If you ask somebody with only a very peripheral level of knowledge about Major League Baseball which franchise’s greatest players would create the best all-time team, most would say the New York Yankees. If you asked a casual fan the same question, most would say the New York Yankees. Most of you are probably saying the New York Yankees. I would like to speculate that you are wrong.

Without question, the New York Yankees are the most accomplished team in the history of major American professional baseball. The Yankees have won 27 World Series championships–the next three teams in the rankings have won a combined 29. They’ve also lost the second-most World Series championships, a staggering accomplishment given how often they won titles once they reached the Fall Classic. Their lore and the list of amazing players to have donned their legendary pinstripes is unprecedented. But this is the answer to a different question, though I may have been unclear about my question. My question is if you pitted all-time teams together, who would have the best chance of winning a single game.

The New York Yankees can field a staggering lineup of all-time greats: their all-time Wins Above Replacement leaders at six of the eight positions on the diamond are inner-circle Hall of Famers (Lou Gehrig, Derek Jeter, Mickey Mantle, and Babe Ruth made it to Cooperstown on their first ballots; inexplicably, Yogi Berra had to wait until his second time and Joe DiMaggio had to wait until his fourth), and a seventh would be a first-ballot Hall of Famer if not for factors not related to his production (Alex Rodriguez). The eighth is Willie Randolph, a clear step down from the rest of the group, but a five-time All-Star over thirteen very productive seasons in the Bronx. But the key term here is single game.

The Yankees, for all of their many, many strengths, have relatively pedestrian high-end starting pitchers. To be clear, any team in Major League history would die to have their five best all-time pitchers as its rotation, but if we’re talking about the greatest pitchers in the history of a franchise, the Yankees are somewhere mediocre, especially since for one game, we’re functionally talking about one great starter. By FanGraphs WAR accumulated with one team, the highest ranking Yankee is Andy Pettitte, who ranks 24th. Don’t get me wrong–Andy Pettitte was a terrific pitcher, one I believe should be in the Hall of Fame (he received 11.3% of the vote last year, though this is at least somewhat informed by his admission of steroid use), but he is not an all-time great among all-time greats. Which provoked my hypothesis that the St. Louis Cardinals might be the best all-time team.

The entire argument for this falls on the right arm of Bob Gibson, undisputably a more accomplished pitcher than the likes of Andy Pettitte, Whitey Ford, or any other Yankee starter (I’m not including Roger Clemens, who was a Yankee and who was great as a Yankee but whose greatness was found primarily elsewhere). The Cardinals arguably only have advantages at two positions–pitcher and second base–but pitcher is of massive importance in baseball, particularly if we are talking about one game in which you get to throw your ace. The Cardinals also have a neatly assembled group of players–by FanGraphs WAR, you can construct a nine-man lineup out of the franchise’s ten greatest players, and by Baseball Reference, you can do it with the top nine exactly.

Perhaps the most entertaining thing to me about this hypothetical is that, since baseball is incredibly weird, I don’t know that any all-time team would be an overwhelming favorite against any other. The Yankees, who have been to the World Series 40 times, would certainly be single-game favorites over the Seattle Mariners, who have been to the World Series zero times, but the Mariners would still be able to throw Felix Hernandez and fit the likes of Ken Griffey Jr., Edgar Martinez, and Ichiro Suzuki into their lineup. The Miami Marlins have a largely lackluster history, but they could still put Hanley Ramirez at shortstop and Giancarlo Stanton in the outfield.

Every single all-time team in the history of the sport would be the best team in Major League Baseball today. Think of it this way–the Houston Astros have been bad more times than good throughout their history and have a losing record as a franchise. They are also arguably the best team in baseball today. They could functionally take their current-day lineup but then also sprinkle in Jeff Bagwell. They could have to choose between Craig Biggio or Jose Altuve. I wouldn’t pick this team to beat the Yankees, but it wouldn’t be astonishing either.

