Introduction
This True Team idea is based off of a Twitter conversation with Jason Wojciechowski about True Teams. This past season, Grant Green - a prospect in the Oakland Athletics organization - was moved from shortstop to center field because his defense wasn't good enough. However, Billy Beane told Green that the purpose of this move was that Cliff Pennington was blocking him at short. I snarkily replied that "Cliff Pennington is a True Athletic. Can't move him from short."
We often hear about a player being a True Yankee, but what about the rest of the teams? I'll run through each team in alphabetical order.
Many of the players on these teams will be current players, just because they haven't had the opportunity to go elsewhere just yet. The average amount of current players per team is nine.
History
Here are the links to the previous posts in this series:
Angels | Astros | Athletics | Blue Jays | Braves | Brewers | Cardinals | Cubs | Diamondbacks | Dodgers | Giants | Indians | Mariners | Marlins | Mets | Nationals (Expos) | Orioles | Padres
Method
1. The player must have played for the team in question for their entire career, as found by the "C" column in the Franchise Encyclopedia on baseball-reference. The reason for this is simply to make the data gathering process as simple as possible. Unfortunately, this strict rule leads to the omissions of players such as Willie Mays and Hanley Ramirez.
2. Players are ranked based on fWAR for batters and rWAR for pitchers (this is based on the relative ability to gain these values. Plus, pitcher WAR is not available on Fangraphs as far back as it is on baseball-reference.)
3. Pitchers are defined as starting pitchers if they have started more than 60% their career appearances.
4. For hitters, the position they play on the All-True Team may not have been their main position in real life, but they must have played there at some point in their career.
5. If two players are similar in overall WAR, their length of career will be the deciding factor as to which one makes the team.
6. A 25-man roster will be chosen for each team. This includes a starting player for each defensive position, five starting pitchers, five relief pitchers and seven bench players. These bench players will be the seven best remaining players.
7. A Mr. Team may be chosen if their career WAR is greater than 30% of the total All-Team WAR. There will be nine Mr. Teams chosen.
Results
| Position | Player | WAR |
| C | Carlos Ruiz | 11.5 |
| 1B | Ryan Howard | 23.1 |
| 2B | Chase Utley | 50.6 |
| SS | Jimmy Rollins | 43.8 |
| 3B | Mike Schmidt | 110.6 |
| LF | John Mayberry | 2.4 |
| CF | Fred Osborn | 3.5 |
| RF | Buzz Arlett | 3 |
| SP | Charlie Ferguson | 23.9 |
| SP | Cole Hamels | 22.5 |
| SP | Larry Christenson | 9.7 |
| SP | Vance Worley | 3.3 |
| SP | Kyle Kendrick | 2.1 |
| CL | Ryan Madson | 9.3 |
| RP | Bob Miller | 8 |
| RP | Dutch Ulrich | 7.1 |
| RP | Jack Meyer | 3.5 |
| RP | Dick Mauney | 3.5 |
| BENCH (3B) | Pinky May | 11.2 |
| BENCH (1B) | Pancho Herrera | 4 |
| BENCH (C) | Walt Lerian | 2.5 |
| BENCH (IF) | Terry Harmon | 2.4 |
| BENCH (2B) | Heinie Mueller | 1.6 |
| BENCH (OF) | Ron Jones | 1.6 |
| BENCH (RP) | Orville Jorgens | 2.4 |
| TOTAL | 367.1 |
Conclusion
Team Established: 1883
Total Team WAR: 367.1
Total WAR Rank: 13/30 teams
Mr. Phillie: Mike Schmidt. Schmidt just sneaks in with 30.1% of the total team WAR.
Team MVP: Mike Schmidt, 110.6 WAR.
Number of Active Players: 9. This is the same as the average for all true teams.
Free Agents: Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Madson. Madson had supposedly signed a contract to stay with the Phillies for another five years, but the deal fell apart and the Phillies signed Jonathan Papelbon instead, leaving Madson's future with the team in doubt. Rollins has yet to sign anywhere. Madson would be replaced with Jocko Thompson (1.3 career WAR) and Rollins would be replaced with Bob Bowman (1.4 career WAR).
Players That Just Missed (90% of Career on Team): Willie Jones (93% of PA, 29.4 WAR in PHI), Granny Hamner (99% of PA, 22.2 WAR in PHI), Chris Short (97% of IP, 36 WAR in PHI)
See, sometimes it works out. Mike Schmidt is Mr. Phillie and everyone is happy. The outfield is pretty bad on this team, but there is plenty of talent on the infield, especially with the addition of Jones and Hamner.
There won't be many conclusions drawn here, but feel free to discuss this team in the comments. Anyone I missed, any surprises, any memories of specific players?
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