Infield: Second baseman Martin Prado (2006- ) is a very fine hitter - a consistent .300 hitter with gap power. In fact, he almost won a league batting title in the Triple-A International League. Just missed it. (See note at the bottom of this team’s roster.) Third baseman Mike Pagliarulo (1984-95) was not a threat to win any batting titles. He was sort the prototype of the low-average, high-strikeout, decent-power third baseman (Graig Nettles Lite) who proliferated in the 1980s. Career batting average .241, but with 134 home runs. Once the power started to wane, he drifted out of regular playing time, but incongruously, at age 33 he suddenly hit .303 with just nine home runs. A year later he was back to hitting .232 and his career was over. Shortstop Marty Perez (1969-78) didn’t contribute much to the offense, and he wasn’t great with the glove either, but he was regular for a few years because the Braves just kept putting him out there. In 1972, for example, he batted .228, drew just 30 walks, had just 15 extra-base hits, was thrown out on all three of his stolen base attempts, and for good measure grounded into a league-leading 21 double plays - and he held onto the starting job the next season. First baseman Martin Powell (1881-84) was a .282 hitter for a few years.
Outfield: Left fielder Mitchell Page (1977-84) hit the scene like a house afire. As a rookie, he batted .307 with a .405 on-base and .521 slugging percentage. He had 28 doubles and 21 home runs in 501 at-bats, and he stole 42 bases in 47 attempts. He never came anywhere close to any of those numbers ever again. Center fielder Mike Patterson (1981-82) was teammates with Page for a brief period in Oakland in 1981. Of course, it would have to be for a brief period, since Patterson’s entire career was brief. Right fielder Mike Powers (1932-33) didn’t have any. OK, that’s not true. He hit 130 home runs in the minors, to go along with 440 doubles and 117 triples and a .334 average. He was a pretty darn good minor-league hitter. In the majors, he batted .238 with no home runs, which is an odd thing for a guy named Powers.
Catcher: Mike Piazza (1992-2007) was the best hitting catcher in major-league history, a .308 career hitter with 427 home runs, scoring 1,048 runs and driving in 1,335. He wasn’t a very good defensive catcher, but you know, there were worse, and Piazza was a popular, hard-working guy who always seemed to give his all. Hard to find a bad thing to say about the man.
Rotation: Mel Parnell (1947-56) was a lefty who won 123 games for the Ted Williams Red Sox, including a 25-7 record in 1949. Milt Pappas (1957-73) has all sorts of little side notes to a career in which he won 209 games. He was one of the players the Reds got in return when they traded Frank Robinson (whom they thought was over the hill). He threw a no-hitter in 1972 that just missed being a perfect game. With two out in the ninth he worked to a 2-2 count and walked the batter, which infuriated him. For years afterward, he would rant and rave about it, noting that the pitches were outside the strike zone but insisting that umpire Bruce Froemming should have called the strikes out of respect to the perfect game. On top of everything else, Pappas was responsible for a change in Hall of Fame voting. Five years after he retired, he was offended to learn that his name was not on the Hall of Fame ballot. He was told that no one could truly believe that he was a Hall of Famer (which is true), but he argued that a guy who won 200 games should at least get the benefit of the doubt and have his name placed in consideration (equally true). After that, the rules were changed so that everyone who played 10 full seasons in the majors was placed on the ballot. (Pappas received five votes.) Mark Portugal (1989-99) was a decent enough pitcher to win 109 games in the majors. In one of those “blind squirrel finds an acorn” moments, he batted .354 in 48 at-bats in 1994, though his career average was just .198. Monte Pearson (1932-41) posted a career record of 100-61 and won four World Series championships. He started a game in each of those four World Series and won all four. Three of them were complete games. In the one he didn’t complete, he worked 8 2/3 innings. His World Series ERA was 1.01, and in 35 2/3 innings he struck out more batters (28) that he allowed to reach base (26). And in all likelihood, if you polled 1,000 baseball fans you couldn’t find 2 who could identify Monte Pearson. Manny Parra (2007- ) is currently trying to see if his career can survive a 3-10 record in 2010.
Disabled List: Mark Prior (2002- ) belongs in the rotation ahead of Manny Parra. We know that. But somehow it seems more appropriate to create a special distinction for him and place him on the Baseball Initially disabled list. When he arrived with the Cubs, he looked like the real deal - not just in terms of talent, but in terms of mechanics that were so smooth that you figured he'd never get hurt. We penciled him in for 250 career wins, maybe even 300, and probably 3,000 strikeouts too. And then the injuries set in. He did not pitch at all in 2007. Or '08, or '09. He has worked a handful of minor-league innings since then, and clearly he still hopes to pitch again. He's still just 30 years old, but the prospect of seeing him in the majors again seems remote. Which is a shame. He goes in the category that Bill James defines with the phrase "Can I Try This Career Over Again?"
