Buster Olney's Top 10 Position Groups - All Time - A few Reds on lists

[Jason]

[b]Top 10 Rotations[/b]: No Reds in list
Link: [url="http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/blog/_/name/olney_buster/id/8862063/the-1997-atlanta-braves-top-best-rotations-mlb-history-mlb"]http://insider.espn....mlb-history-mlb[/url]

[b]Top 10 Bullpens:[/b] 1990 Reds come in #2
Link: [url="http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/blog/_/name/olney_buster/id/8864765/the-1998-new-york-yankees-top-best-bullpens-mlb-history-mlb"]http://insider.espn....mlb-history-mlb[/url]
[quote]
[b] 2. 1990 [url="http://espn.go.com/mlb/team/_/name/cin/cincinnati-reds"]Cincinnati Reds[/url]: The Nasty Boys[/b]

[color=#333333][font=verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif][size=3]Really, we're talking about three guys here: Randy Myers, Rob Dibble and [url="http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/_/id/1858/norm-charlton"]Norm Charlton[/url]. They were all relatively young -- Myers and Charlton were 27 years old, Dibble 26 -- and Lou Piniella went to them constantly to end games after the sixth inning. Charlton was moved into the Cincinnati rotation midway through the season, before switching back for the postseason, and that year, he threw 154 1/3 innings in 56 games, striking out 117. Dibble threw 98 innings in 68 appearances, striking out 136, and Myers had a 2.08 ERA in 66 appearances, accumulating 31 saves. But their reputation was fully made in the postseason, when the trio allowed one earned run in the National League Championship Series (against the Pirates), before shutting out Oakland for 8 2/3 innings in the postseason -- so all told, the Nasty Boys allowed one earned run in 24 innings in October.[/quote][/size][/font][/color]


[b]Top 10 Outfields:[/b] 1976 Reds on "Others mentioned"
Link: [url="http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/blog/_/name/olney_buster/id/8868085/the-1961-new-york-yankees-top-10-best-outfields-mlb-history-mlb"]http://insider.espn....mlb-history-mlb[/url]

[b]Top 10 Infields:[/b] 1976 Reds #1!!!!!! 1991 Reds also make the "Also considered" list.
Link: [url="http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/blog/_/name/olney_buster/id/8872027/big-red-machine-top-10-infields-baseball-history-mlb"]http://insider.espn....all-history-mlb[/url]
[quote]

[color=#333333][font=verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif][size=3][background=transparent][b]1. 1976 [url="http://espn.go.com/mlb/team/_/name/cin/cincinnati-reds"]Cincinnati Reds[/url]
1B Tony Perez, 2B Joe Morgan, SS Davey Concepcion, 3B Pete Rose[/b][/background][/size][/font][/color]
[color=#333333][font=verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif][size=3][background=transparent][background=transparent]Start with this: Joe Morgan posted an OPS+ of 186 that year, which is the highest for any middle infielder after 1935.[/background][/background][/size][/font][/color]
[color=#333333][font=verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif][size=3][background=transparent][background=transparent]Morgan was a Gold Glove winner at his position that year and won his second consecutive MVP award after posting a career-high OPS of 1.020, with 62 extra-base hits, 114 walks, 111 RBIs and 60 stolen bases in 69 attempts. That was the fifth of six consecutive seasons in which Morgan scored more than 100 runs.[/background][/background][/size][/font][/color]

[background=transparent]Oh, by the way, the first baseman, Perez, had 57 extra-base hits and eventually would be voted into the Hall of Fame. Concepcion, the shortstop, also won the Gold Glove and hit .281, developing into a borderline Hall of Famer; I don't think it would surprise anyone if some veterans' committee sometime voted him into the Hall of Fame.[/background]
[background=transparent][background=transparent]And, oh by the way, the third baseman hit .323, with a .404 on-base percentage, scored 130 runs -- and later became the all-time leader in hits. Pretty good.[/background][/background]
[background=transparent][background=transparent]If you argued that the Reds' infield performed [/background][url="http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CIN/1975.shtml"]even better in 1975[/url][background=transparent], that would be more than reasonable.[/background][/background][/quote]



[b]Top 10 Lineups:[/b] Olney lost all credibility today by not listing the 1976 Reds AT ALL. Not Top 10, not "Others considered".
Link: [url="http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/blog/_/name/olney_buster/id/8875991/top-10-lineups-baseball-history-mlb#comments"]http://insider.espn....ry-mlb#comments[/url]

[b]Top 10 Teams:[/b] 1975 Reds come in 5th.

[quote][b]5. 1975 Cincinnati Reds[/b][color=#333333][font=verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif][size=3]
They clinched a playoff spot in early September and won the NL West by 20 games, finishing the year at 108-54. Six of the eight guys in their everyday lineup had an OPS+ of 119 or better. Each Reds player through the middle of the diamond -- catcher Johnny Bench, second baseman Joe Morgan, shortstop Davey Concepcion and center fielder Cesar Geronimo -- won a Gold Glove award. And while the Reds didn't have the league's best pitching, theirs was [url="http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/NL/1975.shtml"]pretty darned good[/url]. Manager Sparky Anderson -- known as Captain Hook -- relied heavily on his bullpen. The Reds had the fewest complete games (22) in the NL, and four Cincinnati relievers threw a whole lot of innings: Rawly Eastwick (90 innings), Pedro Borbon (125), Clay Carroll (87 1/3) and Will McEnaney (91).[/size][/font][/color][color=#333333][font=verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif][size=3]
Of the many great numbers generated by this group, this might be my favorite: Bench was 11-for-11 in stolen bases.[/quote][/size][/font][/color]

Link: http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/blog/_/name/olney_buster/id/8880086/1998-new-york-yankees-top-list-top-10-teams-all-time-mlb