The end of the nameless decade is less than a month a way and before we step into the roaring 20's I'm going to take a look back at the last 10 years of the sports I like to talk about. Tonight let's visit the past decade of baseball in the coming weeks I'll talk some NASCAR, College Football, and probably the NFL. Baseball is my first love so let's get into it.
Team of the Decade: San Francisco Giants
Well if it wasn't obvious who I would pick. The Giants won 3 of the 10 World Series, more than any other team, they made the Postseason 4 times, which isn't the most by any means but still respectable. The key to the Giants was great pitching, getting hitting hot at the right time, and great pitching again. My favorite part of the Giants run through the first 5 years of the decade was it was different ace every year. 2010 Tim Lincecum dominated, then 2012 Matt Cain was the horse, and finally 2014 Madison Bumgarner had a dominating postseason. Only a few players were on all 3 teams, most of the 2010 position players didn't stick around, sans Buster Posey and Pablo Sandoval who wasn't an every day player in the postseason.
Player of the Decade: Mike Trout
Again the answer was obvious, Trout threw up a 72.5 bWAR and 73.4 fWAR, higher than everyone is baseball for the decade and he didn't play 2010 and only played 40 games in 2011, he basically gave everyone a 2 year head start and nobody was close to him. 285 Home Runs, 200 SBs, while batting over 300 and pushing across 752 RBIs for all you old stats people. He is the most dominate player in baseball and has been for 7 years running.
Now let's pick a starting 9, 5 man rotation and a bullpen (of sorts)
Catcher: Buster Posey
This is a close call between Buster and Yadier Molina, but Buster gets the nod because he's got the hardware. Buster has an MVP, 4X Silver Slugger, batting championship, and of course 3 rings. He truly was the best all around catcher for the decade, sorry best fans in baseball.
First Base: Miguel Cabrera
Again another close call between Miggy and Joey Votto. I give the nod to Miggy with the hardware and the postseason success. Miggy also won the Triple Crown in 2012, if you're into that sort of thing. He even played third most of that Triple Crown season. Miggy was a dominate player in the early part of the decade and even though he's struggled last couple years, I think he did enough to get in the line up.
Second Base: Jose Altuve
Another close call between Altuve and Robinson Cano. This time I'm choosing Altuve for a few reasons, he got a ring and MVP, 3X batting champion, meanwhile Cano has none of those things and a PED suspension, which I'm using to split hairs, I don't care he used. Altuve is a hitting machine and is the heartbeat of the team of the 2nd half of the decade. I think we would all want Altuve in our line up.
Third Base: Adrian Beltre
Man do I want to put Nolan Arenado on that line, but Beltre is going to the Hall of Fame and the work he did from 2010-18 is part of the reason. Dude played amazing defense, hit the absolute shit out of the ball, tallied 3,000 hits in his career, hit 227 homers in the decade. He was a great great player and will have his Cooperstown day in a few years.
Shortstop: Andrelton Simmons
This is one of the tougher choices. Shortstop the first 5 years outside of Tulo was a wasteland. The last 5 years have been amazing with the arrival of so many great young studs. However, Simmons played the entire decade, and mostly because of his defense he led all SS's in bWAR. Simmons can play on this team, gobble the ball up at SS, bat 9th and we'll still win 120 games.
Left Field: Alex Gordon
This sucks, left field has been a wasteland for the decade, I've seen lists with Braun and Yelich on them, but I'm going with Alex Gordon, based on his defense and he played the entire decade out there. He isn't amazing and doesn't have any stats that jump off the page. He won 7 Gold Gloves in the decade, was a 4 WAR player per season the first 5 years. Again, he may not have the biggest numbers but he has a ring and honestly he's probably the purest LF of the decade.
Center Field: Mike Trout
See above for all the reasons Trout belongs on this team. If I could use this space to make a case for Andrew McCutchen as this teams 1st outfielder off the bench. Cutch put up great numbers in the decade and just so happens to be behind the best player in the last 50 years.
Right Field: Giancarlo Stanton
Chicks dig the long ball and so do I. This is a close race between, Stanton, Bryce Harper, and Mookie Betts. I'm giving the nod to Stanton. He was 3rd in the decade in homers with 308, and that was with being hurt for large portions of different seasons. Stanton is the best pure power hitter of our time, signed the longest MLB contract ever and has an MVP award.
Designated Hitter: Nelson Cruz
Nelly lead all of MLB in homers in the decade, 346 to be exact. He started the decade in the middle of a power laden Rangers line up that went to back to back World Series, and then he ended the decade in the middle of a power laden Twins line up that made the postseason in 2019. Cruz was awesome and belongs on this team.