This thought exercise was heavily influenced by Matt Snyder at CBS Sports, who is unveiling his all-time teams for every MLB franchise. They’re a fun read and I recommend them. And truthfully, I think his teams capture the spirit of a franchise’s all-time team better than what I am about to unveil. He also definitely put more work into it, because I kept my all-time teams strictly mathematical. Somewhat inspired by the JAWS system of evaluating Hall of Fame candidates, I looked at a player’s (FanGraphs, primarily because it’s easier to sort) WAR with a team and supplemented that by re-adding his best five years (JAWS uses seven) with that team. The second step doesn’t impact as many results as you might think, but it does allow some bonus for higher peaks. I stuck by positionality allowed by the FanGraphs leaderboards and was strict about this, with the exception of the outfield, where I required each team to have at least one true center fielder. If there had been a case where there were two center fielders, both of whom were defensive wizards, and thus putting one in a corner spot would severely diminish their value, I might have had to re-think allowing multiple center fielders in certain cases. Luckily, this never came to pass.

These team does not allow for duplicates, hence why Alex Rodriguez isn’t the shortstop on the all-time Mariners team–in cases where a player would qualify for multiple teams, he went to the franchise where he accumulated more fWAR (there are a few cases–see “Mariners shortstop” again–where a player was more successful with another franchise, but he didn’t qualify for that franchise’s team, so he went to the lesser team). Franchises include previous incarnations (the Twins get the 1901-1960 Washington Senators, the Nationals get the Montreal Expos, etc.). Because this is a mathematical exercise, I will not be explaining my picks below–I arranged batting orders mostly for my own amusement and based on sabermetric lineup construction. Each lineup includes the eight non-pitcher positions, three starting pitchers (while one will be the “true” starting pitcher, I am at least granting them a bullpen), and a reliever. No designated hitters are included here, though DHs are permitted to play at positions where they did play in the field–my approach functionally assumes they would have been terrible fielders (which is probably a fair assumption), but if they had the bat to make up for it, God bless them (see “Red Sox first baseman”).

Atlanta Braves

2B	Ross Barnes
3B	Eddie Mathews
LF	Dale Murphy
RF	Hank Aaron
C	Brian McCann
CF	Andruw Jones
1B	Fred Tenney
SS	Herman Long
SP	Greg Maddux
SP2	Kid Nichols
SP3	John Smoltz
RP	Craig Kimbrel

Miami Marlins

CF	Christian Yelich
LF	Miguel Cabrera
3B	Mike Lowell
RF	Giancarlo Stanton
SS	Hanley Ramirez
1B	Jeff Conine
2B	Luis Castillo
C	Charles Johnson
SP	Josh Johnson
SP2	Ricky Nolasco
SP3	Dontrelle Willis
RP	Steve Cishek

New York Mets

RF	Darryl Strawberry
3B	David Wright
CF	Carlos Beltran
C	Mike Piazza
1B	Keith Hernandez
LF	Cleon Jones
2B	Edgardo Alfonzo
SS	Jose Reyes
SP	Tom Seaver
SP2	Dwight Gooden
SP3	Jerry Koosman
RP	John Franco

Philadelphia Phillies

RF	Ed Delahanty
1B	Dick Allen
2B	Chase Utley
3B	Mike Schmidt
LF	Sherry Magee
C	Darren Daulton
CF	Richie Ashburn
SS	Jimmy Rollins
SP	Steve Carlton
SP2	Robin Roberts
SP3	Pete Alexander
RP	Ron Reed

Washington Nationals

LF	Tim Raines
3B	Anthony Rendon
CF	Andre Dawson
RF	Vladimir Guerrero
C	Gary Carter
1B	Ryan Zimmerman
2B	Jose Vidro
SS	Ian Desmond
SP	Steve Rogers
SP2	Max Scherzer
SP3	Stephen Strasburg
RP	Ugueth Urbina

Chicago Cubs

1B	Cap Anson
RF	Sammy Sosa
LF	Billy Williams
CF	Hack Wilson
3B	Ron Santo
C	Gabby Hartnett
SS	Ernie Banks
2B	Ryne Sandberg
SP	Fergie Jenkins
SP2	Bill Hutchison
SP3	Rick Reuschel
RP	Bruce Sutter

Cincinnati Reds

2B	Joe Morgan
1B	Joey Votto
3B	Tony Perez
RF	Frank Robinson
LF	Pete Rose
C	Johnny Bench
CF	Vada Pinson
SS	Barry Larkin
SP	Paul Derringer
SP2	Noodles Hahn
SP3	Eppa Rixey
RP	Rob Dibble

Milwaukee Brewers

3B	Paul Molitor
1B	Cecil Cooper
CF	Gorman Thomas
LF	Ryan Braun
SS	Robin Yount
RF	Geoff Jenkins
C	Jonathan Lucroy
2B	Rickie Weeks
SP	Ben Sheets
SP2	Teddy Higuera
SP3	Chris Bosio
RP	Dan Plesac

