Friday, March 8, 2013

The All-Time J.S. Team - Part One

On Wednesday, High Heat Stats tweeted that you could make a great team out of players with the initials RC:

So I've decided to put together a team of players that share my initials, JS. This squad wouldn't have quite as much star power as Team RC, but it's still solid nevertheless with an excellent pitching staff.

 All-Time J.S. Team Part One
All-Time J.S. Team Part Two



L/R
bWAR OPS+/ERA+
C R Jim Sundberg 37.3 90
C R John Stearns 18.5 102





1B L JT Snow 8.4 105
1B R Jake Stahl 14.3 120





2B R Juan Samuel 14.5 101
IF R Junior Spivey 7.7 101





SS L Joe Sewell 49.2 108





3B R Joe Stripp 12.1 96





LF L Jimmy Sheckard 46.7 121
CF L Jimmy Slagle 13.7 97
RF R Jake Stenzel 20 134
OF S John Shelby 1.7 79
OF L John Stone 23 116





SP R John Smoltz 62.6 125
SP L Johan Santana 48.6 138
SP R Jason Schmidt 29.3 110
SP R James Shields 17 107
SP R Johnny Sain 22.9 107
RP R Jim Scott 26.1 121
RP L Johnny Schmitz 22.3 107
RP R Justin Speier 6.8 116
RP R Joe Smith 5 132
RP L Joe Sambito 7.6 116
RP R Jeff Shaw 13 119
CL R Joakim Soria 12.3 181

Apologies to Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Jim Spencer, Justin Smoak, Joe Saunders, Jim Slaton, Jeff Samardzija, Jack Sanford, John Stuper, Jeff Suppan, John Smiley and all of the other JS's that did not make the cut.

Let's take a closer look at the All-Time JS position players. I'll get to the pitching staff next week.
Catcher

 Jim Sundberg caught more games than all but seven players in MLB history. He won six straight Gold Gloves from 1976-81 and threw out 41 percent of base stealers in his 16-year career. Despite a .248/.327/.348 line, Sundberg should be a mainstay at the bottom of the lineup thanks to his defensive prowess.

 When Sundberg needs a breather, John Stearns should fill in ably. A four-time All-Star, Stearns stole 25 bases for the Mets in 1978, tying Roger Bresnahan's 20th Century NL record for catchers. Jason Kendall set a new mark with 26 in 1998. After his playing days, Stearns managed the Princeton Reds to the 1994 Appalachian League title.

 First Base

I'll go with a left/right platoon at first with J.T. Snow and Jake Stahl.

Stahl came up as a catcher with the Boston Americans (Red Sox) in 1903. They won the first World Series that year, but he wasn't on the postseason roster. He moved to the Senators in 1904 was converted to a first baseman before becoming player-manager just one day after his 26th birthday. After two seventh-place finishes, he was let go as skipper and he left to coach the Indiana Hoosiers college team for the 1907 season.

 He returned to the majors in 1908, this time with the New York Highlanders (Yankees) before being dealt back to Boston that July. In his first full season with the Sox in 1909, he reached career highs in all three slash categories (.294/.377/.434), good numbers for the dead-ball era that gave him a superb 153 OPS+.

 1910 was a big season for him, as he led the A.L. in homers by edging Ty Cobb 10-8. He also struck out 129 times, which set a major league record that would stand until Vince DiMaggio whiffed 134 times in 1938*.

 * When I think of Vince DiMaggio, I think of Casey Stengel's famous quip about the three ball-playing brothers, "Joe is the best hitter, Dom is the best fielder and Vince is the best singer."

 Stahl retired in 1911, only to come back to the Red Sox as player-manager in 1912. He managed the home team for their inaugural season at Fenway Park and guided the team to a 105-47 record and the A.L. pennant. In one of the greatest Fall Classics of all time, the Red Sox pulled out the title in walk-off fashion after Fred Snodgrass' dropped fly ball set up the winning rally.

 Stahl's time with the Sox ended badly in 1913 as a broken foot and a rift with the club president brought his playing and managerial careers to a bitter end.

 The Baseball-Reference Bullpen has a good bio of Stahl, which details his post-MLB life. He went into banking before serving in World War I. Sadly, he "suffered a nervous breakdown in 1920. He then contracted tuberculosis, and died in a sanatorium in Monrovia, California in 1922 at the age of 43."


J.T. Snow, whose father Jack played wide receiver for the Los Angeles Rams, was a Yankees farmhand. He won International League MVP in 1992 after hitting .313/.395/.474 with 15 homers. Snow was traded to the Angels for Jim Abbott that winter and starting in 1995, he ran up a string of six straight Gold Glove seasons in which he averaged 21 dingers.

