Unanimous Cy Young Alcantara Leads Modern Marlins after Leading All-Time Dominican Team

After having the 2022 Cy Young award winner give a dominant performance for the all-time Dominican Republic team in our World Baseball Classic, we decided to pull up his current Miami Marlins team. Click here for all Statis-Pro pitcher cards and here for the batter cards. We picture Miami's three pages below. 

We play the current players with 2023 projected cards as a fun way to keep up with the modern line-ups. You can certainly just print out the cards for each team on the two links above, but here is what we do now and then before playing a team in a series.

1. We check against the MLB depth chart. We allow cards for players on 10-day or 15-day DL to be used, but we put an "X" by their name if they are not on the roster or a 60d if they are on 60-day DL and we do not use those cards. You can see several of each on cards below.

2. If a player is on the depth chart for whom we do not see a card, we generally add them only if they are playing a good bit - 1st or 2nd on the depth chart at a position or one of the top five starters or relievers. We found three batters at the bottom of the sheet who were free agents when we produce the cards so added them to what is not the bottom of the six seeds below - Yuli Gurriel, Garrett Hampson and Jonathan Davis.  We had not made a card for pitcher Bryan Hoeing, so we looked up his projected ERA which was in the 4.30 to 4.49 ERA, which gives him a standard PB 2-6 card in our game. We also see he is a starter so made him a SR/RR: 12/0, and wrote in that he Throws Right to complete the card.

3. The extra optional step we take is to produce this google sheet of players who approved or declined dramatically from their projected OPS or ERA. The players with a + by them below are dramatically approved, and with a -- by them are much worse than last year. In these cases we adjust the PB one against them (if --) or one in their favor (if +). Obviously the batter wants the PB of the opposing pitcher lowered, while the pitcher wants his own PB increased. 

As you can see, the first card Sandy Alcantara is a PB 2-8 starter with very few walks allowed coming off his unanimous Cy Young Award selection. He had the all-time pitcher's duel against Garret Cole in our all-time game, and we will use him in Miami's first game. There first two series will be against San Diego and then Arizona.

Starting Pitcher	Game	Team	Opponent
Average
Alcantara, Sandy	67	Mia	SD
Darvish, Yu	67	SD	at Mia
Garrett, Braxton	68	Mia	at SD
Lugo, Seth	68	SD	Mia
Rogers, Trevor	69	Mia	at AZ
Gallen, Zac	69	AZ	Mia
Luzardo, Jesus	70	Mia	AZ
Henry, Tommy	70	AZ	at Mia

Here is an alpha list of Marlins who have played this year.

Sandy Alcantara

Luis Arraez

Matt Barnes

Jon Berti

Huascar Brazoban

Peyton Burdick

Edward Cabrera

Daniel Castano*

JT Chargois

Jazz Chisholm Jr.

Garrett Cooper

Johnny Cueto

Jonathan Davis

Bryan De La Cruz

Xavier Edwards

Dylan Floro

Nick Fortes

Avisaíl García

Braxton Garrett*

Chi Chi González

Yuli Gurriel

Garrett Hampson

Bryan Hoeing

Jeff Lindgren

Jesús Luzardo*

Andrew Nardi*

Sean Nolin*

Steven Okert*

Eury Pérez

A.J. Puk*

Johan Quezada

Trevor Rogers*

Jesús Sánchez

Tanner Scott*

Jean Segura

Devin Smeltzer*

Jorge Soler

George Soriano

Jacob Stallings

Joey Wendle

8.1 Hitless Innings Not Enough for Dominicans, as Bonds Father-Son Win in 10th

The California line-up that pounded Pennsylvania for 22 hits the last two games ran into the 2022 best pitcher in baseball, Dominican Sandy Alcantara, who threw 8.1 innings of hitless ball before Tony Gwynn's single.

Alcantara was the unanimous selection for the Cy Young last year with a league high innings (228) and complete games (6) with a sparkling 2.28 ERA.

However California's Garrit Cole basically matched him with 8 innings of one hit ball, though his no hitter ended in the second inning on a Sammy Sosa double. 

That left a scoreless tie after nine innings. Bobby Bonds was inserted for Alan Trammell as the runner on 2nd base to start the top of the 10th against Armando Benitez, as Alcantara would have been reduced to a PB 2-6 if he came back out for the 10th inning.

