Building a 2016 MLB Superteam Based on Top Teammate Tandems
Our mission as the dog days of summer begin is to construct an MLB superteam using the top teammate tandems from around the league.
The team's roster will be built using the following five groups of teammates:
- Starting pitcher and catcher
- First baseman and third baseman
- Second baseman and shortstop
- Left fielder, center fielder and right fielder
- Two setup relievers and a closer
The focus is solely on the 2016 season, so we're not looking for which teammates have the most upside or which teammates have the best track record.
We're simply looking for who is the best right now.
We chose a first team at each of the five position groups and provided full analysis before naming a second team to serve as an honorable-mention squad of sorts.
Let the debate begin.
Starting Pitcher-Catcher
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First Team: San Francisco Giants
Analysis
No one would call Madison Bumgarner the game's best pitcher, and Buster Posey is in the midst of a down season offensively by his standards, but as a battery there is still none better than the Bumgarner-Posey connection.
To say Bumgarner is not the best pitcher in the game is not a slight. He's one of the game's true aces and is in the midst of arguably the best regular season of his career with a 1.85 ERA, which is over a run better than his career mark of 2.94.
He may not be No. 1, but he's solidly among the 10 best starters in the majors.
As for Posey, he's hitting well below what was a career .310/.375/.484 line entering this season, but he's still one of the biggest offensive threats at catcher and has historically been a better second-half performer.
He has also thrown out 60 percent (15 of 25) of would-be base stealers and is the game's best pitch-framer, according to StatCorner. His offense gets the headlines, but his defense deserves plenty of attention as well.
Bumgarner and Posey have already etched their place in San Francisco Giants history by helping the team claim three World Series titles, and in 2016 they are the best all-around pitcher-catcher tandem in MLB.
Second Team: Washington Nationals
First Baseman-Third Baseman
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First Team: Chicago Cubs
Analysis
One of the driving forces behind the Chicago Cubs' rise to dominance is a wealth of young position-player talent. First baseman Anthony Rizzo, 26, and third baseman Kris Bryant, 24, are at the center of it.
Rizzo finished fourth in National League MVP voting a year ago, when he posted an .899 OPS with 31 home runs and 101 RBI, and he's been even better so far this season with a .959 OPS that ranks eighth among qualified hitters.
On top of his power and run-production abilities, he's also one of the best defensive first basemen in the league, a good baserunner for his size and a leader in the clubhouse and on the field for the best team in baseball.
Bryant has split his time between third base (41 games) and left field (37 games) as manager Joe Maddon continues to get creative in his use of infielder Javier Baez, but for the sake of this discussion we're still calling him a third baseman.
He turned in a terrific rookie season last year with an .858 OPS, 26 home runs and 99 RBI. He won NL Rookie of the Year honors, but he also struck out a league-high 199 times.
This season, he's continued to put up good power and on-base numbers, but he's trimmed his strikeout rate from 30.6 to 22.6 percent and in the process emerged as one of the best hitters in the National League.
A full-time move to left field could be in the cards for Bryant at some point, but one way or another these two figure to be the centerpieces of the Cubs offense for the foreseeable future. They're an easy choice to man the corner infield spots on our superteam.
Second Team: Arizona Diamondbacks
Second Baseman-Shortstop
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First Team: Boston Red Sox
Analysis
It's important that we once again clarify we are building a superteam based solely on 2016 and not one for long-term success. Otherwise, the Jose Altuve-Carlos Correa double-play combination in Houston would be the obvious choice.
But based on 2016 alone, first-team honors go to the Boston Red Sox tandem of Dustin Pedroia and Xander Bogaerts.
Pedroia has dealt with injuries the past few seasons and is nearing the tail end of his prime at 32 years old, but he's back to producing at a top-tier level while hitting in the No. 2 spot in the best lineup in baseball.
His .453 slugging percentage and .811 OPS both represent his highest marks since 2011, and he's continued to play sterling defense as well. He leads all second basemen with eight defensive runs saved and is making a strong case for a fifth career Gold Glove Award.
He's joined up the middle by one of the game's up-and-coming superstars in Bogaerts.
After a somewhat disappointing rookie season in 2014, he took a huge step forward last year when he raised his OPS from .660 to .776. He finished second in the American League with a .320 batting average and also made significant strides defensively to erase any questions about where he would play long term.
The 23-year-old leads the AL with a .347 batting average and 100 hits, but it's his increased power that has made him a bona fide star. His slugging percentage has climbed from .421 to .510, and he already has more home runs (nine) than he did all of last year (seven).
Those power numbers are made even more impressive by the fact that he's done it while significantly raising his walk rate (4.9 to 7.6 percent) and maintaining a similar strikeout rate (15.4 to 15.3 percent).
