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 | Phillies | Pirates | Rangers | Rays | Red Sox | Reds | Rockies | Royals | Tigers
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 | Joe Mauer | 35.7 |
| 1B | Bob Allison | 43.9 |
| 2B | Ossie Bluege | 32.3 |
| SS | Cecil Travis | 34.5 |
| 3B | Kent Hrbek | 42 |
| LF | Clyde Milan | 45.1 |
| CF | Kirby Puckett | 49.4 |
| RF | Tony Oliva | 48.6 |
| SP | Walter Johnson | 127.7 |
| SP | Brad Radke | 41.4 |
| SP | Scott Baker | 14.5 |
| SP | Jim Shaw | 14.2 |
| SP | Connie Marrero | 10.5 |
| CL | Brian Duensing | 4.6 |
| RP | Glen Perkins | 3.1 |
| RP | Ray Corbin | 2.8 |
| RP | Darrell Jackson | 2.7 |
| RP | Jose Mijares | 2.6 |
| BENCH (OF) | Buddy Lewis | 33.1 |
| BENCH (1B) | Justin Morneau | 20.5 |
| BENCH (OF) | Michael Cuddyer | 14.6 |
| BENCH (IF) | John Castino | 14.2 |
| BENCH (2B) | Ray Morgan | 14.1 |
| BENCH (OF) | Denard Span | 12.2 |
| BENCH (SP) | Francisco Liriano | 8.3 |
| TOTAL | 672.6 |
Conclusion
Team Established: 1901
Total Team WAR: 672.6
Total WAR Rank: 5/30 teams
Mr. Twin: N/A. Walter Johnson only has 19% of the total team WAR.
Team MVP: Walter Johnson, 127.7 WAR.
Number of Active Players: 9. This is the same as the average for all true teams.
Free Agent: Michael Cuddyer. Cuddyer is the proud father of new twins, so it's basically a given that he stays with the team. Also, the Twins have offered him a contract so that helps too.
Players That Just Missed (90% of Career on Team): Sam Rice (96% of PA, 58 WAR in WSH), Harmon Killebrew (96% of PA, 78.5 WAR in WSH, MIN), Joe Judge (97% of PA, 52.8 WAR in WSH)
The Twins True Team is helped along by the Washington Senators franchise. Nine of the players on this team come from the Senators, including seven in the starting lineup.
Also, in order to get the best lineup set, I had to switch Allison to first base and Hrbek to third. Allison only played first and the outfield and each of the outfield spots was already filled.
Believe it or not, Hrbek played third base for one inning on August 1st, 1990. Randy Bush pinch hit for SS Greg Gagne in the eighth and apparently Tom Kelly didn't have any more short stops available on the bench. Al Newman moved from third base to short and Hrbek took over for Newman at third. The very first play of the inning was a bunt single down the third base line. Newman committed two errors in the inning, but Hrbek successfully converted both his chances. The Twins lost the game 11-5.
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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