D’oh. :smack:
Like I said, it was a few years back … when, um, there were 32 teams.
Here’s my all-time Texas Rangers team:
Catcher: Ivan Rodriguez
1st Baseman: Rafael Palmeiro
2nd Baseman: Michael Young
Shortstop: Alex Rodriguez
3rd Baseman: Buddy Bell
Outfield: Juan Gonzalez
Outfield: Rusty Greer
Outfield: Ruben Sierra
Designated Hitter: Frank Howard
Starter: Kevin Brown
Starter: Nolan Ryan
Starter: Charlie Hough
Starter: Fergie Jenkins
Starter: Kenny Rogers
Closer: John Wetteland
Manager: Johnny Oates
I’ll do a Giants, SF Giants only:
LF Barry Bonds
CF Willie Mays
RF Orland Cepeda (tough call over Bobby Bonds)
3B Matt Williams
SS Chris Speier
2B Jeff Kent (tough call over Robby Thompson)
1B Willie McCovey
C Bob Brenly, by a nose over Benito Santiago. Giants have had virtually no good home-grown catchers in their prime. Can’t wait until Buster Posey comes up to the big club.
RHP Juan Marichal
LHP eh. I’ll go with Jason Schmidt, just on the basis of his one good season
Closer: Rod Beck
Beck over Robb Nen?
Christ. Forgot about Nen.
However…what I do remember about Nen, is that he always would come in and go 1… 2…ooops…3. Much like Brian Wilson is doing now.
Beck, on the other hand, in a critical game against the Dodgers late in the '97 season, came in in extra innings with the bases loaded and nobody out, and got Eddie Murray to hit into a 1-2-3 DP, and then struck out some schmo to end the threat. Giants get a HR in the bottom half to win…one of the best games I’ve ever seen. So for that he gets into my Hall of Fame.
Too bad the Pirates couldn’t put Josh Gibson behind the plate on their all-time team. The best catcher ever to play in the city.
Schmidt’s a righty.
2 mistakes. Phil Bradley in left and Johnson is your #1 starter. Johnson made the Mariners a winning team, Moyer didn’t win till the M’s did.
I’ll be damned.
Kirk Rueter, then.
Bradley was before my time, so I can’t speak of his defense and on the field dynamic, but I still stand by Raul in left. Different types of players- speed(Bradly) vs production(Ibanez), but Ibanez put up consistent numbers and played for more seasons; though admittedly he did little to nothing in his first stint with the team. His defense wasn’t anything to sneeze at either.
Can’t really argue with Johnson, as I said he would be the smarter starter. As well, he did deliver the Mariners to their first ever post season. Not too shabby out of the bullpen either; never has ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ sounded so good.
Moyer though, just became such a face to the Mariners organization, and he is the all-time team leader for wins, starts and innings pitched. Record wise, as you point out, as he went so went the M’s; though for accuracy’s sake, he put up great W-L records from the moment he joinedthe team, but his tailing off the last two years here did coincide with the Mariners’ poor seasons. Off the field, however, he and his wife have done(and still do) amazing things for the community through the Moyer Foundation. One of the nicest, classiest people in all of sports; as I said, sentimentality got him the nod to start.
And just for the sake of covering my own ass, since my originally picked team got quoted on this page and the change was made on a different page, I just wanted to point out that I quickly amended the bench to include Omar Vizquel and Harold Reynolds in place of Davis and Buhner.