 Snow spent most of his career with the San Francisco Giants (1997-2005, 2008) and his time there was marked by three memorable postseason moments.

His game-tying pinch-hit three-run home run off of Armando Benitez extended Game Two of the 2000 NLDS.


In Game Five of the 2002 World Series, Snow scored on Kenny Lofton's triple and grabbed manager Dusty Baker's three-year-old son/bat boy Darren before he could get trampled.


The following October, Snow tried to score the tying run in the ninth inning of Game Four of the NLDS. Ivan Rodriguez withstood the collision and tagged him out, ending the series on a play at the plate.


J.T. moved on to the Red Sox in 2006 and after his father passed away, he changed his uniform number to 84. He's the only major leaguer to wear 84.

 Second Base

Juan Samuel burst onto the scene with the Phillies in 1984. He stole 72 bases and led the National League with 19 triples as the All-Star finished second to Dwight Gooden in the NL Rookie of the Year voting. In 1987, he earned a second All-Star nod and a Silver Slugger. He reached career highs in homers (28), RBIs (100), doubles (37) while leading the Senior Circuit in triples again with 15. With 80 extra-base hits, Samuel joined Rogers Hornsby and Charlie Gehringer as the only second baseman with 80 XBH in a season (Jeff Kent, Alfonso Soriano, Dan Uggla and Robinson Cano have since joined the club).

Junior Spivey grabs a backup middle infield spot thanks to a strong 2002 season. He batted .301/.389/.476 and was selected to his only All-Star Game, the ill-fated tie in Milwaukee. Last month, David Schoenfield of ESPN.com chose an all-time one-hit wonder for each franchise and he picked Spivey to represent the Diamondbacks. It might have been just one big year, but how many major leaguers even get that? Besides, it's enough to get him on the JS roster.

 Shortstop

The offense's only Hall of Famer, Joe Sewell was the toughest player to strike out in modern major league history. With only 114 whiffs in 8,333 plate appearances, his PA per K is over 73! Over his last nine seasons (1925-33) he averaged 615 PA and struck out only 48 times, which is about a month's worth for Adam Dunn and Mark Reynolds.

He avoided striking out while posting a .312 career batting average, including a .353 mark in 1923. That season his OPS+ was an impressive 146, a number that Alan Trammell, Barry Larkin and Derek Jeter also only reached once.

1927 was an odd year for him. A season after stealing 17 bases, Sewell was a staggering 3-for-19 on steal attempts (15.8%). The Baseball-Reference SB% search only goes back to 1951, but since then, the worst percentage is Will Clark's 22.7 in 1987 (5-for-22).

However, the good far outweighed the bad during Sewell's career. He won two championships, one with the Tribe in 1920 and another in 1932 after moving on to the Yankees to finish his career. With 41.7 bWAR in a Cleveland uniform, he ranks seventh on the franchise list, right between Jim Thome and Larry Doby.

Rk Player WAR/pos From To Age G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Pos
1 Nap Lajoie 76.4 1902 1914 27-39 1614 6695 6034 865 2046 424 78 33 919 408 221 79 174 240 20 .339 .388 .452 .840 *43/65
2 Tris Speaker 71.0 1916 1926 28-38 1520 6632 5546 1079 1965 486 108 73 884 857 146 42 183 155 66 .354 .444 .520 .965 *8
3 Lou Boudreau 57.9 1938 1950 20-32 1560 6708 5754 823 1706 367 65 63 740 766 297 28 159 145 50 50 .296 .382 .416 .798 *6/5342
4 Kenny Lofton 46.3 1992 2007 25-40 1276 5767 5045 975 1512 244 66 87 518 611 30 652 20 44 46 66 452 104 .300 .375 .426 .800 *8/7D
5 Earl Averill 45.2 1929 1939 27-37 1510 6712 5909 1154 1903 377 121 226 1084 725 470 31 43 0 66 56 .322 .399 .542 .940 *8/9
6 Jim Thome 45.0 1991 2011 20-40 1399 5805 4711 928 1353 263 20 337 937 1008 87 1400 42 1 43 87 18 14 .287 .414 .566 .980 *35D
7 Joe Sewell 41.7 1920 1930 21-31 1513 6580 5621 857 1800 375 63 30 869 654 99 67 234 71 67 .320 .398 .425 .823 *65/4
8 Larry Doby 41.4 1947 1958 23-34 1235 5079 4315 808 1234 190 45 215 776 703 10 805 32 16 16 76 44 32 .286 .389 .500 .889 *8/97463
9 Terry Turner 35.5 1904 1918 23-37 1619 6512 5787 692 1472 204 77 8 521 430 474 34 264 254 31 .254 .310 .320 .630 654/98
10 Shoeless Joe Jackson 33.6 1910 1915 22-27 674 2852 2502 474 937 168 89 24 353 267 141 33 50 138 45 .375 .441 .542 .983 *98/37
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 3/8/2013.


