CHALLENGE: All-initials team
Posted by Andy on December 6, 2010
Our recent discussion about the Thanksgiving Day team got me to wondering about the best team anyone could make for a given set of initials.
Click through to see what I'm talking about and to take your best shot.
Pick a first initial and last initial and put them in the search box on any Baseball-Reference.com page. For the players who come up who actually have those initials, make the best team you can.
A few rules:
1) Let's just go with a starting 9, meaning 8 position players and 1 starting pitcher. It's a bit much to make an entire 25-man roster.
2) Let's count only players who really have those initials, going by the name we know them by. In other words, Babe Ruth would be part of the B R team, not the G R team even though his real first name was George.
3) For positions, let's stick to ones where the player was well-known, i.e. played at least a few hundred games there.
So, here's an example: the JD team.
C: Jody Davis, 13.5 1B: Jiggs Donahue, 13.9 2B: Jim Delahanty, 15.8 3B: Jimmy Dykes, 23.5 SS: Jim Davenport, 15.6 LF: Johnny Damon, 48.3 CF: Joe DiMaggio 83.6 RF: J.D. Drew, 46.8 P: Joe Dobson, 29.9
The numbers after each name are career WAR. The total for this particular team is 290.9. I'm sure this can beat, given that Babe Ruth and Barry Bonds provide 170 in WAR all by themselves.
Tell us your best all-initials team.
December 6th, 2010 at 8:37 am
I played this game growing up. RC was the best one, I recall. Rocky Colavito, Roger Clemens, Rick Camp, etc.
December 6th, 2010 at 8:38 am
Okay, I'll get it started with the first initials that came to mind. I present the MM Team:
C - Mike MacFarlane (1987-1999), 15.1
1B - Mark McGwire (1986-2001), 63.1
2B - Marty McManus (1920-1934), 28.1
3B - Melvin Mora (1999-2010), 27.4
SS - Marty Marion (1940-1953), 29.0
LF- Minnie Minoso (1949-1980), 52.8
CF- Mickey Mantle (1951-1968), 120.2
RF - Mike Mitchell (1907-1914), 18.5
P - Mike Mussina (1991-2008), 74.8
Total WAR= 429
BONUS: RP - Mike Marshall (1967-1981), 16.9
December 6th, 2010 at 8:51 am
The all BB team.
C-Bob Boone
1B-Bill Buckner
2B-Brett Boone
SS-Bobby Bragan
3B-Buddy Bell
OF-Bruce Bochte
OF-Barry Bonds
OF-Bobby Bonds
P-Bert Blyleven
December 6th, 2010 at 9:23 am
I put Brett Butler in for Bruce Bochte and had a WAR of 446 for my BB team
December 6th, 2010 at 9:42 am
The DS team:
C: Don Slaught - 17.7 WAR
1B: Dick Stuart - 6.1
2B: Dick Schofield (Sr.) - 5.1
3B: Doug Strange - -0.8
SS: Dick Schofield (Jr.) - 15
LF: David Segui (71 games in left is enough for me) - 7.9
CF: Duke Snider - 67.5
RF: Darryl Strawberry - 42.9
SP: Don Sutton - 70.8, Dave Stieb - 53, Dave Stewart - 23.7
RP: Dave Smith - 12.6
A solid outfield makes up for a pretty weak (being generous there) infield. And I've got the start of a pretty good rotation. I think we'd end up at around .500 ball every year.
December 6th, 2010 at 9:48 am
The R-H team;
C- Ramon Hernandez (21.1)
1B- Richie Hebner (35.2)
2B- Rogers Hornsby (127.8)
3B- Ron Hunt (30.0)
SS- Ron Hansen (22.8)
LF- Rickey Henderson (113.1)
CF- Roy Hartzell (8.9)
RF- Richard Hidalgo (17.1)
SP- Roy Halladay (54.3)
Total - (430.3)
Ron Hunt was primarily a 2B, but he played over a hundred games at 3B so I hope he's eligible. I'd love to replace the 'weakest link' Roy Hartzell but couldn't find anyone.
