On MLB.com, they posted their All-Decade team yesterday. The voting was done by “73 experts voters”, including MLB Network analysts and MLB.com reporters, analysts and editors. Those experts chose Andrew McCutchen as one of the three outfielders for the All-Decade first team.
McCutchen did the majority of his work this past decade with the Pittsburgh Pirates. The 2010 season was his first full year in the big leagues. He was around through the end of the 2017 season. These last two years have been split between three teams and he has amassed just 2.2 WAR away from Pittsburgh.
McCutchen had a total of 47.9 WAR with the Pirates according to Baseball-Reference. Only 2.4 of that total came during his 2009 rookie season, so for eight years, he was averaging 5.7 WAR per year from 2010-17.
McCutchen was an All-Star in 2011 for the first of five straight seasons. In 2012, he won his first of four straight Silver Slugger awards. In 2013, he was named the National League MVP. He finished top five in the MVP voting each year from 2012 until 2015. He led the NL with a .952 OPS in 2014.
Most importantly for the Pirates during this time, he was in the lineup almost every single day, averaging 155 games played per year from 2010-17. He helped the club to three straight playoff seasons from 2013-15 by accumulating 18.9 WAR during that stretch.
Over the course of the entire decade, McCutchen posted a .286/.379/.481 slash line in 1,452 games. He had 221 homers, 1,540 hits, 308 doubles, 165 stolen bases, 868 runs scored and 765 RBIs.
Clearly it was an excellent decade for McCutchen, who was paired up alongside Mike Trout and Mookie Betts in the All-Decade outfield.
SONG OF THE DAY
No hidden meaning behind the song of the day, I heard it on a show yesterday and it was stuck in my head. Not a bad song to get stuck.
DAILY QUIZ
THIS DATE IN PIRATES HISTORY
By John Dreker
Four former Pittsburgh Pirates born on this date, plus one transaction of note.
On this date in 2002, the Pirates signed free agent outfielder Matt Stairs. He hit 16 homers in 107 games for the 2002 Milwaukee Brewers and he was two years removed from his fourth straight 20 home run season. Stairs played 121 games for the Pirates, batting .292 with 20 doubles, 20 homers and 57 RBIs. He signed a free agent deal with the Kansas City Royals after the season. Stairs played 19 years in the majors.
Joe Randa, third baseman for the 1997 and 2006 Pirates. He started his career with the Royals, getting 144 major league games in before the Pirates traded Jeff King and Jay Bell to Kansas City to acquire him and three pitchers named Jeff. Randa had a solid season for the surprising Pirates team in 1997, hitting .302 with 60 RBIs in 126 games. Following the season the Pirates lost him in the expansion draft to the Arizona Diamondbacks. That same day he was traded to the Detroit Tigers. He would last just one year in Detroit before they traded him to the Mets, who in turn would trade him back to the Royals just six days later. He had some success in Kansas City, hitting over .300 his first two years and driving in at least 80 runs for four straight seasons.
In 2005, Randa signed with the Reds who traded him to the Padres at the trade deadline. Granted free agency, he signed with the Pirates for the 2006 season. Randa struggled as the regular third baseman until an injured foot put him out from May 2- June 12. It opened the door for Freddy Sanchez to take over the position. Sanchez would go on to win the NL batting crown that year. Randa returned mostly as a bench player. He hit .267 in 89 games in 2006, his last season in the majors.
Gino Cimoli, outfielder for the 1960-61 Pirates. The Pirates traded pitcher Ron Kline in late 1959 to the St Louis Cardinals for Cimoli and pitcher Tom Cheney. Cimoli had four Major League seasons in at the time and was coming off his best year, hitting .279 with 40 doubles and 72 RBIs in 143 games for the 1959 Cardinals. In 1960 he played all three outfield positions, getting into 101 games. He hit .267 with 28 RBIs that first year in Pittsburgh. He played all seven games in the World Series, hitting .250 with four runs scored, helping the Pirates to their third title. In 1961 Cimoli got limited time, hitting .299 in 21 games before the Pirates traded him to the Braves in mid-June for shortstop Johnny Logan. Cimoli spent ten seasons in the majors, hitting .265 with 321 RBIs in 969 games.
Johnny Barrett, outfielder for the 1942-1946 Pirates. He played five seasons in the minors before the Pirates bought him from the Hollywood Stars in September of 1941. In his rookie season in 1942, he hit .246 with 56 runs scored in 111 games. He played 130 games the next season although he got just 290 at-bats and his average dropped to .231. With the level of play dropping due to the war, Barrett received even more playing time in 1944 despite dropping down in average during the previous year. He led the NL in 1944 in both triples with 19 and stolen bases with 28. He also drove in 83 runs, scored 99 runs and walked 86 times. He finished 21st in the NL MVP voting that year, then followed it up with a 20th place finish in 1945 when he hit .256 with 67 RBIs and 97 runs scored. Barrett struggled with the level of play back to normal standards in 1946, hitting just .169 in 32 games. The Pirates traded him mid-season to the Braves for Chuck Workman. Both Workman and Barrett lasted until the end of the season with their new team before finishing their careers in the minors.
Josh Rodriguez, shortstop for 2011 Pirates. Rodriguez had a brief stint with the Pirates, who picked him up in December 2010 in the Rule V draft. He made the team out of Spring Training, but after a slow start, he was returned to the Cleveland Indians. He went 1-for-12 with eight strikeouts. Rodriguez has spent the rest of his 14-year pro career in the minors, spending 2019 playing in Mexico. He went from a 39th round draft pick out of high school(did not sign) to a second round pick three years later out of Rice University.