So here is the line up
1) Mike Trout CF 72.5 WAR
2) Jose Altuve 2B 38.5 WAR
3) Miguel Cabrera 1B 43.5 WAR
4) Nelson Cruz DH 34.3 WAR
5) Giancarlo Stanton RF 39.9 WAR
6) Adrian Beltre 3B 51 WAR
7) Buster Posey C 42.2 WAR
8) Alex Gordon LF 31.5 WAR
9) Andrelton Simmons SS 36.9 WAR
Now the rotation
The Ace: Clayton Kershaw
Kershaw is a beast, has been the most dominate regular season pitcher of the decade. He belongs on this team, 3 Cy Young awards, 2nd twice, and the MVP in 2014. That's 5 years where he has been either the #1 or #2 pitcher in the NL. He racked up 156 W's if you're into that sort of thing, plus over 2,000 K's in the decade. He truly was the ace of the decade. Only knock is the zero rings which I'm only pointing out for my own amusement.
The #2: Justin Verlander
What would a rotation be without a 2-time Cy Young winner and MVP winner as the 2nd guy to take the mound. Verlander was the absolute beast of the decade. He lead the AL in innings 3 times, and K's 4 times. For comparison in 2011 he had 24 W's 2.40 ERA 250 K's in 251 Innings as a 28 year old, 8 season later he put up 21 W's 2.58 ERA 300 K's in 223 innings. Plus all him domination in between, along with Kershaw they were the best pitchers of last 10 years, and Verlander may be the best of our generation.
The Bulldog: Madison Bumgarner
My staff isn't going to be just the 5 best pitchers of the last 10 years based on regular season numbers. I need that guy who is going to come in and be the bulldog, win you that game that needs won. Say the Wild Card game in 2014 9 innings 4 hits 0 runs 10 K's, or Wild Card game 2016 9 innings 4 hits 0 runs 6 K's. Mad-Bum truly was the bulldog of the decade, he locked it down in the 2010 World Series game 4 as a rookie, he struggled in 2012 postseason but still went 7 shutout innings vs Detroit in the World Series, then in 2014 he went full on Bob Gibson vs the Royals, 21 innings 1 run 17 K's, a complete game shutout in Game 5, plus the greatest relief appearance in World Series history in Game 7. He belongs on every all decade team, not because of his regular season stats but because he was an absolute monster when the lights were the brightest.
The Playoff Warrior: Jon Lester
Lester is another guy who doesn't have the elite numbers but you know what he's done? Pitched in the Postseason 6 times in 10 years. I want that guy on my wall, I need him on my wall. 2013 Posteseason Lester went 34 2/3 innings 6 earned runs and 29 K's for Boston, then in 2016 35 2/3 innings 8 earned runs and 30 K's helping the Cubs get their ring. The dude is a gamer and I want that type of dude on this team.
The Youngin: Jacob deGrom
Want a funny story, Jacob deGrom is older than Mad-Bum, he just debuted 5 years after him, so his innings are much less. Since debuting in 2015 all deGrom has done is, win Rookies of the Year and 2 Cy Youngs, while sporting a 2.62 ERA and racking up 1255 K's in 1100 innings, he is awesome. deGrom has come so far in just 5 years and to be considered one of the greats of the decade is amazing.
The Closer: Craig Kimbrel
He was an absolute shutdown pitcher for 9 of the 10 years, since debuting in 2010 Kimbrel had a career WAR over 20, until 2019 brought him back down with a negative .5 WAR. He lead the NL in saves 4 years in a row. Never had a season below 13 K/9, and has only 1 season where he's given up at 1 hit per inning, again the debacle that was 2019. Kimbrel to me gets the edge as our 9th inning guy.
The Set-Up Man: Sergio Romo
In a game dominated by velocity, Romo has done it differently. He has rode his slider to be the best set up man of the last 10 years. Sergio has done every job in the bullpen, set up man, closer, and even opener, but he was dominate in the 8th inning for a few years, and when I think of the 8th inning guy, he's the dude I think of.
The Relief Ace: Andrew Miller
The Relief Ace is next great thing in baseball, many teams are trying to copy what Andrew Miller did in the middle of the decade for the Yankees and Indians. Starting in 2014 Miller put up ERAs of 2.02 2.04, 1.45, and 1.44 and over 60 innings in all 4 seasons, coming out of the bullpen. He dominated his innings for 4 straight seasons.
That's it, that's the team. It took me a while to put this one together and it may not be perfect but it's what I think would make a great team. There are plenty of guys not mentioned but hey sometimes guys come up at the wrong time. Feel free to yell at me about my homer picks and my blatant disregard for the Cubs, except for that one guy. Let me know your all decade team on twitter @derekbredeson, comment on here or comment on the Facebook link, catch ya next week with some NASCAR decade talk.
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