2012 Opening Day Rosters

Can you name the 2012 Opening Day Rosters?
Wow. This is what we've been working toward, and this is it, my favorite quiz ever. I can't even imagine the amount of effort this took, but it's a fantastic way to kill a day. I hope you don't have a job you want to keep if you want to take it. It's the kind of thing that makes me want to learn flash so I could create a similar quiz for years gone by (the one complaint I have is that there's no mechanism for you to track who you've guessed -- sure you've typed hernandez, but that doesn't mean you know who you got for every team that has a Hernandez, which means you don't know who you're missing).

I made it to 624 after several ages of working on this and charting everything on paper (keeping a second window of the same game open so I could track multiple player last names and check off where they fit on the teams). I was at 24 for the Nationals for ages before I realized I'd just never typed in Strasburg. Whoops.

I also apparently know 24 members of the Chicago White Sox. That's disturbing, especially considering I only got 25 for two teams (the Indians, my favorite team, and the Nationals, which is helped by the fact that I've already gone to 6 of their games this year -- and inadvertently got Brett Carroll, thank you, Minnesota Twins).

I have two gripes -- one, there's some hitch in it with a couple of last names (Perez and possibly Davis, so I had to type them twice to get all the answers to show up) and two, I'm not sure why to go with the post-Japan opening day rosters for the A's/Mariners. Although they allowed the teams to travel with extra players, there were only 25 on the active roster on day 1, so those should be the answers. That said, the A's and Mariners were the teams I knew the least, I'm not so sure it'd have mattered. And...again, awesome.

MLB Rosters by Decade

I'm in the early stages of another daunting series (inspired by jaysee and steelehere's quizzes for teams in the 1970s and 1980s), creating a whole new level of unnecessary depth to MLB obscurities. These quizzes are "name every player to have played in a game for [MLB Team] in a decade". I'm only through a few so far (starting with the usual suspects, of course), but they should prove interesting.
Cincinnati Reds of the:
1970s (by jaysee)
1980s
1990s
2000s


Cleveland Indians of the:
1980s
1990s
2000s

Florida Marlins of the:
1990s


Kansas City Royals of the:
1980s


Los Angeles Dodgers of the:
1970s (by jaysee)
1980s (by steelehere)


Montreal Expos of the:
1980s


New York Yankees of the:
1980s (by steelehere)


Philadelphia Phillies of the:
1980s
1990s
2000s

Some of the quizzes are redundant in part, I learned after posting several that moose2438 had posted quizzes with the same answers for the 1990s, but with a different format (closer to ironsij0287's 200 series that doesn't distinguish positions). So I'll be doing the 1990s last, because while I prefer my format, they are effectively redundant and I don't want to take away from the quality work moose2438 did.
As of May 1, the next quizzes I anticipate in this series are the Orioles, Cubs, Pirates, and Cardinals of the 1980s and the Royals and Pirates of the 2000s (I can't even imagine the trauma associated with those two).

Wild-card Era Second Basemen: 1994-2011

Second Basemen of the Wild-Card Era: 1994-2011
209 out of 300

I definitely could have done better and missed several that I should have gotten, but it's an interesting mix.

Highest missed (games) STL 474
Highest missed (percentage) MIN 275 (31.7%)
Lowest got (games) TBR 34; CLE 34
Lowest got (percentage) BAL 98; KC 46 (0.3%) - nothing groundbreaking for either of those.

ANA: 3 of 5 (missed 57, 41); ARI: 7 of 10 (missed 117, 102, 91); ATL: 8 of 8; BAL: 5 of 6 (missed 117)
BOS: 6 of 12 (missed 126, 90, 80, 75, 45, 43); CAL: 0 of 2 (missed 174, 106); CHC: 9 of 12 (missed 182, 37, 34); CHW: 8 of 12 (missed 99, 61, 46, 37); CIN: 7 of 10 (missed 107, 85, 35); CLE: 9 of 9; COL: 7 of 12 (missed 114, 113, 104, 50, 49); DET: 12 of 14 (missed 70, 36); FLA: 2 of 4 (missed 146, 46); HOU: 4 of 7 (missed 262, 121, 81); KC: 8 of 14 (missed 181, 151, 54, 44, 38, 35); LAA: 3 of 3; LAD: 5 of 7 (missed 161, 46); MIL: 5 of 6 (missed 127); MIN: 7 of 11 (missed 275, 138, 79, 64); MON: 3 of 5 (missed 61, 59); NYM: 5 of 9 (missed 139, 74, 65, 41); NYY: 3 of 4 (missed 272); OAK: 8 of 12 (missed 294, 261, 50, 37); PHI: 4 of 5 (missed 95); PIT: 8 of 11 (missed 374, 75, 48); STL: 5 of 10 (missed 474, 167, 80, 68, 58); SD: 9 of 11 (missed 122, 37); SF: 6 of 11 (missed 185, 94, 94, 65, 50); SEA 8 of 11 (missed 85, 62, 51): TBD: 9 of 11 (missed 55, 44); TBR: 4 of 5 (missed 40); TEX: 5 of 7 (missed 78, 48); TOR: 8 of 13 (missed 209, 155, 115, 44, 40); WAS: 7 of 7

Best: CLE (9 of 9); WAS (7 of 7); LAA (3 of 3) - 100% - pretty much the usual.
Worst: CAL (0 of 2) - 0% - this is a small size fluke, but I still should have come up with one of them. Other than that, I whiffed on BOS, FLA and STL at 50%.

Wild-card Era First basemen: 1994-2011

First Basemen of the Wild-Card Era: 1994-2011
224 out of 300

I missed some bad ones (NYY 210, CLE 68...ugh), but generally did better than I expected with this. There are some teams that are remarkable because they have so few entrants here (COL has only 2, but CLE has 15 and SF has 16).

Highest missed (games) ARI 343
Highest missed (percentage) NYY 210 (47.4%)
Lowest got (games) KC, STL, SEA 26
Lowest got (percentage) - SD 54, HOU 35 (0.2%)

ANA: 1 of 3 (missed 55, 33); ARI: 7 of 9 (missed 343, 29); ATL: 10 of 11 (missed 182); BAL: 5 of 9 (missed 78, 76, 37, 30); BOS: 4 of 7 (missed 339, 222, 28); CAL: 3 of 3; CHC: 6 of 7 (missed 32); CHW: 4 of 7 (missed 131, 65, 39); CIN: 6 of 7 (missed 82); CLE: 14 of 15 (missed 68); COL: 2 of 2; DET: 5 of 11 (missed 44, 39, 37, 34, 32, 24); FLA: 8 of 9 (missed 29); HOU: 6 of 6; KC: 14 of 18 (missed 200, 41, 36, 34); LAA: 5 of 6 (missed 64); LAD: 7 of 9 (missed 243, 51); MIL: 7 of 13 (missed 147, 143, 60, 44, 33, 31); MIN: 7 of 10 (missed 66, 30, 24); MON: 11 of 14 (missed 68, 48, 42); NYM: 6 of 11 (missed 106, 57, 46, 37, 26); NYY: 2 of 6 (missed 210, 83, 41, 26); OAK: 6 of 9 (missed 195, 42, 29); PHI: 8 of 10 (missed 68, 31); PIT: 7 of 12 (missed 205, 112, 61, 53, 32); STL: 5 of 5; SD: 9 of 12 (missed 153, 37, 27); SF: 12 of 16 (missed 108, 96, 73, 62); SEA 8 of 10 (missed 35, 29) TBD: 1 of 2 (missed 201); TBR: 2 of 2; TEX: 7 of 8 (missed 35); TOR: 6 of 8 (missed 179, 33); WAS: 6 of 6

Best: HOU (6 of 6); TBR (2 of 2), WAS (6 of 6) - I was one of only a couple people to get the last HOU player -- since he's at 0.2%, though I was surprised to see him that far down the list. Other than that, they have pretty significant guys. The other teams it's easy because they're all recent. Honorable mention to CLE, since I did get 14 of 15.

Worst: ANA (1 of 3), NYY (2 of 6) - 33% -- ANA is kind of a fluke because they only have three and when merged with CAL and LAA wouldn't be close, but the Yankees it's a combination of missing some that I should have gotten and some guys that are really forgettable.

Wild-card Era Catchers: 1994-2011

This is another fantastic quiz.

