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Added December 28th, 2009 by Sooze

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MLB All-Decade Team

There are just three days left of the year 2009, so it’s time once again to travel back through the years and discuss some of the Most Memorable Sports Moments of the decade. Instead, we’re going to assemble a controversial all-decade baseball team from the glorious 2000s.

That sounds like way more fun, right? Right. (My next post should be the “Major upsets for sports betting industry when it comes to baseball).

First Base: Albert Pujols. Like there was ever any argument. Prince Albert’s numbers speak for themselves: a .314 batting average, 40 doubles, 34 homers, 127 RBIs, and 118 runs scored make up his crappiest season of the decade. Since being drafted in the 13th round by the St. Louis Cardinals in 1999, he has managed to improve his game from every angle every season. In 2009, Pujols snagged 16 bases, walked 115 times and hit 47 home runs. All career highs.

Honorable Mention: Todd Helton.

Second Base: Chase Utley. The Philadelphia Phillies’ perennial All-Star may leave something to be desired with his slick new hair do, but he’s everything a girl could want in a man second baseman. He’s one of the best defensive guys up the middle, complemented by his partner in crime, Jimmy Rollins. Since 2005, Chutley has hit .301 with a .388 OBP, averaging 29 homers, 110 runs, 101 RBIs a season. In 2009, he set a record by stealing 23 bases without getting caught even once and put on an absurd display of homers during the World Series.

Honorable Mention: Jeff Kent.

Shortstop: Derek Jeter. Call him overrated, but this New York Yankees shortstop is the best of the best. The subject of many an argument over the past ten years, Jeter may compete with teammate Alex Rodriguez for the “most famous baseball player in New York City” title, but he fails to get his name plastered all over the tabloids. Jeter hit .317 for the entire decade with double-digit homers and double-digit steals every year, averaging more than 100 runs per season. He missed the All-Star game only in ’03 and ’05, while earning four Gold Gloves, four Silver Sluggers, two Hank Aaron awards, a Babe Ruth award, a Roberto Clemente award, SI’s Sportsman of the Year honor, and of course, the World Series MVP award in 2000, his first of two rings.

Honorable Mention: Nomar Garciaparra.

Third Base: Alex Rodriguez. Leading the American League in home runs five different times this decade, Alex Rodriguez became the first Yankees right-handed batter to hit 50 homers in a single season. He led the league in runs scored four times, in RBIs twice, and in slugging on four occasions. Though A-Rod spent the beginning of the decade with the Texas Rangers at short, he is now best known as the Bronx Bombers’ hot corner. He finally abolished his non-clutch reputation last season when he carried the Yanks through the playoffs to their 27th World Series title. His past steroid use was revealed the same season, but he went on to hit 30 bombs with 100 RBIs in just 124 games, becoming the only player of the decade to do so in every season.

Honorable Mention: Chipper Jones.

Left Field: Barry Bonds. Love him or hate him, Barry Bonds was the biggest force out in left during the majority of the 2000s. We can’t deny Bonds was the decade’s biggest villain, but we also can’t ignore his numbers. There were the 73 home runs he smoked in 2001, which many believe is deserving of an asterisk. In 2002, he batted .370 to lead the league while racking up a 268 OPS+, the all-time best. Two years later, he reached an outstanding .609 on-base percentage and was intentionally walked 120 times. Bonds led the league in OBP in ’06 and ’07, but faded away like the records he has broken when no team dared sign him in 2008.

Honorable Mention: Manny Ramirez.

Centerfield: Carlos Beltran. With the Royals, Astros and Mets, Beltran scored 100 runs while also driving in 100 runs six different times this decade. Only our first and third basemen did it more. He was busted stealing just 30 times in 286 attempts for a ridiculous 90 percent mark, earning three Gold Gloves as a center fielder for his outstanding defense. During 12 postseason games in 2004, Beltran hit .435 with 21 runs scored, eight longballs, and six stolen bags. He went on to tie the Mets’ team record for home runs in 2006 with 41 and became only the second switch-hitter to hit 35 bombs and steal 35 bases in a single season.

Honorable Mention: Torii Hunter.

Right Field: Ichiro Suzuki. One of the most feared hitters of the past nine years, Ichiro made his big league debut with the Seattle Mariners in 2001 when he promptly became the AL batting champion, MVP and Rookie of the Year. He’s made every single All-Star game since then, won every single Gold Glove for his position, and even more impressive, managed to hit over .300 for those nine consecutive seasons. Oh yeah, he also holds the major league record for having at least 200 hits for nine straight years, winning a second batting title with a .372 average in 2004, the same year he set the single-season MLB record with 262 hits. Bad. Ass.

