All-name team
Posted by Andy on March 13, 2009
Sorry I haven't posted for a couple of days. I'm working on one of my big graph posts. That will hopefully go up Monday.
Anyway, if you're a longtime reader of my posts here, you know I like two things: playing games with names (like my name chain posts here) and baseball cards.
Here's a combination of the two: picking the best starting lineup where all players have the same first name. One example is here of an all-Greg team. (Incidentally, if you're a Dodgers fan, that's a truly excellent blog.)
I love that the B-R.com search engine makes it so easy to search for player names.
Here's my all-Andy team (not even considering Andrews, Andres or, heh, Andruws.)
1B: ?
2B: ?
3B: Andy High
LF: ?
CF: Andy Van Slyke
RF: Andy Kosco
SP: Andy Messersmith
SP: Andy Pettitte
SP: Andy Benes
SP: ?
SP: ?
RP: Andy McGaffigan
CL: ?
bench: Andy Pafko
Hmm, I couldn't even get a full team. I couldn't bring myself to put Andy Stankiewitcz or Andy Fox in the infield, or Andy Ashby on the mound. Andy Sonnenstine hasn't pitched long enough yet and Andy Hassler wasn't good enough.
Can you help me fill out my team, or make one of your own?
March 13th, 2009 at 11:11 am
the career leader in "andy saves" is andy hassler with 29.
March 13th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
My all-Aaron team: C Aaron Robinson, 1B Aaron Boone, 2B Aaron Miles, SS Aaron Hill, 3B Aaron Ward, LF Aaron Guiel, CF Aaron Rowand, RF Hank Aaron, bench Tommie Aaron, SP Aaron Sele, Aaron Harang, Aaron Cook, Aaron Laffey, Aaron Myette, CL Aaron Heilman, RP Aaron Small. Not too strong a group of candidates, but at least it is well-enough positioned to field all the better guys, plus the three recent guys who gave Yankee fans some nice memories.
March 13th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
To the all-Andy team, I would add Pafko in the outfield somewhere and Ashby in the starting rotation. You could move High to 2B and stick Carey at third base. I don't know how great Pafko, Carey, and Ashby are, but they're the only other Andies (Andys? Andes?) of whom I can think.
All-Jimmy team:
C: Archer (I knew the name, looked him up, and, thankfully, he was a catcher, because I couldn't think of anyone)
1B: Johnston (played only 49 games there, but he was good, and I can't think of a Jimmy who played first)
2B: Williams
3B: Collins
SS: Rollins
LF: Sheckard
CF: Wynn
RF: Barrett
SP: Key
SP: Dygert
SP: Anderson
SP: Jones (I had assumed that he was a reliever, but I looked up his stats, and he was primarily a starter)
SP:
RP:
CL: Gobble
I can't think of a fifth starter or reliever. Not like it matters - after Key, the pitching is horrible, anyway. I looked only for 'Jimmy,' so I couldn't have guys like Bottomley, Edmonds, Gentile, Thome, Sundberg, Palmer, Bagby, and others on the team. Even worse, I couldn't get Jimmie Foxx or Jimy Williams because of spelling.
March 13th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
Here is the Bill/Billy team. I am loaded on CF's but weak on RF's.
Hamilton cf
Madlock 3b
Terry 1b
Williams lf
White dh
Dickey c
Hatcher rf
Russell ss
Mazeroski 2b
Virdon bench
Herman bench
Freehan bench
Skowron bench
Bruton bench
Pierce sp
Monbiuquette sp
Gullickson sp
Singer sp
Hands sp
Wagner closer
Campbell rp
Koch rp
Caudill rp
Lee rp
Doran bench
Martin mgr
Veeck owner
King broadcaster
James sabremetrician
March 14th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Here's a team made up of players whose last names end in "ski" (except for two pitchers with a "y") who all played in the 1950s.
C- Carl Sawatski
1B-Ted Kluszewski
2B-Bill Mazeroski
3B-Ray Jablonski
SS-Ted Kazanski
LF-Gene Hermanski
CF-Rip Repulski
RF- Bob Borkowski
SP-Fred Baczewski
SP-Harry Perkowski
SP-Moe Drabowsky
SP- Tom Poholsky
RP-Ray Narleski
RP-Joe Ostrowski
RP- Dick Brodowski
Bench-Hank Majeski
Bench-Dick Kryhoski
March 14th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Bunny, Jimmie Foxx at first base.
March 14th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Oh, sorry. Didn't see the note on spelling.
