Offense Only: The All-SOB Team vs. The High Sox All Stars

Yesterday, the Yankee blogosphere saw two “All” teams announced. Here at TYU, our very own Steve S threw together the All-SOB Team. Occasional contributor and author of This Purist Bleeds Pinstripes Rebecca Glass formed the High Sox All Stars.

Both teams have incredible lineups: Steve’s features Hall of Fame players Cap Anson and Ty Cobb, with other future Hall of Famers like Jeff Kent and Barry Bonds in there as well. Slugger Albert Belle is no slouch at DH, either.

Rebecca’s team has some great hitters, too: Ichiro, Johnny Damon, Miguel Cabrera, Alex Rodriguez, David Wright…That’s pretty damn formidable.

Since no such thing, to my knowledge, exists for pitchers, I’m going to do an offense only projection using the Lineup Analysis Tool from Baseball Musings. If you don’t know how it works, you punch in the players’ names, their OBPs and SLGs, and the tool spits out the R/G and best possible lineups for each squad. Obviously, I’ll be using their career numbers.

The High Sox would average 5.74 runs per game, with the best possible lineup (5.782 R/G) as this:
1. Ichiro
2. Rodriguez
3. Kinsler
4. Cabrera
5. Wright
6. Snyder
7. Bartlett
8. Damon
9. Gardner

The top-heavy All-SOBs would average 5.779 R/G, with the best lineup (6.095) being:
1. Cobb
2. Bonds
3. Kent
4. Anson
5. Belle
6. Pierzynski
7. Bradley
8. Everett
9. Bowa

So, these teams are incredibly evenly matched on offense, with a slight edge going to the SOBs. It looks as if this theoretical match up would come down to pitching. The High Sox pitching staff features some of today’s best–Josh Johnson, Tim Lincecum, and Ubaldo Jimenez–while the SOBs are fronted by two Hall of Famers–Steve Carlton and Juan Marichal—with two other future HOFers–Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson–in reserve.

If it could happen, this game/series would be absolutely epic. Someone with an account for What If Sports make this game happen!

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