At this point, we have 40 players (!) advanced to our great MLB GOAT debate, and it’s time now for the Stadium Building Era of the 1990s. With the opening of Camden Yards in Baltimore, franchises around the majors sprinted to open new, cooler ballparks that helped increase attendance and revenue. Out with the old and functional, in with the new and trendy. This is a shorter period to look at, so be warned …

Catcher: We have two players here who started their careers in the 1990s. One is Iván Rodríguez (3rd in positional rankings with 68.7 WAR); the other is Mike Piazza (5th, 59.5). Pudge is out, as we explained a long time ago, because of his ties to PEDs that are extremely suspect. That makes Piazza our winner here, as he has a barely positive lifetime dWAR, too. Can we advance him? Eh … even at fifth in career WAR, he’s doesn’t match up to those catchers we’ve already advanced, despite his NL ROTY and NL MVP awards we already decided to give him, previously. Yet we haven’t advanced many catchers, so this is a dilemma. But if we didn’t advance Yogi Berra, we should not advance Piazza. So that’s that.

First Base: Three players stand out at this position for this era. They are Jeff Bagwell (6th, 79.9), Frank Thomas (8th, 73.8), and Jim Thome (10th, 73.1). All of them were great hitters, and none of them were positive defenders. We’re going with Bagwell here for a few reasons: first, he was always a first baseman, even until his final season, while the other two were long-time designated hitters, and second, he has the “best” dWAR (-7.2 dWAR) in this group, by far—which isn’t saying much. We can’t advance him, though.

Second Base: At the keystone, we have Roberto Alomar (12th, 67.0) and Craig Biggio (14th, 65.4). The former has a positive dWAR mark, and the latter does not—although Biggio also spent time at catcher and in the outfield. He did win at least one warranted Gold Glove at second, however. Interestingly, Alomar won a lot of GGs, and maybe just one of them was truly deserved. Oddly, Biggio was a more dynamic player, in terms of league-leading statistics, but his multiple-position flexibility means we will move him to the UTL below … and award Alomar this starting slot. But we’re not advancing Alomar to the finals.

Shortstop: The legendary Cal Ripken, Jr. (3rd, 95.9) leads the way here, although we also want to discuss Barry Larkin (12th, 70.5). Oddly, Larkin was the better offensive player, but Ripken’s glove was superior by a significantly larger margin. The gap between the two is too large to consider anything else but giving this era’s nod to Ripken—and advancing him to the finals, for many reasons.

Third Base: What we have here is another dynamic duo in Chipper Jones (6th, 85.3) and Edgar Martinez (11th, 68.4). However, the latter was primarily a DH with a dreadful glove (-9.0 dWAR in minimal games), so the positional nod for this era goes to Jones, without hesitation. But no advancement here for Jones, because in the end, he had a negative glove, too (-0.9 dWAR).

Left Field: We will not be considering Barry Bonds (1st, 162.8), and if you need an explanation why, you’re no baseball fan. Same reason we will not consider Manny Ramírez (8th, 69.3), either. So, what we have left for this era is Tim Raines (7th, 69.4)—a great player in his own element but not great enough to get advanced. Technically, most of Raines’ career came in the prior era, but we slid him here nonetheless.

Centerfield: Two great players qualify for this era here in center, and they are Ken Griffey, Jr. (6th, 83.8) and Kenny Lofton (9th, 68.4). Griffey won 10 GGs, maybe half of which were deserved, and he did finish his career as a positive defender, despite a late-career decline that was steep (and natural). Lofton was better with the glove, but few players in recent years could match Griffey’s bat without using PEDs. Griffey is the choice here, and we will advance him to the finals, too.

Right Field: Seems to be a lot of simpler analyses this time around, thanks to the thinning of the herd (for a variety of reasons). Larry Walker (11th, 72.7) and Tony Gwynn (13th, 69.2) are the top dogs here. Walker was the better offensive force and the better defender, even if Gwynn was the better “pure hitter” in this comparison. But Gwynn’s glove was pretty bad (-7.6 dWAR), and that hurts him a lot in the end, despite his lifetime .338 batting average. So, here’s our deal—Walker played enough first base to be considered a UTL guy, and we will give Gwynn the nod here, but neither player would get advanced, either way.

Pitchers: We first have four starters to consider here, starting with the obvious elimination of Roger Clemens (3rd, 139.2). But we like Greg Maddux (8th, 106.6), Randy Johnson (10th, 101.1), and even Pedro Martínez (21st, 83.9). Maddux and Johnson get the nods here—plus advancement—but we’re not sold on Pedro for either the immediate or the advanced nods. His 1997-2003 stretch was as dominant as it gets, but like Sandy Koufax, it just wasn’t enough overall. As for relief pitchers, Dennis Eckersley (1st, 62.1) is the only one to consider, and he does get advanced. We realize a lot of his value came as a starting pitcher, but he was the first truly dominant closer of the actual closer era.

Utility Player(s): We are going to look at Thomas here, because his oWAR (80.4) is pretty impressive. He also may be the first true DH under consideration here, since he didn’t qualify above at first base. And then we have Biggio with his three-position career, but we think he pales in comparison to Thomas in terms of overall value. As for Walker, he fits right in the middle of the two. None of these players will be advanced, especially if we didn’t advance Gwynn, but Thomas and Walker get the nods for the era as UTL players.

In brief review, our Stadium Building GOAT lineup is as follows: C Piazza, 1B Bagwell, 2B Alomar, SS Ripken, 3B Jones, LF Raines, CF Griffey, RF Gwynn, SP Maddux, SP Johnson, RP Eckersley, UTL Walker, and UTL Thomas. Of course, five of these players get advanced to the GOAT finals, and it’s getting to be a crowded pool of players down there at the deep end of the talent reservoir.