for manager!!!!

A-Gon the DH spot above Pronk

Any post that even suggests that either Pena or AGon can play 3rd base needs to be deleted.

why people want to dwell on who isn’t here anymore.

They’re gone, get over it. Every team could put together a list like this. It’s not the 30’s when players stayed with one team their entire careers. Every team has made good trades and bad trades, good signing and bad signings.

The Rangers have a great core of young players in the minors. Instead of doing this shit for players that are gone at least do it for the kids coming up (although that has already been done as well).

does it have to be the best RIGHT NOW, or the best guy to have played for the Rangers, and isn’t as good now as he was a few years back, but is still playing? The reason I ask is Pudge.

We should just add this to the sidebar.

Then, at least, it will be contained to one spot, which will also make it easier for those who love to do these weekly updates on former players.

I thought you were going to actually talk about all your ex’es…

stop living in the past…

I perused baseball-reference and found, as best as I could, guys who started at least one game for the A’s at some point and were listed on their B-R pages as having posted some sort of stat somewhere in 2008. Listed after each name is a number… OPS+ for hitters and ERA+ for pitchers for 2008.

C – Jason Kendall 80
1B – Jason Giambi 159
2B – Marco Scutaro 86
3B – Esteban German 9
SS – Miguel Tejada 112
LF – Jay Payton 83
CF – Nick Swisher 89
RF – Jermaine Dye 117
DH – Milton Bradley 191

SP – Tim Hudson 147
SP – Dan Haren 131
SP – Aaron Harang 108
SP – Ted Lilly 93
SP – Kenny Rogers 91
RP – Chad Bradford 173
RP – Octavio Dotel 152
RP – Jason Isringhausen 52

So, how would that team compete against the all-ex-Rangers team?

I can’t find a right fielder that has started a game for the Angels and put up any sort of stat in 2008… Guerrero pretty much replaced Salmon, who is retired now. I’m also coming up short on starters, but found a hell of a bullpen. Again, 2008 OPS+ for hitters, 2008 ERA+ for pitchers.

C – Bengie Molina 110
1B – Darin Erstad 118
2B – Damion Easley 65
3B – Troy Glaus 117
SS – David Eckstein 94
LF – Jose Guillen 114
CF – Jim Edmonds 74
RF – ?
DH – ?
Orlando Cabrera 77; Eckstein has a better OPS+ at SS but maybe he or Cabrera could DH… can one of them play RF?

SP – Bartolo Colon 128
SP – Paul Byrd 87
SP – Jerrod Washburn 68
SP – ?
SP – ?
RP – Troy Percival 154
RP – Scott Schoenweis 161
RP – Kevin Gregg 165
RP – J.C. Romero 316
Schoenweis and Gregg each tried their hand at starting games for the Angels… maybe one could again.

As a “this is why the Rangers suck post,” I think these are stupid. But as an interesting retrospective about all clubs, I think it is a neat commentary of how baseball is both dynamic and unpredictable. I agree that having the communities on other sites make such a team would be an interesting experiment.

Comments:

I agree with Edwin Encarnacion at 3b
I’d keep AGon at 1st, and have Teixeira DH (after he refuses to play in the outfield…). Hafner is relegated to the bench

Strictly by production, I’d probably have Soriano at 2b and Carlos Lee in the OF, but Lee’s time in Texas may be too short to really count.

I also think that an interesting study would be to look at the best team possible using only players that each team signed / drafted – no transaction players allowed (think pre-free agency baseball). Who has done the best at bringing new talent into the league?

In this case you cannot have AGon, deRosa, ARod, Soriano, GMJ or Ludwick, but you can have guys like Pena and Kinsler

This one, I had to do a little shuffling… not all the guys will be playing their primary positions, but all have at least played the position before in the majors at some point. As always, number after name means 2008 OPS+ for hitters, 2008 ERA+ for pitchers

C- Yorvit Torrealba 58
1B – Carlos Guillen 131
2B – Rich Aurilia 100
3B – Greg Dobbs 129
SS – Alex Rodriguez 173
LF – Randy Winn 113
CF – Mike Cameron 98
RF – Ken Griffey Jr. 95
DH – Miguel Olivo 110
SP – Ryan Franklin 147
SP – Jamie Moyer 106
SP – Joel Pinero 95
SP – Randy Johnson 94
SP – Gil Meche 84
RP – George Sherill 122
RP – Eddie Guardado 141
RP – Rafael Soriano 202

LF- Ramon Nivar
CR- Rudy Yan
RF- Andres Torres

Someone mentioned what a team of ex-Marlins could be… that one I had an easier time finding guys. As always, numbers after name are 2008 OPS+ for hitters, 2008 ERA+ for pitchers.

