Could the New York Yankees Beat the Pitts City Devil Marlins?
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by user DNL
The New York Yankees entered the 2006 baseball season with a payroll of almost $200 million.
The Pittsburgh Pirates ($48.9m), Kansas City Royals ($47.2m), Tampa Bay Devil Rays ($35.4m), and Florida Marlins ($14.3m), combined, didn't quite reach $150m. (Colorado was at $40m, but they have bats worth mentioning.)
So, I wondered: could a team made up of the best players from those four teams beat the Yankees with any regularity?
Let's call them the Pitts City Devil Marlins -- and find out.
Lineup
The Yankees lineup is pretty fluid, so if I have guys out of order, that's why. I put Craig Wilson in at DH and left Bernie on the bench.
For the Devil Marlins, I moved some positions around: I put Carl Crawford in CF because I needed one, and I put Miggy Cabrera at 1B because he sucks at third.
| Pitts City Devil Marlins | New York Yankees |
| Carl Crawford, CF | Johnny Damon, CF |
| Hanley Ramirez, SS | Derek Jeter, SS |
| Miguel Cabrera, 1B | Bobby Abreu, RF |
| Jason Bay, LF | Alex Rodriguez, 3B |
| Rocco Baldelli, RF | Jason Giambi, 1B |
| Josh Willingham, DH | Craig Wilson, DH |
| Dan Uggla, 2B | Jorge Posada, C |
| Freddy Sanchez, 3B | Robinson Cano, 2B |
| Ronny Paulino, C | Melky Cabrera, LF |
It's not terribly in the Yankees favor, but it is nonetheless. The bench would probably help the Pitts City 25 -- they'd get David DeJesus, Xavier Nady, and Emil Brown while the Yanks get Bernie Williams and, uh... yeah.
Rotation
| Pitts City Devil Marlins | New York Yankees |
| Scott Kazmir | Randy Johnson |
| Josh Johnson | Mike Mussina |
| Dontrelle Willis | Chien-Ming Wang |
| Ricky Nolasco | Cory Lidle |
| Mark Redman (because he's an All-Star!) | Jaret Wright |
My Redman joke notwithstanding, the Pitts City squad is easily competitive -- if not better. The problem? Well, I had to fudge it a bit -- the Devil Marlins get the benefit of Scott Kazmir but the Yankees do not get to claim either Hideki Matsui or Gary Sheffield. Eh.
Bullpen
| Pitts City Devil Marlins | New York Yankees |
| Mike Gonzalez | Mariano Rivera |
| Joe Borowski | Scott Proctor |
| Taylor Tankersley | Mike Myers |
| Salomon Torres | Kyle Farnsworth |
| Joel Peralta | Ron Villone |
| Matt Herges | Octavio Dotel |
While Mike and Joe are both good, neither match up to Mariano. I like T-Tank, but when it comes to LOOGYs, Mike Myers is just better. But the supporting cast looks like Advantage, PCDM. It's a minor advantage, though.
Conclusion
I'll leave that to you. Best-of-11 game series. Who wins?
Date
Thu 08/31/06, 8:08 am EST
