Gemini - 2009 Ten Year Retrospective

After analyzing the 2019-20 versions of Aries and Taurus, I went back 20 years to see how those signs measured up as represented by All-Star Baseball 2001 for the Nintendo 64 (Aries here and Taurus here). I will likely follow suit with Gemini, but first I'm making a stop at the halfway point and doing a ten-year retrospective for the Gemini Twins of 2009. I'm not quarantining with my PS2, so I won't be able to accompany this post with screenshots from MLB 10: The Show. Instead you'll have to be content with starting lineups and rotations represented by my patented baseball database in spreadsheet form.

Starting with the top fantasy point-scorer on the team, 2009 was the year that Ben Zobrist burst onto the scene as an All-Star super utility player, seeing time at every position on the diamond except for pitcher and catcher. Ironically enough, he's best utilized at his primary position of second base in this lineup, since new Philly Raul Ibanez and Houston Astro Carlos Lee have the corner outfield spots locked up (not to mention starting DH Jason Kubel, who spent plenty of time on the grass as well). Speaking of Carlos Lee, when I put together my preliminary Astrology All-Decade teams, I cheated somewhat by putting the Panamanian outfielder at first base for most of the latter half of the 2000's (the decade, not the millennium), even though he didn't start playing first base regularly until 2010. The emergence of Cuban slugger Kendrys Morales for the Angels makes '09 one of the rare years in that time frame where Gemini had a decent hitter actually qualify at first base.

Speaking of putting players at positions for which they didn't technically qualify, that was the case with Jhonny Peralta at third base for most of his Gemini career, given that he was a shortstop first and foremost. Peralta normally ceded his primary position to Jose Reyes - 10 out of 12 times 2006 thru 2017 - although various leg injuries kept the longtime Mets shortstop from action in '09, opening the door back up to his predecessor Miguel Tejada (the Gemini shortstop from 2000 thru '05). In case you're not familiar with the color-coding of my lists, the green in the position column next to Matt Wieters indicates that 2009 was the uber-prospect's rookie year, although it's clear to say he didn't measure up to the expectations. Meanwhile the cyan shading on Scott Hairston's name columns means that he changed teams during the season (traded from the Padres to the A's), although Hairston is only manning center field due to Josh Hamilton's missing a large portion of 2009 with rib and abdominal injuries.

How's this for a parallel: current Gemini ace Jacob deGrom won the NL Cy Young Award in 2018 and 2019, while GEM09 ace Tim Lincecum won the same award in 2008 and 2009. Creepy, right? Unlike the Twins teams teams of the recent years, however, The Freak didn't have a star-studded supporting cast of starters backing him up in 2009. Jake Peavy actually had the next best per-game performance, but that came in an injury-shortened season that he split between the Padres and the White Sox. As for the rest of the rotation, Andy Pettitte was well past his prime during his return engagement with the Yankees, Carlos Zambrano was perhaps better known for his prowess with the bat, winning his third Silver Slugger trophy in 09, and Joe Saunders was little more than an innings eater for the Angels.

The 2009 Gemini bullpen was actually quite impressive, even in the last year before longtime closer Craig Kimbrel's MLB debut. Jonathan Broxton was in full swing closing games for the Dodgers, having taken over from Japanese import Aquarian Takashi Saito the year prior. Rookie of the Year closer Andrew Bailey was one of the few bright spots on a third place Athletics team, although his career never took off as hoped. Cubs ninth inning specialist Kevin Gregg wins the battle for the third spot, but there are two more bona fide save-getters behind him on the depth chart: Mike Gonzalez of the Braves and Kerry Wood who settled in as the Indians closer after redefining himself as a reliever with the Cubs in 2008.

Los Angeles Dodgers - All-Decade 2000-09

Given how dominant the Dodgers have been over the last several years, it's hard to believe that LA's one true team was toiling in mediocrity for much of the previous decade. Sure, they did win three division titles in the span of 2000-09 (plus one additional Wild Card appearance), and eighth out of 30 isn't exactly horrible, but it still must have been embarrassing for the storied franchise to finish behind its market share competitors who play in the county to the southeast. Let's check out an all-decade roster that was mired in turnover, organized by games per position (for the most part), with years active with the team displayed to the right.

Of all the position players, basically only third baseman Adrian Beltre got through the decade unchallenged at his position, and he didn't have an exemplary offensive season until 2004, his last with the Dodgers, where he won a Silver Slugger and finished second in MVP voting. Right fielder Shawn Green actually led the team in overall games when you consider his appearances at first base, but Andre Ethier also had a big chunk of time at that position (369 games), despite the fact that he shows up in left field. Looking at only games behind the plate, it looks like current Dodger Russell Martin has a clear handle on the position, but when you add in the games that Paul Lo Duca spent at first base, it becomes a dead heat (548 to 537). Speaking of time at other positions, Alex Cora only gets the not at second base over Jeff Kent (597 games) because the current Red Sox manager split his time pretty evenly between both middle infield spots. Speaking of the middle infield, while Cesar Izturis has a significant lead over Rafael Furcal (483 games) at shortstop, it's far from commanding. At first base, James Loney BARELY squeaks ahead of Eric Karros (414 games), which is alright because Karros was the starter for eight out of ten years in the previous decade. Again, considering only center field appearances, Matt Kemp is closely followed by current Dodgers manager Dave Roberts (239 games), but considering that Kemp started his career in right field, he's the clear choice for the position. Jumping back to left field, Gary Sheffield actually narrowly led the team in games at that position with 280, which is EXACTLY the same number of games he played for the Braves in right field - he also racked up 267 for the Yankees, and 225 for Detroit.