Pittsburgh Pirates

LF	Paul Waner
SS	Honus Wagner
RF	Roberto Clemente
1B	Willie Stargell
CF	Max Carey
C	Jason Kendall
3B	Tommy Leach
2B	Bill Mazeroski
SP	Bob Friend
SP2	Babe Adams
SP3	Wilbur Cooper
RP	Kent Tekulve

St. Louis Cardinals

2B	Rogers Hornsby
1B	Albert Pujols
CF	Jim Edmonds
LF	Stan Musial
RF	Enos Slaughter
3B	Ken Boyer
C	Yadier Molina
SS	Ozzie Smith
SP	Bob Gibson
SP2	Adam Wainwright
SP3	Dizzy Dean
RP	Lindy McDaniel

Arizona Diamondbacks

2B	Ketel Marte
1B	Paul Goldschmidt
RF	Steve Finley
LF	Luis Gonzalez
CF	A.J. Pollock
C	Miguel Montero
SS	Stephen Drew
3B	Craig Counsell
SP	Randy Johnson
SP2	Brandon Webb
SP3	Curt Schilling
RP	Byung-Hyun Kim

Colorado Rockies

RF	Larry Walker
1B	Todd Helton
SS	Troy Tulowitzki
3B	Nolan Arenado
CF	Charlie Blackmon
LF	Carlos Gonzalez
2B	D.J. LeMahieu
C	Jeff Reed
SP	Ubaldo Jimenez
SP2	Aaron Cook
SP3	Jeff Francis
RP	Brian Fuentes

Los Angeles Dodgers

2B	Jackie Robinson
RF	Dixie Walker
3B	Ron Cey
CF	Duke Snider
LF	Zack Wheat
C	Roy Campanella
1B	Gil Hodges
SS	Pee Wee Reese
SP	Clayton Kershaw
SP2	Sandy Koufax
SP3	Don Sutton
RP	Kenley Jansen

San Diego Padres

C	Gene Tenace
RF	Tony Gwynn
CF	Dave Winfield
1B	Adrian Gonzalez
LF	Brian Giles
3B	Chase Headley
2B	Bip Roberts
SS	Khalil Greene
SP	Jake Peavy
SP2	Randy Jones
SP3	Andy Benes
RP	Trevor Hoffman

San Francisco Giants

RF	Mel Ott
CF	Willie Mays
1B	Willie McCovey
LF	Barry Bonds
C	Buster Posey
3B	George Davis
2B	Larry Doyle
SS	Travis Jackson
SP	Christy Mathewson
SP2	Juan Marichal
SP3	Carl Hubbell
RP	Robb Nen

Baltimore Orioles

RF	Ken Williams
1B	George Sisler
SS	Cal Ripken
LF	Boog Powell
C	Chris Hoiles
3B	Brooks Robinson
2B	Brian Roberts
CF	Paul Blair
SP	Jim Palmer
SP2	Mike Mussina
SP3	Urban Shocker
RP	Gregg Olson

Boston Red Sox

3B	Wade Boggs
LF	Ted Williams
SS	Nomar Garciaparra
1B	David Ortiz
CF	Fred Lynn
RF	Carl Yastrzemski
C	Carlton Fisk
2B	Bobby Doerr
SP	Roger Clemens
SP2	Pedro Martinez
SP3	Cy Young
RP	Jonathan Papelbon

New York Yankees

LF	Mickey Mantle
1B	Lou Gehrig
3B	Alex Rodriguez
RF	Babe Ruth
CF	Joe DiMaggio
C	Yogi Berra
SS	Derek Jeter
2B	Willie Randolph
SP	Andy Pettitte
SP2	Whitey Ford
SP3	Ron Guidry
RP	Mariano Rivera

Tampa Bay Rays

2B	Ben Zobrist
3B	Evan Longoria
RF	B.J. Upton
1B	Carlos Pena
LF	Carl Crawford
SS	Julio Lugo
CF	Kevin Kiermaier
C	Jose Molina
SP	James Shields
SP2	David Price
SP3	Chris Archer
RP	Jake McGee