December 6th, 2010 at 10:03 am
C - Joe Mauer, 2004-2010, 38.7 WAR
1B - Johnny Mize, 1936-1953, 70.2 WAR
2B - Joe Morgan, 1963-1984, 103.5 WAR
3B - John Morrill, 1876-1890, 25.1 WAR
SS - John McGraw, 1891-1906, 49.3 WAR
LF - Joe Medwick, 1932-1948, 55.8 WAR
CF - Johnny Mostil, 1918-1929, 23.4 WAR
RF - Jerry Mumphrey, 1974-1988, 20.4 WAR
P - Juan Marichal, 1960-1975 , 64.0 WAR
Total WAR: 450.4
December 6th, 2010 at 10:14 am
We're ahead of you. See Baseball, Initially for over 130 such initial teams -- and we've produced 25-man rosters.
December 6th, 2010 at 10:15 am
Actually, my friend Joe and I have taken this one step further - we have put together a whole series of "initial teams" - with full 25-man rosters and managers. All in good fun. We created a blog and are posting them one at a time in reserve alphabetical order. Check out the blog at baseballinitially.blogspot.com.
December 6th, 2010 at 10:17 am
As Danny says, the RC team seems unsurpassable:
Position Name WAR
C Roy Campanella 36.2
1B Roger Connor 87.2
2B Rod Carew 79.1
3B Ron Cey 52
SS Ray Chapman 27.4
LF Rocky Colavito 46.4
CF Roy Cullenbine 29
RF Roberto Clemente 83.8
SP Roger Clemens 128.4
569.5
December 6th, 2010 at 10:23 am
Let me correct the link to Mike's and my website:
Baseball, Initially
December 6th, 2010 at 10:58 am
The CB team:
C: Craig Biggio 66.2
1B: Curt Blefary 12.8
2B: Carlos Baerga 16
3B: Casey Blake 23.1
SS: Clete Boyer 26.5
LF: Charlie Buffinton 56.1
CF: Carlos Beltran 56.5
RF: Charlie Bennett 38.0*
P: Chief Bender 38.5
WAR: 333
* - Slight stretch, with only 70 Games at the position
December 6th, 2010 at 11:24 am
Addition ot the JD teams:
Jack Dunn, Manager
And As for the BB team, would you take Bruce Boche over Bobby Bonds??? If so, I have some nice swampland in Arizona...well, you get the idea.
December 6th, 2010 at 11:55 am
Zip Zabel is feeling left out of this discussion.
December 6th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
The "J.B." team would be pretty good:
1B-Jeff Bagwell-79.9
2b-Jack Burdock-16.1
SS-Jay Bell-34.8
3B-Joe Battin-5.5
Lf-Jessie Burkett-68.0
Cf-Jackie Brandt-12.7
Rf-Jessie Barfield-35.7
C-Johnny Bench-71.3
P-Jim Bunning-60.1
384.1
The problem with this team is that it's weak at 2b, 3b. There is one other great 1b that doesn't have a spot, Jake Beckley (61.5), and another very good 1b, Jim Bottemly (32.4).
December 6th, 2010 at 12:06 pm
In memory of Ron Santo, the all RS team:
C: Ray Schalk - 22.6
1B: Rusty Staub - 45.2
2B: Ryne Sandberg - 62.0
SS: Roy Smalley III -25.1
3B: Ron Santo - 66.4
OF: Reggie Smith - 63.4
Reggie Sanders - 38.4
Riggs Stephenson - 32.1
P: Rick Sutcliffe - 30.0
There are Cubs at second, third, OF and P. Ron would like that.
December 6th, 2010 at 12:06 pm
@12 J Meyers
I can't see having Clete Boyer as the SS when he only played about 10% of his career at the position.
@7 Andrew, I can't see having John McGraw at SS when he only played about 10% of his career at the position.
December 6th, 2010 at 12:22 pm
@10
TO - Thanks for including one of my all-time favorites Roger Conner, the all time career home run king. Before there was Bonds, Aaron, Ruth... there was Conner!
