Over the last few weeks, CubicleGM has reviewed some post fantasy baseball draft thoughts, overvalued/undervalued, some of the differences between playing in a points league versus a roto league, a draft day diary, and even some thoughts from a fantasy baseball wifey. Additionally, before those posts, Vlookup Vince powered up his Excel 2007 for a look at the All Single-Season Fantasy Team, and a look at best in-season acquisitions. In a similar vein, Vlookup Vince cranked his Excel engine again to look at the best fantasty players of the decade, thus far. This happens to exactly align with the start of the keeper fantasy league that CubicleGM plays in – convenient, to say the least. Again, we’re using standard fantasy points scoring (which tends to favor pitchers a bit more):
Your top overall player: Randy Johnson with 5,968 points, 152 Wins, and 2460 Ks.
The rest of the top ten in chart form:
| Rank | Player | Points |
| 2 | Rivera | 5478 |
| 3 | Arod | 5414 |
| 4 | Pujols | 5138 |
| 5 | Guerrero | 5061 |
| 6 | Helton | 5001 |
| 7 | Schilling | 4954 |
| 8 | Mussina | 4921 |
| 9 | Vazquez | 4908 |
| 10 | Santana | 4819 |
How quickly we forget that Helton had a string of monster seasons in the early Aughts (00s), when he hit .320+ with 35+ HRs. Similarly, as Vlad the Impaler has aged, his consecutive 30/30 seasons have become harder to recall. Curt Schilling’s recent retirement, and the media attention around that have put his 00s in proper perspective. Above all, Rivera’s 353 saves this decade are truly amazing, leading to his rise to second on the list.
For fun, a look at 11-20:
| Rank | Player | Points |
| 11 | Hudson | 4808 |
| 12 | Abreu | 4803 |
| 13 | Maddux | 4801 |
| 14 | Pedro | 4772 |
| 15 | Bonds | 4761 |
| 16 | Oswalt | 4694 |
| 17 | Halladay | 4655 |
| 18 | Berkman | 4647 |
| 19 | Giles, Brian | 4613 |
| 20 | Manny | 4567 |
Again, many of these players did most of their damage in the first half of the decade. Hudson, Pedro, & Giles (extremely surprised to see in the top 20, personally) racked up the vast majority of their points before 2005, while Manny, Halladay, Oswalt and Berkman have been consistent studs all decade long.
A few of these spots will definitely change hands based on this season’s stats. I have to imagine 21-23 (Sabathia, Lowe, & Beltran) will replace Giles, Bonds and Pedro by season’s end in the top 20, with a strong likelihood of one of Delgado, Damon or Chipper Jones squeaking into the top 20 by season’s end – needing 350 points or so to replace Maddux. One of the three should top that total.
What will the top 20 of 2010-2019 look like? High likelihood that the much ballyhooed Matt Wieters could end up in the top 20, along with young pitchers like Lincecum, Felix Hernandex, and Hamels. As this list showed, a very strong start to the decade can punch a ticket to the top 20, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see Johan Santana and Dan Haren on the list. Similarly, David Wright, Longoria, Sizemore, Hanley Ramirez, and Ryan Braun all likely could make the top 20.
I cannot express how proud I am of Javier Vazquez, Tim Hudson, and Pedro Martinez. They carried me through dominant times in sandbox, and their legacies will not be forgotten. In memory of these three great men I have decided to name my first child Hudson Cook. I’m not kidding.