Bobby Bonds used his A speed to steal third base, and his son Barry Bonds singled him home to finally break the scoreless tie. Barry also stole second base, and with two outs raced around on a Joe DiMaggio single, but Vladimir Guerrero (father of the current superstar with the same name) threw him out at home to end the top of the 10th with a 1-0 California lead.

The Dominican Republic then also went to their bench for a pinch runner, bringing in one of the rare AA speed runners in history - Cesar Cedeno. Cedeno tried to take third, but in a key to the game Gary Carter threw him out. If we played 2023 rules where our stolen base charts are adjusted for the bases being larger and closer together he would not have been out (odd numbers can no longer be caught stealing in our 2023 games to replicate the stolen base success rate jumping from 65% to 82% since the rule change). Trevor Hoffman retired the next two for the save, and to make Dennis Eckersley the win.

With the win, California improves to 4-1 and advances to the championship pool along with Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico. The Dominican Republic won our previous Statis-Pro World Baseball Classic of current players, but in this tournament of the all-time players for all of MLB and Negro League history had only two pre 1980s players (Felipe Alou and Juan Marichal). Meanwhile California drew on players going back to Frank Chance, whose career started in 1898.

 

	California Line-up	Pos	AB	R	H	BI	Notes
1	Alan Trammell	6-SS	4	0	0	0
	Bobby Bonds	PR	0	1	0	0	SB, GW R in 10th
	Nomar Garciaparra	6-SS	0	0	0	0
2	Joe Gordon	4-2B	3	0	0	0	BB
3	Barry Bonds	7-OF	4	0	1	1	GW RBI, SB
4	Ted Williams	7-OF	4	0	0	0
5	Joe DiMaggio	7-OF	4	0	1	0
6	Eddie Murray	3-1B	3	0	0	0
7	Gary Carter	2-C	3	0	0	0	10th caught stealing
8	Graig Nettles	5-3B	3	0	0	0
9	Gerrit Cole	1-P	2	0	0	0
	Tony Gwynn	PH	1	0	1	0
	Frank Chance	PR	0	0	0	0	CS
Th	California Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	W/K	Notes
RHP	Gerrit Cole	8	1	0	0	1`/7
RHP	Dennis Eckersley	1	0	0	0	0`/0	Win
RHP	Trevor Hoffman	1	0	0	0	0`/1	Save
0	Dominican Rep. Line-up	Pos	AB	R	H	BI	Notes
1	Fernando Tatis Jr.	6-SS	4	0	0	0
2	Jose Ramirez	5-3B	4	0	0	0
	Cesar Cedeno	PR	0	0	0	0	Caught Steal
3	Vladimir Guerrero	7-OF	4	0	0	0	OF assist in 10th
4	Manny Ramirez	7-OF	4	0	0	0
5	Sammy Sosa	7-OF	3	0	1	0	double, only EB Hit
6	David Ortiz	3-1B	3	0	0	0
7	Robinson Canó	4-2B	2	0	0	0	walk
8	Tony Pena	2-C	3	0	0	0
9	Sandy Alcantara	1-P	2	0	0	0
	Felipe Alou	7-OF	1	0	0	0
Th	Dominican Republic Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	W/K	Notes
RHP	Sandy Alcantara	9	1	0	0	1'/2
RHP	Armando Benitez	1	2	1	0	0`/0	Loss

Bonds, Ted Williams Back-to-Back 9th Inning RBI Doubles Nip Pennsylvania 4-3

Despite dominating the game 11 hits to 4, California was three outs from elimination with Pennsylvania's all-time great reliever Bruce Sutter on the hill. Pennsylvania led 3-2 on a 2-run homer by Ken Griffey Jr. because they had left only two runners on base compared to 11 left on base for California.

However, the inning started with an error on Shortstop Honus Wagner (who actually has a high error rating despite being an all-time great hitter). Barry Bonds launched a clutch double in the corner to tie the game 3-3, and then Ted Williams launched a double to bring home Bonds  for the 4-3 lead.

California had already used Trevor Hoffman in the bottom of the 8th inning to keep the score at 3-2, and with the 4-3 lead Cole Hamels came in for a 1-2-3 inning for the save and to make a winner of Hoffman.

Philadelphia can now only root for the Dominican Republic to sweep California and put them in the Championship pool at 4-2. If California sweeps or splits that series, they advance either via the 5-1 record or the 4-2 record and head to head sweep of Pennsylvania. However, if the Dominican Republic Sweeps then Pennsylvania advances because they own the sweep over the Dominican Republic that would break a 4-2 record tie.