Sewell was inducted into the Hall of Fame by the Veteran's Committee in 1977, going in with Ernie Banks, manager Al Lopez, fellow VC choice Amos Rusie and Negro League legends Martin Dihigo and Pop Lloyd.

Third Base

"Jersey Joe" Stripp broke in with the Reds in 1928 and cracked the NL's top ten in batting average by hitting .324 in 1931. Cincy dealt him to the Dodgers in 1932 in a six-player swap that brought future Hall of Fame catcher Ernie Lombardi to the Reds. Wikipedia says that Stripp was the last player to bat against a legally-thrown spitball, as he was the last batter Burleigh Grimes faced. Grimes was among those grandfathered in after the 1920 ban and he was the last man standing in 1934. The box score of his final game doesn't have play-by-play data, but judging by the number of plate appearances each Brooklyn player made, it appears that Stripp was indeed the last one. Although he was no Joe Sewell, Jersey Joe was tough to strike out, K'ing in less than five percent of his plate appearances. He could handle the glove as well, leading NL 3B in Range Factor for three straight years from 1931-33 and in fielding percentage in 1935, 1936 and 1938. 

Left Field

 Samuel James Tilden "Jimmy" Sheckard (named for 1876 presidential hopeful Samuel Tilden?) was a turn-of-the-century standout for Brooklyn before moving to the Cubs for their dynasty years.

 When he was only 20 years old, he led the National League with 77 stolen bases in 1899. Only Ty Cobb (53 in 1907) and Mike Trout (49 in 2012) led their league in steals at such a young age.

 In 1903, he led the loop in homers (9) and steals (67). He's in an exclusive club as only Cobb (1907) and Chuck Klein (1932) have accomplished that unique double dip.

 Sheckard was traded to the Cubs in 1906 and was a key piece on the Tinker-Evers-Chance Cubs teams that won the pennant in each of his first three seasons with the club. Chicago went 116-36 in that first season to set a record, but they were stunned in the World Series by the "Hitless Wonder" White Sox four games to two. Sheckard was one of the goats of the series, as the Cubs' two-hitter went 0-for-21. There have been five players that went 0-for-20 or worse in a single World Series:
Rk Strk Start End Games AB ▾ R H RBI SO BB SB OBP Tm
1 Dal Maxvill 1968-10-02 1968-10-10 7 22 1 0 0 5 3 0 .120 STL
2 Gil Hodges 1952-10-01 1952-10-07 7 21 1 0 1 6 5 0 .192 BRO
3 Red Murray 1911-10-14 1911-10-26 6 21 0 0 0 5 2 0 .087 NYG
4 Jimmy Sheckard 1906-10-09 1906-10-14 6 21 0 0 1 4 2 1 .087 CHC
5 Billy Sullivan 1906-10-09 1906-10-14 6 21 0 0 0 9 0 0 .000 CHW
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 3/7/2013.

Sheckard recovered and contributed to the Cubbies' back-to-back championship teams of 1907 and 1908, quite famously the last the franchise has won. His tenth-inning walk-off single that won Game Four of the 1910 World Series was the first game-ending hit in Series history and it staved off an Athletics sweep (Philly clinched the next day). 

 He led the N.L. in runs (121), OBP (.434) and walks (147) in 1911. The 147 free passes set a new major league record and although Babe Ruth surpassed it with 150 in 1920, Sheckard held the National League mark until Eddie Stanky drew 148 in 1945.

 He was terrific in the field as well, leading the league in outfield assists three times. Sheckard ranks eighth on the all-time outfield assists leaderboard and sixth on the list of double plays by an outfielder.

 His production waned quickly though, as his career was finished within two years. He retired with 2,084 hits and 465 stolen bases. His 46.7 bWAR ranks 26th among left fielders, between Hall of Famers Joe Kelley and Ralph Kiner. His JAWS score of 39.2 ranks 27th, between Hall of Famer Jim Rice and the historically underrated Roy White.

 Long after his playing days, in 1947, Sheckard was killed when he was hit by car while walking to work. He was 68.

