With David Ortiz being elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot, it's good to remember that baseball is filled with such high and short-lived peaks, transcendent performances from amazing players. These last are the Achilles of the game, shining brightly for their moment.
We've done various best HOF and best Red Sox squads over the years. Heck, we've even assembled teams based on all-noun and verb player-names. I think it might be fun to assemble two teams.
The first team would be made up of HOF players - but specifically the peak season of that player, as they played the position. So for example, there are many HOFs who DHed later in their careers. But there are only so many top DH seasons from HOFs. Interestingly, Edgar Martinez and David Ortiz each had 5 seasons with an OPS above 1.000. I would say the best are Edgar Martinez's 1995, and David Ortiz's 2007. I will pick:
DH, David Ortiz, 2007 .332, .445, .621, 1.066. (341TB)
The second team would be made up of non-HOF players. Again, specific peak seasons for that player as the played the positions. But this will be far trickier (hence the time-killer) to see how those brief-but-bright shiners stack up against the HOF team - let's take their second best season. This will screen out some fluke seasons (Ahem, Mr. Anderson, Mr. Ellsbury) and will certainly be trickier. But it's supposed to be a time-killer. Who can we find?
For DH:
Don Baylor's 1983 with the Yanks?
Travis Hafner's 2005 with Cleveland?
Harold Baines'. . .(whoops)
Um. . .Chili Davis's 1995 with the Angels?
And at the end of the day, how close do we think those single-season teams will be?
I suspect it will be surprisingly close.
HOF
SP:
SP:
SP:
SP:
SP:
RP:
RP:
RP:
RP:
C:
1B:
2B:
3B:
SS:
OF:
OF:
OF:
DH: David Ortiz, 2007 .332, .445, .621, 1.066. (341TB)
Bright Shiners
SP: Brett Saberhagen, 1985 20-6, ERA 2.87, K 158, BB 38, WHIP 1.015. Bref WAR: 7.1
SP:
SP:
SP:
SP:
RP:
RP:
RP:
RP:
C:
1B:
2B:
3B:
SS:
OF:
OF:
OF:
DH:
We've done various best HOF and best Red Sox squads over the years. Heck, we've even assembled teams based on all-noun and verb player-names. I think it might be fun to assemble two teams.
The first team would be made up of HOF players - but specifically the peak season of that player, as they played the position. So for example, there are many HOFs who DHed later in their careers. But there are only so many top DH seasons from HOFs. Interestingly, Edgar Martinez and David Ortiz each had 5 seasons with an OPS above 1.000. I would say the best are Edgar Martinez's 1995, and David Ortiz's 2007. I will pick:
DH, David Ortiz, 2007 .332, .445, .621, 1.066. (341TB)
The second team would be made up of non-HOF players. Again, specific peak seasons for that player as the played the positions. But this will be far trickier (hence the time-killer) to see how those brief-but-bright shiners stack up against the HOF team - let's take their second best season. This will screen out some fluke seasons (Ahem, Mr. Anderson, Mr. Ellsbury) and will certainly be trickier. But it's supposed to be a time-killer. Who can we find?
For DH:
Don Baylor's 1983 with the Yanks?
Travis Hafner's 2005 with Cleveland?
Harold Baines'. . .(whoops)
Um. . .Chili Davis's 1995 with the Angels?
And at the end of the day, how close do we think those single-season teams will be?
I suspect it will be surprisingly close.
HOF
SP:
SP:
SP:
SP:
SP:
RP:
RP:
RP:
RP:
C:
1B:
2B:
3B:
SS:
OF:
OF:
OF:
DH: David Ortiz, 2007 .332, .445, .621, 1.066. (341TB)
Bright Shiners
SP: Brett Saberhagen, 1985 20-6, ERA 2.87, K 158, BB 38, WHIP 1.015. Bref WAR: 7.1
SP:
SP:
SP:
SP:
RP:
RP:
RP:
RP:
C:
1B:
2B:
3B:
SS:
OF:
OF:
OF:
DH: