MLB All-Quarter Century Team voting: Who got it right — the fans or me?
The people have spoken. Great to hear from you.
Now I get to speak.
A week and a half ago, I threw out the first pitch in our MLB All-Quarter Century Team project. I did that by presenting my (cough, cough) inarguable selections for who belongs on this team — our collection of the best players at every position since the 2000 season.
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About 9 billion reader comments later, I was starting to get the impression that you didn't feel like my picks ended this debate. So I've been holding my breath as I awaited the results of the most important election of the 21st century — the All-Quarter Century Team fan voting.
Well, the voting booths are shuttered. Your votes are in, more than 12,000 of them. (Thank you!) And today we get to discuss the question that's on everyone's mind:
Who's right — me or The People?
Ha. I don't know if we settled that raging debate, actually. But I've pored over your votes. And boy, do I have questions — most notably …
What's up with all the love for A-Rod?
So let's discuss the voting — and by that I mean, let's discuss the part of that voting in which your thinking and my thinking were (shockingly) not the same.
TOP 3 IN READERS' VOTE: Beltré (29.95 percent), Alex Rodriguez (29.78), Chipper Jones (17.9)
Exit polls aren't a real thing in votes like this. But I'll admit I was well aware that right up until the final day, it looked as if A-Rod was going to beat out my top two picks, Beltré and Chipper. So … that was interesting.
I took a deep breath and read through hundreds of your thoughtful reader comments on my original column. It was a heartwarming experience. But I think it's safe to say that the general theme was: Stark, you spineless loser, anybody who would put 'a cheater' on this team has no credibility. So take a hike.
And then thousands of you still voted for Alex Freaking Rodriguez!
Yes, I put Barry Bonds on my team … and David Ortiz … and Jose Altuve … but not A-Rod. Is it OK if I point out that one of those guys served two more 'cheating' suspensions (two) than the other three combined? (You know which one!) So yeah, I deducted points for that.
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Is it OK if I also point out that I had three Hall of Fame alternatives to putting A-Rod on my team — in Beltré, Chipper and Scott Rolen — not to mention three likely future Hall of Famers, in Nolan Arenado, Manny Machado and José Ramírez? So I did what I thought I had to do.
But even after all these years, I'm still trying to figure out why America hates 'cheaters' yet still has a soft spot for A-Rod. Feel free to explain it to me!
TOP 3 IN READERS' VOTE: Posey (29.81 percent), Molina (27.41), Joe Mauer (26.0)
I have a brilliant idea for Netflix: How 'bout we lock 100 Yadi fans and 100 Buster fans in an auditorium for three hours, roll the cameras and watch them yell at each other until the blood drains out of their cheeks. I'd watch.
I had a feeling I might strike a nerve by picking Yadi as my All-Quarter Century Team catcher — but wow. When the very first reader comment on my column, from Cory S., pronounced Molina as 'seriously overrated' … and then the next 72 comments were from fans who felt the need to weigh in on that hot take … I said to myself: I can't wait to see how this vote turns out.
So now here we are. I'd like to convince myself this was practically a dead heat, with Posey eking out this duel, 3,673 votes to 3,616. But the truth is, I made my case for why it's cool to pick Yadi even though it's hard to find any set of numbers or metrics that supports that … and then nearly 73 percent of you said: Nope! Not buying that.
OK, listen up: I think Buster Posey is an easy Hall of Famer and probably the greatest catcher of his generation. But he played 11 seasons in the big leagues — and Molina played 19!
So there are no wrong answers here. I just needed to make a point, that we still don't have any metric that truly measures everything that catchers do. And you know who the No. 1 poster boy is for all that? Right you are. Yadi!
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TOP 3 IN READERS' VOTE: Ichiro (39.3 percent), Judge (37.4), Mookie Betts (11.4)
I knew this would go well. Really enjoyed this comment from loyal reader Mark S.:
'Arson Judge over Ichiro in right field should get your Hall of Fame vote revoked'
Thanks, Mark. Should I forward that to my friends in Cooperstown or just resign?
Let's review: Back in January, I wrote these words about Ichiro:
'Are we really going to find some excuse not to make this man the first unanimous position player in the history of Hall of Fame voting? Yikes. It's embarrassing.'
