Infield: Shortstop Mickey Doolan (1905-18) was not much of a hitter, but he had a heck of a glove. A good enough defender to play 1,700 games while batting .230 with no power, and respected enough to receive MVP votes in a season when he batted .218. Second baseman Mariano Duncan (1985-97) was a different type of player, a .267 hitter with good speed but atrocious strike zone judgment who played 1,000 games at short and second even though it was abundantly clear that he had no business in the middle of the infield (and didn't hit enough to play outfield). It's a difficult feat to have more stolen bases than walks, but Duncan pulled it off three times and was even in the two categories once. Third baseman Mark DeRosa (1998- ) will hit .270-.280 with double-digit home run totals and can play all over the diamond. Mike Dorgan (1877-90) was primarily an outfielder, but he played enough at first base to fill that hole on the MDs. He was a .274 hitter back when that was a pretty good average.
Outfield: Center fielder Mike Donlin (1899-1914) is one of the most endlessly fascinating players from the first decade of the 20th century, a spectacular and colorful player, one of the sport's great alcoholics, and a guy whose name turns up in anecdotes and biographies of the biggest stars of his era. He had some brilliant seasons for John McGraw, who worked hard to keep him sober, and he was a key player on the 1908 Giants team that lost the pennant on the famous Bonehead Merkle play. He got into brawls on and off the field, dated actresses and did everything imaginable to draw attention to himself. A .333 career hitter with speed and style. By comparison, Mike Devereaux (1987-98) was quite dull, a .254 hitter with some power and a fine center fielder (though he'll move to right on this team). He hit 105 career home runs. Left field is a platoon of right-handed Matt Diaz (2003- ) and left-handed Mike Davis (1980-89). Davis could hit 20 homers and steal 20 bases, and Diaz is a .300 hitter who can pop a dozen home runs in a good year.
Catcher: Mike Difelice (1996-2008) was a very weak hitter but a good enough defensive catcher to hang around until he was almost 40.
Rotation: Martin Dihigo was a legendary Negro League pitcher who also starred at second base when he wasn't on the mound (Mariano Duncan will take note). Actually, that's too limiting, because he also dominated the Mexican League for several years and has been inducted into halls of fame in Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and, of course, Cooperstown. In his native Cuba, he was known as "The Immortal." Murray Dickson (1939-59) won 20 games once and lost 20 games twice, all in the course of four years (and he lost 19 in the odd season out). For his career he went 172-181, and he won World Series titles with St. Louis in 1946 and New York in 1958. Monk Dubiel (1944-52) won 45 games in the majors and also logged almost 1,300 innings in the minors in a long journeyman's career. Mike Dunne (1987-92) came up as a hot prospect and went 13-6 for Pittsburgh in '87, finishing second in the Rookie of the Year voting. He won just 12 games the rest of his career. Martin Duke (1891) was 0-3 in his major-league career, and we think he was the long-lost brother of Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy in "Trading Places."
Bullpen: Closer Moe Drabowsky (1956-72) was a middling starter but blossomed in the bullpen in his 30s. He was the first pitcher to record a victory for the expansion Kansas City Royals in 1969, and he was a key reliever in the Baltimore Orioles championship teams of 1966 and '70. Mark Davis (1980-97) won the Cy Young Award in 1989, when he saved 44 games for San Diego with a 1.85 ERA. Essentially he had two sensational years (1988-89) in the middle of an otherwise mundane career. When Mark Dewey (1990-96) was healthy, he was a good pitcher. Mike DeJean (1997-2006) was a pretty good pitcher who bounced around the National League for a decade and was Milwaukee's closer for a while. Manny Delcarmen (2005- ) was a Boston boy drafted by the Red Sox who came up and got off to a good start as a middle reliever. Just as his career seemed to be taking shape, he went off the rails and now he's trying to get back to the majors. Mark DeFelice (2008- ) is a control specialist who had to log 1,200 very good innings in the minors before he got a shot at the big leagues at age 30. Matt Daley (2009- ) pitched well for the Rockies this year. We'll see what he does from here on out.
Bench: Half of the Diaz/Davis platoon combination will always be on the bench and available to pinch-hit. Another outfielder, Miguel Dilone (1974-85) can pinch-run. Dilone had one of the great fluke seasons of all time in 1980, batting .341 for Cleveland with 61 stolen bases. That season accounted for more than one-third of the hits in his 12-year career, and if you take 1980 out of his record he was a .238 hitter. But the man could run. Mike de la Hoz (1960-69) was a utility infielder who was passable with the glove and almost passable with the bat. Backup catcher Mark Dalesandro (1994-2001) wasn't as good a hitter as Mike Difelice, and that's not good. Mario Diaz (1987-95) is an infield option behind de la Hoz.
Manager: Mordecai (Five-Finger) Davidson managed the Louisville Colonels in the American Association in 1888. No, they didn't really call him "Five-Finger." But they might have if he had arrived 30 years later.
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