Catchers of the Wild-Card Era

195 out of 300

I missed some really easy ones that fall a bit farther down the list because I kept searching for obscure answers and forgot to consider guys on the current roster. So that led to me missing, say, TEX 278, DET 231, and CIN 230. The lowest down the list I got through actual recollection (as opposed to fortuitous names that were shared with other players I was guessing) was STL 15, though I'm annoyed I forgot to type PIT 9, since I remember him just because he was the only answer on the 2011 Phillies quiz that made me say "who?". I did, apparently, become the first person to ever answer CIN 13 (and only the second to get STL 15 and MIL 16). Other than that, well, PHI 161 is just a sad miss. If the number had been higher, I probably would have gotten it, but he's easy to forget when he's just in the mix because the quiz starts when he was starting to play elsewhere because his body couldn't deal with playing catcher.

Highest missed by games: DET 477
Highest missed by percentage: TEX 278 (52.5%)
Lowest got by games: STL 8
Lowest got by percentage: CIN 13 (0.1%)

By team:
ANA: 2 of 4 (missed 88, 29); ARI: 5 of 7 (missed 61, 33); ATL: 4 of 15 (missed 16); BAL: 8 of 12 (missed 67, 28, 17, 8)
BOS: 3 of 6 (missed 94, 36, 10); CAL: 2 of 3 (missed 86); CHC: 9 of 12 (missed 172, 42, 9); CHW: 5 of 8 (missed 34, 11, 11); CIN: 9 of 12 (missed 230, 33, 9); CLE: 9 of 9; COL: 6 of 10 (missed 475, 132, 18, 14); DET: 5 of 12 (missed 477, 231, 72, 66, 53, 33, 22); FLA: 6 of 9 (missed 173, 54, 48); HOU: 4 of 9 (missed 187, 105, 57, 46, 8); KC: 10 of 12 (missed 167, 50); LAA: 3 of 5 (missed 57, 9); LAD: 5 of 5; MIL: 6 of 14 (missed 396, 276, 159, 116, 76, 23, 23, 18); MIN: 5 of 12 (missed 119, 92, 41, 40, 27, 24, 20); MON: 2 of 4 (missed 30, 15); NYM: 6 of 10 (missed 373, 234, 18, 9); NYY: 4 of 5 (missed 27); OAK: 4 of 7 (missed 299, 152, 53); PHI: 4 of 5 (missed 161); PIT: 14 of 17 (missed 55, 55, 9); STL: 6 of 10 (missed 289, 31, 21, 14); SD: 6 of 10 (missed 116, 35, 23, 13); SF: 8 of 13 (missed 150, 86, 26, 18, 12, 10); SEA: 7 of 9 (missed 76, 35); TBD: 1 of 2 (missed 24); TBR: 3 of 6 (missed 52, 15, 14); TEX: 6 of 7 (missed 12); TOR: 8 of 14 (missed 320, 159, 124, 19, 16, 8); WAS: 5 of 5

Best team(s): 100% -- Cleveland (9 of 9), no surprise, Washington (5 of 5), no surprise, the Dodgers (5 of 5) are surprising, but they also only have 5 on their list (only Philadelphia can match that among teams that existed under one name in this span.).

Worst team(s): 41% - Minnesota and Detroit (5 of 12) - these are surprising, I would have figured Minnesota would be on the other side of the list. Both teams ended up having significant current catchers that I missed, which was a big culprit. They also just seemed to be black holes for catching in the late 90s.

MLB Positions by Year

One of my favorite sets of quizzes is from hipolito7 -- who has contributed a bunch of great baseball quizzes. This one was a particular joy in 2010 at season end because it enlightened me as to who had managed to slip by my attention in the regular season. The quizzes reflect anyone who made more than 10 starts at a given position in 2010 (or made any starts in 1985 for the ones I posted).

2010 - by hipolito7
Catcher
First Base
Second Base
Shortstop
Third Base
Left Field
Center Field
Right Field



1985 - by tk925
Catcher
First Base
Second Base
Shortstop
Third Base
Left Field

NFL Starters (1990-1999)

I've started posting NFL primary starters for the 1990s this week. Since you can't get "opening day" lineups, and since the first week of the season doesn't have the same cachet, I've gone with the player who logged the most starts at a position in a season. And I started with the 1990s because that's the football I really enjoyed and know better. I'll eventually get to the last 10 years, but there's a lot of teams to cover before that.

Buffalo Bills (1990-99)
Carolina Panthers (1995-99)
Cincinnati Bengals (1990-99)
Dallas Cowboys (1990-99)
Jacksonville Jaguars (1995-99)
Philadelphia Eagles (1990-99)