90s All-Decade Team (you decide)

[bucher34]

Don't know if there are any threads of this, but the 90s had some great players, however, the decade also has a negative label. I grew up watching 90s baseball and I'm sure many of you on this forum did as well so I thought I'd do sort of a fun, time-wasting, boredom-curing activity.

These are most likely the most notable offensive players of the decade of the 90s. You don't have to use these if you don't want (meaning you can use whoever else comes to mind), but make an all decade team for the offense (with DH) and 4 or 5 bench spots.

Barry Bonds
Frank Thomas
Jeff Bagwell
Mike Piazza
Ken Griffey Jr.
Craig Biggio
Roberto Alomar
Barry Larkin
Mark McGwire
Cal Ripken Jr.
Albert Belle
Sammy Sosa
Juan Gonzalez
Jose Canseco
Rafael Palmeiro
Fred McGriff
Matt Williams
Ivan Rodriguez
Terry Steinbach
Tony Gwynn
Edgar Martinez
Mark Grace
Chuck Knoblauch
Robin Ventura
Mo Vaughn
David Justice
Kenny Lofton
Larry Walker
Raul Mondesi
Bernie Williams
Jay Buhner
John Olerud
Andres Galarraga
Cecil Fielder
Tino Martinez
Paul O'Neill
Gary Sheffield

[HoustonGM]

I'll get around to it later.

[TheNamelessPoet]

C Piazza
1B Frank Thomas
2B Biggio
3B Chipper Jones
SS Larkin
LF Bonds
CF Griffey (I mean COME ON!!!) (tho lofton has a special place in my heart for some reason still nothing compared to "The Kid"
RF Gwynn (and its not even close)
DH I guess Pure DH Edgar gets it Tho Fat Mo DH'd for a few I think

Backup catcher by FAR Pudge
Crime Dog
Oleroud
Lofton
Sheffield
Roberto Alomar



Thomas because he was just so FEARED, tho Bagwell could have been in the mix with

[bucher34]

C Piazza
1B Frank Thomas
2B Biggio
3B Chipper Jones
SS Ripken I guess but I have not the foggiest
LF Bonds
CF Griffey (I mean COME ON!!!) (tho lofton has a special place in my heart for some reason still nothing compared to "The Kid"
RF Gwynn (and its not even close)
DH I guess Pure DH Edgar gets it Tho Fat Mo DH'd for a few I think

Thomas because he was just so FEARED, tho Bagwell could have been in the mix with

You can add 4 or 5 bench spots.

[bucher34]

C: Mike Piazza
1B: Mark Grace
2B: Roberto Alomar
3B: Matt Williams
SS: Barry Larkin
LF: Barry Bonds
CF: Ken Griffey Jr.
RF: Tony Gwynn
DH: Frank Thomas

Bench:
C: Pudge Rodriguez
1B: Jeff Bagwell
2B/OF: Craig Biggio
3B/SS: Cal Ripken Jr.
OF: Albert Belle
OF/DH: Juan Gonzalez

[TheNamelessPoet]

ok updated

after looking Alomar is a HAIR behind Biggio and I just HAD to put larkin in ahead of Cal

[TheNamelessPoet]

I thought abour williams but (and im sure homerisem played into it) I had to Put Chipper ahead of him. he just brought more to the table.

[bucher34]

Some other young guns of the 90s (played in basically the latter half of the 90s and after) -- Manny, A-Rod, Jeter, Nomar, Ray Durham

Some of the "old guns" of the 90s (played in basically the early half of the 90s and before) -- Kirby Puckett, Joe Carter, Ozzie Smith, Ryne Sandberg

[ragecage]

C - Ivan Rodriguez

I pick him over Piazza is because though Pudge didnt have the power numbers over Piazza, but did bat .298 or better from 1994-1999, also won the MVP in '99 with awesome numbers. (.332 AVG 35 HR 113 RBI), and with those great offensive numbers he won gold gloves from 1992-1999 which that right there makes him the best Catcher in the 90's. Piazza didnt win a gold glove in the 90's and had only one MVP award. Pudge only has one as well, but look at all those gold gloves.

