While we here at Redleg Nation have been doing some simulations of the 2020 season with the help of Strat-O-Matic on a daily basis, the folks over at MLB.com were doing something a little bit different with their simulations. They created a team for each franchise made up of the best player seasons from each franchise. Then they used Out of the Park Baseball’s simulation to have a “playoff” between all of the franchises. The Cincinnati Reds and New York Yankees All-Time rosters advanced to the championship and it went a full seven games. Before diving into how everything played out, let’s take a look at the roster for the Reds:
Position Players |
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| Starters | Bench | ||
| C | Johnny Bench | C | Ernie Lombardi |
| 1B | Joey Votto | 1B | Tony Perez |
| 2B | Joe Morgan | MIF | Dave Concepcion |
| 3B | Pete Rose | OF | Adam Dunn |
| SS | Barry Larkin | OF | Jay Bruce |
| LF | George Foster | OF | Vada Pinson |
| CF | Eric Davis | ||
| RF | Frank Robinson | ||
| DH | Ted Kluszewski | ||
Pitchers |
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| Starters | Relievers | ||
| SP | Tom Seaver | RP | Aroldis Chapman |
| SP | Jim Maloney | RP | Randy Myers |
| SP | Mario Soto | RP | Norm Charlton |
| SP | Jose Rijo | RP | Rob Dibble |
| RP | Don Gullett | ||
| RP | John Franco | ||
| RP | Johnny Cueto | ||
That’s a pretty strong roster and one that includes seven Hall of Famers, and a guy who would have been an eighth if he didn’t get kicked out of the game of baseball. It probably has a future Hall of Famer or two on it as well (Votto and perhaps Chapman depending on the next few years).
How the Reds advanced to the finals
In the first round the Cincinnati Reds needed seven games to defeat the Washington Nationals. They advanced to the “Sweet 16” to face off against the Pirates and they needed just six games to beat Pittsburgh. In the “Elite 8” of the tournament saw Cincinnati defeat the Cardinals in a seven game series. The Dodgers were the semifinal opponent and the Reds needed just six games to advance to the championship. Against the Yankees, the Reds took it to game seven, but New York put it away with ease in the final game winning 11-6. You can check out the details of the entire bracket here if you’d like to.
How the Reds players performed
Unfortunately no one at MLB or Out of the Park published the stats for the entire playoff. And they only published the box scores in an image format, so you can’t even copy and paste the box score data into excel and try to compile it yourself. Fortunately for you, I’m a big idiot and I really wanted to know how the Reds players performed. So I spent nearly 90 minutes last night looking at each box score image and inputting it into excel and compiling the stats myself. And now I’m going to share them with you. Enjoy.
Reds Dream Series Hitting Stats
Frank Robinson led the offense, cracking nine home runs and leading the team with a .941 OPS. Joey Votto was the only other hitter to top an .850 OPS, while both Barry Larkin and Pete Rose topped the .800 OPS mark. Joe Morgan, Eric Davis, and Larkin had plenty of success on the bases during the playoffs.
Jay Bruce was on the team and never appeared in a game. The same can be said for Vada Pinson. Dave Conception appeared in three games, but never recorded a plate appearance.
Reds Dream Series Pitching Stats
Jose Rijo was dominant, going 5-1 while throwing 47.0 innings with a 2.11 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP. Don Gullett and Rob Dibble were dominant out of the bullpen, posting a 1.65 and 1.23 ERA respectively in their combined 31.0 innings of relief. On the opposite end of the spectrum, John Franco and Norm Charlton were crushed.
Next, they are having the 64 best squads of all time. I believe they are talking about, for example, 76 Reds, 84 Tigers, 89 A’s, etc. I haven’t seen which teams they are having. I would think the Reds would have at least one in there.
I can see that one being the ’27 Yankees and the ’76 Reds.
Thanks for doing that Doug. It’s very interesting. Looks like our pitching held up against the HOF opponent pitchers after all. I’m the sure the reason is that they took the average of the best three years from each player. There’s been a lot of players play like HOFers for two or three years. This is definitely my favorite team of all time. I still don’t understand why Ken Griffey Jr. was not on it though at least on the bench. There were several players playing on more than one team e.g. Babe Ruth. Having him could have made the difference.
Every now and then I go to Reds.com and click on the stats for 76. What a team!
I watched the stream of several of the games of the finals, and the manager decisions were terrible for the Reds. It almost seemed like it was predetermined to have the Yankees win. Kluszewski started every game at DH against mostly LH starters and Perez never got an AB. I’m not sure that Klu even got a hit. They left the starter and relievers in far too long in game 7 when they were getting shelled and went to Franco and Charlton instead of Myers and Gullet.
Agree. Even the announcers had the script of how it would play out with commentary too good to be real time.
This is what is wrong with allowing the software to manage a game. The least effective relief pitchers were used in the most important part of the tournament. Charlton walked 4 consecutive batters leading to the huge inning for the Yankees. No way anyone would allow the pitcher to be in that long in such an important game.
They (MLB/Out of the Park) aren’t entirely clear how the rosters were made. All it says is that “the rosters were put together by MLB”. Who or how they did so, it’s tough to say.
He never got into a game. I went game by game and input each box score.
Article has been updated to include Pinson on the roster.
Lets just revel in the glory that our beloved Redlegs are the NL all time greatest team and that it took the almighty Yankees 7 games to win the championship. I have had this argument over the years with several of my sports friends. It was fun to watch it play out in a computerized format.
The software manager was terrible with pitching changes.
It seemed to leave a Reds pitcher in until the stamina number got to a specific level for the Reds regardless of what was occurring in the game.
Votto led the tournament in RBIs, Morgan Led in Stolen Bases (Eric Davis was 2nd), Rose got a hit in the last 10 games, Bench threw out almost everyone whom tried to steal a base. The Reds offense had the highest runs per game going into the finals.
It was entertaining but disappointing finish
It was a great series and in all honesty nobody could ever beat the Yankees all time roster they’re just to loaded. Being a reds fan as a child because I caught and wore number five, Bench being my favorite player. Living in the tri state area and being a Yankees fan it was great to watch this simulated series with all the flashbacks and history of two of the oldest most prestigious organizations in MLB.
GO YANKS and thanks for Paul O’Niel. ?
If Sparky Anderson has been managing that seventh game, Charlton would have been pulled after the second walk if not the first. No manager in that situation would allow his pitcher to walk four straight batters.
Interesting that Junior didn’t make it. I assume they chose based on average achievement while a Red only.
Did both teams play Chapman?
Nothing against Charlton but he did not belong on the roster. Pinson should have been in some of the games. Foster didn’t hit. Agree about Perez should have been DH vs. LHP.
Seaver should not have been on the team as he was also on the Mets team as well he should have been. A guy like Bucky Walters should have been on the roster over Seaver. And many relievers should have been on the team over Charlton.
All in all it was still fun to follow. But I think we all knew in the end the Yankees would not be allowed to loose.