December 6th, 2010 at 12:24 pm
The top initials by WAR are: JM, JB, JC, BB, RC, JS, MM, DM, JR, BH, BS, RS, RH, BW, JD, TH, BR, BM, JW
Using only the top-25 players the list is pretty similar: JM, RC, JB, BB, JC, MM, JS, RS, DM, RH, JR, BW, BH, BS, BR, TH, JD, JP
A few dozen initials have negative aggregate WAR, the lowest are: EO (12 players -8.5 WAR), OF (5/-7.3), VF (5/-7.1), TV (8/-6.6), SN (12/-6.1), VJ (4/-5.7), RQ (4/-5), LK (17/-4.4).
I didn't do positional breakdowns, though. I suppose that's most of the fun.
December 6th, 2010 at 12:37 pm
The "JC" team would be pretty good:
1B-Jack Clark-55.0
2b-J. Carroll-13.7
SS-J. Cronin-62.5
3b-J. Collins-53.0
Lf-Jose Cruz-52.2
Cf-Jose Cruz jr.-22
Rf-J. Callison-33.9
C-J. Clements-31.9
P-J. Clarkson-82.1
405.6
December 6th, 2010 at 12:46 pm
Huh... I tried posting the top initials by WAR, but it looks like it was filtered out. Does posting Bret Saberhagen's initials mark a post as non-family friendly?
December 6th, 2010 at 1:03 pm
DavidRF, I unspammed your comment.
How did you generate your lists?
December 6th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
Oh, I bought Sean Smith's WAR zip file last year. I summed the WAR's for each player. Then I joined in the firstName and lastName columns in the "Master" file of the Lahman database, then I summed up the WAR for all 676 letter-letter combinations (well, the 553 of them that have played in the MLB). Brute force... not really "fun" but it can be useful.
I added the "top 25" filter because some initials are much more common than others. 285 JM's and 274 JB's but "only" 87 RC's despite the fact that it ranks very high.
I'd have to classify accepted positions for each player in order to see if I can get my scripts to spit out lineups. I didn't have that information so I skipped it.
Plus, brute force scripts spoil the fun. I just wanted to post a bunch of high-WAR initials that might have been forgotten and then leave the roster building to others.
December 6th, 2010 at 1:32 pm
Nice, David!
December 6th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
Who gets to play with Bad Henry?
C: Hezekiah Allen (0.1)
1B: Harry Agganis (0.4)
2B: Harry (Chub) Aubrey (-2.1)
3B: Harry Arndt (0.5)
SS: Ham Anderson (0.1)
LF: Harry Anderson (4.9)
CF: Henry Armbruster (1.2)
RF: Henry Aaron (141.6)
P: Hank Aguirre (17.4)
for a total of 164.1.
December 6th, 2010 at 2:43 pm
Well I was gonna have a stab at BS given they are my initials and seeing as they featured in DavidRF's list of high WAR initials lets see what I can come up with:
C Benito Santiago 23.8
1B Bill Skowron 26.8
2B Bob Saverine 0.9
SS Bob Smith 1.8 (+20.1 as a pitcher!)
3B Billy Shindle 18.9
OF BJ Surhoff 34.4
OF Burt Shotton 22.0
OF Billy Southworth 20.3
SP Bret Saberhagen 54.7
I make that 203.6 (not counting Bob Smith's pitching). Really struggled for middle infielders. Loads of catchers and a good rotation potentially.
C Brian Schneider 8.8 (still active)
OF Bob Skinner 15.1
RP Bobby Shantz 30.6
RP Bruce Sutter 25.0
SP Bob Shawkey 40.4
SP Ben Sheets 24.2 (still active)
SP Bill Sherdel 23.8
SP Bill Singer 22.7
SP Bob Shaw 19.1
December 6th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
P -- Lefty Grove
1B -- Lou Gehrig
2B -- Luis Gonzalez (http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gonzalu02.shtml)
SS -- Luis Gomez (http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gomezlu01.shtml)
3B -- Larry Gardner (http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gardnla01.shtml)
LF -- Luis Gonzalez (http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gonzalu01.shtml)
CF -- Lenny Green (http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/greenle01.shtml)
RF -- Lefty Good (http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/goodwi01.shtml)
I have no catcher, so as Casey said, we're gonna have a lot of passed balls. I'll just have to hope that Grove can keep them off the basepaths.
If Grove gets knocked out, I'm bringing in Lefty Gomez, Larry Gura, Luke Gregerson, Lee Gardner or Lee Guetterman.
