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 . . .
ReplyDeleteFor 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!