All-time "Baseball Stars" team

[FlyingArrow]

Wow - pretty dead forum over here.

Anyway, Matt Snyder over at CBSSports.com is going through each team and doing an all-time team based on the format of the old "Baseball Stars" video game. Starters, 5 bench players, 4 SP, 1 reliever. 6-character names for the players. He hasn't gotten to the Reds yet, but here's my attempt.

C: Bench
1B: Votto
2B: Morgan
SS: Larkin
3B: Perez
LF: Rose
CF: Eric Davis
RF: Frank Robinson

The starters were pretty easy, actually. The flexibility to move Perez and Rose around helps a lot to fit in everyone you need to fit in. Eric Davis in center is probably the place of greatest debate. Snyder didn't say whether he's allowing players to be on multiple teams - Robinson already made the Orioles all-time team. If it's only one team per player, Frank Robinson would need to be replaced, but he had more years in Cincinnati anyway, so he belongs here.

Then the bench. Big Klu and Ernie Lombardi are the easy choices here. Really tempting to take Bid McPhee. Hard to go back to the 1800s for a player, but he played 18 years with the Reds and is a Hall of Famer. But as a defensive specialist (still with a good bat for his position), he's competing with Concepcion for the utility infielder slot. Davey gets the nod largely due to recency bias. Both Griffeys have a case here. Jr had a couple better years but was hurt so much that their overall contributions to the Reds are about equal. But the outfield spots go to Vada Pinson and George Foster.

It's amazing how great the batters are compared to how the Reds have basically zero all-time great pitchers.

Starting pitchers
Bucky Walters
Jose Rijo
Johnny Cueto
Joe Nuxhall

The Old Left-hander definitely gets a boost for being a franchise legend, and he doesn't need that much of a boost. He is top 10 in wins, top 15 in pitching WAR, #4 in games pitched, #3 in strikeouts. Add in his legendary status and he's in. The top 4 in pitching WAR are all from before 1950: Noodles Hahn, Eppa Rixey, Dolf Luque, and Bucky Walters. Ewell Blackwell shined just as bright as the others but had a shorter career (6 All-Star games, though). Walters makes it for being a bit more recent than the others and for leading the Reds to the 1940 World Series championship. Johnny Vander Meer was a 4x All-Star and is almost (but not quite) worth taking just for the no-hitters.

Maloney, Soto, Rijo, Cueto, and Seaver are the only pitchers in the past 50 years in the discussion. Seaver is already on the Mets' team, and unlike Frank Robinson, I'm not going to add him here. He has a case for inclusion here, too, but he only had a few years with the Reds and there are other options (whereas Frank Robinson is head and shoulders above the other options). I'm taking Rijo and Cueto.

Plenty of options at closer. Lots of players have had 4 or 5 good years, but Aroldis Chapman is the choice here.

Lineup:

Rose LF
Morgan 2B
Votto 1B
FrankR RF
Bench C
EricD CF
Perez 3B
Larkin SS

Bench: BigKlu (Ted Kluszewski), Davey (Dave Concepcion), (George) Foster, Ernie (Lombardi), Vada (Pinson)
Rotation: Bucky, Rijo, Cueto, Nuxhll
Closer: Arolds

[FlyingArrow]

He posted his today:

===
Pete, 3B
Morgan, 2B
Votto, 1B
Frank, RF
Foster, LF
Bench, C
ED, CF
Larkin, SS
SP: Seaver, Rijo, Jim M, Lefty
RP: Dibble

Bench: Ernie (Lombardi) serves as our backup catcher. Tony (Perez), Vada (Pinson), Dave (Concepcion) and Griff (you decide which Griffey it is) round us out.
===

Obviously pretty similar to what I have above, especially considering the fact that there's no debate on more than half the starting lineup. In the starting lineup, he took Foster over Perez by moving Rose to the infield. Dibble over Aroldis. And he took Seaver and Maloney over Cueto and Bucky Walters. On the bench he took both Griffeys (bit of a copout) over Kluszewski.