1B - Frank Thomas

This is tough because there are so many quality first baseman. Theres McGwire, Bagwell, and Rafeal Palmeiro, but none of these guys really took the league by storm like Frank Thomas did. He also stayed healthy in most of the 90's with the exception of 1999. Big Frank batted over .300 every year in the 90's with the exception of 1998. Hit over 30 homers in 6 of those years and also drove in over 100 runs in 8 of those seasons. Perhaps though the most eyepopping stat is he had a .400+ OBP every year except 1998 and an OBP of .450+ in 6 seasons.

2B - Roberto Alomar

Craig Biggio is really the only player who can even come close to Alomar in the 90's. Its really not even close though. Alomar won gold gloves from 91-96, and 98 and 99. Alomar also batted over .300 in 7 of the 10 years in the 90's.

3B - Matt Williams/Wade Boggs Push

I couldnt pick one or the other. Williams has 4 GG, Boggs only has 2. Both players were often injured during the 98 and 99 season, but the numbers both put up were extraordinary. Williams was raw power but only batted .300 in the 90's 3 times to Boggs 7. Also 2 of those seasons Williams hit over .300 he only played 76 Games (1995) and 102 Games (1996), Boggs also missed plenty of time when he batted .300 in 1999. You really couldnt go wrong with either one of these guys imo.

SS - Barry Larkin

Nobody comes close.

LF - Barry Bonds

Is this even debatable?

CF - Ken Griffey Jr.

Pretty Easy pick as well. Kirby Puckett could be right there if his career didnt end early in 1995.

RF - Larry Walker

There was a lot of good players like Vlad, Winfield, Gwynn, with the exception of Tony Gwynn, a lot of the great RF's started or ended their respective careers in the mid 90's. Larry Walker however was the best RF that played the entire decade. What he has what Gwynn doesnt is power and Glove, winning 5 GG to Gwynns 2 in the 90's and Walker also won the 1997 MVP and Gwynn has never won MVP.

[HoustonGM]

I'm watching some MLB Network right now with Hot Stove, Prime 9, and then a HoF show, but I'm looking forward to really digging into this myself. I grew up in the 90's (more so the late 90's) so these are the players that I really grew up around. I've recently downloaded Dan Rosenheck's own WARP numbers (a member at Baseball Think Factory) so I'm going to dig deep into his WARP, BP's WARP and VORP, and the rest of the statistics to make my choices.

[ragecage]

I tried putting some deep thought into my list, I really tried to include players that played the majority of the 90's, hope it descent.

[ragecage]

I'm watching some MLB Network right now with Hot Stove, Prime 9, and then a HoF show, but I'm looking forward to really digging into this myself. I grew up in the 90's (more so the late 90's) so these are the players that I really grew up around. I've recently downloaded Dan Rosenheck's own WARP numbers (a member at Baseball Think Factory) so I'm going to dig deep into his WARP, BP's WARP and VORP, and the rest of the statistics to make my choices.

I am looking forward to your list.

[HoustonGM]

I really tried to include players that played the majority of the 90's, hope it descent.

I'm going to as well. For me, I'm thinking of it as "Which players at each position gave their teams the most value over the 1990-1999 span?"

[metsguy234]

I'm watching some MLB Network right now with Hot Stove, Prime 9, and then a HoF show, but I'm looking forward to really digging into this myself. I grew up in the 90's (more so the late 90's) so these are the players that I really grew up around. I've recently downloaded Dan Rosenheck's own WARP numbers (a member at Baseball Think Factory) so I'm going to dig deep into his WARP, BP's WARP and VORP, and the rest of the statistics to make my choices.

I'm going to make an even more comprehensive list. And unlike HGM, I'll be using Rob Neyer's VLORP ZoneX Score Factor as well for my list.

[KowboyKoop]

I'm going to make an even more comprehensive list. And unlike HGM, I'll be using Rob Neyer's VLORP ZoneX Score Factor as well for my list.

Your list will be the players who led their position in batting average in 1996.