A quick disclaimer, before we get into the first part of this exercise:
The concept of Player or Team of the Decade is reliant on an arbitrary thing; a stretch of ten years that is defined only by the non-changing of the tenths numeral.
In years past, looking at ‘decades’ have given us a few silly arguments: Jack Morris was the winningest pitcher of the 1980’s; ergo he is a Hall-of-Famer. It’s a silly argument: Frank Viola was the winningest pitcher from 1984 to 1993; how come no one argues that he’s a Hall-of-Famer? And hey, over that same stretch Joe Carter hit the most homeruns and notched the most RBI’s. Let’s get him into Cooperstown, too.
I could go on, but you get what I’m angling at: being the best player in the decade of the ‘Aughts has nothing to do with Player A is better than Player B. Carlos Delgado is not a better player than Jeff Bagwell; he just happened to have a better decade that Bagwell.
A Team of the Decade does give us some contexts, some sense of the era. This decade will be known as the Steroid Decade, rightly or wrongly. For betterly or worsely. It’s worth debating who the best and worst players of the decade were.
So let’s take a look. We’ll start with the infield.
Catcher
This is where that ‘element of arbitrariness’ comes in: if we were looking at 1995-2004, Mike Piazza would rank as the best catcher in baseball. If we went from 2005-2014, I’m certain Joe Mauer will wind up the best catcher of that ten-year stretch.
But we’re talking about the years 2000-2009. Only nine catchers have caught 1000+ games over the decade of double-zeros:
|
|
G
|
OPS+
|
|
Jason Kendall
|
1431
|
89
|
|
Jorge Posada
|
1271
|
129
|
|
Ramon Hernandez
|
1225
|
95
|
|
Ivan Rodriguez
|
1189
|
111
|
|
Jason Varitek
|
1185
|
100
|
|
Bengie Molina
|
1180
|
88
|
|
A.J. Pierzinski
|
1180
|
96
|
|
Brad Ausmus
|
1176
|
68
|
|
Paul Lo Duca
|
1040
|
98
|
Of those nine, only two (Posada and Rodriguez) posted an above-average OPS. To have a more reasonable list, we could include players who had shorter stints over the decade. Let’s say 500 games. That gives us a list of:
|
|
OPS+
|
G
|
HR
|
BA
|
OBP
|
SLG
|
|
Joe Mauer
|
136
|
650
|
65
|
.325
|
.405
|
.480
|
|
Jorge Posada
|
129
|
1271
|
201
|
.282
|
.386
|
.490
|
|
Mike Piazza
|
127
|
931
|
187
|
.285
|
.360
|
.512
|
|
Brian McCann
|
122
|
567
|
82
|
.296
|
.359
|
.499
|
|
Victor Martinez
|
118
|
832
|
105
|
.296
|
.369
|
.462
|
|
Ivan Rodriguez
|
111
|
1189
|
159
|
.299
|
.336
|
.479
|
|
Javy Lopez
|
110
|
847
|
141
|
.285
|
.336
|
.482
|
|
Russell Martin
|
103
|
531
|
45
|
.281
|
.372
|
.411
|
|
Mike Lieberthal
|
102
|
757
|
83
|
.278
|
.344
|
.438
|
|
Charles Johnson
|
102
|
575
|
88
|
.253
|
.337
|
.463
|
|
Jason Varitek
|
100
|
1185
|
147
|
.259
|
.349
|
.434
|
That brings Mauer into the discussion, as well as McCann and V-Mart.
Mauer or Posada is a choice between peak ability and longetivity: Posada has played twice as many games as Mauer, while Mauer has performed at a higher peak than Posada. Mauer has had five straight seasons of 20+ Win Shares, and two years of 30 Win Shares. Posada has never reached 30 Win Shares, but he’s notched 206 Win Shares this decade, to Mauer’s 131.
That said, Joe Mauer has had three seasons where he could have been the MVP; three years (2006, 2008, and 2009) when he was one of the two or three best player in the league.
My affection for Joe Mauer knows no bounds, but it would be difficult to put him ahead of Jorge Posada. Were the difference three hundred games, I’d choose Mauer. But the difference is 621 games, the equivalent of four full seasons. I’ll stick with Posada.
As for Posada and Mike Piazza, it’s a clear victory for Posada. There wasn’t a season in the decade when Mike Piazza notched more Win Shares than Posada did.
Ivan Rodriguez is, I think, the most interesting challenge to Posada. Rodriguez is a very different kind of player. Rodriguez is a great fielder; a contact hitter with good speed for a catcher. Posada strikes out more, but also draws fifty more walks a year. Posada’s fielding has been solid but unremarkable.