 

Wild Card Pool	W	L	GB	RS	RA
Pennsylvania	4	2	0	24	22
California	3	1	0	24	14
Venezuela	1	3	2	15	25
Dominican Republic	0	2	2	1	3

The winner of the division advances to the Championship pool against Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico.

Click for the free Statis-Pro Master Baseball Game. Click here for 60 of the all-time great MLB teams, or on teams of manyof the all-time great players on teams by nation or state with one sheet for each team. Or click on the 2023 pitchers and 2023 batters in card form. You simply print two teams cards and then either print theaster link above and fast action cards in master link or buy the dice to start playing.

California 11-1 Drubbing of Pennsylvania Sets Up Showdown

California not only denies Pennsylvania a clinching win, but defeated them 11-1 to open the door to taking the Wild Card pool and advancing to the championship pool for six more games against Puerto Rico, Texas and Florida. Here are the standings and scenarios:

 

Wild Card Pool	W	L	GB	RS	RA
Pennsylvania	4	1	0	21	18
California	2	1	1	20	11
Venezuela	1	3	2.5	10	9
Dominican Republic	0	2	2.5	1	3

 If Pennsylvania wins their last pool game in Pittsburgh against California, they advance to championship pool because they finish 5-1 and the best California could then finish would be 4-2.

If California defeats Pennsylvania to complete the sweep then also sweeps the Dominican Republic, then they advanced with a 5-1 record to Pennsylvania's 4-2 mark.

If California defeats Pennsylvania to complete the sweep then splits with the Dominican Republic, they advance. We originally wrote this would come down to runs allowed, but a California sweep over PA would be the tie-breaker.

If California defeats Pennsylvania to complete the sweep then loses both games to the Dominican Republic, then Pennsylvania advances with a 4-2 mark while California is 3-3-. In that case the Dominican Republic could also sweep Venezuela to finish an identical 4-2 with Pennsylvania - but the first tie-breaker is head-to-head and they were swept by Pennsylvania so cannot advance under any scenario.

Reggie and Ken Griffey Jr. Try to Clinch for PA vs. CA

Pennsylvania can win the wild card pool with a split against California, so we jumped ahead to play that doubleheader next. The first game will be in Anaheim where the modern park yields homers on 11-54 on deep drives, while if necessary the second game would be in Pittsburgh with an almost as generous 11-45 Home Run range. The average is 11-35 and you can always use that in Statis-Pro baseball to have the game in a neutral field.

If Pennsylvania wins either game then they advanced to the championship pool with Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico. If California wins both, then they play their final poll series against the Dominican Republic and can advance with another sweep. If California sweeps Pennsylvania and then splits with the Dominican Republic, then the final spot will be determined by whether California or Pennsylvania allowed fewer runs in the eight games, which right now favors Pennsylvania.

This was listed as the third series, meaning the two teams throw their 5th and 6th greatest all-time starting pitcher from our player sheet.

PA's lefty Eddie Plank, who wrapped up his career in 1917 throws the first game, with California platooning Nomar Garciaparra at third base (while primarily a shortstop, his baseball reference 635 indicates he can play 1st base or 3rd base as well, though we up his Error rating 1 and lower his CD 1 for not being in his primary position). California throws Bob Lemon, who wrapped up his career in 1958, to try to stay alive.

If Game 2 is necessary, it is California who turns to a lefty in Lefty Gomez, while PA turns to Stan Coveleski. You can click on the link to each starting player below.

 

	Pennsylvania Line-up	Pos
1	Honus Wagner	6-SS
2	Ken Griffey Jr.	8-CF
3	Stan Musial	3-1B
4	Reggie Jackson	9-RF
5	Buddy Bell	5-3B
6	Hack Wilson	7-LF
7	Roy Campanella	2-C
8	Nellie Fox	4-2B
LHP	Eddie Plank	P G1
RHP	Stan Coveleski	P G2
	California Line-up	Pos
1	Alan Trammell	6-SS
2	Joe Gordon	4-2B
3	Barry Bonds	9-RF
4	Ted Williams	7-LF
5	Joe DiMaggio	8-CF
6	Eddie Murray	3-1B
7	Gary Carter	2-C
8 G1	Graig Nettles	5-3B
8 G2	Nomar Garciaparra	5-3B
RHP	Bob Lemon	P G1
LHP	Lefty Gomez	P G2
	Game Location
	Game 1 at Anaheim (11-54 HR)
	Game 2 at Pittsburgh (11-45 HR)
	Neutral Park (11-35 HR)

Click for the free Statis-Pro Master Baseball Game. Click here for 60 of the all-time great MLB teams, or on teams of manyof the all-time great players on teams by nation or state with one sheet for each team. Or click on the 2023 pitchers and 2023 batters in card form. You simply print two teams cards and then either print theaster link above and fast action cards in master link or buy the dice to start playing.

