Cnt Player            **OPS+** Year Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+--------+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Mel Ott              178   1938  29 NYG NL 150 652 527 116 164 23  6 36 116 118   0  47   5   2   0   8   2  0  .311  .442  .583 1.025 *59
    2 Mel Ott              178   1936  27 NYG NL 150 660 534 120 175 28  6 33 135 111   0  41   5  10   0   8   6  0  .328  .448  .588 1.036 *9
    3 Willie Mays          175   1954  23 NYG NL 151 640 565 119 195 33 13 41 110  66   0  57   2   0   7  12   8  5  .345  .411  .667 1.078 *8
    4 Rogers Hornsby       175   1927  31 NYG NL 155 684 568 133 205 32  9 26 125  86   0  38   4  26   0   0   9  0  .361  .448  .586 1.034 *4
    5 Willie Mays          174   1957  26 NYG NL 152 668 585 112 195 26 20 35  97  76  15  62   1   0   6  14  38 19  .333  .407  .626 1.033 *8
    6 Willie Mays          174   1955  24 NYG NL 152 670 580 123 185 18 13 51 127  79  13  60   4   0   7  12  24  4  .319  .400  .659 1.059 *8
    7 Mel Ott              174   1939  30 NYG NL 125 508 396  85 122 23  2 27  80 100   0  50   1  11   0   5   2  0  .308  .449  .581 1.030 *95
    8 Mel Ott              174   1932  23 NYG NL 154 673 566 119 180 30  8 38 123 100   0  39   4   3   0   0   6  0  .318  .424  .601 1.025 *9
    9 Mel Ott              171   1944  35 NYG NL 120 494 399  91 115 16  4 26  82  90   0  47   3   2   0   3   2  0  .288  .423  .544  .967 *9/5
   10 Mel Ott              168   1934  25 NYG NL 153 671 582 119 190 29 10 35 135  85   0  43   3   1   0  10   0  0  .326  .415  .591 1.006 *98
   11 Mike Donlin          167   1905  27 NYG NL 150 676 606 124 216 31 16  7  80  56   0   0   2  12   0   0  33  0  .356  .413  .495  .908 *8/7
   12 Mel Ott              165   1942  33 NYG NL 152 664 549 118 162 21  0 30  93 109   0  61   3   3   0   8   6  0  .295  .415  .497  .912 *9
   13 Mel Ott              165   1929  20 NYG NL 150 674 545 138 179 37  2 42 151 113   0  38   6  10   0   0   6  0  .328  .449  .635 1.084 *9/4
   14 Sammy Strang         165   1906  29 NYG NL 113 376 313  50 100 16  4  4  49  54   0   0   2   7   0   0  21  0  .319  .423  .435  .858 *489/7653
   15 Phil Weintraub       162   1944  36 NYG NL 104 423 361  55 114 18  9 13  77  59   0  59   0   3   0   5   0  0  .316  .412  .524  .936 *3
   16 Roger Bresnahan      162   1903  24 NYG NL 113 486 406  87 142 30  8  4  55  61   0   0   7  12   0   0  34  0  .350  .443  .493  .936 *832/759
   17 Johnny Mize          161   1942  29 NYG NL 142 607 541  97 165 25  7 26 110  60   0  39   5   1   0   8   3  0  .305  .380  .521  .901 *3
   18 Johnny Mize          160   1947  34 NYG NL 154 664 586 137 177 26  2 51 138  74   0  42   4   0   0   6   2  0  .302  .384  .614  .998 *3
   19 Ross Youngs          160   1924  27 NYG NL 133 612 526 112 187 33 12 10  74  77   0  31   3   6   0   0  11  9  .356  .441  .521  .962 *9/4
   20 Ross Youngs          159   1920  23 NYG NL 153 671 581  92 204 27 14  6  78  75   0  55   2  13   0   0  18 18  .351  .427  .477  .904 *9
   21 Mel Ott              158   1935  26 NYG NL 152 683 593 113 191 33  6 31 114  82   0  58   3   5   0   4   7  0  .322  .407  .555  .962 *95
   22 Bill Terry           158   1930  31 NYG NL 154 710 633 139 254 39 15 23 129  57   0  33   1  19   0   0   8  0  .401  .452  .619 1.071 *3
   23 Johnny Mize          156   1948  35 NYG NL 152 658 560 110 162 26  4 40 125  94   0  37   4   0   0   7   4  0  .289  .395  .564  .959 *3
   24 Bill Terry           156   1932  33 NYG NL 154 677 643 124 225 42 11 28 117  32   0  23   1   1   0   0   4  0  .350  .382  .580  .962 *3
   25 Mike Donlin          155   1908  30 NYG NL 155 654 593  71 198 26 13  6 106  23   0   0   5  33   0   0  30  0  .334  .364  .452  .816 *97

6 Responses to “New York Giants”

1. kingturtle Says:
   February 4th, 2008 at 11:48 am

   On a side note, (but having to do with Ott, Hornsby and Mays) I've had terrible insomnia lately. Instead of counting sheep, I've been trying to think of the best baseball player for each letter A to Z. After weeks of this endeavor I came up with: Aaron, Bonds, Cobb, DiMaggio, Dwight Evans, Foxx, Gehrig, Hornsby, Ibanez, Reggie Jackson, Killebrew (or Klein), Lajoie, Mays (or Mantle), Nettles, Ott, Pujols, Joe Quinn, Ruth (not Rose or ARod), Schmidt (or Speaker or Sisler), Frank Thomas, Upshaw, Vernon (or Otto Velez), Wagner (or Ted Williams), X (are there any?), Carl Yastrzemski (or Yount), Reggie Zisk (or Todd Zeile).

