is jayson stark the sappiest baseball writer alive?

Stark's all-21st-century team:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6372926/2025/05/22/mlb-quarter-century-team-2000-2025/

If you can't access that:

1B - Pujols
2B - Altuve
SS - Jeter
3B - Beltre
LF - Bonds
CF - Trout
RF - Judge
C - Molina
DH - Ortiz
SP - Verlander, Kershaw, Halladay, Scherzer, R. Johnson
RP - Rivera

I guess the most obvious omission is Ohtani, but he does address that in the blurb for Ortiz:

Leaving Shohei Ohtani off this team might have been the worst part of this entire exercise. Just the thought of that made me want to invent a whole different “position” just for him:

DH/ace/superhero/international man of mystery?

I’m pretty sure if that was the question, he was the answer.

obv there's nothing wrong with that list but it's also so obvious that i don't know what the point of publishing it was

So people like me would link to it...One obvious inconsistency. He goes with Randy Johnson over Greinke because of Johnson's historical dominence from 2000-02: "I’ll take next-level greatness. Always." Not always, though--picking Ortiz over Ohtani is the reverse of that.

I thought Jayson Stark's Overrated/Underrated book was one of the worst baseball books I've ever read.

I haven’t got a take besides the fact that he wrote a long hagiographical piece about Pete Rose recently that really made me dislike him!

I'd have to go back and check, but even though some of his over/under choices were really weird, I think it was more the writing itself that I found unbearable--really impressed with its own cleverness (though not clever in the least).

Yeah that was the tone of that piece as well

What I wrote about the Stark book 12 years ago:

Baseball Books

The idea that Kevin Brown, Tommy John, and Graig Nettles are overrated is bizarre.

Not to harp on this, but:

Graig Nettles' career WAR was 67.9, with a defensive WAR of 21.4. For that he 1) got MVP votes in four seasons, with 5th being his highest finish; 2) received all of two GG (up against Brooks Robinson for the first few years of his career, admittedly); and 3) lasted four years on the HOF ballot, with a first-year high of 8.3%.

in his career, a-rod played more SS than 3B. but i guess not in this century

also cano and utley, by WAR, are well ahead of altuve, who seems to be fading at age 35. he does have an mvp tho

I think Beltre is the right choice, although I imagine decent arguments could be made for Machado or Arenado at third. The most disputed choice in the comments, not surprisingly, is Molina; a much shakier position this century than the 1950-2000 window of Bench/Berra/Campanella/Fisk/Piazza/etc.

in his career, a-rod played more SS than 3B. but i guess not in this century

also cano and utley, by WAR, are well ahead of altuve, who seems to be fading at age 35. he does have an mvp tho

― mookieproof, Thursday, May 22, 2025 5:49 PM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

stark implies in the column that cano would have been the choice if not for being a 2x PED offender

jeter over lindor was the one that caught my eye first. excluding jeter’s first 5 years is removing a lot of value (and rings)

Sabbathia snubbed, but fitting due to sentimental choices instead of rational ones.

Just out of curiosity, I did an eight-year-peak comparison between Beltre/Arenado/Machado:

Beltre (2009-16) - 203 HR, .305/.353/.507, 128 OPS+, 6.7 bWAR/162 games
Arenado (2015-22) - 271 HR, .291/.353/.553, 129 OPS+, 6.5 bWAR/162 games
Machado (2015-22) - 250 HR, .282/.348/.508, 132 OPS+, 5.9 bWAR/162 games

Close, but Beltre wins (and his greatest season, 2004, falls outside his 8-year window).

Ha--I'm always talking about how underrated Jose Ramirez is, so of course I left him out...

Ramirez (2017-24) - 236 HR, .280/.358/.530, 140 OPS+, 6.4 bWAR/162 games.

Highest OPS+ of the four, but still Beltre on bWAR. Won't bother to check Rolen, I doubt he'd be quite at their level.

Great century for third basemen.