March 14th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Bunny, might want to consider Jimmy Dykes over Jimmy Rollins at SS, but its a close call.
and Dan, great list, a shame you cant extend it to the 60s to get yaz but its call that they all played in the 50s
March 15th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Josh Team, due to a lack of Josh's i'm gonna add anybody who was born on my birthday of 1/8
C - Josh Gibson
1B - Jason Giambi
2B - Josh Barfield
3B - Josh Fields
SS - Jeff Francouer (why not?)
OF - Josh Hamilton
OF - Josh Willingham
OF - Mike Cameron
SP - Josh Beckett
SP - Josh Johnson
SP - Josh Fogg
SP - Carl Pavano
SP - Jeff Francis
RP - me?
Closer - Bruce Sutter
March 15th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
David/Dave/Davey
SP- David Cone
SP- Dave McNally
SP- Dave Stewart
SP- Dave Steib
SP- David Wells
CL- Dave Righetti
C- Dave Duncan
1B- David Ortiz
2B- Davey Lopes
SS- Dave Concepcion
3B- David Wright
LF- Dave Kingman
CF- Dave Henderson
RF- Dave Parker
DH- Dave Winfield
MGR Davey Johnson
Some other additions:
Utility player - David Eckstein
Token Phenom- David Clyde
2 sports star - Dave DeBusschere
Top Prospect - David Price
Had to put David Ortiz at first base, other than DH, as he has quite a few starts there and I needed to get Dave Winfield in the lineup. Even though Winfield was a better player than Parker, I want Parker's arm in Right Field.
March 15th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Winfield had a great arm himself, probably more accurate than Parker's. At least give him LF over the indifferent Kingman. (I have to defend my all-time favorite player.)
March 16th, 2009 at 9:33 am
Andy,
Couple of suggestions/notes:
1) How about Andy Hawkins as #5 SP? Career high of 18 games won and an AS.
2) Andy Coakley is an interesting player from early last century. Should be able to find a spot for him, perhaps in the rotation, perhaps as another reliever.
3) Andy Cooper as a HofFer from the Negro Leagues and should find a spot on the team too. Was a left starter, often ranked second only to Bill Foster as left starters in the negro leagues.
4) Believe you left out the SS position.
5) Andy LaRoche find some love on the team?
March 16th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Andy Hawkins was the Yankees' ace for a bit, he can be your No. 5.
And ditto what Johnny said about Winfield, word for word. He's still the most fun player I've ever seen on my favorite team, and arguably the best one (at least off steroids) of my lifetime.
March 17th, 2009 at 12:13 am
This inspired a blog post about the weak "All Adam Team". http://darowski.com/baseballtwit/the-all-adam-team-major-league-adams-throughout-history/
The results:
Adam Melhuse, C
Adam LaRoche, 1B
Adam Kennedy, 2B
Adam Debus, 3B
Adam Everett, SS
Adam Comorosky, LF
Adam Jones, CF
Adam Hyzdu, RF
Adam Dunn, DH
Adam Eaton, SP
Adam Benero, RP
March 19th, 2009 at 8:44 am
I think Leatherman's All-Dave team might be as good as any. It can be expanded into a 25-man All-Dave All-Star team (each player was selected for at least one). Add Justice; Nilsson at catcher; HofF Bancroft; David "Gus" Bell and David "Buddy" Bell; Dravecky, LaRoche, Giusti, and Smith in the bullpen; Dave Engle as third catcher; Dave "Boo" Ferriss as 11th pitcher if needed. There's exceptional versatility on that roster (e.g., Justice played 1b at age 24, threw left-handed, and stood 6'3"). Align All-Star seasons for each and this team (without using the reserves) could have a record -- in theory -- of 125-37.
March 30th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
I'll go with Bob
Grove
Feller
Gibson
Lemon
Shantz
Dibble
Nen
Boone
Watson
Doerr/Alomar
Horner/Bonilla/Elliott
Wallace
Abreu
Bonds
Clemente/Johnson/Veach
I'll put that up against ANY of your teams
March 30th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Bills weak on RF? How about Keeler?
March 30th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Andrew? Is Jones cheating?
March 30th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Jim/James?
Palmer
Galvin
Bunning
McCormick
Kaat
Hunter
Sundberg
Foxx
Gilliam
Collins
Fregosi
O'Rourke
Wynn/Bell (Cool Papa)
Ryan/Rice
They might win a game
March 30th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Charles:
Nichols
Ruffing
Bender
Radbourn
Hartnett
Comiskey
Gehringer
Dressen
Hayes
Myer/Neal
Klein
Davis
Hafey/Keller
not too shabby