Hitting The Cutoff Man

Jerry Seinfeld once said that fans of sports teams "root for laundry," meaning that they root for teams rather than players, who tend to come and go at a rapid pace these days.

I don't think this is exactly true. We do root for the players wearing the jerseys; we just learn not to get too attached.

In any case, anyone who roots for an MLB team knows that with free agency, trades, etc., there is little roster stability these days. But just how little? Someone with the time, resources and know-how certainly could do a very comprehensive study of this, but I just decided to do something relatively simple and compare this year's rosters to those of 2005.

If a player played at least one game for a team in '05 and is still on that team's 40-man roster in 2010, then he counts (but not if he left and came back). Five years seemed like a reasonable time frame, although there was nothing scientific about the choice.

The results were not particularly surprising. The Twins led the way with eight players and were one of only five teams to keep at least six. Although every team still had at least one player, six had no more than that. The closest to zero was (unsurprisingly) the Marlins, whose one player (Josh Johnson) appeared in just four games in 2005.

The other interesting thing is that the teams near the top of the list have mostly been pretty successful of late. Of the 13 organizations who still had at least four players left, all but the Blue Jays have made the playoffs during that span, and nine had made it at least twice. There's not enough data to draw conclusions, but it certainly makes sense that there would be some correlation between roster stability and team success (although knowing when to cut ties with a player is important, too).

It would be interesting to know how this five-year period compares with other five-year periods in the past. I would imagine the results would be fairly similar from 2000 to 2005, but I'd bet you would find more stability as you headed further back in time. Maybe I will look into this later on.

But for now, here is your full list:
Eight
Twins: Mauer, Morneau, Punto, Cuddyer, Nathan, Crain, Guerrier, Liriano
Seven
Blue Jays: Wells, Hill, McDonald, Frasor, Downs, League, Marcum
Cubs: Lee, Ramirez, Theriot, Soto, Fontenot, Zambrano, Dempster (note: Theriot/Soto/Fontenot combined for just 20 plate appearances in '05).
Six
Red Sox: Varitek, Ortiz, Youkilis, Wakefield, Papelbon, Delcarmen
Angels: Rivera, Izturis, Mathis, Santana, Shields, Saunders
Five
Cardinals: Pujols, Molina, Schumaker, Carpenter, Wainwright
Rockies: Helton, Barmes, Hawpe, Francis, Cook
Tigers: Guillen, Inge, Ordonez, Bonderman, Verlander
Yankees: Jeter, Rodriguez, Posada, Cano, Rivera
Four
Indians: Peralta, Sizemore, Hafner, Westbrook
White Sox: Pierzynski, Konerko, Buehrle, Jenks
Phillies: Howard, Utley, Rollins, Madson
Astros: Berkman, Quintero, Oswalt, Rodriguez
Three
Nationals: Guzman, Zimmerman, Bergmann
Diamondbacks: Snyder, Jackson, Webb
Mets: Reyes, Wright, Beltran
Pirates: Doumit, Duke, Maholm
Braves: Jones, McCann, Hudson
Mariners: Ichiro, Lopez, Hernandez
A's: Ellis, Chavez, Duchscherer
Rangers: Young, Wilson, Feldman
Brewers: Weeks, Hart, Fielder
Two
Royals: DeJesus, Greinke
Dodgers: Broxton, Kuo
One
Marlins: Johnson
Reds: Harang
Giants: Cain
Padres: Stauffer
Rays: Crawford
Orioles: Roberts

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