San Francisco Giants

Catchers & Infielders:

• C – Buster Posey (1B)
• C – Buck Ewing (IF/CF/RF)
• 1B – Bill Terry
• 2B – Jeff Kent (1B)
• SS – Travis Jackson (3B)
• 3B – Mel Ott (RF)
• CI – Will Clark (1B)
• CI – Freddie Lindstrom (3B/LF/CF)

Outfielders: 

• LF – Barry Bonds
• CF – Willie Mays
• RF – Willie McCovey (1B/LF)
• OF – Orlando Cepeda
• OF – Kevin Mitchell (SS/3B/LF/RF)
• CF – Bobby Bonds (RF)

Starting Pitchers:

• SP – Christy Mathewson
• SP – Juan Marichal
• SP – Mickey Welch
• SP – Carl Hubbell
• SP – Joe McGinnity
• SP – Jesse Barnes

With every team, we started building their all-time 25-man and 40-man rosters by using the Hall of Fame as a starting point, figuring that a player enshrined in baseball’s immortal Hall would certainly qualify to make his team’s all-time roster.

Almost all the Hall of Fame members are easily identifiable with one team so it’s a simple way to start every roster with near-inarguable selections. There are a few brilliant players who made significant contributions to multiple teams, and it’s our job to decide where they made the biggest impact.

San Francisco has to fight for Barry Bonds, Jeff Kent, and Matt Williams.

Barry Bonds

Pittsburgh: 7 seasons, 2-time All-Star, 2-time MVP, 50.3 WAR, .275 AVG, 672 Runs, 556 RBI, 176 HR, 251 SB

San Francisco: 15 seasons, 12-time All-Star, 5-time MVP, 112.5 WAR, .312 AVG, 1555 runs, 1996 RBI, 263 SB

Jeff Kent

New York Mets: 5 seasons, 0 All-Star, 0 MVP, 8.4 WAR, .279 AVG, 244 Runs, 267 RBI, 67 HR, 12 SB

San Francisco: 6 seasons, 3-time All-Star, 1 MVP, 31.6 WAR, .297 AVG, 570 Runs, 689 RBI, 175 HR, 57 SB

L.A. Dodgers: 4 seasons, 1 All-Star, 0 MVPs, 6.8 WAR, .291 AVG, 281 Runs, 311 RBI, 75 HR, 8 SB

Matt Williams

San Francisco: 10 seasons, 4-time All-Star, 0 MVPs, 34.1 WAR, .264 AVG, 594 Runs, 732 RBI, 247 HR, 29 SB

Arizona: 6 seasons, 1 All-Star, 0 MVP, 8.3 WAR, .278 AVG, 317 Runs, 381 RBI, 99 HR, 12 SB + 1 World Series Title

Well, it’s two homers and a curveball. Bonds and Kent definitely belong with the Giants, and Matt Williams totals say so too.

Because of the century-plus of New York/San Francisco Giants baseball and the fact we are looking at the best consecutive three years of a player’s career, Williams faces incredible competition for at-bats at third or first base with the Giants. Looking at OPS, he is surpassed by Bill Terry (1B), Willie McCovey (1B), Mel Ott (3B), Jeff Kent (1B), Will Clark (1B), and Kevin Mitchell (3B).

Even though I agree Matt Williams is more Giant than Diamondback, he’d be the third-string third baseman for San Francisco, and the starting 3B for Arizona. It helps the overall league more to have him starting in the desert than buried on the Bay.

As with every team, we are trying to build an active roster with 13 position players and 12 pitchers, and then a 15-player inactive roster of guys who just missed the cut, but remain valuable as callups in case of slumps or injuries.

The 13 active position players are usually two catchers, six infielders, and five outfielders. The stats are built around the average of the player’s best three consecutive seasons.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame gives us a more than half of the San Francisco roster. Cooperstown gives the Giants Buck Ewing, Bill Terry, Travis Jackson, Mel Ott, Freddie Lindstrom, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Christy Mathewson, Juan Marichal, Mickey Welch, Carl Hubbell, Joe McGinnity, Gaylord Perry, Rube Marquard, Amos Rusie, Tim Keefe, Roger Bresnahan, George Davis, Ross Youngs, Jim O’Rourke, Roger Connor, and John Ward.