The turnover continued in the rotation, where Derek Lowe was the leader in games started with just 135, or just 10 starts more than the Twins' number FIVE all-decade starter. LA grabbed Odalis Perez from the Braves before he fully established himself, and while he only made one All-Star appearance while with the club, that's on par with most of this all-decade rotation: Chad Billingsley also only had one (in the last year of the decade) while Brad Penny and Kevin Brown had just two apiece (including a top-five finish in Cy Young voting for each). Eric Gagne actually logged 45 starts for the Dodgers over the two years before he became a lights-out closer, a career that included three straight All-Star appearances and a Cy Young Award in 2003, on the strength of just 82.1 relief innings and a league leading 55 saves. But the all-decade leader in games pitched was the hulking Jonathan Broxton, who graduated from setup man to closer in the last year of the decade (where he made one of his two career All-Star appearances). The 6'4" 285 lb. Broxton took over the ninth inning from Japanese import Takashi Saito, whose 180 games with LA fell just short of qualifying for a well-balanced bullpen that includes five 200+ game pitchers.

Minnesota Twins - All-Decade 2000-09

I've never pretended I didn't have a bias on this blog, so I'm going to narrow the scope of these all-decade previews now that I'm past my favorite team, the A's - who finished an unfortunate 6th in winning percentage in the 2000's (the decade, not the millennium), so I can't even go under the pretense of lightening up after the top five. The Twins had a nice run in the middle of the decade in question, winning the AL Central division four out of five years from 2002-06, then again in 2009, although they only have one playoff series win to show for all their division titles. Here's how their aggregate roster looked during the decade, organized by games played per position, with years active with the team to the right.

Over his thousand-plus games with the Twins in this decade, Torii Hunter earned a reputation as one of the best fielding outfielders in the game, with seven straight Gold Gloves from 2001-07 (plus two All-Star appearances in that span). Slugging Canadian first baseman Justin Morneau took home an AL MVP award in 2006, kicking off a run of four straight All-Star nods (only three of which take place during the decade in question), before concussion troubles started to take their toll. Jacque Jones split his Twins tenure about 60/40 between left field and right field, and he put up the sort of unspectacular consistency (he never made an All-Star team or got any awards consideration) that helps fill out a lineup. Shortstop Cristian Guzman (note the lack of "h" in his first name) led the major leagues in triples in three of his five seasons in Minnesota. The versatile Michael Cuddyer played all over the diamond during his Twins tenure, the majority of which came in right field and third base, but since Corey Koskie (another Canadian) is entrenched at the hot corner, it makes sense place Cuddy in the outfield. Despite just barely cracking 600 games in the decade, Joe Mauer is the only position player on this all-decade team to show up among the Twins' all-time leaders in wins above replacement (he places fourth), as he continued with the team into the next decade, even though he moved from catcher to 1B/DH. During his first six seasons, he won three batting titles, made three All-Star teams, won three Silver Sluggers and two Gold Gloves, in addition to being named the 2009 AL MVP (when he also won the coveted Triple Crown).

Clocking in at ninth all-time in WAR for Twins players, Brad Radke's career straddled this decade and the previous one, and while he may have pitched better in the earlier of those (his lone All-Star appearance, finishing 3rd in AL Cy Young voting in 1997) he definitely played for more winnings teams in the later one. Despite starting his career often pitching out of the bullpen, Johan Santana places 18th in all-time Twins WAR, thanks to a tenure that included TWO Cy Young awards (2004 and 2006), two top-10 finishes in MVP voting, a Gold Glove award, and a run of three straight All-Star appearances in the three years prior to being traded to the Mets. Kyle Lohse averaged a 4.72 ERA in his five full seasons with the Twins, embodying the role of innings-eater before a disastrous 2006 saw him demoted to the bullpen. Speaking of the bullpen, consistency in that area was a big reason for Minnesota's success in this decade, and no one was more consistent than Joe Nathan, who never saved fewer than 36 games in a season with the Twins in this decade (which included four All-Star appearances and two top-5 finishes in Cy Young voting). While Nathan leads the charge with more than 400 games, it's crazy that four additional relievers totaled 300 or more relief in the decade, with only J.C. Romero benefitting from lefty-specialist bonus... which itself is somewhat offset by the fact that he was primarily a starter (if an ineffective one) during his first two years with the team).

Oakland Athletics - All-Decade 2000-09

The Oakland Athletics from the 2000's (the decade, not the millennium) were famous for achieving success thanks to general manager Billy Beane's shrewd reimagining of player evaluation and exploiting market inefficiencies, as chronicled in the book (and the film) Moneyball. However, the A's of that time period are better remembered by us fans for their failure to get out of the first round of the playoffs - the club lost in the ALDS four years in a row to start this decade (three times as AL West champions, once as the wild card team behind the historic 2001 Mariners). Here's how the A's's all-decade roster looked, arranged by games per position (for the most part), with years active with the team displayed to the right.

Third baseman Eric Chavez is one of those rare birds who played the same position for the same team in every year of the decade in question - there are only 13 such players in this entire project - and his longevity helped him finish his career in 20th place finish on the team's all-time Wins Above Replacement leaderboard (with the majority of the players in front of him plying their trade in the 1920's and 30's). Chavvy's blend of a potent lefty power bat (he averaged 22 home runs per season in the decade, even factoring in his largely lost 2008-09 seasons) and tremendous left side defense (he won six Gold Gloves in a row from 2001-06) resulted in him receiving the largest contract in team history: six years and $66 million, a mark which will surely be shattered if/when the A's approach an extension with their current superstar third baseman, but that's a problem for the next all-decade team. Next up in total games played for the club is second baseman Mark Ellis, who might have approached the 1,000 game plateau had he not missed all of 2004 due to a shoulder injury. The A's of this decade split shortstop fairly evenly between Miguel Tejada and Bobby Crosby (who put up nearly 600 games at the position), but it's no question which of the two has the more electric, even though his accomplishments (including a 2002 AL MVP award) are potentially tainted due to steroid allegations. Sticking with the infield, and with divided positions, catcher Ramon Hernandez is the clear leader in games behind the plate, but it's worth mentioning that former Pirates star Jason Kendall (368 games) finished a close second. Despite his middling performance in his four seasons with the A's, Scott Hatteberg perhaps best embodies the Moneyball philosophy of making the most of unexpected assets - in this case, turning an oft-injured backup catcher into a decent hitting first baseman.