Second Team: Houston Astros
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Left Field-Center Field-Right Field
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First Team: Pittsburgh Pirates
Analysis
This would have been a significantly easier choice if Andrew McCutchen or Giancarlo Stanton were performing at anywhere near their normal superstar levels. Instead, it came down to the supporting casts flanking those two marquee names.
The nod went to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Starling Marte has quietly emerged as one of the most well-rounded players in the game over the past few years. In 2015, he was one of just three players—Paul Goldschmidt and Lorenzo Cain were the others—to tally 15 home runs, 15 stolen bases and 15 defensive runs saved.
This season, he's raised his average nearly 50 points (.287 to .333) and his OPS almost 100 points (.780 to .876). He's also already tallied 10 DRS and 20 stolen bases as he continues to contribute in a multitude of ways.
As for the aforementioned McCutchen, he was slow out of the gate again this season with a .226 average in April and has yet to hit his stride.
He exploded with an .885 OPS and 24 extra-base hits in the second half last year and could be an X-factor for the Pirates if he can get hot at the plate.
Rounding out the outfield trio is another budding star in Gregory Polanco, who has picked up right where he left off in 2015.
After experiencing some growing pains on his way to a .237/.315/.338 line in the first half last season, he turned a corner after the break with a .276/.324/.425 line and has continued trending upward in 2016.
He's moved into the No. 3 spot in the lineup after hitting primarily leadoff in 2015, is second in the National League with 23 doubles and boasts a notably improved walk rate (8.4 to 12.6 percent).
Marte and Polanco were both center fielders early in their development, so on top of its offensive prowess, this outfield is also capable of covering significant ground defensively.
Second Team: Miami Marlins
Setup Man-Setup Man-Closer
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First Team: New York Yankees
SU: Dellin Betances
17 HLD, 3.24 ERA, 1.020 WHIP, 8 BB, 62 K, 33.1 IP, 0.4 WAR
SU: Andrew Miller
10 HLD, 1.21 ERA, 0.674 WHIP, 3 BB, 55 K, 29.2 IP, 1.5 WAR
CL: Aroldis Chapman
13/14 SV, 3.18 ERA, 1.059 WHIP, 3 BB, 25 K, 17.0 IP, 0.3 WAR
Analysis
The New York Yankees knew they were building something special this offseason when they added flame-throwing Aroldis Chapman to the back of a bullpen that already featured what most considered to be the best late-inning tandem in the game in Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller.
Chapman missed the first month of the season while serving a suspension, but he's been every bit as dominant as expected since returning, and the trio has lived up to its billing.
"No Run DMC" has combined for a ridiculous 142-14 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 80 innings of work, piling up 27 holds and 20 saves to help take some pressure off what has been a shaky starting rotation.
The big question at this point is whether all three of these relief aces will still be wearing Yankees uniforms when the Aug. 1 trade deadline passes.
Chapman is a free agent at season's end and is the most likely of the three to be moved if New York falls out of the playoff hunt, but Miller and Betances would net a far more significant return in a market thin on impact arms.
At any rate, this trio is the obvious choice for a spot on our superteam.
Miller and Chapman are arguably the two best left-handed relievers in all of baseball, while the right-handed Betances has been an absolute horse since the start of 2014 with 207.1 innings of work over 178 appearances.
Second Team: Kansas City Royals
SU: Joakim Soria
11 HLD, 2.94 ERA, 1.277 WHIP, 14 BB, 31 K, 33.2 IP, 0.6 WAR
SU: Kelvin Herrera
19 HLD, 1.60 ERA, 0.921 WHIP, 6 BB, 40 K, 33.2 IP, 1.3 WAR
CL: Wade Davis
18/19 SV, 1.03 ERA, 0.949 WHIP, 11 BB, 26 K, 26.1 IP, 1.4 WAR
The Lineups
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First-Team Lineup
LF Starling Marte
2B Dustin Pedroia
SS Xander Bogaerts
1B Anthony Rizzo
3B Kris Bryant
C Buster Posey
CF Andrew McCutchen
RF Gregory Polanco
SP Madison Bumgarner
RP Andrew Miller
RP Dellin Betances
CL Aroldis Chapman
Second-Team Lineup
2B Jose Altuve
LF Christian Yelich
SS Carlos Correa
1B Paul Goldschmidt
RF Giancarlo Stanton
CF Marcell Ozuna
3B Jake Lamb
C Wilson Ramos
SP Stephen Strasburg
RP Joakim Soria
RP Kelvin Herrera
CL Wade Davis
Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and accurate through Monday, June 20.
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