With 22 players coming from Cooperstown, WAR (Wins Above Replacement), a great stat for looking at the all-around contribution to a team for both hitters and pitchers, can help us find the rest.

We get lots of help here, as in order we find: Barry Bonds, Larry Doyle, Mike Tiernan, Art Fletcher, Buster Posey, Bobby Bonds, Frankie Frisch, George Burns, Will Clark, Art Devlin, and Robby Thompson.

Shorter but exceptional Giants careers from Jeff Kent, Kevin Mitchell, Orlando Cepeda, Bobby Thomson, and Roger Bresnahan put them on our radar too.

Once plugged into the simulation software, we looked at their OPS (on-base + slugging percentage) and their defensive rankings and they break down like this:

CATCHER: Buster Posey, Bob Ewing
FIRST BASE: Bill Terry, Will Clark
SECOND BASE: Jeff Kent
SHORTSTOP: Travis Jackson, Kevin Mitchell (sometimes)
THIRD BASE: Mel Ott, Freddie Lindstrom
LEFT FIELD: Barry Bonds, Kevin Mitchell (sometimes)
CENTER FIELD: Willie Mays
RIGHT FIELD: Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda

Kevin Mitchell and his 36 homers are going to get some time at SHORTSTOP because it’s hard to crack an outfield of Bonds-Mays-McCovey.

That leaves inactive roster options for Pablo Sandoval, Larry Doyle, George Davis, Roger Bresnahan, Roger Connor, Ross Youngs, John Ward, Bobby Bonds, and Jim O’Rourke.

How deep are the Giants? They have six Hall of Famers on their INACTIVE roster…

For the pitching staff we’re looking for six starters and six relievers. Bear in mind that across the whole game you will see dynamic, outstanding starting pitchers that can’t crack an all-time rotation but are better served as relievers on a team than sitting inactive.

Hall of Fame pitchers automatically belong on the roster so we have nine slots reserved for Christy Mathewson, Juan Marichal, Mickey Welch, Carl Hubbell, Joe McGinnity, Gaylord Perry, Rube Marquard, Tim Keefe, and Amos Rusie.

With 32 players on the total roster we have room for 8 more pitchers. Once we dug into the career WAR rankings (as Giants) we came up with: Madison Bumgarner, Johnny Antonelli, Matt Cain, Jim Barr, Hooks Wiltse, and Hal Schumacher. Dominant relievers that bear consideration include Rod Beck, Sal “The Barber” Maglie, Gary Lavelle, and Brian Wilson.

And even though his Giants career wasn’t very long, the short-term brilliance of Tim Lincecum bears consideration as well.

We looked at their overall numbers in the simulation software and leaned heavily on ERA to come up with these designations:

STARTING ROTATION: Christy Mathewson, Juan Marichal, Mickey Welch, Carl Hubbell, Joe McGinnity, and Gaylord Perry
RELIEVERS: Sergio Romo, Jesse Barnes, Tim Keefe, Madison Bumgarner
SET-UP: Gary Lavelle
CLOSER: Rod Beck

How good is this pitching staff? The entire six-man rotation and two long relievers are from the Hall of Fame. The inactive pitcher options are Johnny Antonelli, Gaylord Perry, Rube Marquard, Gregg Minton, Tim Lincecum, and Amos Rusie.

So how did we do?

Would you switch up the rotation at all?

Are comfortable with part-time SHORTSTOP Kevin Mitchell?

How do you think Will Clark, Barry Bonds, and Jeff Kent are gonna get along?

Let us know in the forums below and if you make a compelling case we will adapt it in-game. We want every squad to be the best they possibly can be and appreciate your help fine-tuning the Giants for Eternal Baseball.

Photo Credits:

• Giants Stadium by Harold Litwiler