Posted on by Will Geoghegan

Let’s Do a List

The post below is the beginning of a series looking back on the best Cape League players of the decade.

I had the idea awhile ago and once I confirmed that this is in fact the last year of the decade, I set out working on it. It was all ready to go about two weeks ago, until I realized I had left two players out who clearly should have been on the list. This shot holes through the whole thing, so I kind of started over. Without a lot of spare time, I wasn’t able to get it done as quickly as I hoped, but it’s finally ready. Since there are fewer than 50 days before the end of the decade, I’ll do two per day a few times to catch up. At the end, I’m planning on picking a team and franchise of the decade, as well.

A few notes on the list:

  • At some point, it turned into splitting hairs, especially among the pitchers. In a Cape League sample size, there isn’t much difference between a 0.50 and 1.50 ERA, so it was a little tough to make distinctions. There were 20 more pitchers who you could make a pretty good case for. It’s all in fun, though, so I’m not too worried about it.
  • Stats were the biggest factor, but I gave some weight to subjective stuff, too. Two big factors: how a player was thought of in his season and how a player performed relative to his peers. For instance, Evan Longoria put up huge offensive numbers in the best pitching year of the decade. I tried to take stuff like that into account where I could.
  • The year 2005 was ridiculous. You’ll see.
  • The debate for the top spot came down to two players, and it was really hard to separate them. The suspense must be killing you.

    • So that should sum it up. We’ll have at least one every day until the New Year. Feel free to comment on the posts and share your memories of these guys. More than rankings, that’s what this thing is all about.

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