(Or maybe Len "Meow" Gilmore, the last pitcher to toss a CG in his only MLB appearance (1944).)
December 6th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
Bill Sweeney (10.7) helps fill the hole a bit at 2B. Bill Spiers (10.7) provides extra utility IF help if Bob Smith doesn't work out.
December 6th, 2010 at 3:32 pm
I tried my initials (A S) and got sent to the Oakland A's franchise page.
is that right?
December 6th, 2010 at 3:53 pm
When I first saw the title, I thought an "all-initial team" would be something like this:
1B J.T. Snow
SS U.L. Washington
LF B.J. Surhoff
CF F.P. Santangelo (admittedly a weak link)
RF J.D. Drew
C A.J. Pierzynski
P J.R. Richard, CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, with B.J. Ryan, J.C. Romero and J.J. Putz in the bullpen
I couldn't find a decent 2nd or 3rd baseman, unless you want to move Santangelo, which would weaken center field even more.
No, "A-Rod" doesn't qualify. Nor does D.B. Sweeney, even if he did play Shoeless Joe Jackson in "Eight Men Out." Nor does W.B. Mason, though it sponsors both Yankee and Red Sox broadcasts.
Don't forget J.P. Ricciardi as the... G.M.
December 6th, 2010 at 4:15 pm
Among players with 100+ WAR only RH (Hornsby, Henderson) and TS (Seaver, Speaker) have 2 members. Among the top 150 all-time WAR, (players with at least 60 WAR), the following have 2 members:
AR (Rodriguez, Rusie)
BG (Gibson, Grich)
BR (Ruth, Robinson)
CY (Yastrzemski, Young)
DS (Snider, Sutton)
JC (Cronin, Clarkson)
LG (Gehrig, Grove)
LW (Walker, Whitaker)
PM (Molitor, Martinez)
PR (Rose, Reese)
RH (Henderson, Hornsby)
RJ (Jackson, Johnson)
SC (Carlton, Crawford; assuming you dont go with "Wahoo" Sam)
TG (Glavine, Gwynn)
TS (Speaker, Seaver)
WM (Mays, McCovey)
The following have 3 members:
BB (Bonds, Blyleven, BuddyBell)
EM (Mathews, Murray, Martinez) 2 3B if Gar cant DH
MM (McGwire, Mantle, Mussina)
RR (Roberts, Reuschel, Ruffing) all pitchers
RS (Santo, Sandberg, ReggieSmith)
The following have 4 members:
JB (Bagwell, Beckley, Bench, Burkett) 2 1B
JM (Marichal, Mize, Morgan, McCormick) 2 pitchers
RC (Carew, Clemens, Clemente, Connor)
December 6th, 2010 at 4:37 pm
You Baseball, Initially guys should consider signing your blog up so that when, for example, I just went to Whit Wyatt's page off of another b-r blog post, your WW blog entry would've shown up in the 'Player News' section above his stats.
I might do a brute force sometime, I like trawling through the reams of data generated and tweaking it a bit. For quite some time I've wanted to do a brute forcing of last names and then figure out a way to have them play leagues or playoffs, in WhatIf Sports or something else free...
December 6th, 2010 at 4:52 pm
Didn't do so well this time.
The all CC team:
1B Cecil Cooper (34.5)
2B Cupid Childs (47.2)
SS Craig Counsell (18.5)
3B Chico Carrasquel (17.7)
OF Carl Crawford (26.1)
OF Coco Crisp (17.4)
OF Cesar Cedeno (52.2)
P Chris Carpenter (26.1)
TOTAL: 246.5
December 6th, 2010 at 5:26 pm
Interestingly, even though JM wins in WAR and Top 25 WAR (per post @19), it doesn't beat RC on a starting lineup basis
C Joe Mauer 38.7
1B Johnny Mize 70.2
2B Joe Morgan 103.5
3B John Morrill 24.5
SS John McGraw 49.3
LF Joe Medwick 55.8
CF Johnny Mostil 23.4
RF Jerry Mumphrey 20.4
SP Juan Marichal 62.7
448.5
...still a pretty darned good team though... I was surprised Jerry Mumphrey's WAR was that high
December 6th, 2010 at 6:58 pm
I'll have to try this if I get some time later tonight.
