Garlon's All-Time Franchise Project

[Garlon]

A couple years ago I released an all-time ranchise roster set for OOTP6.5. I am going to revisit the concept and re-work the rosters. I'm not sure when I will get this finished, but I may just shoot for the release of OOTP2007.

GForce has been working on a similar project.

My roster set will be different in a few key ways however:
-I am only selecting the top 25 players to represent each team.
-All players will start out as rookies.
-I will have 40 teams.

The 40 teams consist of the 30 MLB franchies, 2 squads of 1800's players, 2 squads of Negro Leaguers, a squad of Japanese greats, a Modern All-Stars team, a Wonders team (with players who don't quite make the top 25 of any other franchise, ex. Maris), and 3 more squads which I have not yet determined the nature of.

Players who played the majority of their career before 1901 are only eligible for the 1800's squads and not the MLB franchise squads. So you will see Cap Anson as a member of an 1800's team instead of the Cubs.

There will be 8 divisions of 5 teams each. Divisions will be arranged by age of franchises to promote competitive balance - (a team like the Mets who have only been around for 40 years will not have to compete in the sam division as the Yankees).

Here is the tentative divisional arrangement with inaugural season of franchise listed after each team. I have not yet decided if I will split the 8 divisions into two leagues.

Braves 1876
Cubs 1876
Reds 1882
Cardinals 1882
1800's Team # 1

Pirates 1882
Phillies 1883
Giants 1883
Dodgers 1884
Negro League Team # 1

White Sox 1901
Indians 1901
Tigers 1901
Orioles 1901
1800's Team # 2

Yankees 1901
Red Sox 1901
Athletics 1901
Twins 1901
Negro League Team # 2

Angels 1961
Rangers 1961
Astros 1962
Mets 1962
Japanese Stars

Brewers 1969
Padres 1969
Royals 1969
Nationals 1969
Wonders

Blue Jays 1977
Mariners 1977
?
?
?

Marlins 1993
Rockies 1993
D'Rays 1998
D'Backs 1998
Modern Stars

Here is a sample roster of the all-time Cubs. I will probably post a text file with my 25-man selections of all teams when I finish it and then we can debate whether or not some players are left out or should be swapped in or out or to different teams. I'm generally shooting for 16 position players and 9 pitchers per franchise. Players can only make the roster of one franchise so that there won't be any duplicate players in the league.

CUBS

c - Hartnett
1b - Grace
2b - Sandberg
3b - Santo
ss - Banks
of - Sosa
of - Bi. Williams
of - H. Wilson
c - Kling
1b - Chance
1b - Cavaretta
2b - Evers
2b - Bi. herman
3b - Hack
ss - Tinker
of - Cuyler

sp - Jenkins
sp - M. Brown
sp - Root
sp - Vaughn
sp - Reuschel
sp - Sutcliffe
sp - Bush
sp - Reulbach
cl - Sutter

[mgom27]

I'm all for it.
Maybe in the future Best Teams that would include the 2000 Diamondbacks,97 Marlins,69 Mets,05 White Sox,04 Red Sox,93 Marlins,88 Dodgers and A's,Mo showdown World Series Rosters and so on.

[plannine]

I'd put in Larry French as one of the pitchers - unless he's with the Bucs or Bums

Originally Posted by Garlon

CUBS

1b - Chance
2b - Evers
ss - Tinker

There has been long standing discussions on if these 3 are the anywhere near the 2nd or 3rd best at their positions in Cubs history.........alot depends on where Ernie (Banks) is on the chart.

Grimm instead of Chance
Dunston instead of Tinker
Beckert instead of Evers.

Hard to compare without seeing them play (Tinker Evers Chance or Grimm)
Of course some cubs fans would pick Bill Buckner...........

[Garlon]

plannine - Although I didn't mention it, I wanted to make sure that all HOF'ers make the squad of a franchise. Tinkers/Evers/Chance have to make the Cubs using that standard.

[plannine]

Originally Posted by Garlon

plannine - Although I didn't mention it, I wanted to make sure that all HOF'ers make the squad of a franchise. Tinkers/Evers/Chance have to make the Cubs using that standard.

Using that criteria, they make it. Easily.

[Splitter24]

Splitter24's Cubs rankings for 1B, 2B and 3B for anyone who started for at least 5 seasons, and played primarily for the Cubs during his career (based on a typical season):

1B
#1 Frank Chance (by far)
#2 Mark Grace
#3 Phil Cavaretta
#4 Bill Buckner
#5 Charlie Grimm
#6 Dee Fondy

The Cubs do not have a distinguished history of top-flight 1B's. If you want to include Leon Durham, put him in between Cavaretta and Buckner.

2B
#1 Ryne Sandberg
#2 (Tie)Johnny Evers or Billy Herman
#4 Glenn Beckert

The Cubs have pretty much had only 4 regular 2B's in their history. 3 are in the HOF. The difference between the 3 HOF's is not very large. There is a huge drop off to Glenn Beckert.

SS
#1 Ernie Banks (duh)
#2 Charlie Hollocher
#3 Joe Tinker
#4 Woody English
#5 Shawon Dunston
#6 Don Kessinger
#7 Ivan DeJesus

Charlie Hollocher remains one of the true mysteries of baseball. If some want to drop him off the list entirely due to his abbreviated career, that would probably be fair.