Derek's All-Rookie Team

Derek Zumsteg

If you were a GM (and if my recent access log analysis is accurate, only two of you might be), you'd probably drool yourself silly thinking of hot prospects playing for paltry salaries. If you were a crafty GM, you could easily have assembled this fine all-rookie team.

Hitters

Pos	Name	Age	OBP	SLG	OPS	Position Avg OPS
C	AJ Hinch	24	.324	.402	.726	.750
1B	Travis Lee	22	.353	.489	.842	.860
2B	Todd Walker	24	.402	.521	.923	.730
SS	Mike Caruso	21	.278	.280	.558	.710
3B	Bobby Smith	25	.388	.533	.911	.790
RF	Ben Grieve	22	.391	.468	.861	.830
CF	Mark Kotsay	25	.340	.388	.728	.780
LF	Matt Luke	27	.328	.484	.812	.810

Of these, only one (Travis Lee) would have cost you big money to sign (and you would have had to put up with Scott Boras). Only two (Hinch and Grieve) developed in organizations that would have had difficulty giving them up for a stop-gap player or prospect-of-the week. Many of them have been drafted twice (Todd Walker, for instance, was drafted by Texas in the 51st round and didn't sign).

After attempting to research these rookies in-depth on the Web, I'd like to complain about the terrible Marlins site, which is merely a front page for CBS Sportsline, and gives you "server didn't understand request" errors when you try to look up data.

I tried to pick rookies with over 100 ABs, and Matt Luke was the only exception I made, because there weren't any rookie LFs who qualified. Since he's 27, I'm skeptical he'd be a good Franchise Player candidate, but he was born in Long Beach, California, and that bodes well. Todd Walker appeared in 52 games last season, but give him a break.

Overall, this is a lineup that's just slightly above average, a margin of .104 over a set of league-average players. Not as impressive as you'd think hand-picking the best rookies would be, right? That's because of shortstop Caruso, who is so far below his position's pathetic average that he makes the whole team look bad. You see the tools I have to work with?

Over the course of a season, this lineup with a league-average DH (easily found in AAA) would score about 802 runs, which puts them 36 runs ahead of a league-average team and three-and-a-half wins up in the standings, without figuring for pitching. And do I have some pitchers for you.

Next installment: the pitchers and a six-man rotation.

Rumor has it that Derek Zumsteg is the guy in that infamous security-monitor video who practically smashes his computer. Ask him if the Marlins' site made him do it at dmz@strikethree.com.