Homers by Reggie Jackson, Griffey Jr. (Grand slam) Put PA on Verge of Finals, Eliminate Venezuela

When we played our Statis-Pro World Baseball Classic of current players a few years ago, the Dominican Republic beat Venezuela in the finals. Scroll to bottom for links to the greatest Venezuelan and Pennsylvanian players of all time.

However, we found when playing all time teams our state teams featuring players from the past 120 years simply had too much talent for teams from other countries that started playing MLB ball much later.

Puerto Rico will be the only national team in our final four, joining Texas and Florida. Unless California wins their remaining four games the other finalist will be Pennsylvania, which destroyed Venezuela 13-4 and then held on 4-2 to improve to 4-0. California is 1-1 so would need to sweept the Dominican Republic and then sweep Pennsylvania to finish 5-1 and push Pennsylvania down to 4-2

The only other longshot scenario is that they split with The Dominican Republic and then not only sweep PA but beat them twice by huge margins since runs allowed are the next time breaker and they have already allowed more runs in 4 games than PA has allowed in four games.

Here are the scoresheet followed by both rosters linked to their baseball reference page.

Here are the Statis-Pro rosters for the greatest players of all time from both places. You can click for each player's baseball reference page, and also use this to make out the names of the players on the scoresheets above.

Pennsylvania Greatest	Pos
Dick Allen	3-1B
Buddy Bell	5-3B
Max Bishop	4-2B
Ray Caldwell	P
Roy Campanella	2-C
Jack Clark	7-OF
Stan Coveleski	P
Nellie Fox	4-2B
Ken Griffey	7-OF
Ken Griffey Jr.	7-OF
Mark Gubicza	P
Reggie Jackson	7-OF
Whitey Kurowski	5-3B
Sparky Lyle	P
Sherry Magee	7-OF
Christy Mathewson	P
Sam McDowell	P
Jamie Moyer	P
Stan Musial	3-1B
Mike Mussina	P
Lance Parrish	2-C
Herb Pennock	P
Mike Piazza	2-C
Eddie Plank	P
Ken Raffensberger	P
Bobby Shantz	P
Bob Shawkey	P
Curt Simmons	P
Eddie Stanky	4-2B
Bruce Sutter	P
Gene Tenace	2-C
Rube Waddell	P
Honus Wagner	6-SS
Bobby Wallace	6-SS
Ed Walsh	P
Bucky Walters	P
Hack Wilson	7-OF

Venezuela Greatest	Pos
Bobby Abreu	7-OF
Ronald Acuna Jr.	7-OF
Edgardo Alfonzo	5-3B
Jose Altuve	4-2B
Wilson Alvarez	P
Henderson Alvarez III	P
Luis Aparicio	6-SS
Miguel Cabrera	3-1B
Carlos Carrasco	P
Jhoulys Chacin	P
Dave Concepcion	6-SS
Willson Contreras	2-C
Kelvim Escobar	P
Andres Galarraga	3-1B
Freddy Garcia	P
Carlos Gonzalez	7-OF
Ramon Hernandez	2-C
Felix Hernandez	P
Omar Infante	4-2B
Luis Leal	P
Venezuela Line-up	Pos
Pablo Lopez	P
German Marquez	P
Victor Martinez	3-1B
Melvin Mora	5-3B
Magglio Ordonez	7-OF
Salvador Perez	2-C
Eduardo Rodriguez	P
Francisco Rodriguez	P
Anibal Sanchez	P
Johan Santana	P
Eugenio Suarez	5-3B
Ranger Suarez	P
Cesar Tovar	7-OF
Ugueth Urbina	P
Felipe Vazquez	P
Omar Vizquel	6-SS
Carlos Zambrano	P

DiMaggio Singles Home Bonds.to Give California split with Venezuela

Wild Card Pool	W	L	GB	RS	RA
Pennsylvania	2	0	0	3	1
Venezuela	1	1	1	10	9
California	1	1	1	9	10
Dominican Republic	1	1	2	1	3

Venezuelan pitchers shut out California's HOF lineup for 14 innings for a 2-0 win and 1-0 lead after five innings in the nightcap. (The roster of the greatest California and Venezuela players of all time used in our Statis-Pro game appear at the bottom of the blog with links to their baseball reference page.)

