Your top "forgot he was a Red Sox"

TapeAndPosts

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Jul 21, 2006
580
Aaron Cook has a spot in that rotation too.
You are so right! Thanks, added.

The Swan Song team (players who ended their careers in a SINGLE year on the Sox, after playing the rest elsewhere) now has a four-man rotation (Seaver, Dempster, Cook, Portugal) and a three-man pen (Mantei, Jenks, Hanrahan). We've got a good starting infield (Olerud, Phillips, Clayton, Gaetti with Javy Lopez behind the dish) and some depth. We could really use some better outfielders though! Here's what I've got, thanks to BornToRun, Rovin Romine, JMOH and simplicio for suggestions:

C: Javy Lopez
1B: John Olerud
2B: Brandon Phillips
SS: Royce Clayton
3B: Gary Gaetti
LF: Benny Agbayani
CF: Herm Winningham
RF: Scott Podsednik
DH: Jeremy Giambi

INF: Mark Lemke, Craig Grebeck, Sean Casey, Ryan Shealy, Sean Berry

SP: Tom Seaver, Ryan Dempster, Aaron Cook, Mark Portugal
RP: Matt Mantei, Bobby Jenks, Joel Hanrahan

MGR: Bobby Valentine
 

Ferm Sheller

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Mar 5, 2007
20,404
Mike Stanley was a pretty important Sox for a couple of reasons:

1. He was the protection behind Mo Vaughn.

2. He was traded to the Yankees in exchange for Tony Armas Jr., who was flipped three months later for a skinny right handed named Pedro Martinez.

So he’s a memorable dude.
Or should be.
Plus, he had two stints, ~1300 ABs, and 73 HR with the RS. It wasn't like he was here for part of a season or something.
 

ngruz25

Bibby
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Sep 20, 2005
18,972
Pittsburgh, PA
Royce Clayton brings Ricky Gutierrez to mind.

Decently long career as a middle infielder, picked up at the deadline in 2004 for basically free, plays sparingly as a defensive replacement down the stretch, hangs out in the dugout and earns a ring, is never seen again.
 

ookami7m

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Jul 15, 2005
5,657
Mobile, AL
Ok. First saw one that I missed: Mark Lemke was mentioned above. Was one of my favorite braves back when they were on TBS every night. I remember being stoked that the Sox got him then realized he was terrible then.
 

nattysez

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Sep 30, 2010
8,429
Broadcast just mentioned Grady Sizemore as a comp to Duran. Looked up his numbers to explain to my kid how good he was and was reminded that he played for the Sox. I'd definitely forgotten.
 

Brianish

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Dec 11, 2008
5,556
Can we have a thread for "I could have sworn he was a Red Sox," because I came in here all set to mention Ben Sheets, but had the good sense to do a quick Google first.
 

Bunt4aTriple

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Jul 15, 2005
4,347
North Yarmouth, ME
Adam LaRoche? I think we traded for him then traded him away almost immediately after

edit: yup, traded him away for casey kotchman (another name for this thread!). Kotcham OPS'd .572 down the stretch in 95 PA and LaRoche had a .957 OPS for the Braves in August and September
Was LaRoche the dad whose kid got kicked out of the dugout in Chicago and had Sale all bullshit?
 

jaytftwofive

New Member
Jan 20, 2013
1,182
Drexel Hill Pa.
You are so right! Thanks, added.

The Swan Song team (players who ended their careers in a SINGLE year on the Sox, after playing the rest elsewhere) now has a four-man rotation (Seaver, Dempster, Cook, Portugal) and a three-man pen (Mantei, Jenks, Hanrahan). We've got a good starting infield (Olerud, Phillips, Clayton, Gaetti with Javy Lopez behind the dish) and some depth. We could really use some better outfielders though! Here's what I've got, thanks to BornToRun, Rovin Romine, JMOH and simplicio for suggestions:

C: Javy Lopez
1B: John Olerud
2B: Brandon Phillips
SS: Royce Clayton
3B: Gary Gaetti
LF: Benny Agbayani
CF: Herm Winningham
RF: Scott Podsednik
DH: Jeremy Giambi

INF: Mark Lemke, Craig Grebeck, Sean Casey, Ryan Shealy, Sean Berry

SP: Tom Seaver, Ryan Dempster, Aaron Cook, Mark Portugal
RP: Matt Mantei, Bobby Jenks, Joel Hanrahan

MGR: Bobby Valentine
Didn't Dempster deliberately throw at A-Roid in August of 2013? LOL.
 
