MLBN Prime 9 All-1970s Team

[G-Fafif]

MLB Network presented in scorecard and countdown fashion its all-1970s team:

Reggie Jackson 9
Cesar Cedeno 8
George Foster 7
Toby Harrah 6
Mike Schmidt 5
Joe Morgan 4
Steve Garvey 3
Johnny Bench 2
Jim Palmer 1

Six of the nine were National Leaguers all through the decade. Obviously (to say nothing of parochially) the starting pitcher should have been. Seaver in for Palmer -- and, what the hell, Harrelson in for Harrah.

(Harrah? I'm surprised they didn't name Jeter for having been born in the 1970s.)

It was noted at the top of the show that Pete Rose, Rod Carew and Willie Stargell all took a hit for playing two different positions. But they forgot to mention they were high when they chose the pitcher.

[Gwreck]

1970s WAR:

Palmer 52.5
Seaver 65.4

That's not even close.

[HahnSolo]

If you had made this a qwik qwiz, I would have gotten 2, 3, 4, 5, and 9 straight away. Probably would have gotten Palmer after a guess or two. Maybe after a while I would have gotten Foster and Cedeno. But I would have guessed until the feast of the Three Kings before I ever came up with Harrah.

[Guest sharpie]

70's not a good decade for offense at shortstop.

Dave Concepcion and Rick Burleson were All Stars during that time. Harrah was probably the best hitter of the bunch but would be middle of the pack today.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Yeah, that one is tricky. I remember Harrah more as a thirdbaseman from the eighties more known for his palindromic surname than his All-Star prowess, but there he is in out-WARring Dave Concepci�n 29.5-26.5.

But wait! There's more! If you're going to break up Pete Rose's contributions by positon, you have to break up Colbert Dale Harrah's, and he had only 61.6% of his appearances at shortstop. Multipy that by his WARs (which --- while a starting point --- is rough work, of course, as it doesn't account for total innings at different positions, defensive performance at different positions, and defensive value of the positions) and he's down to 16.13.

Pull the same trick on Dav�d Ismael (Benitez) Concepci�n, who made 96.73% of his appearances at shorstop and virtually 100% through his WAR prime of the late seventies, and his war total only drops from 26.5 to 26.19.

It's a no-brainer, baby. Not only is Davey the right choice, but Harrah is closer to Larry Bowa than he is to Concepci�n.

[seawolf17]

Forget stats. It's clinically retarded to think Toby Harrah was better than Dave Concepcion in the 1970s (or ever).

[Guest Edgy DC]

Well, I had the stats available but I had left my copy of the DSM-IV home.

[Guest sharpie]

With Foster, Morgan and Bench ably representing the Big Red Machine, they probably didn't give it to Concepcion so as to spread the love. Might've been a point against Seaver as well.