Jump to content

Offseason Boredom: If you could draft 2 historical players/years to ma


bmags

Recommended Posts

Here are the rules:

 

You get to draft two historical players and a specific year of their career in order to guarantee the current white sox roster gets into the playoffs.

 

Example:

98 Pedro Martinez - SP

96 Griffey Jr - CF

 

Open Considerations:

- Despite the fact that you are choosing the best year of a player, translation to current era can be factored in, despite the fact that it may severely undercut this exercise!

- Team fit should be considered. Are you going to get 2 awesome position players? 1 pitcher/1 hitter to plug in CF? Are you going to take the world's best 2b regardless, who cares if Lawrie's on the bench?

 

For my draft, I'm thinking going SP/CF, as above, but maybe even:

96 Griffey in CF

85 Dwight Gooden - SP

Gooden had 16 complete games in 85, which is the sort of relief which will be a huge help when you have pitchers like Quintana and Rodon who may struggle going late. Also - I never saw him pitch, so want to see 1 player.

 

Griffey in 96 was what I still think of for baseball. Move eaton to RF and deal with Melky in LF.

 

Lineup:

Eaton

Cabrera

Abreu

Griffey

Frazier

Lawrie

C

Saladino

 

Rotation:

Sale

Gooden

Quintana

Rodon

Danks/Johnson

 

Alternative mind games: 2 historical White Sox players to put us in the tops. For that I'll go offense alone. I think Billy Pierce would be a fine choice but pre 60s players scare me. 2003 Loaiza seemed soft to me.

 

94 Thomas - DH

98 Albert Belle- RF

 

Just mash.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 9, 2016 -> 09:56 AM)
Here are the rules:

 

You get to draft two historical players and a specific year of their career in order to guarantee the current white sox roster gets into the playoffs.

 

Example:

98 Pedro Martinez - SP

96 Griffey Jr - CF

 

Open Considerations:

- Despite the fact that you are choosing the best year of a player, translation to current era can be factored in, despite the fact that it may severely undercut this exercise!

- Team fit should be considered. Are you going to get 2 awesome position players? 1 pitcher/1 hitter to plug in CF? Are you going to take the world's best 2b regardless, who cares if Lawrie's on the bench?

 

For my draft, I'm thinking going SP/CF, as above, but maybe even:

96 Griffey in CF

85 Dwight Gooden - SP

Gooden had 16 complete games in 85, which is the sort of relief which will be a huge help when you have pitchers like Quintana and Rodon who may struggle going late. Also - I never saw him pitch, so want to see 1 player.

 

Griffey in 96 was what I still think of for baseball. Move eaton to RF and deal with Melky in LF.

 

Lineup:

Eaton

Cabrera

Abreu

Griffey

Frazier

Lawrie

C

Saladino

 

Rotation:

Sale

Gooden

Quintana

Rodon

Danks/Johnson

 

Alternative mind games: 2 historical White Sox players to put us in the tops. For that I'll go offense alone. I think Billy Pierce would be a fine choice but pre 60s players scare me. 2003 Loaiza seemed soft to me.

 

94 Thomas - DH

98 Albert Belle- RF

 

Just mash.

 

 

99 Pedro and 2015 Bryce Harper

Edited by Y2JImmy0
Link to comment
Share on other sites

So are we assuming you're just putting them in a time machine and making them play the 2016 season? ie Honus Wagner is great an all, but he might not make it against today's pitching. Or do we just get to copy + paste their stats from that season into our lineup?

 

Think you have to go with an outfielder and a starting pitcher. Might be fun to have an all-time fantastic shortstop instead of the pitcher, but the peace of mind from - barring injury - not having to rely on both EJ and Danks pays off more, I think.

 

2002 Vlad Guerrero: .336/.417/.593, 39 HR, 40 SB. Last year of Vlad's career before he lost a step and became a defensive liability.

2001 Randy Johnson: I'm taking a lefty because damn if the possibility of having 4 dominant lefties isn't awesome.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 9, 2016 -> 10:33 AM)
I provided both. Not my fault, "Q"

 

I'll admit, I missed it. Only cause people keep posting the obvious answers.

 

If I did Sox players '94 Frank Thomas and either '05 Contreras (post All-Star break), 2012 Jake Peavy, 1983 LaMarr Hoyt or '93 Jack McDowell

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is my twist on this- I'm creating a lineup of Sox players from a specific season, dating as far back as I can remember being a Sox fan (1980). No player used more than once, and the player must have played at least 81 games at the listed position during the listed season.

