Hey, BARB GM's! Does your team have that, you know, elusive quality....."Star Quality"?
Set the "Way Back Machine" to 2010, when Worcester GM Matt Caskey finally cashed in his core of talent and won the World Series. There was a team with a star, seemingly at every position, and their player stats in the regular season that year bear that out....
C Joe Mauer (.352, 31 HR)
1B Mark Teixeira (.303, 31 HR)
2B Robinson Cano (.320, 30 HR)
SS Hanley Ramirez (.302, 27 HR)
3B Derek Jeter (.305, 89 runs scored)
LF Delmon Young (.309, 13 HR in just 81 games)
CF Carl Crawford (.327, 116 runs scored)
RF Jason Bay (.234, 23 HR)
Every one an All-Star, and in a straightforward "Rotisserie League" where owners have the same amount of money to bid, probably impossible to achieve. But in a "keeper" league like BARB, that has a salary cap, not impossible to achieve....just difficult to sustain. Those darn players! The ones that stick around and have long careers, tend to get paid.
In thinking about this, I wondered: which BARB rosters currently have the most "Star Quality"? Keep in mind this is not the same thing as actually fielding a competitive roster that has the right balance of talent to outperform other teams, and the depth to survive the marathon of the regular season. I'm not asking who has the best team...just which team seems to collect the most "Star Quality" players? I invented a metric which essentially assigned relative value to a player based on their reputation for past performance, and then added up the value. I won't bore you with the details: suffice to say if you took a list if Top 500 Fantasy players, it would dove-tail pretty closely. Obviously, take these ratings with a grain of salt.
In reverse order....
THE BARB STAR INDEX (BY TEAM)
Arizona (71)
St. Francis (82)
AC/BC (84)
Los Angeles (94)
Central California (105)
Pottsylvania (109)
Yuma (109)
Casselton (126)
Worcester (128)
New England (134)
Sin City (135)
Frostbite Falls (158)
Brooklyn (168)
Surprisingly, while their overall number would've been higher, Yuma's relative position on this list would not be changed by the losses of C.C. Sabathia and Matt Cain. Pottsylvania, on the other hand, raised their "Star Quality" five positions by acquiring Sabathia, Berkman and Konerko. Brooklyn's lead not only reflects having three of top 15-rated players (Tulowitzki, Ellsbury and Verlander), but also the greatest number of high-ranking players.
As for Arizona, their number was low before they released Alex Rodriguez and (incredibly) sent Cliff Lee as a "player to be named". If they had somehow retained these two big names, they would've been between AC/BC and Los Angeles, at 86. Their "Star Quality" has been dimming for some time, it seems, and will need a new "supernova" of talent.
2 comments:
They won't be in Arizona next year and in predicting a change in management.
Not to talk trash, but I legitimately don't understand how Sin City is so highly regarded.
Sure Avila is a great young Catcher, and Fielder is a top 5 power...
But Wright is on a major decline, Kinsler is an injury every season, the OF is basically only Nelson Cruz, and his rotation has one sturdy player left (Cliff Lee), 2 1-season wonders (Lohse, Shields), player who you don't know what you are going to get (Wainwright), and 5 flameouts (Webb, Volquez, Harden, Happ, Zito).
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