Comish's Challenge Results

Eight owners participated in the first ever Commissioner's Challenge, a tournament of sorts were the league was asked to create the best team possible using any combination of players.  I asked for 16 names per team - 9 person lineup with a DH, 4 starting pitchers, and 3 relievers.

To fill out the roster I gave every team the same back-ups:

• Switch Hitting Jorge Posada at catcher (.262 / .333 / .364)
• Justin Verlander as a 5th starter (set to skip) and long reliever (3.60 ERA, 1.24 WHIP)
• Porter Charleston as a long reliever (3.20 ERA, 1.06 WHIP)
• Steve Howe as a back-up lefty specialist (2.56 ERA, 1.04 WHIP)
• And Jeff Gray as a back-up righty specialist (2.74 ERA, 0.94 WHIP)
• (All stats above from the 500 resims)

Incredibly, no two owners featured the same exact lineup.  Some notes:

• Only Barry Bonds and Babe Ruth were unanimous choices; and only Bonds was a unanimous choice to play the field as Ruth was both a DH and Right Fielder
• 6 of 8 owners chose: George Brett over 2nd choice John McGraw, Oscar Charleston over Mickey Mantle, and Willie Wells over Honus Wagner
• Three different Catchers, First Basemen, and Second Basemen were selected:  Mickey Cochrane, King Kelly, and Bill Dickey; Buck Leonard, Jimmie Foxx, and Lou Gehrig; and Eddie Collins, Ross Barnes, and Fred Dunlap
• Right Field was the most difficult choice with four different possibilities:  Ruth, Larry Walker, Stan Musial, and Joe Jackson.

To crown a champion a ran 30 sims and compiled the results:

Congrats Mike S who narrowly bested Justin P for the best team.  Mike went with a lineup of:

Ted Williams (DH)

Babe Ruth (RF)

Oscar Charleston (CF)

Barry Bonds (LF)

Lou Gehrig (1B)

Fred Dunlap (2B)

George Brett (3B)

Willie Wells (SS)

Bill Dickey ('C)

His rotation was Pedro Martinez, Greg Maddux, Nip Winters, and Randy Johnson.  The relievers were Dennis Eckersley, Mariano Rivera, and Gabe White

Justin had a similalr roster, countering with Ross Barnes at second and King Kelly at catcher.  Dunlap had 20 points of OPS on Barnes while Dickey had 30 points on Kelly.  That appeared to be the difference.

Some other interesting debates:

• Randy Johnson bested Walter Johnson (5.76 ERA vs 6.57)
• Red Ryan bested Mariano Rivera (4.47 vs. 4.72)
• Nip Winters bested Addie Joss and Christy Mathewson (5.67 vs. 6.30 and 8.16)
• George Brett bested John McGraw (.795 OPS vs .685)
• Oscar Charleston over Mickey Mantle (.964 vs .884)
• Willie Wells over Honus Wagner (.819 vs. 774)

Here's a file with all the team by team details.

Thanks for participating.  Congrats Mike! 

I'll do this again in a few weeks with some alternate ideas (No 30+ HR guys on a roster or something similar in nature).