Fugu's 10th Baseball ATD (Picks Only) Thread

[sarge88]

Prospect Hill selects:

C Joe Maurer

 

[Winger for Hire]

The Rocket City Trash Pandas select, 1B/PH David "Big Papi" Ortiz

Just a MONSTER hitter to bring off the bench. With the Iron Horse manning first, Ortiz can spend the game just waiting to unleash the thunder from his lumber.

.280/.380/.552
141 OPS+

541 HR
632 2B
1786 RBI

And I think we all know how this man handles the postseason pressure.

The Rocket City Trash Pandas also select, RP/SP Wilbur Wood

Wilbur was the reverse Eckersley; started as a reliever and transitioned to a starter, which makes him a great choice to enter into my bullpen as the 2nd multi-inning guy and spot starter.

There are a lot of parallels to Wilbur Wood and Dennis Eckersley. First of all, they are almost the exact same rating, in my book. Eckersley might edge him out, but it’s close.

Another big parallel between the two of them is the fact that they both basically spent half of their career as a starting pitcher and half of their career as a relief pitcher.

The parallels between the two help some historians argue that if Eckersley is in the Hall of Fame, then Wood should be also. They argue, in short: generally the same career layout, and generally the same career numbers, when adjusted per decade.

Now, Eckersley was a starting pitcher during the first half of his career and he was a relief pitcher during the second half of his career.

Basically, Wood was opposite. He was a relief pitcher during the first half of his career and he was a starting pitcher during the second half of his career. Of course, what Wood did is rare, usually you start first and then spend the twilight of your career in the bullpen. Not Wood, he relieved first, and started as he got older, rare and arguably harder to do.

Wood had an incredibly long 17 season Major League Baseball career and he started pitching in MLB as a teenager during the 1961 season.
He had two or three good pitches he threw, but he was generally a knuckleball pitcher. He usually threw the knuckleball and some historians argue he possessed the best knuckleball in history. Though, his peer relief pitcher from the 1960s, Hoyt Wilhelm, is also argued to have the best knuckleball of all time.

 

[Fenway]

The Burping Clams select P



and

OF/3B

 

[Vegeta]

The Tigers select RP Willie Hernandez

C Thurman Munson

1b Willie McCovey

 

[td_ice]

The Lookouts are happy to select, OF Oscar Charleston

Bill James, (fwiw) has Charleston listed as the 4th greatest baseball player ever. A true 5 tool player.

Charleston was named by James as having had the “best power/speed combination” of any player in the Negro Leagues. He was one of six players who could lay claim to the title of “most aggressive baserunner.” Charleston also made James’s Negro League Gold Glove team.

MVP-level hitting, power, speed, baserunning, fielding. Not a bad combination. Good enough to make Charleston, in James’s estimation, the best center fielder in Negro League history. And with respect to two more highly celebrated New York center fielders, well, “Charleston, in a sense, put Mays and Mantle together. He combined the grace, athleticism, and all-around skills of Mays with the upper body strength of Mantle, plus he was a left-handed hitter.”

In sum, along with Josh Gibson at the plate and Satchel Paige on the mound, Oscar Charleston was for James one of three Negro Leaguers who could stake a credible claim to being the best ever at their positions.

 

[td_ice]

The Lookouts are happy to select, SP Smokey Joe Williams

Another Negro League great.

According to Bill James, (again fwiw),he was the 7th best pitcher of all time, including mlb.


In a 1952 Pittsburgh Courier poll, of Negro league players and Negro league writers, Joe Williams was voted the great Negro league pitcher of all time, greater than Paige.

It was impressive that Williams went 20-7 against Major League competition, defeating Hall of Famers Grover Cleveland Alexander, Walter Johnson, xxx xxxxx, xxxx x xxxx and xxxx xxxxx in the process.

It was noteworthy when Hall of Famer Ty Cobb, noted for his racial intolerance and general surliness, stated Williams would have been a sure 30-game winner had he been a Major Leaguer.

 

[Dr Pepper]

Montreal selects proven winner Joe McCarthy, Manager, and quite possibly the second greatest player to suit up for a Detroit team - Turkey Stearnes, LF.

 

[Tecumseh]

The House of David selects IF Joe Sewell

Photo courtesy of The News-Palladium (Benton Harbor, Michigan - Saturday, September 10, 1932)

14 year career

.312/.391/.413/.804
108 OPS+
54.0 WAR
2,226 hits
436 doubles
49 home runs
1920, 1933 World Champion

Obviously not known for his power, Joe Sewell could make contact with the baseball perhaps better than any hitter in the history of the game. Throughout his career, he struck out only 114 times. He struck out more than 10 times in any one season only four times. From 1925-1933, his strikeout totals in any one season did not reach double digits. Throughout it all, Sewell remained a model of consistency with his batting average levitating around the .300 range and a consecutive games played streak that would eventually be broken by his teammate, Lou Gehrig.