@29 - Too bad B.J. Upton got moved to the outfield. He played at both 2B and 3B earlier in his career. Another Virginian, J.C. Martin, mainly a backup (or even 3rd string) catcher in his career, also filled in at 3B in his career. (He also pinch hit, with his most famous at-bat in his career coming as a pinch hitter in game 4 of the 1969 World Series.)
December 6th, 2010 at 7:19 pm
C A.J. Pierzynski 14.7
1B Albert Pujols 83.8
2B Antonio Perez 0.7
SS Al Pedrique 0.2
3B Art Phelan 2.5
LF Albie Pearson 11.4
CF Adolfo Phillips 13.4
RF Andy Pafko 35.4
SP Andy Pettitte 50.2
212.3
so they're terrible. but i had to try since it is my initials!
December 6th, 2010 at 7:21 pm
The reason the RC Team does so well is that as you scroll down the list of all-time WAR career leaders each name you come to fills a gap on the roster. There aren't any duplicates among the first eight names.
December 6th, 2010 at 8:28 pm
Well the "MS" team came away with 272.5 WAR. Picked my initials, how original.
C Manny Sanguillen 24.6
1B Mike Sweeney 23
2B Mike Sharperson 4.9
3B Mike Schmidt 108.3
SS Marco Scutaro 16.3
LF Mike Smith 31.6
RF Matt Stairs 14
CF Mickey Stanley 11.9
P Mel Stottlemyre 37.9
MGR Mike Scioscia
December 6th, 2010 at 8:51 pm
KS team
P Kevin Slowey 5
C Kurt Suzuki 8.6
1B Ken Smith 0.1
2B Kurt Stillwell 2.2
3B Kevin Seitzer 26
SS Kevin Stocker 5
LF Kip Selbach 35.1
CF Klondike Smith -0.3 (I don't care. I like the name and can't find another CF)
RF Ken Singleton 40.6 and MVP of the otherwise pretty sad KS team
Team WAR around 120 I think; didn't care to total it.
December 6th, 2010 at 11:14 pm
Here's mine
P - Dave Foutz 48.1
C - Darrin Fletcher 7.8
1B - Dee Fondy 4.3 (Foutz shifts here when he doesn't pitch)
2B - Doug Flynn (-12.1) Ouch
SS - Davy Force 17.5
3B - Duke Ferrell 22.8 (primarily C but played 3B in a couple of his best years)
OF - Dan Ford 10.5
OF
OF
Well, that's disappointing. I can't find three guys who played in the outfield (unless I put Foutz out there) and I have to put a black hole at second base negating much of the little value I could find. Well, at least I have the colorful Dickie Flowers and Dot Fulghum back up Davy Force at short.
December 6th, 2010 at 11:59 pm
Dave RF,
I found Doug Frobel who was a right fielder for the Pirates back in the 80's. But I don't know if you want him because he had a career (-0.5) WAR.
December 7th, 2010 at 12:10 am
KS,
How about Ken Sanders as your pitcher? He had a career 8.2 WAR.
December 7th, 2010 at 12:13 am
The JQ team:
1b-
2b-Joe Quest-3.1
ss-
3b-
lf-
cf-
rf-
c-John Quinn- (-0.1)
P-Jack Quinn-49.7
December 7th, 2010 at 12:30 am
The AM Team:
P Andy Messersmith 35.6
C Adam Melhuse 0.8
1B Alex Mckinnon 7.1
2B Ambrose McConnell 7.2
3B
SS
LF Austin McHenry 9.2
CF Andrew McCutchen 6.4
RF Alex Metzler 5.3
Total 71.6
Better than I thought it would be, mainly due to Messersmith. It will be better every year for a while thanks to McCutchen.
I found a 3B and a SS with 0 or virtually 0 WAR, but I didn't make a note and didn't feel like going back to find him again.
December 7th, 2010 at 12:35 am
Using my initials, worst team so far:
C - Tom Egan - (-3.3)
1B - Tommy Everidge - (-0.7)
2B - Tom Evers - (-2.4)
3B - Tom Evans - (-0.1)
SS - Truck Eagan - (-0.1)
Yes, I can't do any better than all negative WAR values around the diamond.
