I think my favorite baseball-themed show -- and the only one I can consistently stand to watch -- is "Prime 9" on MLB Network. If you haven't seen it, it's just a straight-up, half-hour countdown of the top nine...somethings in baseball history. I like it because the old clips are great, they get just enough of each old reporter or player talking about a guy without letting him ramble on, and because they have a balanced way of looking at things: they never say who comes up with the nine (they just say "us"), but whoever it is, there are obviously people who understand statistics along with your old traditional seat-of-the-pants types. Their Top 9 centerfielders, for instance, was pretty much dead on. Jim Edmonds made the list, for instance, and Tris Speaker made the list (ahead of DiMaggio, no less). It's refreshing.

They seem to do a mini-marathon of Prime 9s on Monday nights, and last night one of the topics was the nine best players of the 1980s.*

*The one after that was the nine best managers. I don't even want to get into how they rated Earl Weaver 7th, three spots behind Tony LaRussa.

The list:

9. Dwight Evans
8. Dale Murphy
7. Rickey Henderson
6. Cal Ripken Jr.
5. Mike Schmidt
4. Ryne Sandberg
3. Don Mattingly
2. Gary Carter
1. Jack Morris

I have to admit, I joined the program too late to hear the setup, and it took me until about #2 before I realized that they were numbering them by position rather than by quality. For just a minute, I really thought they were saying Don Mattingly was better than Mike Schmidt.

It's really a pretty good list...but not as good as the centerfielders one. Some notes:

• One guy is going into the Hall of Fame this season, and each of that guy's seven best seasons happened in the 1980s. Yet, the two positions he played -- center and right -- are filled on the all-eighties team by guys who are not in the Hall and may never be (and I think they're both clearly the right calls for the list). You might argue, I suppose, that if Dawson had played one position or the other for the whole decade, he'd be on the team. But I don't think he measures up, taking the decade only (he probably moves ahead of Murphy given his work in the 70s and 90s), and he wasn't even mentioned in the show. I thought that was interesting.
  
  
• Don Mattingly had 4422 plate appearances in the 1980s, putting up a 144 OPS+ and hitting 164 home runs. Eddie Murray had almost exactly 2000 more PA than Mattingly, put up a 141 and hit 274 homers. I'm sure Mattingly played at least slightly better defense than Murray during that time, but enough to make up for more than three seasons worth of playing time? WAR says no: Donnie was worth 33.1 wins above replacement in the eighties, Murray 45.2. Murray is in the Hall of Fame primarily due to his accomplishments in the 1980s; Mattingly essentially played only in the eighties, and hasn't gotten particularly close to the Hall. Strange decision there...and Murray wasn't even mentioned at the end of the program as one of their tough omissions (they mentioned Boggs and Brett at third and Ozzie and Yount at short). For what it's worth, I'd also rank Keith Hernandez well ahead of Mattingly, and Kent Hrbek about even.
  
  
• You know I've got to mention Morris. They were so smart and gutsy in leaving Dawson off in favor of Evans/Murray...so why get lame and silly and fall for that win total thing with Morris? Morris' ERA+ was 27th best among pitchers who threw 1000 innings or more in the eighties. And of course they played that "Jack didn't care about ERA, just winning" card...but it's been proven that that pitching to the score thing didn't happen. Morris was just a pretty good pitcher who happened to be a pretty good pitcher all ten years of the decade. Dave Stieb threw 100 fewer innings in the decade than Morris and absolutely crushed him in quality, putting up a 127 ERA+ to Morris' 109, and even had almost as high of a winning percentage despite generally pitching on poorer teams. So Stieb (who was actually interviewed for the episode, and I think was even shown praising Morris) is your runaway pitcher of the 1980s. Morris moves up several slots becuase he pitched so many more innings (2444) than most everyone on that list, but it's hard to see an argument for even putting him second. I think I'd rather have had the six years of Clemens, for instance (1285 innings, 134 ERA+) than ten of Morris. Ditto Doc Gooden (1291, 133) and seven seasons of Orel Hershiser (1457, 132). Bob Welch, Bert Blyleven, Charlie Hough, Nolan Ryan, and Fernando Valenzuela all pitched slightly fewer innings than Morris at (at least) a slightly higher quality, so you could certainly argue for any of them over Morris. In all, Morris has a real tough fight for fourth or fifth on that list, and way behind your leader, David Andrew Steib.

So, good for them for picking Evans. Boo for bowing to public perception and going with Mattingly and Morris. At the end of the program, the announcer always says "So that's our Prime 9. What's yours?" Well, it's probably clear already, but here's mine:

9 Dewey
8 Murphy
7 Rickey
6 Cal
5 Schmidt
4 Ryno
3 Eddie Murray
2 Carter
1 Dave Stieb

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