Last edited:

jaytftwofive

New Member
Jan 20, 2013
1,182
Drexel Hill Pa.
Watertown. It’s not an insignificant difference.

Edit: I believe Darren Bragg was from Watertown, too. Must be something in the…
One of the worst Red Sox trades of all time. Speaking of forgotten Sox..... They traded Jamie Moyer for Bragg. And after 97 they traded Aaron Sele for Jim Leyritz. They only helped the Mariners win 116 games. Jamie Moyer was one of the most concistent steady and good pitches of the past 30 years. And Sele was good also.
 

Humphrey

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Aug 3, 2010
3,163
And what about Jamie Moyer on that staff. Bad trade for Darren Bragg. You never trade a lefthanded good pitcher for an ok outfielder.
Or a DH (Tudor for Easler, to bring that up again). Supposedly Houk disliked Tudor.

In fact, Ralph Houk himself. A forgettable 4 years.
 

aminahyaquin

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Dec 21, 2005
599
West Virginia
Okay so i am looking them up on wiki all time Red Sox roster since my name microchip is pretty burnt out and i want to play too. So, here are players i never knew played for Sox or had truly forgotten - then i quit, just enjoying the others, especially the swan song team (unless i find another remarkable, to me between the P-Zs)

Juan Marichal
Bobby Jones
Jim Dwyer
 

vicirus

New Member
Jul 17, 2005
60
How about these two for outfields:

Rocco Baldelli and Grady Sizemore

Always wanted Grady in his prime, but never happened. I recall both being injured for most of their time with the Sox, but was actually surprised to see that Sizemore played 52 games for them in ‘14.
 

Hank Scorpio

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Apr 1, 2013
6,915
Salem, NH
I started following the Red Sox in 1995, a year in which they won the AL East by trotting out over 50 different guys. I thought I remembered everything about that team, from Mookie’s uncle Terry Shumpert, to Wes (not Wilt) Chamberlain, to guys like Joel Johnston, Brian Bark, Brian Looney, and Tim Van Egmond.

I just took a look at their roster and saw a name that rang zero bells.

Chris James. Eight different teams in ten years. Was having a fine season in 1995 for the Royals (117 OPS+) until he was picked up by the Red Sox in August. He did absolutely nothing down the stretch, going 4 for 24 in limited action. He never played a MLB game again.
 

jaytftwofive

New Member
Jan 20, 2013
1,182
Drexel Hill Pa.
I started following the Red Sox in 1995, a year in which they won the AL East by trotting out over 50 different guys. I thought I remembered everything about that team, from Mookie’s uncle Terry Shumpert, to Wes (not Wilt) Chamberlain, to guys like Joel Johnston, Brian Bark, Brian Looney, and Tim Van Egmond.

I just took a look at their roster and saw a name that rang zero bells.

Chris James. Eight different teams in ten years. Was having a fine season in 1995 for the Royals (117 OPS+) until he was picked up by the Red Sox in August. He did absolutely nothing down the stretch, going 4 for 24 in limited action. He never played a MLB game again.
That was a surprising ,fun, lightning in a bottle team.
 
Jun 16, 2014
4
Concord, MA
Rick Aguilera. Got him from the Twins in July of 1995, before he re-signed with the Twins. On the day of the trade he switched locker rooms and pitched against his teammates from earlier in the day, earning a save.

Those were the days when we lusted after Twins closers: see Campbell, Bill and Reardon, Jeff.
 

jmcc5400

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Sep 29, 2000
5,203
That was a surprising ,fun, lightning in a bottle team.
It really was, especially after the drudgery of the 1992-1994 teams and the strike in 1994. John Valentin (8.3 bWAR) had a strong case for AL MVP that year and is probably the most underrated Red Sox player of the last 30 years. Not "forgotten" per se, but deeply unappreciated. 30.5 bWAR from 1993-1998 and in 4 postseason series for the Sox he gave us .347./.407./,639, including 3 homers and 12 RBI in the 1999 ALDS against Cleveland.
 

