2000-2009 In a Box

I'm totally ripping off my favorite baseball writer's (Bill James) concept from his New Historical Baseball Abstract and recapping the 2000-2009 decade "in a box." By the way if you consider yourself a baseball fan and you do not own that book you should hang your head in shame. Anyway here it is, everything you need to know about baseball in the last decade in a very simple form.

All Gold Glove Team
C - Ivan Rodriguez
1B - Albert Pujols
2B - Orlando Hudson
3B - Scott Rolen
SS - Adam Everett
OF - Andruw Jones
OF - Ichiro Suzuki
OF - Carlos Beltran
P - Greg Maddux

All Decade Team
C - Jorge Posada
1B - Albert Pujols
2B - Jeff Kent
3B - Chipper Jones
SS - Alex Rodriguez
OF - Vladimir Guerrero
OF - Manny Ramirez
OF - Gary Sheffield

SP - Johan Santana
SP - Randy Johnson
SP - Roy Halladay
SP - Roy Oswalt
SP - C.C. Sabathia

RP - Mariano Rivera
RP - Billy Wagner
RP - Joe Nathan

All Glove-No Hit

2007 Kansas City Royals

All Hit-No Glove

2005 New York Yankees

Best Staff

2002 Atlanta Braves

Best Outfield

2002-2005 Boston Red Sox, 2002-2003 Atlanta Braves

Best Infield

2002-2009 New York Yankees

All Pitching, No Hitting

2003 Los Angeles Dodgers, 2009 San Francisco Giants

All Hitting, No Pitching

2008 Texas Rangers

Best Throwing Catcher

Ivan Rodriguez

Best Infield Arm

Rafael Furcal

Best Outfield Arm

Vladimir Guerrero

Brien Taylor Award

Ryan Anderson

Ozzie Guillen Award

Angel Berroa, Miguel Olivo, Yuniesky Betancourt

Three Finger Brown Award

Antonio Alfonseca

Best Hitting Pitcher

Mike Hampton

Worst Hitting Pitcher

Doug Davis

Most Home Runs

Barry Bonds 73 (2001)
Decade: Alex Rodriguez 435

Most Stolen Bases

Jose Reyes 78 (2007)
Decade: Juan Pierre 459

Most RBI

Sammy sosa 160 (2001)
Decade: Alex Rodriguez 1,243

Highest Batting Average

Nomar Garciaparra .372 (2000)
Todd Helton .372 (2000)
Ichiro Suzuki .372 (2004)
Decade: Albert Pujols .334


Lowest Batting Average
Brady Anderson .202 (2001) - a special shout out to Tony Pena's .169 in 2008 that didn't qualify
Decade: Jack Hannahan .224

Most Hits

Ichiro Suzuki 262 (2004)
Decade: Ichiro Suzuki 2030

Wins

Randy Johnson 24 (2002)
Decade: Randy Johnson 143

Strikeouts

Randy Johnson 372 (2001)
Decade: Randy Johnson 2,182

Heaviest Player

C.C. Sabathia, Ryan Howard or Adam Dunn

Lightest Player

David Eckstein

Tallest Player

John Rauch

Shortest Player

Dustin Pedroia or Aaron Miles or Mike Fontenot...maybe Danny Ray Herrera

Best World Series

2001 - Arizona Diamondbacks over New York Yankees

Highest Attendance

New York Yankees (2008) - 4,298,655
Decade: New York Yankees 37,775,583

Lowest Attendance

Montreal Expos (2001) - 619,451
Decade: Florida Marlin 13,505,428

Largest Home-Field Advantage

Colorado Rockies (2003) 24 more wins at home than on the road
Decade: Colorado 135 more wins at home than on the road

Having Their Best Decade Ever

Los Angeles Angel of Anaheim, Philadelphia Phillies, Seattle Mariners

Having Their Worst Decade Ever

Baltimore Orioles, Kansas City Royals, Washington Nationals

Changing Directions

Oakland Athletics, Tampa Bay Rays, Detroit Tigers

Best Major League Player

2000 - Jason Giambi
2001 - Barry Bonds
2002 - Barry Bonds
2003 - Albert Pujols
2004 - Barry Bonds
2005 - Alex Rodriguez
2006 - Albert Pujols
2007 - Alex Rodriguez
2008 - Albert Pujols
2009 - Albert Pujols

Decade: Albert Pujols

Best Major League Pitchers

2000 - Pedro Martinez
2001 - Randy Johnson
2002 - Randy Johnson
2003 - Pedro Martinez
2004 - Johan Santana
2005 - Roger Clemens
2006 - Johan Santana
2007 - Jake Peavy
2008 - Cliff Lee
2009 - Zack Greinke

Decade: Johan Santana

Hardest Throwing Pitcher

Billy Wagner or Joel Zumaya

Best Curve

Mike Mussina or Ben Sheets or Roy Halladay or Barry Zito

Best Changeup

Johan Santana or Trevor Hoffman

Best Slider

Randy Johnson or Billy Wagner

Best Power/Speed Combination

Alfonso Soriano

Best Switch Hitter

Lance Berkman or Chipper Jones

Iron Man

Miguel Tejada

Best Bunter

Luis Castillo

Most Aggressive Base Runner

Carl Crawford

Fastest Player

Jose Reyes

Slowest Player

Bengie Molina or Jose Molina

Best Control Pitcher

Roy Halladay

Best Looking Players

Grady Sizemore, David Wright, Chris Young (P), Brad Ausmus, Torii Hunter

Ugliest Players

Randy Johnson, Hideki Matsui, Sal Fasano

Cap Anson Award

Barry Bonds

First of his Kind

Junichi Tazawa

Last of his Kind

Tim Wakefield?

One of a Kind

Josh Hamilton

Mr. Dickens I'd Like you to Meet

Jarrod Saltalamacchia

Most Admirable Superstar

Derek Jeter

Least Admirable Superstar

Gary Sheffield

Franchise Shifts

Montreal Expos to Washington Nationals

New Ballparks

2000 - Detroit
2000 - San Francisco
2000 - Houston
2001 - Milwaukee
2001 - Pittsburgh
2003 - Cincinnati
2004 - Philadelphia
2004 - San Diego
2006 - St. Louis
2008 - Washington
2009 - New York (AL)
2009 - New York (NL)

Best Pennant Races

2007 and 2008 NL East

Odd Couple

David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez

Highest Winning Percentage

Seattle Mariners .716 (2001)
Decade: New York Yankees .597

Lowest Winning Percentage

Detroit Tigers .265 (2003)
Decade: Pittsburgh Pirates .421

Worst Award Selection

2002 AL MVP (Miguel Tejada)

Best Player to Never win the MVP

Manny Ramirez

Homer

Garrett Atkins had an .892 OPS at home and a .735 OPS on the road

Yellowstone National Park Award

Adrian Gonzalez had a .795 OPS at home and a .935 OPS on the road

Tough Luck Season

Matt Cain 2007

Could I try this Career Over?

Mark Prior

Best Double Play Combination

Luis Castillo and Alex Gonzalez

Worst Double Play Combination

Alberto Callaspo and Yuniesky Betancourt

Paul Krichell Talent Scout Award

Bartolo Colon for Grady Sizemore, Brandon Phillips, Cliff Lee and Lee Stevens

Best Unrecognized Player

Bobby Abreu or Adam Dunn

Highest Paid Player

Alex Rodriguez