cjsgro@watrose.UUCP (Carlo Sgro) (11/20/85)
Ever thought about who would be on your Dream Team of the past decade and a half? I got to thinking about the best players that I had seen in my realm of baseball experience (since about 1970 or so) and tried to come up with teams that would represent the best players of the past few years. I came up with the following two teams and I present them for discussion during the post-post-season. My restrictions were: 1) the player must have played during a 'significant' section of the period 1970 - 1985 (not just playing out the string of a long career). 2) the player must have played at least 10 years in the majors. 3) two teams were made up (NL and AL) of 15 hitters and 10 pitchers each. 4) Right vs. left handedness should be taken into account (i.e. not too proud to platoon). 5) The player must have played at least five years in the league to which he is assigned. Well, here goes ... American League pitchers: Jim Palmer, rhsp Bert Blyleven, rhsp Ron Guidry, lhsp Vida Blue, lhsp Nolan Ryan, rh long rp Tommy John, lh long rp Rollie Fingers, rhrp Goose Gossage, rhrp John Hiller, lhrp Sparky Lyle, lhrp catchers Thurman Munson (s) Carlton Fisk (r) 1B Carl Yastremski (l) Cecil Cooper (l) 2B Rod Carew (l) Willie Randolph (r) SS Robin Yount (r) Bert Campaneris (r) 3 B George Brett (l) Buddy Bell (r) OF Fred Lynn (r) Jim Rice (r) Reggie Jackson (l) Willie Wilson (s) Ken Singleton (s) National League pitchers Tom Seaver (rhsp) Don Sutton (rhsp) Gaylord Perry (rhsp) Steve Carlton (lhsp) Phil Niekro (rh longrp) Fergie Jenkins (rh longrp) Bruce Sutter (rhrp) Kent Tekulve (rhrp) Mike Marshall (rhrp) Tug McGraw (lhrp) catchers Johnny Bench (r) Gary Carter (r) 1B Steve Garvey (r) Keith Hernandez (l) 2B Joe Morgan (l) Davey Lopes (r) SS Dave Concepcion (r) Larry Bowa (s) 3B Bill Madlock (r) Mike Schmidt (r) OF Dave Winfield (r) Ken Griffey (l) Al Oliver (l) Dave Parker (l) Pete Rose (s) Well, that's it. As you'll probably be able to tell, I made most of my decisions based on statistics (and you'll probably let me know that too :-)). Some of the people that I left out: Dan Quisenberry: only 6 years in majors Lance Parrish: only 9 years in majors Eddie Murray: only 9 years in majors Willie McCovey: big years over by mid-seventies Tony Perez: I can hear the flames igniting ... Dale Murphy: only 8 years in majors Frank White: Randolph superior offensively Mark Belanger: Superior to Burleson defensively but only a .228 lifetime b.a. Rick Burleson: .275 lifetime b.a. but defense?? Garry Templeton: .288 lifetime b.a. but defense?? Ozzie Smith: only 8 years in majors Graig Nettles: slightly better than Bell defensively but only .250 b.a. Andre Dawson: .283 b.a. but which lefty do you take out? Comments? -- Carlo Sgro ...![ihnp4||decvax||allegra||clyde||utzoo]!watmath!watrose!cjsgro "ihnp4 Express: Overnight to the USA or you don't pay!"
jsl@princeton.UUCP (Jong Lee) (11/22/85)
I like most of your selections, EXCEPT: How could you leave out Catfish Hunter? Although I like Blyleven, couldn,t you atleast have put in Hunter as longrelief rhp, and leave out Ryan....And what about Brooks Robinson at 3b? lifetime ~.280 hitter and umpteen golden-gloves. In the national league, you should cut Hernandez, put Oliver at 1b(both are lefty batters), making room for Reggie Smith in the outfield (he's a switch-hitter, so he really belongs on the roster). And last of all, Davey Lopes being an outfielder-converted 2b-man is an atrocious fielder; Dave Cash is a more solid selection. jsl@princeton