Toronto Blue Jays

RF	Jose Bautista
3B	Josh Donaldson
LF	Jesse Barfield
1B	Carlos Delgado
2B	Roberto Alomar
SS	Tony Fernandez
CF	Lloyd Moseby
C	Ernie Whitt
SP	Roy Halladay
SP2	Dave Stieb
SP3	Jimmy Key
RP	Tom Henke

Chicago White Sox

2B	Eddie Collins
RF	Joe Jackson
LF	Minnie Minoso
1B	Frank Thomas
CF	Fielder Jones
3B	Robin Ventura
SS	Luke Appling
C	Sherm Lollar
SP	Ed Walsh
SP2	Red Faber
SP3	Billy Pierce
RP	Keith Foulke

Cleveland Indians

2B	Nap Lajoie
RF	Tris Speaker
3B	Al Rosen
1B	Jim Thome
CF	Larry Doby
LF	Earl Averill
SS	Lou Boudreau
C	Victor Martinez
SP	Bob Feller
SP2	Sam McDowell
SP3	Mel Harder
RP	Doug Jones

Detroit Tigers

CF	Ty Cobb
LF	Harry Heilmann
RF	Al Kaline
1B	Hank Greenberg
2B	Charlie Gehringer
3B	George Kell
C	Bill Freehan
SS	Alan Trammell
SP	Hal Newhouser
SP2	Mickey Lolich
SP3	Justin Verlander
RP	John Hiller

Kansas City Royals

RF	Amos Otis
3B	George Brett
C	Darrell Porter
1B	John Mayberry
LF	Alex Gordon
CF	Willie Wilson
2B	Frank White
SS	Freddie Patek
SP	Kevin Appier
SP2	Bret Saberhagen
SP3	Mark Gubicza
RP	Dan Quisenberry

Minnesota Twins

2B	Rod Carew
LF	Goose Goslin
RF	Kirby Puckett
3B	Harmon Killebrew
C	Joe Mauer
SS	Joe Cronin
1B	Joe Judge
CF	Sam Rice
SP	Walter Johnson
SP2	Bert Blyleven
SP3	Jim Kaat
RP	Joe Nathan

Houston Astros

RF	Lance Berkman
3B	Alex Bregman
SS	Carlos Correa
1B	Jeff Bagwell
CF	Cesar Cedeno
LF	Jose Cruz
2B	Craig Biggio
C	Jason Castro
SP	Roy Oswalt
SP2	J.R. Richard
SP3	Shane Reynolds
RP	Billy Wagner

Los Angeles Angels

LF	Brian Downing
CF	Mike Trout
2B	Bobby Grich
RF	Tim Salmon
SS	Jim Fregosi
3B	Chone Figgins
1B	Darin Erstad
C	Bob Boone
SP	Nolan Ryan
SP2	Chuck Finley
SP3	Mike Witt
RP	Francisco Rodriguez

Oakland Athletics

LF	Rickey Henderson
CF	Al Simmons
RF	Reggie Jackson
1B	Jimmie Foxx
C	Mickey Cochrane
3B	Sal Bando
2B	Max Bishop
SS	Bert Campaneris
SP	Lefty Grove
SP2	Eddie Plank
SP3	Rube Waddell
RP	Dennis Eckersley

Seattle Mariners

1B	Alvin Davis
3B	Edgar Martinez
2B	Robinson Cano
CF	Ken Griffey Jr.
LF	Mike Cameron
RF	Ichiro Suzuki
C	Dan Wilson
SS	Omar Vizquel
SP	Felix Hernandez
SP2	Jamie Moyer
SP3	Mike Moore
RP	Arthur Rhodes

Texas Rangers

LF	Frank Howard
CF	Josh Hamilton
RF	Juan Gonzalez
1B	Rafael Palmeiro
3B	Buddy Bell
SS	Toby Harrah
2B	Ian Kinsler
C	Ivan Rodriguez
SP	Kenny Rogers
SP2	Kevin Brown
SP3	Charlie Hough
RP	Francisco Cordero

So now the question is what to make of all of this information. Do we pick a lineup that sounds good and just roll with it? Is there a mathematical approach? You could do the former. I chose to do the latter…to a certain point. But also, with a lack of baseball season to occupy my time, my imagination is starting to run wild. I want to find a mathematical answer. But I want to use that mathematical answer to envision chaos.

Check back at STLbullpen.com for “Which MLB franchise has the greatest all-time team? (Part 2)”.