As with the AL West rival Angels, I had to do some positional manipulation to make sure the most representative players were included in this all-decade lineup (as evidenced by the large discrepancies between games at a particular position and overall games played), but luckily this was limited to the outfield/DH mix. The one bit of stability on the grass was Mark Kotsay, who became the face of Moneyball Phase II, when cheap on-base percentage was replaced by cheap speed-and-defense. Next on the depth chart for games played strictly at center field is Terrence Long, with a little under 350, but if you combine those with his 137 in left and 102 in right, the Rookie of the Year runner-up in the year 2000 was actually the A's most frequently-appearing all-decade outfielder. The player who had the most games in RF alone is power hitting righty Jermaine Dye, who came over to the A's in a mid-2001 deal with the Royals, but only totaled 385 games with the team. Left field belongs to Eric Byrnes, who is known more for his high energy, borderline reckless play than for his ability to take consistently good routes to fly balls in the outfield. Similar to the right field situation, going by games played at designated hitter alone would give the spot to Erubiel Durazo (292), one of Beane's most sought-after acquisition targets. But when you add up all of Jack Cust's appearances across DH, LF, and RF, the three-true-outcomes specialist is the clear best candidate for the nod here.

While not nearly as formidable as Maddux/Glavine/Smoltz, the A's had their own vaunted "Big Three" in the early part of this decade - and what's more, they were all three drafted and developed by the Oakland organization. Lefty Barry Zito had the longest tenure with the team, as he was the only one who was not traded before he hit free agency. Known for his big curveball and his prowess with the guitar, Zito lands 24th on the all-time list of Athletics players by WAR, a tenure that included three All-Star nods and the 2003 AL Cy Young award. Sinkerballer Tim Hudson landed two spots ahead of Zito on the A's all-time WAR leaderboard, despite 60 fewer starts, as the Georgia native would go on to pitch the latter half of the decade with his hometown Braves. Big lefty Mark Mulder had the shortest overall career of the three, possibly stemming from overuse in his mid-20's: after his last two seasons with the A's, in which he led the league with nine and five complete games, he only managed one full season after that following a trade to the Cardinals. Another homegrown A's pitcher, Joe Blanton, logged some decent innings for the club, although his highest profile work came for the Phillies during the 2008 World Series following a midseason trade. Rounding out the rotation is Dan Haren, Billy Beane's main return in the above-mentioned Mark Mulder trade, although it's worth mentioning that a pitcher with a remarkably similar last name - Rich Harden - missed a spot by just about 10 starts.

The Athletics' ability to develop strong pitchers in this decade extended to the bullpen, as Huston Street held down the ninth inning for the majority of the decade, lending some stability to the position after a string of quality one-off seasons from Billy Koch, Keith Foulke, and Octavio Dotel (who was technically a 1.5-off). The Texan with the wide-stepping windup ended up being traded to the Rockies for Matt Holliday, who hated his half-year in green and gold so much that he infamously negotiated a one-team no-trade clause when he signed with the Yankees, ensuring that he would never end up in Oakland again. The overall leader in pitching appearances over the decade (by a four-game margin), Chad Bradford was such an extreme submarine pitcher that it wasn't uncommon to see his knuckles scrape the mound as he delivered a pitch. It's inspiring that Jim Mecir was able to have the career he did, given that he was born with two club feet, but perhaps the birth defect allowed him to increase the spin on his screwball. It's always nice to have a left hander among your top relievers, and Ricardo Rincon exemplified the role of lefty specialist over his career (157 innings in 223 games with the A's). Justin Duchscherer deserves a spot in this bullpen based on relief appearances alone, but his importance to the team only increases when you add in the 25 times he took the mound as the starter.

Anaheim (Los Angeles) Angels - All-Decade 2000-09

I'm going to be blunt: when I think of the top teams of the 2000's (the decade, not the millennium), I don't immediately think of the Angels. And yet here they are in fourth place, behind three incredibly storied franchises. Yes, they did win the World Series in 2002, before moving from Anaheim to Los Angeles in 2005... correction: before changing their name and inaccurately representing a city in which the team in no way plays, just to try to expand their market reach. I don't know why I have such a big problem with this stunt. Part of it is that, as a native of Los Angeles county, I have some civic pride in what products get to use the name of my hometown. But it's mostly that, as a philosophy major, the name is just not true. And dangerous things can happen when high-powered corporate entities are allowed to spread falsehoods into the world without reproach. Anyway, enough posturing, here's the Angels' all-decade lineup, organized by games played per position, and years active with the team.

Of all the teams so far, the Angels required the most manipulation to get the decade's most well-represented players into this lineup. Even Garret Anderson, the team's all-decade leader in appearances, only gets there when totaling his games across multiple positions. Currently 11th on the list of all-time Angels players by Wins Above Replacement, G.A. split his time between left field and center field, making three All-Star teams and winning two Silver Sluggers on the way. Although he had about a 75% to 25% split between the two positions, there was one year (2004) where he eschewed left field altogether, which is why his "01-08" is in italics - it represents his total all-decade tenure with the team, rather than the years in which he played LF. Sticking with the outfield, if I gave center field to the player who simply had the most appearances in center field, that would go to Darin Erstad, who finished his career one spot ahead of Anderson on Anaheim's all-time WAR leaderboard. However, the versatile, hard nosed Erstad also put up significant time at first base (including two seasons exclusively, 2004 and 05, the first of which saw him win one of his three all-decade Gold Gloves), and the player who actually had the most all-decade 1B appearances - Scott Spiezio with 391 - didn't log a significant amount of games anywhere else. Center field instead goes to speedster Chone Figgins, who actually finishes a close third in that position to Anderson (244 games there to 257). Desmond DeChone, who clocks in at 18th in all-time WAR for the Halos, spent the majority of his Angels career at third base, but since the team already has an iconic, less versatile player at the hot corner, it makes sense to get Figgins in the lineup at his secondary position. Rounding out the multiple-position threats, it's not a stretch to put Tim Salmon at DH, since he had the most all-decade appearances there, but he did log more than 200 more games in his usual position of right field. However, despite the fact that Salmon has racked up the fourth most WAR in Angels history (most of which was accrued in the previous decade), he's got a Hall of Famer in front of him in all-decade games played in RF.

