Best MLB players in Backyard Baseball 2001

In the previous post I showed you the rosters and set it up: Backyard kids vs. pros

Now here is the decision about the pro team… we have 31 potential players (more than an active roster) so let’s start with the easy cuts and an explanation:

Alex Gonzales: I feel bad doing this just the day before his birthday! With a 5 batting ranking and a 6 fielding ranking we have much better options. He does bring some speed but that isn’t redeeming enough.

Carlos Beltran: Hey, he’s still playing and collecting money! His batting stat of 5 isn’t high enough. He’s well-rounded but in this case we need specialists

Jeromy Burnitz and Marty Cardova: They were in this game! I had no idea… anyway they won’t be in this game.

Backyard Baseball - is a sports arcade game, released in 1997. As can be understood from the name, the project is dedicated to baseball. And specially designed for children - colorful cartoon graphics supplied as a simple arcade gameplay. Pete Wheeler is a recurring playable character in the'Backyard Sports' series. He is notable for his physical speed, yet mental slowness. Pete is shown to have orange hair. He is relatively tall, and wears a white pullover. Stephanie Morgan is a discontinued and recently returned character in the Backyard Sports series. Stephanie is a fast-talking baseball fanatic. On title cards during the player select screen, she often rambles through a long train of thought (in Backyard Soccer she got to paper vs. Plastic shopping bags before suddenly losing herself in the conversation). In the later Backyard Sports games.

Now we need to think about pitching.

It really comes down to three people: Curt Shilling, Randy Johnson and … SURPRISE Frank Thomas!

Each one has a 10 rating in pitching. For a game like this you want at least two pitchers so Frank Thomas makes the roster with his 7 batting and since Curt has a 8 fielding, 6 running and 5 batting (compared to Randy’s 3, 5, 5) we will keep Curt and cut the Big Unit.

On the team: Curt Shilling, Frank Thomas

I want our pitchers to be our worst hitters so anybody with a batting rating of 7 or lower is out: Barry Larkin, Ivan Rodriguez (NO, not Pudge!), Jason Giambi, Jason Kendall, Jeff Bagwell, and Kenny Lofton (A surprise considering I normally had him on my team)

That leaves 18 players left for 7 spots. We need to start making big cuts, so anybody with a fielding ranking of less than 5 has got to go: Jose Canseco and Shawn Green… wait that can’t be right! You mean that Mark McGuire and Mo Vaughn were good fielders? Nope, they are cut. I’m also cutting Valdimir Guerrerro since he was with the Expos.

13 players for 7 slots!

Since we have been focusing on hitting let’s take everyone with a 10 batting ranking: Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa.

Hmm: You mean Barry Bonds didn’t get a 10? Must have calculated these things before the ‘roids but he and Ken Griffey Jr. should be in

Since we now have a surplus of outfielders let’s cut a bunch from the list: Juan Gonzales, Larry Walker, Raul Monesi and Tony Gwynn (underrated in this game)

3 slots for 5 players and it comes down to the infield. I’ll eliminate Alex Rodriguez since he only has a 7 batting rating (9 fielding but we have some guys with 10 fielding). I’ll eliminate Chipper Jones since I want a strong infield in fielding and he is an 8 (others are 10s).

So the list of players:
Frank Thomas
Curt Shilling
Mark McGuire
Sammy Sosa.
Barry Bonds
Ken Griffey Jr.
Cal Ripken Jr.
Derek Jeter
Nomar Garciapparra

So let’s deal with positions: I’m going to have Shilling start on the mound since his in-game experience should help him last awhile (Frank Thomas can come in for relief and we would move Curt to the outfield). I want Big Mac at first (position he has experience with) and Griffey at center (best fielding OF we have). I’ll put Bonds in Left and Sosa in right.

We have a big problem at catcher… since we cut Pudge (NO! Why did we do that?) we don’t have a good catcher. Luckily since we are playing with Backyard baseball rules we don’t have to worry much about catching so we will put Frank Thomas behind the plate.

For the infield: I always worry about Nomar’s arm so he will be at second, Cal played a lot of third so he will go there and Jeter will be at short.

Batting order:

Barry Bonds LF: with a 10 running rating he is our best option to lead off
Derek Jeter SS: 9 running and 8 batting with experience hitting out of the two hole
Sammy Sosa RF: Bringing the power
Mark McGuire 1B: Bringing the pain
Frank Thomas C: This is the slow part of the lineup, I don’t want really fast people to be hampered by the Big Hurt and Big Mac
Curt Shilling P: I don’t always think it’s a good idea to bat the pitcher 9, I would rather have guys on base for the top of the order
Ken Griffey Jr. CF: This is almost like a second lead-off spot and I trust that Ken can handle this
Nomar Garciapparra 2B: I think hitting behind Ken will be good and Nomah will be able to move him over
Cal Ripken Jr. (3B): I don’t think Cal will be disappointed with this ranking, he might have the smallest ego on this team and so he’ll bat last

Here is the post about the Backyard team