OF - Ted Easterly (only 16% of games in the outfield) - 10.1
OF - Terry Evans - 0.2
OF -
P - Tom Edens - 1.8
Total WAR - 5.5
December 7th, 2010 at 9:33 am
Like everyone else, had to do my own initials. I present, the All-DL team:
C - Don Leppert, 0.2
1B - Derrek Lee, 30.2
2B - Davey Lopes, 39.3
3B - Don Lenhardt, 3.9
SS - Doc Lavan, 3.9
LF - Duffy Lewis, 18.5
CF - Don Lock, 13.0
RF - Danny Litwhiler, 15.2 (top of his page says LF, but there are no specs)
P - Dutch Leonard, 45.6; Dolf Luque, 40.2; Derek Lowe, 31.9; Denny Lemaster, 22.3; Dennis Lamp, 13.8
Player-Manager - Davey Lopes
With 5-man Rotation: 278.0
Just 1 Pitcher: 169.8
The 5-man rotation alone is worth 153.8 - and that's without some good pitchers (Don LaRoche, father of Adam and Andy; and Don Larsen, among others). I think the lesson we can all learn from this is that I should have taken up pitching as a child.
December 7th, 2010 at 12:16 pm
I just noticed comment #27 from John Autin was caught by the spam filter. It has been restored.
December 7th, 2010 at 12:37 pm
My initials yielded mostly terrible results, but some finagling yields a passable team (if we can count 19th century and early 20th century players as legitimate).
C: Babe Phelps 14.5 WAR
1B: Bill Phillips (1879-1888) 7.3 WAR
2B: Brandon Phillips 5.1 WAR
SS: Bill Pecota 7.7 WAR (ok only 177 games at SS but it's PECOTA!)
3B: Babe Pinelli 5.3 WAR
LF: Boog Powell 39.6 WAR (played 431 games in LF)
CF: Ben Paschal 2.8 WAR (223 games OF)
RF: Blondie Purcell 1.3 WAR (995 games OF)
DH: Buster Posey 2.8 WAR (had to put him on there somewhere)
SP: Billy Pierce 53.5 WAR; Brad Penny 20.1 WAR
RP: RH Bud Podbielan 2.7 WAR; LH Bill Pulsipher 0.7 WAR
Eight positions and #1 SP yield 137.1, mostly thanks to Boog and Billy Pierce.
December 7th, 2010 at 2:19 pm
John, for catcher on the LG team try Larry Gonzales, or Louis Graff. They hit a combined 3 for 7 with a double and a walk. 100+ years apart. 2500+ miles apart. But they will reduce the passed balls when Robert strikes another one out.
December 7th, 2010 at 2:41 pm
Re #40, Dexter Fowler fills one of your OF holes.
December 7th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
RC has 3 in the top 50 career WAR.
C Roy Campanella 36.2
1B/3B Roger Connor 87.2
2B/1B Rod Carew 79.1
SS Ray Chapman 27.4
3B Ron Cey 52.0
LF/RF Rocky Colavito 46.4
CF/LF/RF Roger Cedeno 0.2
RF Roberto Clemente 83.8
P Roger Clemens 128.4
Total 540.7
I can't find a CF. Could you start Clemente in CF and play Colavito in RF and use Rico Carty as your CF. Robinson Cano may make this team by the end of his career.
December 7th, 2010 at 4:14 pm
use Rico Carty as your CF
Lord, no. Don't do it. Jack Cust would be a better choice.
December 7th, 2010 at 4:32 pm
The all-JE team — two really good players and a bunch of journeymen:
C: Johnny Edwards, 14.1 WAR (backed up by Jim Essian, Jake Early, and Johnny Estrada, plus Joe Erautt, one of only seven MLB players ever born in Saskatchewan)
1B: John Ellis, 1.6 WAR
2B: Johnny Evers, 48.4 WAR
SS: Jimmy Esmond, -1.5 WAR
3B: Joe Evans, 2.4 WAR (played slightly more games in the outfield)
LF: Jacoby Ellsbury, 6.3 WAR
CF: Jim Edmonds, 68.3 WAR
RF: Jim Eisenreich, 12.6 WAR
P: John Ewing (Buck's brother), 10.8 WAR pre-60'6"; a more contemporary starter would be Jumbo Elliott, 7.7 WAR
Four relief pitchers: Joey Eischen (2.1 WAR), Johnny Enzmann (1.5), Juan Eichelberger (1.3) and Jamie Easterly (0.1). The backup outfielders would be Juan Encarnación (4.2 WAR) and Jake Evans (1.5). Jewel Ens (-0.1 WAR) can play all four infield positions, so he's on the team too.