Now moving on to the more straightforward positional cases: Adam Kennedy spent most of his career batting in the ninth spot in the batting order, but he did it with some fine defensive chops and a good enough batting average-driven profile to carve out a pretty good career in the bigs. The oldest of the three Molina brothers, Bengie, won two Gold Gloves during his six years as the primary backstop in Anaheim, in five of which he was backed up by middle brother Jose. The aforementioned Hall of Famer in front of Tim Salmon in right field is none other than Vladimir Guerrero, whose son is currently a rookie playing for the Blue Jays. Big Daddy Vladdy sits at 16th all-time in Angels WAR, which is all the more impressive considering he only played six seasons for the team - in which he made four All-Star teams, won four Silver Sluggers, and took home the 2004 AL MVP award. The aforementioned iconic third baseman in front of Figgins is Troy Glaus, who is perhaps best known (by me) for leading the league in Home Runs in 2000, the year I officially started paying attention to baseball. Glaus has three All-Star appearances and two Silver Sluggers under his belt, en route to 17th place in WAR in Angels history. Shortstop David Eckstein is the definition of scrappy leadoff hitter, known for his decent speed and on-base skills.

No starting pitcher encompasses the 2000's Angels more than John Lackey, 14th place in all-Time Angels WAR. The big Texan burst onto the scene in their championship 2002 season (finishing fourth in Rookie of the Year voting that year) and went on to win 102 games with the club over 1,501 innings while putting 1,201 strikeouts along the way. Next up is the solid-but-unspectacular lefty Jarrod Washburn (21st in all-time Angels WAR), another player who peaked during 2002, the only season in his career when Wash got any awards consideration (fourth in Cy Young voting with a 3.15 ERA in 206 innings). Ervin Santana finishes third in all-decade games played, despite splitting his Angels tenure between this decade and the next, making his lone Halos All-Star game in 2008. In a polar opposite to Santana, all five of Ramon Ortiz's seasons as an Angel came before the name switch to Los Angeles, the last season of which Ortiz shifted to a bullpen role for 20 of his 34 appearances. Theres's a battle for the fifth starter spot, with only nine stars separating Jered Weaver and Kelvim Escobar - ten if I had caught the lone start Escobar made with the 2009 Angels after missing all of 08. But since the younger brother of Jeff Weaver features strongly in the following decade, where he pitched himself to seventh all-time in Angels WAR, I'm tempted to give the slot to Escobar, who featured heavily on the Blue Jays as both a starter and reliever in the early part of this decade.

When I said that many pieces clicked for the Angels in 2002, that included the five-game mid-September debut of flamethrowing right hander Francisco Rodriguez. After being able to be placed on the postseason roster due to an injury loophole, K-Rod was a heavily-used weapon out of Anaheim's bullpen throughout the playoffs, firing 18.2 innings, allowing just 4 earned runs, while striking out 28. This was the start of a career that saw him finish fourth on the all-time saves list, including a 2008 season where he set the still-standing single season record of 62. Before the Rodriguez era, games were finished in Anaheim by Troy Percival, who split his Angels tenure exactly between this decade and the last. Despite his obvious talent, K-Rod served primarily as Percival's setup man in his two first full big league seasons. But the all-decade leader in total games pitched was the rubber armed Scot Shields, who spent his entire ten-year career (from 2001-10) pitching for the Halos, and all but 15 games of which (mostly in a 13-start 2003 season) coming out of the bullpen. Brendan Donnelly has the distinction of not being named in my favorite baseball video game of all time (MVP Baseball 2005) due to what I'm assuming is a contractual issue. If you want to simulate his talents in that PS2 classic, you have to look for Scott Barcik. Ben Weber is the impressive fifth relief pitcher to put up at least 200 appearances for the all-decade Angels, highlighting how a strong bullpen can lead to a strong decade.

St. Louis Cardinals - All-Decade 2000-09

The first entrant from the National League as we head down the list of winningest teams in the 2000's (the decade, not the millennium) is the St. Louis Cardinals. Heading into said decade, the Cardinals were tied with the Athletics for second-most world championships in baseball history with nine apiece (trailing the Yankees, who were then sitting at 25). But the Redbirds won the 2006 fall classic to take sole possession of second place, then added another in the next decade to extend their lead. Here's an aggregate roster of the most commonly appearing Cardinals from the years 2000 thru 2009, organized by games played per position, with years active with the team displayed on the right.

Not only is Albert Pujols the overall leader among all Cardinals players in total games played (across multiple positions), but he's arguably the best offensive performer of the entire decade in question. From his debut season in 2001 (when he took home Rookie of the Year honors as a 21-year-old) through my cutoff point of 2009, he put up a combined .334/.427/.628 batting line (a 172 OPS+, meaning he was 72% better than league average), won three MVP awards (in 2005, 2008, and 2009), and made eight All-Star teams (every year except 2002), along with five Silver Sluggers and a Gold Glove for good measure. He stuck around in St. Louis for two more years into the next decade, but even on the strength of his first decade alone, he had already put up enough Wins Above Replacement to place fourth on the all-time Cardinals leaderboard (behind Stan Musial, Rogers Hornsby, and Bob Gibson). If we were going by "La Máquina's" first base appearances only, he would have come in second on the all-decade leaderboard to Jim Edmonds, who cracked a thousand games in center field. Clocking in at 17th all-time in WAR among STL players, the former Angel was known just as much for his left handed power stroke (383 career HR) as he was for his exemplary defensive skills (six straight Gold Gloves with the Cardinals, plus two more during the previous decade in Anaheim). Rounding out the top three in appearances, we have Colombian shortstop Edgar Renteria, who took home three Silver Sluggers and two Gold Gloves of his own during his St. Louis tenure.

