With Chone Figgins and Ichiro leading off, our team is about to get very annoying. I define annoying as "Hits for very little power while still contributing" - Basically a team of players that don't seem to get out, but without any power that would make them legitimate run threats any time they are up to bat.
On base machines that hit for power come in three categories:
- Frustrating Badasses (Three True Outcome hitters that strike out often)
- "Okay..." (Players that hit a crapload of doubles and triples, not a lot of homeruns)
- Superstars
Frustrating badass players may annoy you, but they are not annoying players, so they are excluded. Superstars are obviously excluded. "Okay...." players don't bother anyone, so they are excluded. Players that suck are excluded unless there is no annoying alternative. Annoying players are those with the lowest ISOs while still contributing in some form at their position.
So, for fun, I decided to create a team of low ISO players with as high a wOBA as possible, using Bill James projections. The lowest ISO players were rarely contributors, but the high wOBA guys rarely had low ISOs, so there will be some debate to the choices. I also limited it to players that had at least 400 PA in 2009.
Players:
And the results of such a team:
These numbers assume a 650 plate appearances per player and a .335 league average wOBA. However, at minimum we can expect an additional 300 or so PAs team wide, so add about 35 runs, and more realistically about 500 PAs (about 60 runs), . Assuming all equal plate appearances and no injuries or substitutions, this team would score about 785 runs in a year if I did the math right, which I don't think I did because this team would have the 4th highest wOBA in the majors. Still, they would be at least the 9th most productive hitting team in baseball, if not the 4th, so not bad. If there were better Catcher/2b annoying options, those numbers would be a bit higher. Also, the defense of this team would be pretty spectacular, though not necessarily mind blowing.
Any substitutions?