This was brought to mind by the “all-franchise team” thread currently active: I was thinking that I could probably put together a better team of players who the Astros had given away than of players who actually played for them. The idea is to come up with the best team of players who were traded away by your team, lost to free agency, or otherwise lost & who subsequently spent their best years with another team.
C: Eddie Taubensee
1B: Phil Nevin
2B: Joe Morgan
3B: Ken Caminiti (technically, played more years with the Astros, but his years in SD were SO much better)
SS: Carlos Guillen
LF: Luis Gonzalez (see Caminiti, Ken)
CF: Kenny Lofton
RF: Steve Finley (see Gonzalez, Luis)
P: Johan Santana (rule 5 draft)
P: Curt Schilling
P: Freddy Garcia
Tempted to add Randy Johnson, but his all-too-brief stint with the Astros was pretty close to the mid-point of his career.
Strangely, I can’t think of a single relief pitcher who blossomed after leaving the Astros. Billy Wagner was already good, Octavio Dotel was never the same after he left, Brad Lidge seems to have issues with year-to-year consistency.
I’d say if there was some kind of public speculation about it, particularly if they passed on a JD Drew type for salary reasons… otherwise Mike Piazza would be on every team but the Dodgers.
C: Jason Varitek (one of the most notorious trades in Sea history; another name involved will appear here too)
1B: David Ortiz (then known as David Arias; draft in 92 in the farm system till 96)
2B: Jose Vidro (worst DH evar! had some decent years as Mon’s 2b though)
3B: Jeff Cirillo (begining of the end for him here, but he was good in Mil & CO)
SS: Rich Aurilia (won an MVP 3 years prior, but horrible here too)
LF: Rickey Henderson (easy pick. like Jerry Rice in '04)
CF: Adam Jones (was happy about adding Bedard, but seeing Bal highlights lately really hurts)
RF: Brad Wilkerson (i guess? wanted to cheat and say Ruben Sierra, but he had only one game in RF here)
SP: Randy Johnson (yeah his back sure had nothing left after '98, eh Woody?)
SP: Derek Lowe (the other name in that afore mentioned trade)
SP: Tim Lincecum (the perfect draft example for Rysto. hometown hero; from UW to [del]Sea[/del] SF?! this convinced me that Bavasi was still working as a mole for LAA)
SP: Gaylord Perry (another HOFer with end of career stop in NW)
SP: Rich “Goose” Gossage (ditto, Perry & Henderson)
RP: Brian Feuntes (went on to be a solid closer for CO and now LAA)
B1: Omar Vizquel (won one GG w/Sea, went on to win 10 more; eight consecutive after 1st)
B2: Richie Sexton (had typical, solid first two years, but then fell off quick)
B3: Ruben Sierra (had a nice early career with Tex)
Manager: Dick Williams (don’t know him, but in HOF as a manager for Oak)
ETA: Though A-Rod went on to greater things, I kept him off because of his 40/40 year here.
I kept A-Rod off because of his 40/40 and other equally great years here. He went on to keep hitting and put up even bigger numbers, but he also went on to be an even bigger douche. Plus they went on to that amazing '01 season the year after he left.
What I’m trying to say is, well, screw A-Rod.
ETA…
Nice one. Yeah, it seems like ex-Mariners are always popping up around the league doing good things.
1B Andres Galarraga
2B dunno (both Delino DeShields and Mike Lansing belong on the opposite of this team - the “better to trade a year too early than a year too late” team or something like that).
SS Wil Cordero?? (slim pickings)
3B Sean Berry (not spectacular)
LF Moises Alou
CF Larry Walker
RF Andre Dawson
C Gary Carter
Bench: Ken Phelps, Cliff Floyd, Milton Bradley, Matt Stairs… if only some of them could play middle infield.
SP (R) Pedro Martinez
SP (L) Randy Johnson
RP Tim Wetteland
Pitching actually gets very thin - best I can come up with is Ted Lilly, Omar Daal, and Jeff Fassero. Or Javier Vasquez, I guess, though he’s been pretty unimpressive since leaving les expos. And Jeff Reardon in the bullpen, though his best years were with Montreal.
Wouldn’t Danny Tartabull be better here? After a great 1986 rookie year (albeit overshadowed by monster rookie years from Jose Canseco and Wally Joyner), traded to the Royals for non-entities Mike Kingery and Scott Bankhead, performing incredibly for the Royals, and later, the Yankees.
*doh, forgot about Vlad. He should probably replace Andre Dawson (who had most of his good years, though not his MVP, with Montreal) in the starting lineup. Raines I considered and rejected because his best years were in Montreal. Grissom I just don’t think is as good as the other guys who left (though he’s more of a CF than most of them). And I was under the impression Staub was in MTL later in his career - but in any case I need to add him to the Astros team.
1B – John Olerud
2b – Jeff Kent
SS – Tim Foli
3B – Hubie Brooks (though getting Gary Carter in return made it worthwhile).
LF – Kevin Mitchell
CF – Amost Otis/Paul Blair/Len Dykstra
RF – Ken Singleton
C – Jesus Flores (the Mets have done well acquiring catchers (e.g., Grote, Carter, Piazza), but losing Flores was inexcusable).
SP – Nolan Ryan (actually a good deal for the Mets at the time)*
SP – Scott Kazmir
SP – Mike Scott
RP – Jeff Reardon
RP – Rick Aguilera
RP – Heath Bell
There isn’t anyone in baseball at the time – or anyone who didn’t know how the deal worked out – who didn’t think this was a good trade for the Meta. Ryan was absolutely horrible the year before, especially in the second half of the season, and Fregosi looked like a potential Hall of Famer (he had more win shares than Derek Jeter, for instancce, at comparable points in their careers). But Fregosi started getting injured, and Ryan turned things around.
I’m a Sox fan but I’ll do the Cubs because that’s way more fun. They traded away some of the best closers of the 80s.
1B – Raphael Palmiero
2B – Manny Trillo (meh)
SS – ??
3B – Bill Madlock
LF – Cy Williams (meh)
CF – Billy North (meh)
RF – Lou Brock (worst by far)
SP – Greg Maddox (still had some good years with the Cubs, but they should have never let him go)
SP – Dontrelle Willis
SP – Jon Garland
RP – Dennis Eckersley
RP – Bruce Sutter
RP – Willie Hernandez
RP – Lee Smith