The best MLB rosters of all time (Part 4/5)

This is the penultimate entry in my weeklong series to find the best roster every Major League Baseball team can put together using the top single-season WAR figures at each position. (Thanks as always, Baseball Reference.)

You can divide (and I have divided, though more for math than for tier) the teams into five groups from a history perspective.

The first is the new and/or historically not great teams. That includes the four teams that came into existence in the 1990s and two (San Diego and Texas) that have not exactly had long runs of glory in their history.

The second is the expansion era, including the teams that came into existence in the ‘60s or ‘70s and have been good-to-very-good, but haven’t had extended runs.

The third is the teams with longer histories but not necessarily great histories, like the Reds and Pirates. Both teams have been around since the dawn of time, both have had occasional pops, but if you were drafting the best franchises in the history of baseball, they wouldn’t do that well.

The fifth are the monsters, the teams that have had dynasties or dynastic runs, who even the average person can name a player or two from.

This is the fourth group. If you pretended this was the NCAA tournament bracket, these would be the teams knocked out in the Final Four. They were good, maybe great, but they aren’t going to win it all, and five years from now, you might remember which teams these were, but you also might not.

That’s not a slight! These teams have been very good, even great. But by and large they aren’t the foundation upon which MLB is built. This is the Miss Congeniality tier of this exercise.

Catch up with the rest of the series by looking at Part 1 (Teams 25-30, plus a breakdown of how I did this), Part 2 (Teams 19-24), and Part 3 (Teams 13-18).

Here are Teams 7-12.

12. Philadelphia Phillies (cumulative WAR: 133.2)

C: Darren Daulton 1992, 6.9
1B: Dolph Camilli 1937, 6.1
2B: Chase Utley 2008, 9.0
3B: Mike Schmidt 1974, 9.7
SS: Jimmy Rollins 2007, 6.1
LF: Lefty O’Doul 1929, 7.2
CF: Lenny Dykstra 1990, 8.9
RF: Johnny Callison 1973, 8.1
DH: Mike Schmidt 1980/Mike Schmidt 1977, 8.9
SP1: Steve Carlton 1972, 12.1
SP2: Pete Alexander 1916, 11.0
SP3: Pete Alexander 1915, 10.9
SP4: Steve Carlton 1980, 10.2
SP5: Aaron Nola 2018, 10.2
RP1: Tug McGraw 1980, 4.6
RP2: Al Holland 1983, 3.3

No lie, the Phillies’ collection here might be my favorite of any team’s. There are players from the 1900s, players from the 1930s, players from the 1980s, players from the 2010s. There are Hall of Famers like Mike Schmidt, should-be Hall of Famers like Chase Utley, and guys who I actually had to look up their first name in Johnny Callison. There’s no John Kruk or Jim Thome or Ryan Howard at first base; there’s Dolph Camilli. The starting rotation is one guy appearing twice from a hundred years ago, one guy appearing twice from half-a-hundred years ago, and then boom, Aaron Nola. It’s got to be the most aesthetically pleasing group.

11. Chicago White Sox (cumulative WAR: 136.7)

C: Carlton Fisk 1990, 4.9
1B: Dick Allen 1972, 8.6
2B: Eddie Collins 1915, 9.4
3B: Pete Ward 1964, 6.3
SS: Ron Hansen 1964, 7.7
LF: Minnie Minoso 1954, 8.2
CF: Tommie Agee 1966, 6.4
RF: Adam Eaton 2016, 6.6
DH: Eddie Collins 1920, 7.9
SP1: Wilbur Wood 1971, 11.8
SP2: Eddie Cicotte 1917, 11.4
SP3: Red Faber 1921, 11.4
SP4: Ed Walsh 1912, 11.4
SP5: Ed Walsh 1910, 11.1
RP1: Rich Gossage 1975, 8.2
RP2: Wilbur Wood 1968, 5.4

The White Sox are one of only two teams (you’ll see the other Friday) with more WAR from the pitchers than the position players in this exercise, and also the only team to have the same guy appear both as a starter and a reliever — Wood relieved in 86 of his 88 outings in 1968 and then started in 42 of 44 in 1971. Honestly, as underrated players in baseball history go, it’s hard to do better than Wood — dude put up 30.0 WAR over a three-year span in 1971-1973, including three top-five Cy Young finishes and two top-10 MVP finishes. He led the league in games pitched in 1968-1969-1970, then led the league in starts in 1972-1973-1974-1975. He led in innings in 1972-1973, in wins in 1972-1973, in losses in 1975. I don’t think that I think he should have been a Hall of Famer, but I don’t know that I think that. And yet he never crested 10% in the voting. Wood being largely ignored by history ain’t fair.