Hoya81

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Feb 3, 2010
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Greg Swindell ('98)
Rico Brogna hit a very memorable walk off grand slam after coming over from the Phillies in 2000. He had been a pretty effective 1B for a few years until suddenly it all fell apart in his age 30 season and he could no longer hit.
Darren Oliver stopped through in between his multiple stints with the Rangers.
Somewhat obscure Hall of Famer George Kell spent parts of 3 seasons with the Sox in the 50's, mostly while Williams was in Korea.
 

richgedman'sghost

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May 13, 2006
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Gold Glove winners!
I started following the Red Sox in 1995, a year in which they won the AL East by trotting out over 50 different guys. I thought I remembered everything about that team, from Mookie’s uncle Terry Shumpert, to Wes (not Wilt) Chamberlain, to guys like Joel Johnston, Brian Bark, Brian Looney, and Tim Van Egmond.

I just took a look at their roster and saw a name that rang zero bells.

Chris James. Eight different teams in ten years. Was having a fine season in 1995 for the Royals (117 OPS+) until he was picked up by the Red Sox in August. He did absolutely nothing down the stretch, going 4 for 24 in limited action. He never played a MLB game again.
His brother was Craig James the SMU running back who had a few good seasons for the Pats and played in the Super Bowl against Da Bears.
 

aminahyaquin

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Dec 21, 2005
599
West Virginia
It really was, especially after the drudgery of the 1992-1994 teams and the strike in 1994. John Valentin (8.3 bWAR) had a strong case for AL MVP that year and is probably the most underrated Red Sox player of the last 30 years. Not "forgotten" per se, but deeply unappreciated. 30.5 bWAR from 1993-1998 and in 4 postseason series for the Sox he gave us .347./.407./,639, including 3 homers and 12 RBI in the 1999 ALDS against Cleveland.
Yes, John Valentine was a great Sox gem in my opinion and just read this , which is pretty cool "On July 8, 1994, Valentin turned the 10th unassisted triple play in MLB history, in a game against the Mariners.[a] Playing shortstop in the 6th inning, Valentin caught Marc Newfield's line drive, tagged second base before Mike Blowers could return to tag up, and tagged out Keith Mitchell who had been attempting to advance to second base.[ " He and Mo Vaughn were a terrific combo both om offense and defense. In fact they played together .at Seton Hall says WIKI.

If we did a thread of "underappreciated players". I would add a few with whom folks may not agree, but whom I actually watch-followed when they played for the sox: Mo Vaughn who makes top ten on my all time fave list and Bill Buckner who was a Curt Schilling type only IMO even more heart and team spirit who became IMO the historical "Judas Goat" for a World Series loss that belongs to poor final game managing (leaving him in past the point he could literally stand) and pitching errors. Just sayin.
 

moretsyndrome

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Jan 24, 2006
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Mark Lemke and Aaron Cook are the only two guys so far that I know full well played a while in MLB, but if you asked me if they'd ever played for Boston, I'd say "Nah, I don't think so."

Olerud may have slipped my mind too. That could be his superpower. Maybe that Rickey Henderson anecdote isn't apocryphal.
 

Cesar Crespo

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Dec 22, 2002
21,588
Gone but never forgotten. Never will forget that beautiful mullet flowing out from under the Red Sox hat. He was actually buried in his Cub’s uniform. Classic character in sport’s history.
Lived in a Winnebago.
 

tims4wins

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Jul 15, 2005
37,055
Hingham, MA
Didn’t Beck give up a big home run in game 1 or game 2 of the 99 ALCS? Maybe to Bernie? Sox were actually really competitive that series. Could have at least taken it to 7 games with a couple breaks.
 

Captaincoop

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Jul 16, 2005
13,487
Santa Monica, CA
Didn’t Beck give up a big home run in game 1 or game 2 of the 99 ALCS? Maybe to Bernie? Sox were actually really competitive that series. Could have at least taken it to 7 games with a couple breaks.
They got royally screwed by the umpires in game one, but they also rolled out the corpse of Bret Saberhagen and Kent Mercker to start in the ALCS against a really good MFY team. They had no chance.