The House of David selects P Jim Bunning

Photo courtesy of The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - Sunday, August 4, 1996)

17 year career

224-184
3.27 ERA
115 ERA+
60.5 WAR
151 complete games
40 shutouts
2,855 strikeouts
9x All-Star
2x AL Strikeout leader
1x NL Strikeout leader

 

[Voight]

Skeeters pick RP Eric Gagne & 2B Robinson Cano

 

[Dr Pepper]

Montreal rounds out its' bullpen with one of the original top closers, Firpo Marberry, RP, and completes its' roster with the selection of speedster Kenny Lofton, OF.

 

[td_ice]

The Lookouts are happy to select, The Ultimate Swiss Army Knife baseball player, INF/OF Ben Zobrist

The top one plays INF, the bottom one OF, hahaha.

(I'm not sure if we are gonna get judged on our bench or not. Not sure how, because everyone is gonna be 4 players short of 25. So everyone's team is incomplete. BUUUUT, in case we are, I have got it covered with BZ.) He gives me a backup at 7 positions.

Arguably the best utility player in the history of the game. Has played every position, except catcher.

Has played, 1b, 2b, 3b, Ss, all three OF positions.

45 WAR

7.3 dWAR

 

[td_ice]

The Lookouts are happy to select, C Yadier Molina

With Oscar Charleston serving as player/manger, something he did in the prime of his career, and had a tremendous W-L record, the Lookouts can fortify their bench and take one of the best catchers of our current era.


24.4 dWAR

9x's All star

9 Gold Gloves

 

[Fenway]

The Burping Clams select as a PH/RF



and our last pick will be a personal favorite from the time he was in SS A with the Lowell Spinners

 

[Winger for Hire]

Since I'm going to need a backup MI, the Rocket City select, SS Derek "Yea Jeets!" Jeter

.310/.377/.440
115 OPS+

3465 Hits
544 2B
260 HR

1311 RBI
1923 RBI

358 SB

To round it out, the Rocket City Trash Pandas select, OF/MI/1B "Big" Ed Delahanty

Had the MVP award been around, Big Ed would have more than likely been awarded at least 1 and as many as 4.

One of the greatest right-handed sluggers of all time, Ed Delahanty dominated the 1890s like no other hitter, batting better than .400 three times, leading the league in slugging percentage four times, and capturing three RBI crowns on his way to a lifetime batting average of .346, the fifth best mark in baseball history. Known as "Big Ed," and the "King of Swat," the muscular Delahanty was more than a one-dimensional slugger; he was also a fleet-footed, rifle-armed left fielder who was good enough to play center, and an excellent base runner who once led the league in stolen bases. "Delahanty is an awfully even, well balanced player all around," Sporting Life once observed. "You look at his batting and say well, that chap is valuable if he couldn't catch the measles, and then you look at his fielding and conclude that it wouldn't pay to let him go if he couldn't hit a bat bag." Despite such versatility, the temperamental star was destined to make more headlines off the field than on it, and his death, less than two years into his tenure with the Washington Senators, remains one of the most fascinating mysteries in the annals of the sport.

.346/.411/.505
152 OPS+

522 2B
101 HR

1466 RBI
1600 Runs Scored

456 SB

 

[Say Hey Kid]

The Toledo Mud Hens are thrilled to select the criminally underrated 9 x All-Star, 5 x Gold Glover, and Hall of Famer 3B Ron Santo. He's 7th in 3B JAWS ahead of Brooks Robinson, Paul Molitor, and Scott Rolen. His 70.5 bWAR is higher than Frankie Frisch, Barry Larkin, and Scott Rolen. His impressive slash line which includes a 125 OPS+ is

.277

.362

.464

.826

125

[TFOOT] [/TFOOT]

 

[Say Hey Kid]

The Toledo Mud Hens are thrilled to select a 4 x All-Star, a 3 x Gold Glover, a 2 x Silver Slugger, a Major League Player of the Year, and our pinch hitter/backup 1B/LF, 1B Rafael Palmeiro. His impressive slash line which includes a 132 OPS+ is

.288

.371

.515

.885

132

[TFOOT] [/TFOOT]

 

[sarge88]

Prospect Hill’s final selections:

2B Ryne Sandberg
RP Robb Nen

 

[Voight]

Skeeters pick OF Gary Sheffield and RP Wade Davis

 

[Tecumseh]

The House of David selects P Dazzy Vance

Photo courtesy of The Daily Record (Long Branch, New Jersey - Friday, August 26, 1927)

16 year career

197-140
3.24 ERA
125 ERA+
62.7 WAR
217 complete games
29 shutouts
2,045 strikeouts
7x NL Strikeout leader
3x NL ERA Title
1924 Triple Crown
1924 NL MVP (should have also won in 1928)
1934 World Champion

The House of David also selects 1B Todd Helton

Photo courtesy of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis, Missouri - Sunday, March 31, 2002)

17 year career

.316/.414/.539/.953
133 OPS+
61.2 WAR
2,519 hits
369 home runs
5x All-Star
4x Silver Slugger
3x Gold Glove
2000 NL Batting Title



Previous selection Biz Mackey will serve as player-manager

 

[Vegeta]

The Tigers select Manager Terry Francona and OF Sam Crawford