Field your best team

[Jeffy25]

I think the gap between Utley and whoever the next best second basemen is is larger than the gap between Halladay and the rest of the top tier pitchers.

I agree. Utley is essentially alone in second basemen.

[dickay]

*sigh*....Hill is so underrated.

don't get me wrong, utley is great. if Hill continues to perform at the same level he did last year though...the gap isn't that big.

[metsguy234]

I agree. Utley is essentially alone in second basemen.

Nick Punto!

[Tannhauser]

C: Joe Mauer (Minnesota Twins)
1B: Albert Pujols (St. Louis Cardinals)
2B: Chase Utley (Philadelphia Phillies)
3B: David Wright (New York Mets)
SS: Hanley Ramirez (Florida Marlins)
LF: Ryan Braun (Milwaukee Brewers)
CF: Grady Sizemore (Cleveland Indians)
RF: Andre Ethier (Los Angeles Dodgers)

Bench: Carl Crawford (Tampa Bay Rays)
Bench: Josh Hamilton (Texas Rangers)
Bench: Aaron Hill (Toronto Blue Jays)
Bench: Brian McCann (Atlanta Braves)
Bench: Troy Tulowitzki (Colorado Rockies)

SP: Zach Greinke (Kansas City Royals)
SP: Felix Hernandez (Seattle Mariners)
SP: Tim Lincecum (San Francisco Giants)
SP: Justin Verlander (Detroit Tigers)
SP: Brandon Webb (Arizona Diamondbacks)

CL: Mariano Rivera (New York Yankees)
RP: Andrew Bailey (Oakland Athletics)
RP: Heath Bell (San Diego Padres)
RP: Ryan Dempster (Chicago Cubs)
RP: John Papelbon (Boston Red Sox)
RP: Scott Shields (Anaheim Angels)

Others:
Nick Markakis (Baltimore Orioles)
Andrew McCutchen (Pittsburgh Pirates)
Roy Oswalt (Houston Astros)
Jake Peavy (Chicago White Sox)
Edinson Volquez (Cincinnati Reds)
Ryan Zimmerman (Washington Nationals)

---

In terms of second basemen, I really like Aaron Hill and Dustin Pedroia a lot. They're not comparable to Chase Utley, but they're excellent second basemen if you really wanted to go for Roy Halladay instead of Utley. Though personally, I prefer my five current listed starters over Halladay.

[Jeffy25]

*sigh*....Hill is so underrated.

don't get me wrong, utley is great. if Hill continues to perform at the same level he did last year though...the gap isn't that big.

7-8 WAR Player much > 4 WAR player.

Especially when the 7 WAR player has been consistent, while the 4 War has 2 seasons, non consecutive of that success.

Hill is great, most teams would be lucky to have him. But Utley is significantly greater.

[HoustonGM]

well...i think halladay over your lester pick is much more significant upgrade than utley over hill. though admittedly thats assuming hill has a 2010 closer to his 09 performance than his 08.

I'm not seeing it. Utley is a top 3 player in the NL, let alone just second basemen. Aaron Hill isn't close to that caliber.

Let's look at three different WAR figures - Rally/Chone, FanGraphs, and BP - 08/09 (I'll substitute Aaron Hill's 2007 instead of his 2008 since he missed most of the season with a concussion).

Utley: 14.3 (6.6/7.7), 15.7 (8.1, 7.6), 15.5 (7.5, 8)
Hill: 10.6 (5.2/5.4), 7.8 (3.6, 4.2), 10.6 (5.9, 4.7)

Lester: 11.2 (5.6/5.6), 11.3 (5.1, 6.2), 10.8 (5, 5.8)
Halladay: 13.3 (6.5/6.8), 14.7 (7.4, 7.3), 13.2 (6, 7.2)

Utley's advantage: 3.7, 7.9, 4.9 (Average 5.5)
Halladay's advantage: 2.1, 3.4, 2.4 (Average 2.6)

Point is really, though, that Utley is far and away the best second basemen in the majors. There's nobody close. Halladay is obviously among the top pitchers with an argument for being the best, but there is no clear top pitcher. A case can easily be made for multiple guys. Starting a team with Chase Utley at 2B gives you a sizable advantage over every other team in the league. The same can't be said for starting a team with Roy Halladay at SP.

[Jeffy25]

There are some questionables obviously that people placed.

Picking Lee over King Felix? That's a questionable but still justifiable choice.

Wright or Johan?

Fielder or Braun? Well Fielder is out because of his position I assume.

What do you do about the Astros? Berkman, Lee, Oswalt, Wandy?

Angels, Red Sox, Yankees, all hard choices.

I felt like it would be fun to see how people voted.

[HoustonGM]

Wright or Johan?

I think Wright is the easy pick there

Fielder or Braun? Well Fielder is out because of his position I assume.

Yep.

What do you do about the Astros? Berkman, Lee, Oswalt, Wandy?

The Astros were the hardest for me because none of the players are really attractive picks going forward (I did this with the mindset of I'm starting this team and going forward from there so I tried to balance long term and short term). I ended up just waiting until the end and seeing where I needed someone and figured Wandy would be a good reliever/backup starter. :\

[Tannhauser]

Since we've seemed to ignore the DH, who would be the top choice to DH?

[HoustonGM]

Who would be the top choice to DH?

I put Adam Lind on my team.

[metsguy234]

Someone rate my picks.

[HoustonGM]

Someone rate my picks.

Hell no- metsguy, you're crazy

[Jeffy25]

Hill has to be starting 2B so that Halladay can get into rotation. Despite Papelbons struggles last year, he's as consistent a closer out there not named Rivera so I think he has to be the closer and is the smartest Red Sox pick.

spoken like a biased Red Sox's fan

Just saying from our convo, I can think of several other closers quite similar.

[Tannhauser]

I'd honestly take my starting five over Halladay. :P Plus, how can you not take Utley?

As for relievers, most of them are quite similar and I only picked Mariano Rivera for my team as the closer because I love him more than love any other Yankee. The other option really for the Yankees would be Sabathia or A-Rod . . . or maybe Granderson. As a result, Mo it is!