C – Ivan Rodriguez 81
1B – Derrek Lee 120
2B – Luis Castillo 92
3B – Miguel Cabrera 124
SS – Edgar Renteria 86
LF Cliff Floyd 129
CF – Juan Pierre 71
RF – Mark Kotsay 107
Bench IF – Mike Lowell 109
Bench OF – Moises Alou 109
SP – Josh Beckett 113
SP – Braden Looper 96
SP – AJ Burnett 84
SP – Brad Penny 74
SP – Livan Hernandez 68
RP – Matt Herges 130
RP – Darren Oliver 148
RP – Ryan Dempster 157

Hafner isn’t doing so good right now.

I know he only played here for 1/2 a season but I’d go with Carlos Lee instead.

would be a better closer than CoCo

Had some trouble finding ex-MON/WAS pitchers that were still in the league… but here goes… OPS+ for hitters, ERA+ for pitchers.

C – Brian Schneider 76
1B – Brad Wilkerson 88
2B – Alfonso Soriano 123 (played at LF for the Nationals)
3B – Jamey Carroll 97
SS – Mark Grudzielanek 104
LF – Ryan Church 134
CF – Engy Chavez
RF – Vladimir Guerrero 116
Bench IF – Orlando Cabrera 77
SP – Javier Vasquez 112
SP – Claudio Vargas 102
SP – Esteban Loiaza 81
SP – Pedro Martinez 76
SP – ?
RP – Matt Herges 130
RP – Gary Majewski 123
RP – ?

is the current original-Rangers team. Guys like Harang, Danks, Benoit, Teix, etc. would be eligible, where AGon, Hamilton, others won’t be. Since you can’t fill for need, you have to be a little creative, but this is roughly what you would have if you never made any trades and noone was ever a FA. Back in the late 90’s the Rangers would have dominated all-original teams, but now, not so much.

C – Pudge
1B – C Pena
2B – Blalock
SS – Kinsler
3B – Encarnacion
LF – Monroe (or JMJ)
CF – Podsednik/Boggs
RF – Teixiera
DH – Hafner/Davis

Bench – Teagarden, Duran or Aurillia, Benji Gil (yes, still playing in Mexico) or Mike Lamb, Tatis or Sosa

very crowded at 1B with Tex/Pena/Hafner/Davis/Lamb/Botts/Gold. Not so crowded in the middle infield or outfield.

SP—Volquez
SP – Harang
SP – Danks
SP – D Davis
SP – Rogers

CL – Wilson
SU – Benoit
SU – Masset
LOOGY – Herrera
Middle – Feldman? or Littleton? or Juan Dominguez!!!?
Long – Hurley? or Mathis? or Colby Lewis?

The pitching list gets hard at the back of the bullpen.

Anybody got any additions/subtractions? Better way to handle the corner infield crowd?

and this post that has good discussions not get any?

Rec.

Need a few more starting pitchers. i’m sure i missed 1 or 2 that should go on the list

C Josh Bard 49
DH Jim Thome 109
1b Sean Casey 137
2b Brandon Phillips 105
3b Ron Belliard 108
SS Ramon Vazquez 153
OF Manny Ramierz 142
OF Ryan Ludwick 166
OF MIlton Bradley 191

SP Jeremy Guthrie 115
SP Bartolo Colon 107
SP Kevin Millwood 88

RP Chad Durbin 282
RP Guillermo Mota 93
RP Billy Traber 92
RP David Riske 90
RP Bobby Howry 87

The best team ever

C Greg Zaun 101
DH Raul Ibanez 109
1b Mike Sweeney 107
2bRuben Gotay 53
3b Doug Mientkiewicz 80
SS Donnie Murphy 65
OF Jermaine Dye 117
OF Johnny Damon 141
OF Carlos Beltran 126

SP Jeff Suppan 116
SP Odalis Perez 103
SP Miguel Batista 66
SP Glendon Rusch 56
SP Jorge de la Rosa 66

RP Denny Bautista 127
RP Dennys Reyes 161
RP Mike MacDOugal 211
RP Jamey Wright 104
RP J.P. Howell 123