One might be tempted to give Ivan Rodriguez extra credit for his defensive contributions, but the numbers suggest that Posada’s superiority as a defensive player is mostly reputation, not reality. We have the fielding Win Shares on the sight dating back to 2002. Here’s the defensive Win Shares of Posada and Rodriguez:
|
|
I-Rod
|
Posada
|
|
2002
|
2.45
|
4.66
|
|
2003
|
5.22
|
7.86
|
|
2004
|
4.91
|
5.51
|
|
2005
|
7.74
|
7.05
|
|
2006
|
10.91
|
7.40
|
|
2007
|
6.94
|
6.57
|
|
2008
|
7.32
|
1.39
|
|
2009
|
3.47
|
2.61
|
|
Total
|
48.96
|
43.05
|
No surprise Rodriguez has a lead. But it’s a difference of six Win Shares, or two wins over eight years. It’s not enough to close their gap as hitters.
I should add that Rodriguez suffers because his peak years came before the turn of the decade: between 2000 and 2009 he has notched 155 Win Shares, to Posada’s 206. Ivan Rodriguez is a better player than Posada, as is Mauer, as was Piazza. But Jorge Posada is the catcher of the decade.
First Base
We can probably skip this one, right?
|
|
OPS+
|
G
|
HR
|
BA
|
OBP
|
SLG
|
|
Albert Pujols
|
172
|
1353
|
357
|
.334
|
.427
|
.629
|
|
Jason Giambi
|
152
|
1286
|
301
|
.275
|
.418
|
.543
|
|
Todd Helton
|
146
|
1422
|
256
|
.331
|
.436
|
.573
|
|
Carlos Delgado
|
144
|
1368
|
324
|
.286
|
.394
|
.553
|
|
Mark Teixeira
|
135
|
1015
|
232
|
.289
|
.378
|
.543
|
|
Jeff Bagwell
|
133
|
833
|
186
|
.285
|
.394
|
.534
|
|
Ryan Klesko
|
129
|
944
|
139
|
.277
|
.377
|
.481
|
|
Derrek Lee
|
128
|
1407
|
258
|
.290
|
.375
|
.515
|
|
Rafael Palmeiro
|
128
|
891
|
208
|
.270
|
.373
|
.519
|
|
Justin Morneau
|
126
|
845
|
161
|
.284
|
.353
|
.507
|
Todd Helton is the only one who has anything resembling a case against Pujols, and that case is undercut dramatically by the fact that Helton has a .361/.458/.646 line at Coors, but just a .295/.394/.492 line in road games.
Albert Pujols has finished in the top-ten in the NL MVP vote every year he’s played, and baring a catastrophic decline in the last month of this season, he will again finish in the top-ten this year, making it nine years in a row.
Two players, Stan Musial and Willie Mays, have finished in the top-ten in the MVP vote for ten straight seasons. Stan between 1948-1957, and Willie between 1957-1966. Pujols has a good chance to be the third. He’s the Player of the Decade, obviously.
Second Base
This one stumped me. A friend and I were discussing this during a rain delay at Fenway last week, and the only guys we could come up with were Utley and Kent. I was sure we were missing someone.
|
|
Games
|
BA
|
OBP
|
SLG
|
OPS+
|
|
Chase Utley
|
850
|
.298
|
.381
|
.527
|
130
|
|
Jeff Kent
|
1266
|
.300
|
.371
|
.518
|
129
|
|
Dan Uggla
|
575
|
.259
|
.344
|
.483
|
115
|
|
Bret Boone
|
835
|
.277
|
.340
|
.474
|
115
|
|
Alfonso Soriano
|
1305
|
.279
|
.327
|
.511
|
114
|
I guess Soriano is the one we were missing: he’s played more games at second than in the outfield, 766 to 509 at this writing.
Like the catcher conversation, this one is between two players: Utley and Kent. It is a difficult battle: Kent had an MVP season in 2000, plus three other great seasons in 2001, 2002, and 2005. Utley has had four MVP-caliber seasons from 2006 to 2009. Win Shares by season:
|
|
Kent
|
Utley
|
|
2000
|
37
|
-
|
|
2001
|
27
|
-
|
|
2002
|
28
|
-
|
|
2003
|
20
|
5
|
|
2004
|
22
|
8
|
|
2005
|
28
|
25
|
|
2006
|
18
|
27
|
|
2007
|
17
|
28
|
|
2008
|
9
|
30
|
|
2009
|
-
|
24
|
|
Total
|
206
|
147
|
With Mauer and Posada, it’s clear that Mauer has had the greater peak value. It is less apparent that Chase Utley has had a greater peak that Kent did. As Kent has played 400 more games than Utley, we’ll take him as the best second baseman of the decade.