Continuing the trend of defensively gifted infielders, Scott Rolen was the clear leader in games at third base for the Cardinals, after arriving via trade with the Phillies during the 2002 season. Even not counting that half season, Rolen had four straight All-Star appearances and three Gold Gloves while he was with the Cardinals. Although Yadier Molina is technically the starter here, St. Louis's all-decade catching situation was split almost evenly between Molina and Mike Matheny, who totaled 611 games between 2000 and 04. We'll see plenty more of Yadi in the next decade's version of this project, as he stuck around for the entire 2010's decade, enough to land him 16th overall on the Cardinals' all-time WAR leaderboard. While not as close as the Molina/Matheny race, Fernando Vina doesn't have a stranglehold on second base (Aaron Miles is fairly close behind when considering his work at other positions), but Vina did pick up Gold Gloves in two of his four years in St. Louis. Both corner outfield spots could be seen as revolving doors for the Cards in the 00's, with J.D. Drew holding down right field with fewer than 400 games (Ryan Ludwick and Juan Encarnacion follow him in the standings). Phat Albert Pujols actually had the most games in left field of any Cardinals player in the 00's (with just 269), followed very closely by Ray Lankford (267 from 2000-01 and then again briefly in 04). But if you consider the work So Taguchi put in across both non-center outfield spots this decade, he's the logical choice for left field.

Starting pitching consistency wasn't a huge strength for the Cardinals in the 00's, as their leader in games started in that time period, Matt Morris, has nearly 100 fewer games than the leaders of the two teams above St. Louis in the all-decade standings. The homegrown Morris was more a model of consistency rather than excellence (despite finishing third in Cy Young balloting in 2001), and it must especially sting that he left the team via free agency the year before they won the World Series. Speaking of free agency, Chris Carpenter signed with the Redbirds prior to the 2004 season, won the Cy Young award the following season, and was a big part of the World Series winning rotation the year after that... before missing all but 5 games of the next two seasons combined due to injury. Going by just games started, Adam Wainwright would finish a not-so-distant sixth due to his 86 starts from 2007-09, but that discounts the 63 games he pitched as a very good reliever the two years prior to that stretch. Waino is of course still a member of the Cardinals, and his performance during the current decade helps him rank 14th overall in all-time WAR. This sets up a three-way battle for the fourth and fifth rotation spots between righties Jason Marquis, Jeff Suppan, and Woody Williams, who are separated by just five games. Marquis and Suppan each spent three years with the team (the same three, in fact), while Williams had an additional partial season after arriving in St. Louis in a now-defunct August trade in 2001.

Jason Isringhausen first made it to the major leagues with the Mets in the mid-90's as a starter, then became a very important part of the pre-Moneyball Athletics, but he spent the overwhelming majority of his career as the closer for the Cardinals. The curveball-wielding righty ranks 28th all time with 300 saves (217 of which came in St. Louis), including leading the league with 47 in 2004, the year on which my favorite baseball video game of all time is based. The fact that I included the two pitchers who bookended Izzy as Cardinals closers (Dave Veres, who shifted to a setup role in 2002, and Ryan Franklin, a former starter for the Mariners) shows that I didn't distinguish between relief pitching roles when tallying all-decade appearances. Speaking of appearances, organizing the list this way rather than by innings pitched surely helped the cases of Steve Kline and Randy Flores, two lefty specialists who averaged less than one inning a game in their Cardinals tenures - 247.1 innings in 300 games for Kline, and 178 IP in 237 G for Flores.

Boston Red Sox - All-Decade 2000-09

The New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox have been locked in a bitter rivalry since the time of Babe Ruth, so it's fitting that these two teams finished first and second in winning percentage over the course of the 2000's (the decade, not the millennium). Separated by just 48 games in the loss column from 2000-09, the Sox won the same amount of World Series championships as the Yanks in that time frame (two apiece), but Boston has added two more in the ensuing decade, while New York is in the midst of a decade-long title drought. Here's how the Red Sox all-decade roster stacks up, organized by games per position, followed by years active with the team.

The Sox's all-decade leader in games played, switch hitting catcher Jason Varitek, is one of only two backstops to play the entire decade with the same team. (The other one is Jorge Posada, who we saw in the last post featuring the Yankees.) While he played his entire major league career in Boston, 'Tek was actually drafted by the Mariners, and sent to the Sox in one of the most lopsided deals in baseball history, as he was traded alongside Derek Lowe (see below) in exchange for 1.5 years of reliever Heathcliff Slocumb. Going by games at a single position, big-bodied DH David Ortiz (9th all-time in Red Sox wins above replacement) narrowly edges out left fielder Manny Ramirez (24th), but if you consider the games that the latter spent at DH, those two would be flipped (even taking into account the former's games at 1B). If we extend things past my extremely logical cutoff point of 2009, Ortiz has the clear edge, as Big Papi remained with the team through 2016. Although ManRam had a shorter overall Red Sox tenure, he has the distinction of making the All-Star team in every season that he played in Boston, including prior to being traded to the Dodgers in 2008.

Going down the games played list, next we have right fielder Trot Nixon, who had exactly one spectacular season (his 5.1 WAR 2003), but he represents the type of consistent year-in, year-out performance that good teams need to flourish. Switching to overall games across multiple positions, Kevin Youkilis put up 691 combined between both corner infield spots, but he still comfortably leads the team in games at first base alone (followed not especially closely by Kevin Millar). The personification of the long-haired, bearded "idiots" persona adopted by the 2004 championship team, Johnny Damon really came into his own upon signing with the Red Sox prior to the 2002 season, making the All-Star team in two of his four seasons there. Mike Lowell split his 2000's about 60-40 between Florida and Boston, making just one of his three career All-Star appearances after joining the Red Sox. Although the middle infielders have the lowest all-decade positional totals on the team, both Nomar Garciparra and Dustin Pedroia occupy spots on Boston's all-time WAR leaderboard, at 14th and 10th, respectively. Nomar put up some of his best numbers in the previous decade (including his Rookie of the Year 1997), while Pedroia is still technically with the team, although a significant knee surgery has put his future in question.

With knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, we've already seen almost 40% of all the players who spent the entire decade playing the same position with one team (there are 13 overall, the Yankees had three, and the Sox check in with two). As if his 250 games started weren't impressive enough, the swingman also logged 94 relief appearances, pushing his running total to 344 total games. While Pedro Martinez pitched more than 200 fewer games than Wakefield during his Red Sox tenure this decade, the Dominican Hall of Famer still managed to finish 8th on Boston's all-time WAR leaderboard. Pedro's back-to-back Cy Young awards were rather ill-timed for the purposes of this project, as one took place in the last year of the previous decade, while the other started off the one in question. Like Mike Lowell above, Josh Beckett split his decade between Florida and Boston - indeed, they were both acquired in the same trade (which saw recent Red Sock Hanley Ramirez and current major leaguer Anibal Sanchez go to the Marlins in return). While Derek Lowe places fourth in terms of games started, it's also important to remember that he served as the club's closer from 2000-01 (and also for parts of 1998-99, but that's beyond the scope of this project). While I normally cut off starters at five per team, Curt Schilling and Jon Lester are so close that it's worth including them both... even though Schilling's 21 relief appearances in 2005 would put him over the edge if I counted those in his favor.

After a couple years each from the above-mentioned Derek Lowe and changeup artist Keith Foulke, Jonathan Papelbon really solidified Boston's closer role in the mid part of this decade. (And that was before his All-Star-choking shenanigans in Washington.) Mike Timlin's career as a reliever started way back in the beginning of the previous decade, where he won two World Series titles with the Blue Jays. Fast forward to the next decade, and he would win two more with the Red Sox, while also becoming their all-decade leader in game's pitched. Manny Delcarmen might not be a name that comes to mind when you talk about relief stalwarts of the 00's, but the Boston native pitched all but nine of his career games for his hometown team. It's always fun when these compilation rosters happen to feature a tough lefty in the top few spots of the bullpen, and the well-traveled southpaw Alan Embree fills that role for the all-decade Sox. It's clear that Boston's bullpen consistency outdoes that of rival New York's, as Japanese righty Hideki Okajima is the only reliever in the top five not to cross the 200 game threshold, a mark he missed by just two games in the decade in question. He would go on to pitch 63 more for the team in the following decade, with just five career games pitched outside of Boston.

New York Yankees - All-Decade 2000-09

I'm starting off my All-Decade Teams feature with the New York Yankees, the winningest team of the 2000's (the decade, not the millennium... although they may be that too, I haven't checked). Even though only two of their record 27 championships came in this decade (in the first and last years of it, in fact), the deep pockets of the team-owning Steinbrenner family and a remarkably long run of excellence from their top homegrown talent led to many winning seasons and many boring AL East divisional races. Here's some analysis of the top batters first, followed by the pitching staff, all determined by total games played at each position (for the most part), with the years that player was active with the team to the right.

Let's start with the outliers: even though the Yankees had two batters who were with the team for the entire decade (as shown by the bold underlined text in the "years active" column), this will not be a common occurrence going forward. Shortstop Derek Jeter (aka The Captain, aka YEAH JEETS) has the most games played with a single team out of ANYBODY in the entire decade. Despite never winning an MVP award, Jeter's premium level of play was a big reason for New York's dominance in this decade - and the previous one too, considering he took over the position in 1996, when he was named Rookie of the Year. Jeter clocks in at fourth place in all time Yankees wins above replacement, behind such luminaries as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, and Joe DiMaggio. Catcher Jorge Posada (23rd all time) is the second offensive member of the Yankees' famous "Core Four" (the other two will show up below), and these two show that good things can happen when you build your team around consistency up the middle.

Continuing down the line of most games played at a single position, Alex Rodriguez (11th in all-time Yankees WAR) was acquired from the Rangers in a famous salary-dump trade, and was promptly moved from his customary shortstop position over to third base due to the presence of Jeter on the roster. Before his career exploded in steroid-related controversy, he took home two MVP's as a member of the Yankees, but also gained a reputation as an anti-clutch postseason performer. Going slightly out of order, but sticking with the infield, second baseman Robinson Cano (19th) is the only batter on this list who is playing on a major league deal this seaso. Cano only played in the second half of this decade, as he took over from Alfonso Soriano (466 games from 2001-03), who was traded to the Texas for Rodriguez prior to the 2004 season. I saved Bernie Williams (14th) for last in this section, because of the irregularity of having two players in the center field slot. But first it's worth mentioning that the jazz guitar-playing Puerto Rican was a consistently pleasant presence for the Yanks, not only for the first half of this decade, but for the entirety of the previous one as well.

Now for the numbers in parentheses in the rightmost column, which will also explain why there is no DH spot in the lineup, even though the Yankees are an American League team. Longtime star of the Yomiuri Giants (of the Japan Central League) Hideki Matsui and pre-Moneyball Oakland Athletic Jason Giambi (the A's couldn't afford him when he hit free agency after the 2001 season) are the Yankees all-decade leaders at left field and first base, with 562 and 501 games at their respective positions. However, Matsui and Giambi are also #1 and #2 in appearances at DH during the same time period, with 248 and 213 games, respectively. Behind Giambi at 1B is Tino Martinez, who accumulated 425 games there between two different stints with New York in this decade (from 2000-01 and then again in 05), and after Matsui in LF is technically Johnny Damon, who had a little over 200 games there from 07-09. But current Pittsburgh Pirate Melky Cabrera is a close third, and when you add to that all the time he spent in center field after taking over from Bernie in 2007 (it might be more than the 485 total games listed above, since I'm pretty sure I made a math mistake), he becomes the logical choice to slot in at left field with Matsui technically occupying the DH slot. Rounding things out, Bobby Abreu had the most games in right field, which had been a bit of a revolving door for the Yanks since Paul O'Neill's retirement after 2001.

