A Fun Debate: The Ultimate 25-Man Roster

Opening Day is less than a month away, but in the meantime baseball fans all need something to keep them busy while their teams get ready down in Florida or Arizona. A few years ago, during a long roadtrip out to Pittsburgh (my favorite ballpark I've seen in person, by the way), my friend and I did a hypothetical of the starting lineup you would build if you wanted to build a team for the next 3 years.

It ends up we weren't thinking far enough ahead. As ESPN's SweetSpot posted this morning: "Michael Baumann of Crashburn Alley has a fun post on a theoretical question: If your life depended on winning the next 10 World Series, who do you pick for your 25-man roster? Money is no object. Injuries are a factor. Your team can't be too old, or it won't win down the road. It can't be too young or it won't win now. So who do you take?"

10 years is a long time so there is a lot of commitment involved here which means that you really have to look hard at those guys in their late 20s and early 30s to see how they will age in the last 5 years of this project. Starting pitching is the toughest, in my opinion, to figure out (especially since injuries are a factor). The other positions have their tough calls as well, like second base: do you go with a Robinson Cano or Dustin Pedroia who may be a little older but are more polished, or do you go with a young stud like Dustin Ackley and hope that he is your answer there?

Let us know what you think in the comments below. Even if you just want to give your starting 9, let's see what you've got.