10. Los Angeles Dodgers (cumulative WAR: 137.7)

C: Mike Piazza 1997, 8.7
1B: Dolph Camilli 1941, 6.8
2B: Jackie Robinson 1951, 9.7
3B: Adrian Beltre 2004, 9.6
SS: Pee Wee Reese 1949, 7.4
LF: Pedro Guerrero 1985, 8.0
CF: Duke Snider 1953, 9.2
RF: Cody Bellinger 2019, 9.1
DH: Jackie Robinson 1949, 9.3
SP1: Sandy Koufax 1963, 10.7
SP2: Dazzy Vance 1924, 10.5
SP3: Sandy Koufax 1966, 10.3
SP4: Dazzy Vance 1928, 10.1
SP5: Zack Greinke 2015, 8.9
RP1: Phil Regan 1966, 4.9
RP2: Ron Perranoski 1963, 4.5

Biggest upset here is probably zero appearances by Clayton Kershaw, right? He would have had the Nos. 7, 12, and 16 on the list if it had gone that far, but with Koufax and Vance and that ridiculous Greinke season, Kershaw doesn’t quite make it (nor do Don Drysdale or Orel Hershiser or … man, the Dodgers have had a lot of good pitchers). I also think it’s worth noting that as important as Jackie Robinson was for baseball, sports, and American history, I think it has made him underrated as an actual baseball player. Dude was so good, and considering he didn’t even debut until he was already 28, probably would have been even better.

9. Cleveland Indians (cumulative WAR: 138.1)

C: Ray Fosse 1970/Victor Martinez 2005, 5.2
1B: Jim Thome 2002, 7.4
2B: Nap Lajoie 1906, 10.0
3B: Al Rosen 1953, 10.1
SS: Lou Boudreau 1948, 10.3
LF: Albert Belle 1995/Michael Brantley 2015, 7.0
CF: Tris Speaker 1923, 9.0
RF: Joe Jackson 1912, 9.5
DH: Nap Lajoie 1910, 9.8
SP1: Gaylord Perry 1972, 10.8
SP2: Bob Feller 1946, 10.0
SP3: Stan Coveleski 1918, 9.9
SP4: Bob Feller 1940, 9.9
SP5: Bob Feller 1939, 9.2
RP1: Sid Monge 1979, 5.6
RP2: Dan Spillner 1982, 4.4

WAR is funny, because Belle was an all-timer in 1995 while Brantley was a very good player in 2015, yet they totaled the same WAR. But then you think about defense (Brantley is an average defender; Belle does own a glove) and season length (Belle’s ’95 was strike-shortened) and it starts to make sense. Still, funny that those two tied. It is a marginal surprise that for all the success the Indians have had in the last 30 years, the only modern entrants on this list are Belle, Brantley, Thome, and Martinez. Lotta good old Clevelanders out there.

T7. Oakland Athletics (cumulative WAR: 140.9)

C: Mickey Cochrane 1933, 6.2
1B: Jimmie Foxx 1932, 10.4
2B: Eddie Collins 1910, 10.5
3B: Home Run Baker 1912, 9.3
SS: Marcus Semien 2019, 8.9
LF: Rickey Henderson 1990, 9.9
CF: Bill North 1973, 7.0
RF: Reggie Jackson 1969, 9.2
DH: Eddie Collins 1909, 9.7
SP1: Rube Waddell 1904, 11.3
SP2: Lefty Grove 1930, 10.4
SP3: Lefty Grove 1931, 10.4
SP4: Jack Coombs 1910, 9.5
SP5: Lefty Grove 1932, 9.5
RP1: Jack Aker 1966, 4.6
RP2: Blake Treinen 2018, 4.1

Remember when I described the Phillies’ grouping as my favorite for one team? This is the counterargument. The A’s have only two players from the last 30 years (and one of those is a reliever) but a healthy dose of guys from pre-1940. The rest of the Oakland infield would look at Semien showing up there with some serious confusion (for reasons other than skin color, though the skin color would do a lot of work as well), and the starting rotation would largely have to realize that guys now are throwing at speeds that would make them call the witch doctor. That all said, the most notable thing about the A’s team for me is who’s not on it: Do you realize that not only does Dennis Eckersley not make the Oakland roster, he doesn’t have one of the top five reliever WAR seasons in A’s history? I’d have guessed that one wrong.

T7. Chicago Cubs (cumulative WAR: 140.9)

C: Rick Wilkins 1993, 6.6
1B: Derrek Lee 2005, 7.7
2B: Rogers Hornsby 1929, 10.4
3B: Ron Santo 1967, 9.8
SS: Ernie Banks 1959, 10.2
LF: Billy Williams 1970, 6.6
CF: Hack Wilson 1930, 7.4
RF: Sammy Sosa 2001, 10.3
DH: Ernie Banks 1958, 9.3
SP1: Pete Alexander 1920, 11.9
SP2: Dick Ellsworth 1963, 10.2
SP3: Ferguson Jenkins 1971, 10.1
SP4: Mordecai Brown 1909, 9.5
SP5: Rick Reuschel 1977, 9.5
RP1: Bruce Sutter 1977, 6.5
RP2: Bruce Sutter 1979, 4.9

The Cubs also have a pleasing mix of eras, though the team could have stopped playing in 2005, never garnered that historic World Series crown, and things would be the same. For all the success Chicago has had in recent years, it’s been a collection of very good players with few superstars, unlike the Sosa/Banks/Wilson guys of yesteryear. Meanwhile, this is the second team where Hornsby has appeared … of four. Dude was everywhere in his era, and he was a superstar every time. You’ll see more Hornsby on Friday.