While perhaps best known for his time with the Orioles, Mike Mussina pitched nearly his entire 2000's decade with the Yankees. While he never picked up a Cy Young award, Moose continued his reputation as a defensive whiz, winning three of his seven Gold Gloves in New York, and pitched well enough to nail down his case for the Hall of Fame. Left-hander Andy Pettitte (13th in all-time Yankees WAR) is the only member of the Core Four to not play for the team for the entire decade in question. The Baton Rouge, LA native took a three-year break to pitch for his near-hometown Houston Astros, following his once and future Yankees teammate Roger Clemens down south. Each of those two returned to New York for the 2007 season, but Pettitte stuck around through 09 for NYY's most recent championship. As for Clemens, the long time member of the rival Red Sox came to New York in a trade with Toronto, and put up some solid numbers, but his time with the Yankees will perhaps best be remembered by controversy - throwing a broken bat at Mike Piazza in the 2000 World Series, and getting caught in a PED scandal. Signed as an amateur free agent out of Taiwan, Chien-Ming Wang nearly won the Cy Young award in 2006, despite mediocre strikeout numbers, and basically saw his career come to an end because of injuries. Speaking of injuries, Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez missed all of 2003 due to a rotator cuff injury, but the Cuban wouldn't have gotten past the 100 game threshold when healthy anyway, as he was traded to the Expos just before going down.

Rounding out the Core Four and anchoring the bullpen is the only unanimously-voted Hall of Famer in baseball history, Mariano Rivera. The all-time leader in saves and games finished also clocks in at 10th overall in all-time Yankees WAR and has the distinction of pitching the most games with a single team in the decade in question. Despite the penchant of lefty relievers often facing only one batter per game, Mike Stanton earned his placement on this list, as he averaged almost exactly an inning per appearance in the bulk of his time with the Yankees in this decade (.991 from 2000-02). Not to be confused with Giancarlo, Mike was used as a lefty specialist during his second stint with the Bronx Bombers in 2005, a year in which he also pitched for Washington and Boston. The nomadic Kyle Farnsworth put up his second-most career games with any one team in New York, behind the 343 he pitched for the Cubs. Tom "Flash" Gordon only pitched two years for the Yankees, but he surpassed 80 innings in each and was an All-Star in one of them. I usually only include five total relievers in these lists, but since Scott Proctor and Brian Bruney were literally neck-and-neck for fifth place, I decided to list them both here to round out the bullpen.

All-Decade Teams 2000-09 - Intro and List

Example of baseball-reference.com layout circa summer 2001

I first started obsessively keeping track of baseball stats during the summer of 2001. I was doing summer theater with my parents in western Pennsylvania, and there wasn't a lot for me to do between rehearsals, until I discovered a fledgling website called baseball-reference.com. Back then, B-R was little more than a collection of text pages listing back-of-the-baseball-card-type stats and not much else. But it was enough for me look back at the just-completed 2000 season (I don't even think the site had midseason updates back then) and put together a basic roster for how each team performed in terms of fantasy points, and the rest was history.

Given that my baseball list journey started with statistics from the year 2000, by the time we complete the 2019 season, I will have a full two decade's worth of numbers in my system. We can debate whether a historical "decade" technically comprises years 0-9 or 1-10, but based on the starting point of my lists (not to mention the hysteria surrounding the transition to Y2K), I'm going with the former. With this in mind, I can use the next two months to explore the first decade of my baseball database, while waiting for the conclusion of the last season of decade number two.

In a departure from how I usually do things, I will not be using fantasy points when determining the players on these "All-Decade Teams" - at least not for this first pass. Instead, I'll be looking at total number of games played per position, which might not capture the "best" players to represent each team over the course of the decade in question, but it will show the most common players. I should also say that compiling these lists was made unbelievably easier with the new and improved baseball-reference's "Starters" section under the "People" tab on any given team's franchise page. It has truly been amazing to see how that site has blossomed into the indispensable baseball fan's tool it is today.

Below is a list of the winningest teams of the decade in question (2000-09), some of which will turn into links to a rundown that team's All-Decade Roster, as determined by my tireless research. Enjoy!

TEAM	W	L	REC	DECIMALS
New York Yankees	965	651	.597	153465
Boston Red Sox	920	699	.568	252007
St. Louis Cardinals	913	706	.563	928351
Anaheim (Los Angeles) Angels (of Anaheim)	900	720	.555	555556
Atlanta Braves	892	726	.551	297899
Oakland Athletics	890	728	.550	061805
Minnesota Twins	863	758	.532	387415
Los Angeles Dodgers	862	758	.532	098765
San Francisco Giants	855	762	.528	756957
Chicago White Sox	857	764	.528	685996
Philadelphia Phillies	850	769	.525	015442
Seattle Mariners	837	783	.516	666667
Houston Astros	832	787	.513	897468
New York Mets	815	803	.503	708282
Cleveland Indians	816	804	.503	703704
Florida Marlins	811	807	.501	236094
Chicago Cubs	807	811	.498	763906
Toronto Blue Jays	805	814	.497	220506
Arizona Diamondbacks	805	815	.496	913580
Texas Rangers	776	844	.479	012346
Colorado Rockies	769	852	.474	398519
San Diego Padres	769	852	.474	398519
Cincinnati Reds	751	869	.463	580247
Milwaukee Brewers	741	878	.457	689932
Detroit Tigers	729	891	.450	000000
Montreal Expos / Washington Nationals	711	908	.439	159975
Baltimore Orioles	698	920	.431	396786
Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays	694	923	.429	189858
Pittsburgh Pirates	682	936	.421	508035
Kansas City Royals	672	948	.414	814815

AL Wild Card Divisional All-Stars

Here it is, finally: the very last one of these interminable Divisional All-Star squads. It's the American League Wild Card. I've put it off long enough, so no more, here they are:

POS	NAME	swp	swp/g		TEAM
2B	Brian Roberts	2,275	14.3		BAL
LF	Carl Crawford	2,337	15.0		TB
3B	Alex Rodriguez	2,032	16.4		NYY
1B	Kevin Youkilis	2,168	15.9		BOS
C	Victor Martinez	2,127	13.7		CLE/BOS
DH	Ben Zobrist	2,215	14.6		TB	2B
RF	Nick Swisher	1,848	12.3		NYY
SS	Jason Bartlett	1,998	14.6		TB
CF	Denard Span	1,923	13.3		MIN
SP	John Danks	1,527	47.7		CHW
	Mark Buerhle	1,485	45.0		CHW
	Gavin Floyd	1,484	49.5		CHW
	James Shields	1,476	44.7		TB
	Matt Garza	1,447	45.2		TB
CL	Jonathan Papelbon	1,853	28.1		BOS
RP	Brad Ziegler	667	9.7		OAK
	Mark Lowe	662	8.8		SEA
	Lance Cormier	588	11.1		TB
	Sean White	579	11.1		SEA
	Phil Coke	557	7.7		NYY
P	Justin Masterson	637	15.2		BOS/CLE

Aaron Hill on the Blue Jays had a monster season, which pushed the four other AL East second basemen down into the wild card hunt. The fact that this team includes not one, but two of those four runners up (Brian Roberts at leadoff and Ben Zobrist the DH) is a testament to the unusual strength of second sackers in the league this year. Roberts was a doubles machine, as usual, using his tremendous speed more to leg out extra-base hits rather than to steal bases (his SB totals has dropped by 10 in each of the last three years: 50 to 40 to 30 in '09).