 

Lance Johnson 1993 CF

Robin Ventura 1992 3B

Frank Thomas 1994 1B

Albert Belle 1998 LF

Magglio Ordonez 1999 RF

Alexei Ramirez 2010 SS

Harold Baines 1987 DH

Carlton Fisk 1983 C

Ray Durham 1998 2B

 

Esteban Loaiza 2003 SP

Chris Sale 2013 SP

John Danks 2008 SP

Alex Fernandez 1996 SP

Mark Buehrle 2007 SP

 

Bobby Thigpen 1990 CL

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For my Sox only choices I would choose 94' Frank Thomas and 02' Magglio Ordonez.

 

I really would love to see 04' Ichiro in right field for fun factor, but if I had to add 2 players from any team and any era, I would go with 68' Bob Gibson and 41' Ted Williams. Not only are they dominant, but they would give the team some aggressiveness.

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

QUOTE (shysocks @ Feb 9, 2016 -> 10:12 AM)
So are we assuming you're just putting them in a time machine and making them play the 2016 season? ie Honus Wagner is great an all, but he might not make it against today's pitching. Or do we just get to copy + paste their stats from that season into our lineup?

 

Think you have to go with an outfielder and a starting pitcher. Might be fun to have an all-time fantastic shortstop instead of the pitcher, but the peace of mind from - barring injury - not having to rely on both EJ and Danks pays off more, I think.

 

2002 Vlad Guerrero: .336/.417/.593, 39 HR, 40 SB. Last year of Vlad's career before he lost a step and became a defensive liability.

2001 Randy Johnson: I'm taking a lefty because damn if the possibility of having 4 dominant lefties isn't awesome.

 

Young Vlad would be unreal on this team.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really wanted to put 72 Dick Allen but hard to choose him over Frank Thomas.

 

We have Apiricio and Minoso to take the hole in SS, but hard to take either over the 90s-early 00s mashers.

 

Surprised for the lack of 2003 loaiza love, especially 2012 Jake Peavy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So for any player from any team, that would be pretty easy for me:

 

1923 Babe Ruth

1972 Steve Carlton

 

Best player of all time that fills a need in RF (who cares how bad his defense is with that bat), and one of the best pitchers of the last 50 years in the most dominating season of the last 50 years IMO.

 

 

For any historical White Sox I'd go with:

 

1971/1972 Wilbur Wood

1920 Shoeless Joe Jackson

 

Wilbur allows that White Sox to legitimately go back to a 4 man rotation - Sale, Q, Rodon, Wood, with spot starts here and there from Johnson, Latos, Danks. Jackson fills the biggest need for the lineup and gives the team a high on base doubles hitter to plug into the 2 through 6 slots in the lineup.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Johnny Bench from the 1972 Reds: 8.6 WAR

Mickey Mantle from the 1956 or 1957 Yankees: 9.3/9.4 WAR respectively

 

I'll take my chances with the pitching we have if we had those two on the team up the middle.

 

If I have to dump one of the position players for a pitcher, the 1968 Bob Gibson was was-inspiring. I saw him pitch in person (my uncle took me to Wrigley—he was a die-hard Cub fan, what can I say!), and I don't know how the Cubs were able to score a run off him. He was intimidating.

 

If I'm looking for past members of the White Sox, put 1972 Dick Allen (8.6 WAR) at first base and Jose Abreu at DH.

For the outfield, how about 1966 Tommie Agee: 6.6 WAR.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll take 1937 Joe Di Maggio with his 8.2 WAR, .346 BA and 46 Homers, I'd have him play Right Field.

 

I would also take a souped up 1998 Mark McGwire with his .299 BA, 70 homers, and 7.5 WAR. I'd play him DH and get Lance Armstrong's dealer to supply the masking agent.

 

My Lineup would read

 

Eaton CF

Cabrera LF

Abreu 1B

McGwire DH

Di Maggio RF

Frazier 3B

Lawrie 2B

Navarro C

Saladino SS

 

If it was White Sox alone, I'd have '94 Frank Thomas and '54 Minnie Minoso.

 

Big Frank at 1B with Abreu to DH and Minoso in LF and move Melky to RF

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...