The fine gentlemen of MLB FanHouse had a good roundtable going in which they asked the question: if you were building a team and had your choice of one pitcher and one hitter to start with, who would they be? There’s obviously no right or wrong answer, and there’s several different factors to take into account. Is your goal to win a World Series this year? Do you just want to make the playoffs for the next several years? Do you want to win a World Series in five years? Are you choosing marketable players that can be good team icons and put asses in seats? There’s a lot of different directions to go here, and since this question intrigued me so much that I asked a bunch of people who they’d choose, I felt it was about bleeping time I posed it here. So there’s the question: which hitter and which pitcher would you select to start your team with? I’ll tell you my choices.
If I were building a team, I’d start with Josh Beckett and Albert Pujols. I’m not saying Beckett’s always the best pitcher in the game nor a guy that’s going to post Cy Young numbers year-in and year-out. But Beckett has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that he is the best post-season pitcher in the game, no questions asked. For as much as he gets hit around during the regular season, he shows his best stuff and elevates his game to unhittable during the playoffs. I figure I can scrap together enough Paul Byrds and Carlos Silvas to keep me afloat in the regular season, and then I’ll have Beckett to one-up me in every playoff series. He’s the ultimate hammer in the playoffs, and I’d want him on my squad more than any other pitcher, more than the Johan Santanas and Jake Peavys who are consistently better during the regular season.
As for hitters, I still consider Albert Pujols the best in the game. He’s still young, and he’s performed at a nearly unprecedented level through the first seven years of his career. The only time he fell off the wagon was last year because of injuries, most notably his elbow. Man, if he can OPS me 1.000 with a bum elbow, imagine what he’ll do when he gets that bad boy fixed. Pujols is consistently the top hitter in the game and single-handedly makes a lineup more productive than any other hitter in baseball. He plays just fine at first base and can even move on the bases. And every single year, he quietly puts up outstanding numbers.
I don’t need to go young to start my team and hope a 22 or 23-year-old will become what these guys already are. These guys are both young at only 28-years-old. They each have at least three-four years of peak performance ahead of them, if not much more. I’ll take these two studs and take my chances. Moreover, I’ll take Beckett and Pujols and see you in the World Series, thank you very much.