However both loaded lineups the exploded against both bullpens until Joe DiMaggio singled and speedy Barry Bonds raced him from 2nd base for a 9-8 win.

The split leaves Pennsylvania in first place in the wild card round robin at 2-0, and Venezuela slight ahead in 2nd place since they allowed 9 runs and California allowed 10 runs.

The first game was a battle of ace lefties, and Johan Santana scattered 8 baserunners over 6 shutout innings, and their three top relievers each gave a scoreless inning for Venezuela's 2-0 win. 

One big advantage Venezuela does have against all the great all-time pitchers in this division as the other three teams have very little speed, but the first four players in the Venezuela line-up are all A/A speed - meaning they can steal, take extra bases on hits and occasionally bunt for a single. They needed the speed to scratch out anything against Randy Johnson in the opener. Jose Altuve singled in the first and tole second base, then raced home from second on a Luis Aparicio single. In the third, Aparicio tried to bunt for a single and Gary Carter threw it away to land Aparicio on third based and he scored on a 2-out single by Miguel Cabrera for the 2-0 win.

The second game looked like a similar pitchers duel when both Venezuela's Felix Hernandez and California's Tom Seaver allowed only one run, but the loaded line-ups feasted on the bullpens.

In the top of the 6th the speedy top of the line-up made it 4-0 after advancing on a stolen base and wild pitch.

Ronald Acuna Jr. scored the first run in that inning, and in the bottom of the 6th threw Ted Williams out at home on a DiMaggio single to keep the score at 4-1. Williams had doubled home Bonds earlier in the inning.

California took a 5-4 lead with four hits in the bottom of the 7th. The rest of the way both teams scored two run in every frame - making it 6-5 Venezuela in the middle of the 8th, 7-6 California at the end of the 8th, 8-7 Venezuela in the middle of the 9th, and then 9-9 California as the final.

California all-time team Pos

Kevin Appier       P

Barry Bonds        OF

Bobby Bonds      OF

Gary Carter         C

Frank Chance     1B

Gerrit Cole           P

Joe Cronin           SS

Joe DiMaggio     OF

Bobby Doerr       2B

Don Drysdale     P

Don Drysdale     P

Dennis Eckersley               P

Darrell Evans      3B

Trevor Hoffman P

Larry French       P

Max Fried            P

Nomar Garciaparra          SS

Lefty Gomez       P

Joe Gordon         2B

Tony Gwynn        OF

Cole Hamels        P

Harry Heilmann                 OF

Randy Johnson P

Jason Kendall     C

Mark Langston  P

Bob Lemon         P

Ernie Lombardi  C

Eddie Murray     1B

Graig Nettles      3B

Mark Prior           P

Dan Quisenberry              P

CC Sabathia        P

Tom Seaver         P

Duke Snider        OF

Dave Stieb           P

Alan Trammell   SS

Jered Weaver     P

Ted Williams       OF

Venezuela all-time team

Bobby Abreu      OF

Ronald Acuna Jr.               OF

Edgardo Alfonzo               3B

Jose Altuve         2B

Wilson Alvarez   P

Henderson Alvarez III      P

Luis Aparicio       SS

Miguel Cabrera  1B

Carlos Carrasco P

Jhoulys Chacin   P

Dave Concepcion              SS

Willson Contreras            C

Kelvim Escobar  P

Andres Galarraga              1B

Freddy Garcia     P

Carlos Gonzalez OF

Felix Hernandez P

Ramon Hernandez           C

Omar Infante     2B

Luis Leal                P

Pablo Lopez        P

German Marquez             P

Victor Martinez 1B

Melvin Mora      3B

Magglio Ordonez              OF

Salvador Perez   C

Francisco Rodriguez        P

Eduardo Rodriguez          P

Anibal Sanchez  P

Johan Santana   P

Ranger Suarez    P

Eugenio Suarez  3B

Cesar Tovar         OF

Ugueth Urbina   P

Felipe Vazquez  P

Omar Vizquel     SS

Carlos Zambrano              P