Total WAR for the starting eight: 173.0 if the starting pitcher is Ewing, 169.9 if it's Elliott.
December 7th, 2010 at 5:52 pm
Meanwhile, the all-KT team has one pretty good starting pitcher (Kevin Tapani), a decent starter prospect (Kanekoa Texeira), two good relievers (Kent Tekulve and Ken Tatum), and Kelvin Torve.
Maybe we can draft some position players from the TK team. Terry Kennedy would at least cut down on the number of passed balls.
December 7th, 2010 at 6:00 pm
#51 - See #10.
December 7th, 2010 at 8:48 pm
My initials won't go anywhere, so I chose my all-time favorite player's initials - TP.
C - Tony Peña (18.7)
1B - Tony Pérez (50.5)
2B - Tony Piet (8.2)
SS - Tony Phillips (48.2)
3B - Terry Pendleton (25.6)
LF - Tom Poquette (3.0)
CF - Terry Puhl (26.1)
RF - Tom Paciorek (8.2)
SP - Togie Pittinger (15.4)
Total - 203.9
There's also a closer in Troy Percival (18.1). Other pitchers would include Tom Poholsky (6.9), Ted Power (6.8), Tot Pressnell (5.5), and Tom Phoebus (4.8). The team's also pretty deep at catcher with Tom Pagnozzi (6.5) and Todd Pratt (4.5), but the rest of the bench is sorely lacking.
December 8th, 2010 at 12:19 am
@49, Kds -- Thanks for scouting those backstops. I think I'll use Larry Gonzales; nothing against Graff, but I'd feel uneasy writing out a lineup card without knowing which way he bats!
December 8th, 2010 at 1:21 am
Bowing to convention, even though I just know I'll have to put Jesus Alou in my outfield:
C -- Joe "the Immortal" Azcue, 8.3 (Azcue takes over the job once J.P. Arencibia fades after his debut)
1B -- Joe Adcock, 34.2 (one more biscuit for breakfast and he coulda had a 5-HR game)
2B -- Jerry Adair, 5.0 (b/c Casper the Friendly Ghost was my first Halloween costume)
SS -- Jim Anderson, 0.1
3B -- Jimmy Austin, 17.6
LF -- John Anderson, 27.4 (need a turn-of-the-century man & potential president, plus he's clearly the best player ever from Norway)
CF -- Jermaine Allensworth, -0.3
RF -- Jesus Alou, -2.3 (I knew it; I just knew it...)
UTIL -- Joey Amalfitano, 0.3 (born in San Pedro, CA, just like me)
UTIL -- Jose Arcia, -4.5 (just to show the level of talent available in the 1968 expansion draft, Arcia was the #9 pick after hitting an empty .219 at AA the year before)
LHSP -- Johnny Antonelli, 32.0
RHSP -- Johnny Allen, 28.2
LHSP -- Jim Abbott, 17.2 (a Tigers fan, like me)
RHSP -- Joaquin Andujar, 16.9 (because youneverknow)
RHSP -- Jack Armstrong, 2.2 (gotta have one All-American)
RHRP -- Jose Arredondo, 1.7 (for that brilliant rookie year)
RHRP -- Jose Acosta, 1.2 (if you don't have a 5'6", 134-lb. Cuban pitcher, what do you have?)
LHRP -- Jeremy Affeldt, 6.7
Manager -- Joe Altobelli
December 11th, 2010 at 4:06 pm
John Q, i made the same JB combo, and didn't noticed you also made it. I can make some changes to yours: Jose Bautista at 3B (5.9 WAR) and Jimmy Barret at CF (30.7 WAR). That RC is unstoppable.