Third Base
Three great players competing for this one:
|
|
G
|
HR
|
BA
|
OBP
|
SLG
|
OPS+
|
|
Alex Rodriguez
|
1488
|
426
|
.302
|
.400
|
.586
|
153
|
|
Chipper Jones
|
1349
|
270
|
.314
|
.415
|
.554
|
149
|
|
David Wright
|
818
|
138
|
.311
|
.392
|
.524
|
138
|
We can leave Wright off the list, as he’s more than 500 games behind Chipper and A-Rod. That leaves us two players, each of whom has played every season of the decade.
A-Rod has two big advantages over Chipper: homeruns (+156) and stolen bases (+115). Chipper has a lot of little edges: doubles (+22), triples (+5), walks (+22), fewer times caught stealing (+11), GIDP (+16). Chipper also has a big edge in strikeouts, whiffing 740 times to A-Rod’s 1216 strikeouts (+476).
Chipper’s had two top-ten MVP finished, and didn’t win an MVP during the decade. He made three All-Star games and didn’t win a Gold Glove award. I was surprised, frankly, that Chipper has done so poorly over the decade, as he’s obviously been a terrific player.
Alex, on the other hand, has done quite well in the award category: three MVP awards, seven top-ten finishes, two Gold Gloves (at shortstop), and nine All-Star appearances.
This is interesting, as my perception has always been that Chipper is far more liked than Alex. Even before the steroid stuff came out, isn’t it safe to say that Chipper, the cornerstone hitter of the Braves, was more respected and admired than Alex? Yet Alex has fared far better than Chipper when it comes to things that writers, managers, and fans vote on.
Leaving popularity aside, who was better over the decade?
Looking at some numbers from Pecota and Fangraphs, as well as from our site:
|
|
Win Shares
|
|
WARP-3
|
|
WPA
|
|
|
|
A-Rod
|
Jones
|
A-Rod
|
Jones
|
A-Rod
|
Jones
|
|
2000
|
37
|
27
|
11.6
|
6.0
|
5.26
|
2.16
|
|
2001
|
37
|
29
|
8.2
|
8.0
|
5.23
|
5.09
|
|
2002
|
35
|
31
|
7.9
|
7.3
|
3.86
|
4.67
|
|
2003
|
31
|
26
|
7.5
|
3.3
|
4.15
|
4.29
|
|
2004
|
29
|
18
|
7.7
|
5.7
|
3.05
|
1.28
|
|
2005
|
34
|
18
|
9.5
|
6.1
|
5.53
|
5.79
|
|
2006
|
25
|
22
|
5.4
|
5.0
|
1.06
|
1.12
|
|
2007
|
37
|
25
|
11.0
|
8.4
|
6.86
|
4.35
|
|
2008
|
23
|
23
|
5.5
|
9.2
|
0.48
|
3.52
|
|
2009
|
13
|
16
|
4.1
|
2.6
|
2.63
|
2.45
|
|
Total
|
301
|
235
|
78.4
|
61.6
|
38.11
|
34.72
|
Hmm….A-Rod comes out ahead in all of the metrics listed above. For Win Shares, Alex has six seasons of 30 or more Win Shares, whereas Chipper has one. He has six fewer Win Shares than Albert Pujols, although Pujols didn’t play in 2000.
There is, of course, the steroid thing: Alex Rodriguez has admitted to taking steroids during his three-year stint with the Rangers. I wonder if anyone remembers this, but Chipper took a bit of flack in late 2007 for suggesting that Alex Rodriguez’s name would be the next one linked to steroids. This was around the time Jose Canseco started talking about Alex, and Chipper mentioned to a New York Post writer that a lot of Canseco’s claims were turning out to be true. It didn’t get a lot of traction, Chipper’s comments, but I thought I’d mention it.
Objectively, it’s hard to see where Chipper merits an edge over Alex Rodriguez: Alex has been a better defensive player, a better offensive player, and a better base runner over the course of the decade. I think that a few writers will give Chipper the nod over Alex, on the basis that Alex cheated and Chipper did not. I certainly won’t begrudge them their opinion, and Chipper’s had a helluva decade. But Alex Rodriguez has been better.
