All players on this “early baseball” roster are listed in Baseball Reference’s top 1000 in career WAR and have accumulated the most WAR for a club that is not part of the “bloodline” of the 30 present-day MLB franchises.
Players without the *** designation are listed in Baseball Reference’s top 1000 in career WAR.
Players with the *** designation are not listed in the top 1000, but are “invitees” to round out the team to fulfill these minimum requirements: 30 players — 18 position players (with at least 2 players rated at each position) and 12 pitchers (at least 7 must have a reliever rating).
Players are listed alphabetically, followed by their Strat-o-Matic card being used and their position eligibility.
Position Players (26)
Ross Barnes (1875, 2B/LF/SS), Charlie Bennett (1883, C/2B/RF/CF/LF), Dan Brouthers (HOF, 1B), Pete Browning (1887, CF), Jesse Burkett (HOF, LF/RF), Cupid Childs (1892, 2B), Fred Dunlap (1883, 2B), Duke Farrell (1893, C/3B/1B), Jack Glasscock (1882, SS/3B), Paul Hines (1884, CF/1B), Hughie Jennings (HOF, SS/1B/2B), Bill Joyce (1894, 3B), Willie Keeler (HOF, RF), Joe Kelley (HOF, LF/CF/1B/3B), Henry Larkin (1886, LF), Denny Lyons (1889, 3B/1B), John McGraw (BH, 3B/SS/2B/LF), Ed McKean (1890, SS/2B), Hardy Richardson (1883, 2B), Jack Rowe (1884, C/LF/CF/SS), Kip Selbach (1897, LF), Joe Start (1882, 1B), Harry Stovey (1889, LF), John Ward (HOF, SS/2B), Deacon White (HOF, C/3B/RF/1B), Charles Zimmer (1892, C).
Pitchers (14)
Candy Cummings (HOF, SP), George Cuppy (1896, SP/RP), Jim Devlin (1876, SP), Pud Galvin (HOF, SP), Guy Hecker (1884, SP/RP), Bobby Mathews (1874, SP), Dick McBride (1875, SP), Jim McCormick (1882, SP), Sadie McMahon (1891, SP/RP), Win Mercer*** (1894, SP/RP), Old Hoss Radbourn (HOF, SP/RP), Al Spalding (HOF, SP/RP), Cy Young (HOF, SP/RP), George Zettlein (1871, SP).
Transactions
03/26/20 Added Duke Farrell (1893, C/3B/1B) and Chief Zimmer (1892, C), dropped Deacon McGuire (1895, C/SS).
03/31/22 Dropped Dave Orr (1886, 1B).