 Center Field

Standing at five-foot-six and nicknamed "Rabbit," Jimmy Slagle played next to Sheckard on the Cubs' pennant winners of the early 1900s, and he will on this team as well.

 A vagabond early in his career, Slagle played for the original NL Washington Senators, the Phillies and the Boston Beaneaters before landing in Chicago in 1902.

 He rarely dazzled with the bat, but he had a career year in his Windy City debut, finishing seventh in the NL in bWAR, batting average and OBP. His strong suit was defense, as he led the circuit in Range Factor twice and in outfield assists in two other seasons.

 Slagle started on the 1907 title team, but after a down year in 1908, Solly Hofman replaced him in center field for the World Series and he retired after the Cubs victory.

 There's a nice coda to Slagle's story. This 2007 New York Times story details the efforts of a man from Slagle's tiny hometown of Worthville, PA (population 85) to get a memorial built there.


When I compiled my All-Time Bluefield Team last spring, John Shelby made the squad as a speed-and-defense backup outfielder, and he makes this squad as well in a similar role. I wrote about him at length here. He won championships with the 1983 Orioles and 1988 Dodgers and currently serves on Ron Roenicke's coaching staff for the Milwaukee Brewers.

 Right Field
Jake Stenzel took advantage of the 19th Century era with high offensive numbers (.338/.408/.479), but even when compared to his peers he posted a 134 OPS+ for bygone teams like the Chicago Colts and St. Louis Perfectos. He played mostly center field, but I'll slide him over to right for this exercise.

The Cincinnati native's SABR bio sums up Stenzels career thusly:

The 1897 season illustrates Stenzel's fate. As center fielder for the Temple Cup champion Baltimore Orioles, he hit a resounding .353 batting between future Hall of Famers Wee Willie Keeler and Joe Kelley. Yet his average was only the fifth best on the team.

Still, he finished in the top ten in most offensive categories in 1894 and 1895 and led the league in doubles in 1897. His cumulative 151 OPS+ for Pittsburgh from 1895 to 1897 ranks fifth, trailing only Ed Delahanty (HOF), Sam Thompson (HOF), Bill Joyce and Billy Hamilton (HOF).

Stenzel's career ended in 1899 after nine seasons of above-average OPS. Upon retirement, he opened a bar/restaurant across the street from the Reds' ballpark in Cincinnati. Like JS teammates Stahl and Sheckard, he met an untimely end, dying in 1919 of what was presumed to be influenza.
Like Stenzel, John Stone benefited from a hitting-dominant era, but Stone also compares well with his peers from the 1930s.

 Stone hit .354 during a brief call-up to the Detroit Tigers in 1928 and became a regular corner outfielder in 1930. In 1931, he hit .327 and finished 16th in the first BBWAA American League MVP vote.

 After the 1933 campaign, Detroit traded Stone to the Senators for future Hall of Famer Goose Goslin. Although the Tigers won the pennant the next two seasons with Goslin, Stone actually outhit him from 1934-37.

 Stone: .325/.398/.487
Goslin: .297/.376/.456

 Stone's best season was 1936, when he finished tenth in the AL with 4.5 bWAR and batted .341/.421/.545 to rank in the top ten in all three categories.

 After four strong seasons from ages 28-31, he hit .244 in 56 games the next season and his career was over. Stone's 100 triples were the fifth-most of the 1930s, behind a pair of Hall of Famers in Earl Averill and Paul Waner.
Rk Player 3B From To Age G PA AB R H 2B HR RBI BB SO HBP SH SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Pos Tm
1 Earl Averill 114 1930 1939 28-37 1445 6398 5621 1102 1786 354 218 1046 705 447 29 37 57 44 .318 .397 .538 .934 *8/79 CLE-TOT
2 Gus Suhr 114 1930 1939 24-33 1425 5965 5151 710 1442 288 82 813 713 428 10 85 53 .280 .369 .428 .796 *3/9 PIT-TOT
3 Paul Waner 112 1930 1939 27-36 1464 6546 5834 973 1959 372 70 749 594 238 21 95 63 .336 .399 .474 .873 *9/837 PIT
4 Ben Chapman 100 1930 1939 21-30 1431 6340 5518 1009 1697 346 83 880 708 485 24 86 269 124 .308 .389 .452 .840 897/546 NYY-TOT-BOS-CLE
5 John Stone 100 1930 1938 24-32 1123 4723 4231 696 1312 247 73 671 447 331 11 32 43 39 .310 .377 .468 .845 798 DET-WSH
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 3/7/2013.


See you next week for the pitchers...
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