Bullpen: Mike Perez (1990-97) was a decent pitcher who was never comfortable in the closer role. He had a couple of fine seasons as a set-up guy for the Cardinals, but when they made him closer in 1994 his ERA ballooned to 8.71. We're going to knock on wood and make him the closer here. Marty Pattin (1968-80) split his career between the rotation and the bullpen, but we need him more in the relief corps. He’ll be a swing guy. Mark Petkovsek (1991-2001) had a career record of 46-28 despite the fact that his ERA was a little bit worse than the league average. Mike Paul (1968-74) was a lefty who went 27-48 in his career. He figures into a funny story related by longtime Cubs executive Blake Cullen in his memoir “You Should Have Seen the Ones I Didn’t Take,” but the story is too long to get into here. Read the book, and look for the passage about the Larry Gura trade. Marino Pieretti (1945-50) was born in Lucca, Italy, and won 30 games for the Senators and the White Sox. Matt Perisho (1997-2005) was a lefty who gave up a lot of home runs, which is even more of a problem because he also gave up a lot of hits and a lot of walks. Mike Proly (1976-83) was a pretty fair middle reliever.
Bench: Backup catcher Mark Parent (1986-98) was a big fellow who could reach the seats, but he also batted .214, so we don’t think Piazza’s looking over his shoulder. Mike Phillips (1973-83) was a utility infielder who didn’t hit much but made himself useful to various teams for a decade. Marr Phillips (1884-90) was a shortstop in the 1880s. Mark Polhemus (1887) was an outfielder who batted .240 in 20 games and was nicknamed “Humpty Dumpty.” Mike Poepping (1975) was a 6-foot-6, 230-pound outfielder who batted .135 in a brief trial with Minnesota.
Manager: Matthew Porter manager the Kansas City Cowboys (yeeha!) in the Union Association in 1884. He lost 13 of 16 games before the team decided to go in a different direction.
A note about Martin Prado: Mike, one of the guys who is picking these teams, works as official scorer for the Norfolk Tides in the International League. On Aug. 31, 2007 – like, on the next-to-last day of the season – the Richmond Braves were playing in Norfolk, and Martin Prado hit a grounder that Norfolk second baseman Cesar "Creepy" Crespo failed to field. Mike called it an error. The R-Braves believed it should have been ruled a hit, largely because Prado was battling for the league batting title at the time. Mike stood by his original call. Prado finished with a .316 batting average, losing the batting title to Ben Francisco (.318). If Mike had called the ball a hit, Prado would have won the batting title. Folks in Richmond insisted that Prado had been jobbed out of the title by a rival official scorer who was either stupid or crooked. Mike knows he made the right call. Joe witnessed the play and has never suggested that Mike blew it. But every time Martin Prado’s name comes up, we think of that play and of the batting title that he almost won.
Outfield: Left fielder Mitchell Page (1977-84) hit the scene like a house afire. As a rookie, he batted .307 with a .405 on-base and .521 slugging percentage. He had 28 doubles and 21 home runs in 501 at-bats, and he stole 42 bases in 47 attempts. He never came anywhere close to any of those numbers ever again. Center fielder Mike Patterson (1981-82) was teammates with Page for a brief period in Oakland in 1981. Of course, it would have to be for a brief period, since Patterson’s entire career was brief. Right fielder Mike Powers (1932-33) didn’t have any. OK, that’s not true. He hit 130 home runs in the minors, to go along with 440 doubles and 117 triples and a .334 average. He was a pretty darn good minor-league hitter. In the majors, he batted .238 with no home runs, which is an odd thing for a guy named Powers.
Catcher: Mike Piazza (1992-2007) was the best hitting catcher in major-league history, a .308 career hitter with 427 home runs, scoring 1,048 runs and driving in 1,335. He wasn’t a very good defensive catcher, but you know, there were worse, and Piazza was a popular, hard-working guy who always seemed to give his all. Hard to find a bad thing to say about the man.
