Yeah, I was gonna put him in, but at half a season, that seemed even more like cheating than putting a washed up Aaron in RF.
Some friendly dissent:
Bobby Doerr was a HOF’er at 2B. Pedroia may be better eventually, but not yet.
OF - you have 2 LF’s listed. No fair. Williams is the LF, Tris Speaker the CF. Also, putting Yaz at 1B is a stretch - you really have 3 LF’s listed. Double X is your man.
RHSP - Pedro was dominant in his prime, but that wasn’t for long enough. Cy Young and Roger Clemens have to be ahead there.
LHSP - George Herman Ruth. Lefty Grove is in the Hall, too.
RP - Eck was mostly used up when he came back here, so I’ll agree with Pap.
I guess it depends on how you interpret the task at hand.
Should the aim be to find the best team of players who happened to play for your team at some stage in their careers? Or should it be to find the team of players that played the best when they were playing for your team? Should there be a minimum length of service before a player can be considered for a particular team?
Ruth probably would have been a hall of famer as a pitcher, but Grove is arguably #2 all-time after Walter Johnson.
Well, since no one has done it yet I’ll do the Cubbies.
C - Gabby Hartnett
1B - Cap Anson
2B - Ryne Sandberg
3B - Ron Santo
SS - Ernie Banks
RF - Andre Dawson
CF - Hack Wilson
LF - Billy Williams
Bench - Sammy Sosa
Bench - Lou Brock
Bench - Frank Chance
Bench - Derrick Lee
Bench - Billy Herman
RSP - Three Finger Brown
RSP - Fergie Jenkins
RSP - Greg Maddox
LSP - Jack Pfiester
LSP - Hippo Vaughn
CL - Lee Smith
SU - Bruce Sutter
I’ll take that line-up against anyone.
Seattle Mariners
Manager - Lou Piniella
RF - Ichiro
SS - Alex Rodriguez
CF - Ken Griffey Jr
3B - Edgar Martinez (he has to be in the line up and he did start his career at 3rd)
1B - John Olerud
LF - Raul Ibanez
2B - Brett Boone
C - Dan Wilson
SP(L) - Jamie Moyer
SP® - Freddy Garcia (King Felix will soon claim his throne here)
RP - Kazuhiro Sasaki
B1 - Randy Johnson(Would be the smarter start, but sentimentality puts Moyer up top. Rules are rules, but both would be 1a and 1b to a distant Freddy or Felix)
B2 - Alvin Davis
B3 - Jay Buhner
(Again sentimentality won out here. Omar Vizquel or Adrian Beltre could have pushed for starter spots based on their defense alone, but they also had/have the offense to support that spot also. A smart manager, especially with injury history of some of the above, would probably also carry Mark “SuperSub” McLemore; could play every position( -p&c) every day and never hurt you in either half of the inning)
Pretty sick squad. 2001 heavy off course(116 wins), but amazingly all these guys(Davis aside) are/were playing in the same generation and separated from the team by only a few years. An owner with the gift of 20/20 fore/hindsight could have fielded this very team(minus the RHPs) in real life)
I’m looking up and down the thread and thinking there would be some awesome games to watch.
You can do better than AAron. He hit about 230 ,averaged about 11 Hrs a year, and 47 rbis. He was 41 when he came over. He was not a very good Brewer.
I feel confident about my Pirates lineup too - the only issue I had was with pitching. The all-time bullpen was understrength, as you would expect for our club.
I think the hitting and fielding strength makes up for it.
Yeah, but that’s more of a career appreciation award form me. kind of like Scorsese’s Oscar for The Departed.
The other choice for Brewers’ RF is probably Jeromy Burnitz.
I just realized I most regretably forgot to even mention Harold Reynolds. He would rank right on the same tier as Vizquel and Beltre; probably at the top of it even.
A more accurate and better perfoming bench would have Harold and Omar [del]going to White Castle[/del] on the roster above Mr.Mariner(davis) and Bone(buhner)
Really, it’s hard to disagree with this list.
Rockies
Rockies is kind of a joke, Particularly pitching, all one season wonders, but to play along:
C (Oh pick any of em how about) Torrealba
1B: Todd Helton
2B: Eric Young
SS: Troy Tulowiztski
3B Vinnie Castilla
RF Larry Walker
CF Juan Pierre
LF Matt Holliday
SP: Jason Jennings
Pedro Astacio
Jeff Francis
RP Jose Jimenez
Brian Fuentes
Bench PH: Andrés Galarraga,
Bench UT IF: Nefi Perez
Bench OF: Jeromy Burnitz
I was wondering if someone would do a Rockies one. I agree with most of it, but I would take Dante Bichette over Burnitz any and every time. Actually, I would cheat a little and put him somewhere in the outfield in place of Pierre; according to baseball-reference Walker could qualify at CF.
This has to be the worst player mentioned so far, right? In no season was he an above average hitter (by OPS+) and he only won one Gold Glove…
Not saying that the Rockies have a ton of better options (especially for a bench IF spot), but damn.
Except for Pedro Astacio. No love for Mike Hampton, folks? And how about Eric Wedge as a catcher?
I agree it’s not exactly anything to be proud of, but One gold glove is better than anything else the Rockies have had for a Utility/defensive replacement position. Walt Weiss didn’t even have one, and he was the other one in my consideration(and not exactly a stud either).
I don’t even remember wedge playing for the Rockies.
Two Mets fans both taking Olerud over Keith Hernandez? Wow. I… uh… politely dissent. Their hitting numbers are basically identical, both were great fielders but Hernandez was arguably better, and Mex played nearly twice as many games for the franchise as Olerud did and was part of its last World Series team.
I’m also not sure by what metric Millan beats out Alfonzo at second base. My choices would be:
1B: Hernandez
2B: Alfonso
SS: Reyes
3B: Wright
C: Piazza
LF: Jones
CF: Beltran
RF: Strawberry
LHP: Seaver
RHP: Doc
RP: Franco
BENCH: Carter
BENCH: Howard Johnson
BENCH: Dykstra
I’d almost go with Clint Barmes as a utility infielder, who’s quietly putting together a good career – Jim Tracy’s success as the Rockies’ manager is coincident (although certainly not the only factor) with his faith in Barmes playing full-time at second base.
I agree with the rest of your roster (substituting Bichette for Burnitz, as **tds1273 **suggested), with the exception of catcher – Joe Girardi played for a couple of years in the early '90s.
I’m also wondering about Aaron Cook’s place in the list – his killer sinker makes him tailor-made for Coors Field. Dunno who I’d take off your list – probably Jennings, although I was a huge fan of his.
I didn’t remember Wedge as a Rockie either – according to Wikipedia, he was taken in the expansion draft from the Red Sox and played nine September games (eight as a pinch hitter), then was released during spring training of 1994 (re-acquired by the Red Sox).
Hey, that’s not allowed!