   Try doing it in the dark, when you cannot sleep.

2. Jgeller Says:
   February 4th, 2008 at 8:52 pm

   alot of the time, i try to think about old baseball or basketball players while trying to sleep, it works alot but sometimes i end up being awake for hours cause my mind gets too worked up

3. Andy Says:
   February 4th, 2008 at 8:54 pm

   That's weird, jgeller, I actually do the same thing. I try to think of starting lineups on World Series teams to help me get to sleep. It's actually worked like a charm for me for almost 10 years now.

4. whiz Says:
   February 13th, 2008 at 4:57 pm

   I sleep with a baseball-reference book (or my laptop to access b-r.com) next to my bed.

   Regarding the all-alphabet team, how about Buck Ewing, Monte Irvin and Arky Vaughan for E, I and V (HOFers all). He's young, but Chase Utley still might be the best U. Other alternatives (not necessarily better) are Joe Jackson and Jim Thome. (I admit I used b-r.com, my memory isn't that good.)

   There are no pitchers in the list; if you allow them there are definite upgrades: Kid Nichols and Dan Quisenberry for N and Q. Other alternatives are Eckersley, Walter Johnson, Koufax, Mathewson, Palmer/Plank, Santana, Urbina, Dazzy Vance, Cy Young and Zito/Zambrano. Maybe it's better to do two lists -- one for pitchers and one for position players.

   There doesn't appear to be a single player with an X last name, although there are plenty with a first, middle or nickname (as a search for X will show). So there are 25 letters possible, which suggests ...

   a 25-man roster, one for each letter -- but you have to have pitchers and position players in the right ratio, and subs at all positions. This brings some really hard choices: M is really bad (Mantle,Mays, Musial, Mathewson, Pedro Martinez). Other pitcher/position dilemmas are Aaron/Alexander, Johnson/Jackson and Schmidt/Santana. I started looking at this -- you need guidelines, like how many games are needed to qualify at a position.

   Using OPS+ and ERA+ as a guide, and a 100 game minimum for positions, I came up with (qualified positions in parens): Dick Allen (357), Bonds (78), Cobb (89), Dimaggio (8), Ewing (2395), Foxx (352), Gehrig (3), Hornsby (465), Isringhausen (1), Walter Johnson (1), Koufax (1), Lajoie (43), Pedro Martinez (1), Nichols (1), Ott (958), Pujols (37), Quisenberry (1), Ruth (971), Santana (1), Frank Thomas (D3), Urbina (1), Vaughan (65), Ted Williams (79), Cy Young (1), Zambrano (1). That's only 10 pitchers, but Ruth can be the 11th (an OPS+ of 122 is not too shabby). The starting lineup has Foxx at C and Ott at 3B, the rest of the IF is Gehrig/Hornsby/Vaughan, and an outfield of Williams/Bonds/Ruth. If Pujols had qualified at 3B, he would probably start there; since he doesn't, Dick Allen was chosen to back-up at 3B (he has a surprisingly strong -- to me -- OPS+ of 156). Aaron is great, but there are a lot of other OFers with much better OPS+. Not having Mantle's OPS+ of 172 was hard, but it was hard to argue with Pedro's ERA+ of 161 (and the Mick would not have cracked the starting line-up, anyway). Williams over Wagner (191 vs 150 OPS+) was an easy choice with Vaughan, being one of the few strong players for V, available at SS. There are some really good pitchers for R (Rivera) and W (Wood, Walsh), but it's hard to not have Ruth and Williams, the top 2 OPS+ players.

   I spent way too much time working on that, but it was fun.

5. Johnny Twisto Says:
   February 14th, 2008 at 3:30 pm

   I think a team like that can get away with only 10 pitchers. Most of them played on teams that had smaller staffs than that. Foxx can fill in on the mound too.

   I'd be inclined to take Wagner over Williams. A great-fielding SS who could fill in at any other position if needed. But then do you keep Vaughan as a backup SS, or get another V? I think our defense is a little rough, with Foxx catching, Ott at 3B, Hornsby, and that outfield. Dick Allen and Frank Thomas certainly aren't coming in for defense either. I guess this team can outhit and outpitch most everyone. Of course, I don't know what level of competition an imaginary team is expected to face...

6. whiz Says:
   February 15th, 2008 at 4:36 pm

   I agree, you can fiddle with this a lot, depending on what you want to emphasize. I relied heavily on OPS+ and ERA+, so fielding obviously was NOT a priority. Adding Allen was the one choice I felt most uncomfortable with. And putting Foxx at C and Ott at 3B was not ideal. But, say, Bench at C and Schmidt at 3B, means you have to drop Bonds and Santana... OK, I'll stop now!