Crowded outfield: A fine second-team outfield from Pittsburgh would be manned by Hall of Famers Paul Waner and Willie Stargell and current star Andrew McCutcheon. And not only are the Pirates deep out there, but Arky Vaughn (7.55) would have qualified as the shortstop on 26 of the 30 teams, but he wasn’t able to unseat Wagner. The Flying Dutchman: Wagner owns four of the top five single-season WAR years in Pirates history – a team that has been around for 135 years. And it’s not just numbers. Give “Glory of Their Times,” a read sometime and see how revered Wagner was among players in his era. Pitch out: Maybe this is common knowledge and I somehow missed it, but I was stunned to see that not a single pitcher who spent the bulk of his career with Pittsburgh has been elected to the Hall of Fame. The closes thing to it Pittsburgh can claim is Pud Galvin, who threw seven of his 15 seasons with Pittsburgh between 1885 and 1892 (notching just 126 of his 365 wins with the Pirates).
Crowded outfield: A fine second-team outfield from Pittsburgh would be manned by Hall of Famers Paul Waner and Willie Stargell and current star Andrew McCutcheon. And not only are the Pirates deep out there, but Arky Vaughn (7.55) would have qualified as the shortstop on 26 of the 30 teams, but he wasn’t able to unseat Wagner. The Flying Dutchman: Wagner owns four of the top five single-season WAR years in Pirates history – a team that has been around for 135 years. And it’s not just numbers. Give “Glory of Their Times,” a read sometime and see how revered Wagner was among players in his era. Pitch out: Maybe this is common knowledge and I somehow missed it, but I was stunned to see that not a single pitcher who spent the bulk of his career with Pittsburgh has been elected to the Hall of Fame. The closes thing to it Pittsburgh can claim is Pud Galvin, who threw seven of his 15 seasons with Pittsburgh between 1885 and 1892 (notching just 126 of his 365 wins with the Pirates).The Man: Take away Stan Musial’s top six years from the Cardinals and use only his second best six years and he still finishes with an average 7.02 WAR that would top the franchise’s outfielders – an impressive list that not even Enos Slaughter (5.2), Curt Flood (4.82), Ray Lankford (4.75) or Lou Brock (4.73) could crack. And this is all without losing one of his prime years because of military service in World War II. Tough crowd: Hornsby won seven batting titles, led NL position players in WAR 11 times and led the league multiple times in virtually every offensive category. A glance above shows he finished above even Stan Musial on the Cardinals’ list – and that’s with two of his top five seasons spent with other teams. Yet with these credentials, Hornsby wasn’t voted into the Hall of Fame by the baseball writers until his fifth year on the ballot, when he snuck in with 78.1 percent. Just 17.6 percent voted for him in his third year of eligibility. Lost time: Many players lost years to WWII, but few perhaps lost such a great chance at superstardom as a result as Enos Slaughter. Slaughter missed three years – his age 27, 28 and 29 seasons – to service. He finished as the MVP runner up in 1942 and was third when he came back in 1946. He’s still a Hall of Famer, but not the household name he might otherwise have been.Solid lineup: It will be difficult for anyone to crack this lineup anytime soon. No other team received such high across-the-board marks, particularly among the position players. There were some great players – nine-time All-Star Dave Concepcion (4.35), slugger George Foster (5.5), supremely talented Eric Davis (4.5) – who, frankly, didn’t come close. Call to arms: For as air-tight as Cincinnati’s all-time team is in the field, the arms are somewhat suspect. Honestly, who had ever heard of Noodles Hahn? Jim Maloney had a pair of 20-win seasons in the 1960s and was otherwise merely good, not great. He edged Jose Rijo (5.48) for the No. 2 spot. The team’s top five seasons for WAR among pitchers occurred prior to 1950, with three coming before 1890. Numbers: Pete Rose owns as many spectacular numbers as anyone in baseball. He’s the leader in hits, played in 17 All-Star games, finished in the top 10 in MVP voting 10 times and reached base a record 5,929 times. A lost gem in the bunch is that Rose played in all 162 games in 1981 when he was 41.Musical chairs: The Brewers provided the most difficulty in determining at which which position top players should be considered. Paul Molitor played a lot of third base, but he has appeared at DH more than any other player for this former-AL franchise. Robin Yount moved from shortstop to center field, winning MVPs at both spots. Don Money (3.98) had full seasons at third base and second base and saw time at shortstop. Jim Gantner moved around on the infield. Ryan Braun was a bit easier, but even he played exclusively at third base in winning Rookie of the Year honors before moving to the outfield. No. 1 mistake: B.J. Surhoff was not necessarily a draft bust, accounting for 34.4 WAR in his career and earning an All-Star nod. But imagine if Milwaukee, instead of taking Surhoff No. 1 overall, had opted for Barry Larkin (No. 4), Barry Bonds (No. 6), Rafael Palmeiro (No. 22) or even Will Clark (No. 2). Guess that’s why the Brewers are the Brewers. Name recognition: Gormon Thomas (3.28) narrowly missed a spot in the outfield, but he’s a name that screams “Brewers.” And this franchise has a lot of them. Yount, Gantner, Braun, Cooper, Higuera, Plesac… the list may not be the most impressive, but it is immediately identifiable with this franchise.Tip of the cap: Cap Anson was the franchise all-time leader in WAR, but with his final game coming in 1897 he did not qualify for our list. How different was the era in which Anson played? He won four NL batting titles, but he also hit .415, .398, .388, .371 and .362 in years in which he did NOT finish first. Of course, this set a precedent for the strangeness of the universe the Cubs have since inhabited. Remember, Sammy Sosa also didn’t lead the league with home runs seasons of 66, 64 and 63. To the Moon: Wally Moon put together a perfectly respectable career, making three All-Star teams, winning a Gold Glove and finishing fourth in MVP voting for the Dodgers in 1959. But suffice to say, Moon didn’t quite live up to the standard of those he beat out for the 1954 NL Rookie of the Year. The runner-up? Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks. No. 4? Hank Aaron. Runners-up: It’s only fitting for a franchise so synonymous with also-ran status that so much has been made of those finishing out of first. Some of the players finishing second at their spot on this team were extremely notable, starting with Hall of Famers Billy Herman (5.3) at second and Joe Tinker (4.9) at shortstop, as well as longtime fan favorite Mark Grace (4.3) at first.