Rotation: Mel Parnell (1947-56) was a lefty who won 123 games for the Ted Williams Red Sox, including a 25-7 record in 1949. Milt Pappas (1957-73) has all sorts of little side notes to a career in which he won 209 games. He was one of the players the Reds got in return when they traded Frank Robinson (whom they thought was over the hill). He threw a no-hitter in 1972 that just missed being a perfect game. With two out in the ninth he worked to a 2-2 count and walked the batter, which infuriated him. For years afterward, he would rant and rave about it, noting that the pitches were outside the strike zone but insisting that umpire Bruce Froemming should have called the strikes out of respect to the perfect game. On top of everything else, Pappas was responsible for a change in Hall of Fame voting. Five years after he retired, he was offended to learn that his name was not on the Hall of Fame ballot. He was told that no one could truly believe that he was a Hall of Famer (which is true), but he argued that a guy who won 200 games should at least get the benefit of the doubt and have his name placed in consideration (equally true). After that, the rules were changed so that everyone who played 10 full seasons in the majors was placed on the ballot. (Pappas received five votes.) Mark Portugal (1989-99) was a decent enough pitcher to win 109 games in the majors. In one of those “blind squirrel finds an acorn” moments, he batted .354 in 48 at-bats in 1994, though his career average was just .198. Monte Pearson (1932-41) posted a career record of 100-61 and won four World Series championships. He started a game in each of those four World Series and won all four. Three of them were complete games. In the one he didn’t complete, he worked 8 2/3 innings. His World Series ERA was 1.01, and in 35 2/3 innings he struck out more batters (28) that he allowed to reach base (26). And in all likelihood, if you polled 1,000 baseball fans you couldn’t find 2 who could identify Monte Pearson. Manny Parra (2007- ) is currently trying to see if his career can survive a 3-10 record in 2010.
Disabled List: Mark Prior (2002- ) belongs in the rotation ahead of Manny Parra. We know that. But somehow it seems more appropriate to create a special distinction for him and place him on the Baseball Initially disabled list. When he arrived with the Cubs, he looked like the real deal - not just in terms of talent, but in terms of mechanics that were so smooth that you figured he'd never get hurt. We penciled him in for 250 career wins, maybe even 300, and probably 3,000 strikeouts too. And then the injuries set in. He did not pitch at all in 2007. Or '08, or '09. He has worked a handful of minor-league innings since then, and clearly he still hopes to pitch again. He's still just 30 years old, but the prospect of seeing him in the majors again seems remote. Which is a shame. He goes in the category that Bill James defines with the phrase "Can I Try This Career Over Again?"
Bullpen: Mike Perez (1990-97) was a decent pitcher who was never comfortable in the closer role. He had a couple of fine seasons as a set-up guy for the Cardinals, but when they made him closer in 1994 his ERA ballooned to 8.71. We're going to knock on wood and make him the closer here. Marty Pattin (1968-80) split his career between the rotation and the bullpen, but we need him more in the relief corps. He’ll be a swing guy. Mark Petkovsek (1991-2001) had a career record of 46-28 despite the fact that his ERA was a little bit worse than the league average. Mike Paul (1968-74) was a lefty who went 27-48 in his career. He figures into a funny story related by longtime Cubs executive Blake Cullen in his memoir “You Should Have Seen the Ones I Didn’t Take,” but the story is too long to get into here. Read the book, and look for the passage about the Larry Gura trade. Marino Pieretti (1945-50) was born in Lucca, Italy, and won 30 games for the Senators and the White Sox. Matt Perisho (1997-2005) was a lefty who gave up a lot of home runs, which is even more of a problem because he also gave up a lot of hits and a lot of walks. Mike Proly (1976-83) was a pretty fair middle reliever.
Bench: Backup catcher Mark Parent (1986-98) was a big fellow who could reach the seats, but he also batted .214, so we don’t think Piazza’s looking over his shoulder. Mike Phillips (1973-83) was a utility infielder who didn’t hit much but made himself useful to various teams for a decade. Marr Phillips (1884-90) was a shortstop in the 1880s. Mark Polhemus (1887) was an outfielder who batted .240 in 20 games and was nicknamed “Humpty Dumpty.” Mike Poepping (1975) was a 6-foot-6, 230-pound outfielder who batted .135 in a brief trial with Minnesota.
Manager: Matthew Porter manager the Kansas City Cowboys (yeeha!) in the Union Association in 1884. He lost 13 of 16 games before the team decided to go in a different direction.
A note about Martin Prado: Mike, one of the guys who is picking these teams, works as official scorer for the Norfolk Tides in the International League. On Aug. 31, 2007 – like, on the next-to-last day of the season – the Richmond Braves were playing in Norfolk, and Martin Prado hit a grounder that Norfolk second baseman Cesar "Creepy" Crespo failed to field. Mike called it an error. The R-Braves believed it should have been ruled a hit, largely because Prado was battling for the league batting title at the time. Mike stood by his original call. Prado finished with a .316 batting average, losing the batting title to Ben Francisco (.318). If Mike had called the ball a hit, Prado would have won the batting title. Folks in Richmond insisted that Prado had been jobbed out of the title by a rival official scorer who was either stupid or crooked. Mike knows he made the right call. Joe witnessed the play and has never suggested that Mike blew it. But every time Martin Prado’s name comes up, we think of that play and of the batting title that he almost won.
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