Honorable Mention: Vladimir Guerrero.

Catcher: Joe Mauer. Though Joe Mauer didn’t make his big league debut until 2004, he’s made his mark behind the plate for the last six seasons. He became the first AL catcher to win a batting title. Then he became the second. And the third. In his 2009 MVP season, he became the first catcher to lead the league in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage while also knowing how to call a hell of a game for his hometown Twins. Mauer won back-to-back Gold Gloves in 2008 and 2009 for his defensive abilities, and did so before even turning 27 years old.

Honorable Mention: Ivan Rodriguez.

Designated Hitter: David Ortiz. The Boston Red Sox signed him even though they weren’t really sure what to do with the big guy. They quickly found out Ortiz would make a great DH when he knocked out 31 home runs in just 128 games and finished fifth in MVP voting in 2003. Between 2004 and 2008, Big Papi emerged to hit .304, slug .616, and average 42 doubles with 44 homers a season. However, steroid accusations flew late in the decade and tarnished yet another bright career in the game.

Honorable Mention: Frank Thomas.

Starter #1: Randy Johnson. Three Cy Young Awards and 330+ strikeouts in each of the first three years of the decade? Not even Nolan Ryan was that good… technically. Randy Johnson hasn’t murdered any doves with 95 mph fastballs recently, but he’s been good enough to be ranked fifth all time with 47 victories after the age of 41.

Starter #2: Johan Santana. Santana came up with the Twins, emerging in 2002-2003 as a swing man who could be used as a starter or in the bullpen, if need be. In 2004, his first full year as a starter, he made a statement as to where he belonged when he won the AL Cy Young Award. If you ask me, he should have won the Cy Young again in 2005, but he did manage to nail down a second award in 2006. Johan relies on one the most devastating changeups in baseball, fooling 1,335 batters since 2004. During that span, in which he has since been traded to the Mets, he is 99-48 with a 2.68 ERA.

Starter #3: Pedro Martinez. One season and one season alone should land Pedro on this list: 2000. That year, he went 18-6 with a 1.74 ERA and 284 strikeouts to win the Cy Young. He walked just 32 batters that year, with a ridiculous .737 WHIP for the lowest mark in the history of the game. Outstanding. The remainder of the decade was full of highs and lows between the Red Sox, Mets, and Phillies, including injuries, a World Series Championship, three ERA titles, two strikeout titles, and four All-Star selections. Rumor has it he’d like to return with the Phils for another shot at the title in 2010.

Starter #4: Roy Halladay. The long-time Blue Jay who was just traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in a three-team winter blockbuster, is famous for the remarkable control and precision he has honed with his cutter. Halladay is one of those ground-ball pitchers you absolutely need on an all-decade team. Doc won the Cy Young in 2003, and was 135-62 with a 3.13 ERA for the decade.

Starter #5: Curt Schilling. He might be one of the more hated pitchers in the big leagues — not because of his big skills, but because of his big mouth. The political activist and blogger may be best remembered for his Game 7 performance of the 2001 World Series — the greatest game of the decade. Then there was the bloody sock fiasco, of course. Schilling won 20 games three different times, led the league in strikeout-to-walk ratio an incredible five times, and was instrumental in three World Series Championships. Additionally, he earned a Babe Ruth award, a Branch Rickey award, a Hutch award, and a Roberto Clemente award, all in 2001.

Honorable Mentions: Andy Pettitte, Roy Oswalt, and Brandon Webb.

Set-up Man: Scot Shields. Shields has been as a starter, a middle reliever, a mop-up man and a setup man; everything but a closer. The right-hander put up a decent 3.03 ERA for the decade and never had more than seven saves in any of his seasons, all with the Angels. He may not have been fancy, but he was a workhorse, which is more than we can say for a lot of guys. Shields appeared in 60 games in almost every season, setting up Francisco Rodriguez for the glory. Besides, he’s too cool for two T’s.

Honorable Mention: J.J Putz.

Closer: Mariano Rivera. Even if you’re not a Yankees fan, if you close your eyes for a minute, you can almost hear Enter Sandman as he jogs out onto the field. Rivera, hands down the greatest closer of all time let alone the decade, averaged 40 saves a season for the last ten years, posting a 2.08 ERA. In 2008 he walked six batters in over 70 innings, and pretty much struck out the rest. And Playoff Mariano? Put it away. The only year in this decade he even had a postseason ERA over 0.00 was in 2005, when he surrendered one home run over three innings for a 3.00 ERA.