All Time Pirates Near and Far: The Introduction
The recent signing of Jung Ho Kang got me thinking about the Pirates and their history with international players. Specifically I was trying to think of how well Kang would have to perform to move into the upper echelon of this group. One thing led to another and I found myself wondering what kind of All Time team could I construct using just Pirates players who were born outside of the United States. I then decided to really get a feel of how this team stacked up I needed a measuring stick (aka another team) so I went about trying to find a subset that gave me a similar sized player pool and I found out that as the state that has produced the second most players the pool of Pennsylvanian born Pirates is roughly equal to that of international born Pirates.
I can’t say my measure is perfectly accurate as it depended on combining two sets of data and any spelling differences would cause these numbers to be off a bit plus there is also some overlap here as a player who pitched and played the field is included in both lists. Anyway using my method I found 131 foreign born position players and 124 Pennsylvanian born position players. As for pitchers I found 97 born outside the country and 83 born with in the state, so the numbers aren’t exact but they are similar enough for this exercise.
Just as a disclaimer I am including anywhere outside of the 50 states and the District of Columbia as international, this means players born in Puerto Rico are included in the international pool.
The next step was to determine just how I would construct my team. I opted to go with the standard 25 man roster and broke it down into the following: 8 starting position players, a 5 man bench consisting of a catcher, infielder, outfielder and two open utility spots (meaning it can be anyone), a 5 man starting rotation, a pitcher with significant time both starting and relieving (a swingman), a 4 man bullpen consisting of a closer and at least one left handed pitcher and an 11th pitcher than can be anyone. If you add that up that’s only 24 players, the last spot is open to everyone and I am calling it simply the 25th man.
I then had to determine what it would take for someone to be eligible for a position. My guidelines are as followed for position players at least 20% of your career Pirate games played have to be at that position to be eligible for it. For the pitchers to be considered a starter over 50% of your appearances must have been a start, for the swingman position it was 20-60% of your appearances and for the bullpen anything under 50%.
The final step was then to set my criteria. I opted to not set a minimum amount of PA or IP to be eligible although playing time would of course play a big part in determining the roster. I also opted to use career Pirate performance, not peak performance nor performance with another organization.
I floated around different ideas of how to present my teams and I have opted to make this a 10 part series with detailed discussions on the selection process. This entry serves as part 1 the introduction and the other 9 entries will be catchers, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF, SP, RP and a final post where I formally announce my two teams and do a comparison.
I hope this 10 part exercise doesn't seem excessive to anyone. I had considered a 1 part, a 3 part and a 5 part but thought the shorter reads and additional posts would fare better here than long drawn out ones. I am almost done with the catcher piece and I hope to have it up this afternoon.
