These were the Phillies' primary right fielders from 1982 - 1997:
George Vukovich
Von Hayes
Sixto Lezcano
Glenn Wilson
Glenn Wilson
Glenn Wilson
Chris James
Von Hayes
Von Hayes
Dale Murphy
Ruben Amaro
Jim Eisenreich
Jim Eisenreich
Jim Eisenreich
Jim Eisenreich
Darren Daulton
Some of those guys were decent, but they could have moved to left field. Obviously, with Gwynn and his high OBP batting 2nd, Mike Schmidt would have averaged 200 RBI per season. Lenny Dykstra would have scored 200 runs per season with Gwynn and his high BA behind him.
Who would your team's missing link be?
Yankees always seemed like a pitcher short in the 1980s. Maybe Jack Morris? Nolan Ryan? Roger Clemens from '86 on? That era was kind of a weird one for pitching, lots of guys were amazing for 2-3 years and then fell off a cliff. Gooden, Hershiser, Saberhagen (kept going up and down that cliff), Mike Scott . . .
ReplyDeleteYeah. Pitching always helps.
DeleteFor the Mets, I have two, both of whom they could have had.
ReplyDeleteThe famous one is Reggie Jackson. Everyone thought he was easily the best prospect in the 1966 draft. But the Mets ended up taking Steve Chilcott, a catcher who injured himself in A-ball. Even if he hadn't gotten hurt he'd likely never have been remotely close to the player Jackson was.
But maybe the bigger one is Dick Allen, who was available in the 1962 expansion draft. Now, unlike with Jackson, it would have taken some very clever scouting for the Mets to take him, as no one knew he was going to be a star. But he would have filled the third base hole the Mets had for many years. Not only did they get little production from the position, but they traded away Nolan Ryan and Amos Otis trying to fill it. What could have been!
Reggie and the Queens Quashers. Would they have been able to afford him long-term, thus keeping him from the Yankees?
DeleteSeems like a lot of teams struggle to find a good 3B.
Using the same era as you... I feel like the A's usually struggled a the shortstop position. They had Campy in the 70's... Tejada in the 2000's... and Semien in the 2010's. But they struggled at short in the 80's and 90's. Weiss, Phillips, and Griffin filled in, but they were never considered strong at that position. I'd go with Ripken Jr. as our missing link. There were a lot of strong personalities on some of those 80's and 90's teams. I feel like Ripken (along with Lansford and Stewart) would have helped control some of the clubhouse drama. Who knows maybe they would have won another World Series title or two.
ReplyDeleteGood one.
DeleteOff the top of my head, Buckner's years with the Red Sox match up well with Keith Hernandez's time with the Mets. Probably would have helped to have a Gold Glove 1st baseman during that 1986 World Series...
ReplyDelete