Shortstop
Over the decade, Hanley Ramirez leads shortstops in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, and adjusted OPS. That said, he has played only 581 games this decade, which is 60% fewer games than Jeter, Tejada, or Michael Young.
|
|
G
|
HR
|
BA
|
OBP
|
SLG
|
OPS+
|
|
Hanley Ramirez
|
581
|
98
|
.318
|
.387
|
.536
|
140
|
|
Derek Jeter
|
1463
|
158
|
.316
|
.386
|
.457
|
121
|
|
Nomar Garciaparra
|
967
|
132
|
.307
|
.359
|
.497
|
118
|
|
Miguel Tejada
|
1543
|
247
|
.296
|
.346
|
.480
|
116
|
|
Carlos Guillen
|
1162
|
108
|
.288
|
.359
|
.446
|
112
|
|
Michael Young
|
1334
|
135
|
.302
|
.349
|
.449
|
105
|
With due respect to Garciaparra and Michael Young, this comes down to Jeter and Tejada. Tejada has a slight edge in power, but Jeter has superior on-base skills and is a faster player. Neither is a particularly great defensive shortstop.
Tejada won an MVP award and appeared in six All-Star games. Jeter never won the MVP, but he was second in 2006 (and was a more deserving candidate than the #1 guy), and has played in eight All-Star games. Jeter has won three Gold Gloves this decade, which is a little embarrassing.
Win Shares has it at a near-deadlock:
|
Year
|
Jeter
|
Tejada
|
|
2000
|
23
|
23
|
|
2001
|
28
|
25
|
|
2002
|
24
|
32
|
|
2003
|
19
|
26
|
|
2004
|
26
|
28
|
|
2005
|
26
|
26
|
|
2006
|
32
|
23
|
|
2007
|
24
|
14
|
|
2008
|
18
|
14
|
|
2009
|
22
|
16
|
|
Total
|
242
|
227
|
It’s closer than I thought it would be: through 2006, Tejada has a lead of five Win Shares over Jeter. Jeter’s solid run in 2007-2009 has edged him ahead of Tejada, but it’s a lot closer than I thought.
The best argument for Tejada is defense: Tejada’s been a crummy defense player, but Jeter has been much worse. Using John Dewan’s Runs Saved since 2004:
|
|
Tejada
|
|
Jeter
|
|
|
|
+/- Total
|
Runs Saved
|
+/- Total
|
Runs Saved
|
|
2004
|
+14
|
+11
|
-16
|
-12
|
|
2005
|
+5
|
+4
|
-34
|
-26
|
|
2006
|
-14
|
-11
|
-22
|
-17
|
|
2007
|
-4
|
-3
|
-34
|
-26
|
|
2008
|
+7
|
+5
|
-11
|
-8
|
|
2009
|
-14
|
-11
|
+7
|
+5
|
|
Total
|
-6
|
-5
|
-110
|
-84
|
Jeter costs the Yankees about fourteen runs a year on defense, whereas Tejada has cost his team just one run a year. Fourteen runs is the equivalent of two or three wins a season. That’s a big difference.
What about Omar Vizquel?
|
Jeter
|
|
|
Vizquel
|
|
|
+/- Total
|
Runs Saved
|
|
+/- Total
|
Runs Saved
|
|
-16
|
-12
|
2004
|
+6
|
+5
|
|
-34
|
-26
|
2005
|
+4
|
+3
|
|
-22
|
-17
|
2006
|
+7
|
+5
|
|
-34
|
-26
|
2007
|
+20
|
+15
|
|
-11
|
-8
|
2008
|
+9
|
+7
|
|
7
|
5
|
2009
|
+3
|
+2
|
|
-110
|
-84
|
Total
|
+49
|
+37
|
As a defensive player, Vizquel is worth about twenty runs more than Derek Jeter each year, the equivalent of three to four wins a season. It doesn’t make up the difference between them as hitters:
|
|
G
|
HR
|
BA
|
OBP
|
SLG
|
OPS+
|
|
Derek Jeter
|
1463
|
158
|
.316
|
.386
|
.457
|
121
|
|
Omar Vizquel
|
1262
|
44
|
.271
|
.340
|
.361
|
84
|
Were Miguel Tejada a better fielder, I’d be tempted to take him over Derek Jeter. As he is, at best, a league-average fielder, I’ll begrudgingly stick with Captain Intangibles.
Coming up: the best outfielders and designated whackers of the decade.
Dave Fleming is a writer living in Iowa City, IA. He welcomes comments, questions, and suggestions here and at dfleming1986@yahoo.com