It's been forever and a day since I last did one of these (I believe the last one I did was in 2014). The reason? As ridiculous as it sounds, I lost my spreadsheets saved on a flash drive and it was too much work (from 1988 to 2014, so 26 years worth of work) to get it up and running again. So I stopped. A childhood dream that grew with me was somehow lost.
I plan on making up for that. Eleven seasons worth of it. Eventually.
But I digress.
But for now as the first set of wild card playoffs go into full swing tonight, why not resurrect what was my favorite time of the year, the naming of bdj610's End of the Year All-Star Teams.
If you want to know what the heck I'm talking about and why I have created All-Star Teams for both leagues since I was 12 years old, please review the introduction and brief history (ahem...brief???) as to why I did this every year for the 26 years.Quick rules on how I comprise the teams:
- Two teams, one American League team, and one National League team
- There are 36 spots on each team (three first basemen, three second basemen, three third basemen, three shortstops, nine outfielders, three catchers, six starting pitchers, four relief pitchers/closers, one relief pitcher/set-up, and one DH)
- Every team gets a representative. No exceptions. If a player gets snubbed by a guy who is only there because a team needed a rep, then that's sadly the way it goes.
Things that happened when I last did this (in 2014):
- The Cubs won a World Series!!!
- The Cleveland Indians were renamed the Cleveland Guardians
- The Oakland Athletics existed (they're currently just the Athletics until they move to Las Vegas)
- The DH is now in both leagues (When I last did this exercise, only the AL had a DH position, and the player I selected as the DH for the NL was the best hitter who didn't make the team at any other position).
- Some guy managed to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season (and in 1988, 40-40 was a relatively new concept).
- I could go on and on, but...
Back to the point.
Why start with the bullpens?
Because it's relatively simple. The top four guys with the most saves are automatically on the teams. Usually.
So let's start with the American League closers. On this year's team are (with their 2026 Topps cards...including Update Series):
- Bryan Baker, Rays (4-2, 1.44, 41/44 in saves/opportunities, #US287)
- Cade Smith, Guardians (1-3, 1.44, 41/46 saves/opportunities, #622)
- Aroldis Chapman, Red Sox (3-4, 1.92, 35/37 saves/opportunities, #656)
- Louis Varland, Blue Jays (5-6, 1.27, 35/37 saves/opportunities, #US210)
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| 2026 Topps Cade Smith #622 |
These four players led the American League in saves, (the fifth was David Bednar, who had 35 saves as well, with a 7-3 record, and a 2.47 ERA). Chapman was on my 2014 NL All-Star team, so he's a bridge between the last time I made one of these and now. Others I had considered were actual 2026 All-Star Jacob Latz of the Rangers (3-4, 2.13 ERA, 30/34 saves/opportunities, 0.73 WHIP) and Josh Hader of the Astros (4-2, 1.01 ERA, 26/26 saves/opportunities).
The National League closers for the 2026 team are:
- Mason Miller, Padres (5-2, 1.67, 38/41 saves/opportunities, #179)
- Raisel Iglesias, Braves (1-2, 2.55, 34/37 saves/opportunities, #396)
- Jhoan Duran, Phillies (2-6, 1.82, 33/35 saves/opportunities, #83)
- Trevor Megill, Brewers (3-3, 2.63, 30/33 saves/opportunities, #141)
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| 2026 Topps Mason Miller #179 |
These four have a combined WHIP ((walks + hits)/innings pitched) of 0.964! When given the opportunity to save games, these guys were almost unhittable). Others almost considered were Riley O'Brien of the Cardinals (3-9, 4.08, 38/46 saves/opportunities), Tanner Scott of the Dodgers (1-6, 2.69, 25/29 saves/opportunities), and Emilio Pagán of the Reds (5-1, 3.38, 25/28 saves/opportunities).
When I first started naming players to All-Star teams, I only considered closers for the bullpen roles. Since then I've added middle relievers, the guys who barely ever get any baseball cards, to the squads. They've been an important part of any All-Star bullpen (and even in the World Baseball Classic, bullpens consist of really good middle relievers to go complement the closers). So many great pitching performances this year by so many different players, it's just so hard to choose just one player to fill this spot. But one spot is available on both sides for a middle reliever. When all was said and done though, the two players I selected were more than qualified to make it onto the respective teams.
The AL Middle Reliever for the 2026 team is Tyler Rogers of the Blue Jays (#US117). He tied for the AL lead n holds with 33, earned a 2-3 record, had an ERA of 1.77, struck out 40 batters, and even saved 4/8 games in 71 innings of work. Others up for consideration included Rays reliever Kevin Kelly (6-4, 2.44 ERA, 63 K's, 0.90 WHIP, 33 holds), and Hunter Gaddis of the Guardians (6-3, 2.98, 57 K's, 32 holds).
The NL Middle Reliever for the 2026 team is the Padres' Adrian Morejon (#US154). His 28 holds were good for second in the NL, but a 9-3 record (which also means that he kept opposing teams down before the Padres would rally), along with a 2.83 ERA, 107 strikeouts, 3/8 in saves/opportunities, and a 1.08 WHIP was more than enough to get him added as the middle reliever. The only other pitcher in consideration for this spot was Dylan Lee of the Braves (6-1, 3.09 ERA, 77 K's, league leading 31 holds).
So right now, we've named the bullpens for each team. Who will fill out the rest of the rosters? Tomorrow, I will name the six starting pitchers that will round out the pitching staffs on each team.
By Thursday, every team will get a representative as I announce just some of the players who will take spots on both leagues' rosters.
And finally on Friday, I will round out the rest of the rosters and introduce the complete American and National League teams.
Wait and see. It's going to look good I promise.
Sincerely,
JayBee Anama
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