton 1972 27-10 1.97 for a last place team

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Mfy alert-guidry 1978, mini-me version of Randy Johnson...
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My wife is always trying to get rid of me. The other day she told me to put the garbage out. I said to her I already did. She told me to go and keep an eye on it

[shoewizard]

I went with carlton over guidry because he pitched more than 70 innings more, (346 total) had 30 complete games, and of course pitched in front of a LOUSY LOUSY team with a rotten bullpen, while Guidry pitched in front of a world series winning team and had Goose Gossage and Sparky Lyle in the bullpen.

Guidry was great, but Carlton was greater