So yes, I noticed that Ichiro was good at baseball. But why can't more than one thing be true? Why can't I acknowledge Ichiro's greatness and still make a point that Aaron Judge is Babe Ruth, that he's the best right-handed hitter of the last 100 years and that he should be the right fielder on this team?
And the answer is: I can. And I did. I didn't expect this vote to be even this close. And I'm not renouncing my Hall of Fame vote. But thanks for the kind words!
TOP 3 IN READERS' VOTE: Ohtani (45.6 percent), Ortiz (37.6), Jim Thome (6.2)
I made it clear in my first column that it pained me to leave Ohtani off my team — and that if it were up to me, we should really just invent a position for him. I believe 'DH/ace/superhero/international man of mystery' was the working title.
A lot of goodwill that bought me. Timothy N. called that logic 'pure baloney.' Then there were the sympathetic words of 'Anonymous U.,' who told me: 'You are nuts.'
Now, I've said and written a gazillion times that Ohtani is the most talented human ever to play baseball. If you think there was any shot he wouldn't be on the final, complete roster of this team when we release it, I have a private, totally empty freeway in Los Angeles that I'd like to sell you.
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I was always going to find some way to get Shohei onto this team.
But he's still a spectacular work in progress — and 'only' eight years into his career. Whereas Ortiz already has a plaque in Cooperstown, after a 14-year career spent redefining the arc of the Red Sox, one of the most storied franchises in the sport.
Also, since it came up in the comments, let's mention this: The commissioner himself, Rob Manfred, instructed us, as Hall of Fame voters, to disregard the infamous Sports Illustrated reports that said Ortiz had shown up on the positive list in MLB's 2003 survey testing.
So you can shower all the love you have inside you on Shohei. And you can rant about Ortiz all day long. But I made my pick, and I'm not 'covering up' anything. I'm just a guy who wrote a column, to entertain the masses. How'd that work out?
TOP 3 IN READERS' VOTE (FOR FIFTH SPOT): Martinez (47.64 percent), Halladay (46.68), Zack Greinke 22.3)
Pedro! Can you ever go wrong picking Pedro Martinez for any team? Of course not. Peak Pedro was as awesome as awesome gets. Um, however …
Peak Pedro was not 2000s Pedro. Peak Pedro was 1997-2003. So what do we, as All-Quarter Century Team voters, do about that, huh?
Timing wasn't quite everything on this team. But it was helpful if you were one of those lucky dudes whose entire period of dominance came in years that started with a '2.' So what were we supposed to do with the unlucky legends who split their best seasons over the 1900s and 2000s? That was hard — for me, anyway.
It became pretty clear that most of the readers who accused me of 'blasphemy' and 'insanity' for not picking Pedro spent zero time worrying about inconvenient facts like that. But you know who did worry about it? I did.
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So is there really a case for including Pedro on this team over Halladay? I'm not seeing it. Counting the postseason, Halladay made 150 more starts than Martinez in the 2000s, threw a postseason no-hitter, spun a regular-season perfect game, won two Cy Young Awards, had three more top-three finishes and was the ultimate ace for a decade.
But I only got one vote for this team. And 12,000 readers had other ideas. So who am I to tell them they were wrong to vote with their hearts, as opposed to that minor technicality that we were voting on performance in this century? Whatever. That's why we vote!
I'd like to thank baseball fans everywhere for their resounding support of literally all of my other picks — at first base, second base, shortstop, left field, center field and closer. I knew you'd see the light, even if you weren't always sure that I saw it.
I still absorbed a bunch of body slams over not picking Miguel Cabrera — at first, at third, at DH, you didn't even care where! … and showering too many accolades on Derek Jeter — not even the best shortstop on his own team! … and covering for Jose Altuve — no Astros allowed, and hey, as a Philly guy, how could I not vote for Chase Utley!
But you know what? Even after all the flak I took, I loved this whole project. I wasn't shocked to learn that thousands of you don't think like I think. That's the point!
You know what I'd like to say to all of you who disagree with me? You're supposed to! And you're welcome.
(Top image: Ichiro Suzuki: Otto Greule Jr. / Getty Images; Aaron Judge: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
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