Carl Crawford batted second for most of the year with the Rays, despite spending most of his career as a leadoff hitter, so he fits in nicely here behind Roberts. Back for a full season after missing significant time in '08, he ran for a career-high 60 stolen bases and was on base a career-high 36.4% of the time. Add to that his terrific defense in an underrated position, Crawford absolutely deserved this spot over runner-up Johnny Damon.

After the fabulous season he had, the only reason Alex Rodriguez missed out on a spot on the AL East team is because he missed the first month of the season recovering from hip surgery. Just barely cracking 30 HR and 100 RBI for the 12th straight season, A-Rod added an elusive feather into his cap by excelling in the 2009 playoffs, something he had been unable to do for most of his career. Sure he was embroiled in some steroid controversy, but who wasn't this year? And for all that he's accomplished in his career, he's still relatively young. Who knows if his recent reform will shed some kinder light on him if he eventually surpasses Barry Bonds as the all-time home run leader.

Kevin Youkilis has yet to stay healthy for more than 150 games in a season, but his mid- to upper-range power and his talent for getting on base has earned him a spot in the upper echelon of first basemen. His versatility is also a plus - if the Mike Lowell trade had gone through for Boston, Youk would have likely shifted across the diamond to third base.

Speaking of versatile Red Sox players, Victor Martinez, who will catch all year for Boston but who also has the ability to play first base, bats fifth for this team. He won't hit 30 home runs, but he will hit 20 to 25, drive in 100 runs and walk about as much as he strikes out. He's not an above average defender behind the plate, but he's a veteran and a team leader who fit in very well at Fenway Park after being acquired by the Indians part way through the season. The Red Sox should definitely benefit from a full year of this guy.

Ben Zobrist made a splash in his first year with regular playing time, spending significant time at both second base and right field. He was exceptional at every aspect of his game, putting up impressive power numbers (27 HR), getting on base (.405 OBP), showing some speed on the basepaths (17 SB), and playing above average defense all over the field (5.8 runs above average at second, 13.0 runs in the outfield). At age 28, Zorilla should have a long and eventful career ahead of him.

Nick Swisher is, quite frankly, somewhat of a disappointing choice for the starting right fielder for this club. Sure he walks a ton and has some pretty good power, but he was a wash in the field and he doesn't make as much contact as he should, hitting for just .249 on the season. Just behind him in points was Texas's Nelson Cruz, who flashed power and speed, but didn't come close to Swish in terms of plate discipline. I almost bent the rules and slotted Minnesota's Jason Kubel as the right fielder, but seeing as he played only 30 games in right field (plus another 29 in left) versus 80 games as the DH, it just didn't seem right.

The most surprising player on this team has to be Tampa Bay's Jason Bartlett, who somehow found he could use his bat extremely effectively at age 29. 14 home runs (his previous career-high was 5), 66 RBI (43), and an .879 OPS (.760, but in nearly 200 fewer plate appearances). If he can keep away from injuries AND keep up this kind of All-Star caliber production, he could find himself getting a lot of positive attention. And rounding out the order is Minnesota's sophomore leadoff man Denard Span, who played all the outfield positions in '09. He's an old school slappy hitter who doesn't have much power, but shows great discipline and plays a great center field.

This pitching staff is a little unbalanced, with all five pitchers coming from only two teams. The first three guys are from the White Sox: John Danks and soft-tossing lefty Mark Buerhle each won 13 games with low ERA's (3.77 and 3.84 respectively), but the latter also threw a perfect game. Their teammate, Gavin Floyd, led his team in strikeouts (163), but had just a .500 winning percentage and an average ERA (4.06). The next two guys are from the Devil Rays: James Shields had the highest K/BB ratio of the staff (3.21), but couldn't get his ERA under 4.00 (4.14). Matt Garza struck out the most batters (189), but only picked up 8 wins and 12 losses. Nothing too exciting from this group this year, which was an unimpressive year for pitchers in general, which almost makes one question if all this steroid testing hullabaloo is really doing anything to temper the recent offensive explosion.

Jonathan Papelbon gets this spot, despite his meltdown in the ALDS against the Angels. He had an ERA under 2 (1.85) for the third times in the last four years and saved 38 games, but struggled with his command, walking more batters than ever before. Hot on his trail is Seattle's closer David Aardsma who also saved 38 - including earning the first save of his career - in his first year as a ninth inning specialist.

Oakland's Brad Ziegler leads the middle relievers with his funky submarine delivery and low strikeout rates. A pair of Seattle right-handers, the durable Mark Lowe and Sean White, make up another two spots, continuing the trend of relievers with sub-8.0 strikeout/9 innings rates. Rays' long man Lance Cormier also didn't miss many bats, but he racked up a lot of innings and stayed away from the long ball. Lone lefty Phil Coke didn't post an extremely low ERA, but you need someone to take advantage of that platoon split.

This team's swingman, Justin Masterson, spent time with two different AL teams this year: Boston, for which he mostly pitched from the bullpen, and Cleveland, for which he mostly started. Maybe having a full season as a starter next year will allow Masterson to focus and hone some of his skills. Or perhaps he'll struggle again and find himself without a well-defined role once again.

Well that's all I've got. Hope you've enjoyed my lengthy and indulgent way to provide an overview of some of the best players in the game. But now it's time to move on to some more thoughts about different things.