An All-time Bluejays 25-man Roster
Tom's post today about adding any single player from the past to the current roster got me thinking about an all-time 25 man roster. I used peak season as my criteria, and constructed the staff as follows: 13 pitchers (5 starters, a swingman, and 7 relievers) and 12 position players (2 catchers, 8 other starters, a 4th outfielder and a utility infielder) which is the way the roster is currently constructed. With a pitching staff as strong as I am able to pick, I'd be inclined to carry fewer pitchers and have a longer bench. On the other hand, with a line-up this strong, how much would you use the bench?
The team, after the jump!
Staring Pitchers:
| Name | Position | Throws | Year | ERA+ | rWAR |
| Pat Hentgen | SP | R | 1996 | 156 | 8.4 |
| Dave Stieb | SP | R | 1984 | 146 | 7.7 |
| Jimmy Key | SP | L | 1987 | 164 | 6.6 |
| Roy Halladay | SP | R | 2003 | 145 | 7.5 |
| Roger Clemens | SP | R | 1997 | 222 | 10.3 |
It pains me to include Clemens, but he had the two best seasons ever posted by a Jay.
I have one Swing-man:
| Todd Stottlemyre | RP/SP | R | 1991 | 112 | 3.8 |
My bullpen is quite loaded:
| Name | Position | Throws | Year | ERA+ | rWAR |
| Tom Henke | CL | R | 1987 | 182 | 3.4 |
| Duane Ward | SU | R | 1992 | 211 | 3.2 |
| Mark Eichhorn | RP | R | 1986 | 249 | 6.4 |
| Scott Downs | RP | L | 2008 | 238 | 3.0 |
| Jerry Garvin | RP | L | 1980 | 190 | 2.6 |
| Tony Castillo | RP | L | 1994 | 192 | 2.4 |
| Paul Quantrill | RP | R | 1997 | 234 | 3.0 |
Eichhorn's 1986 surprised me. 6.4 rWAR, 157 IP, NO STARTS!
My position players:
| Name | Position | Bats | Year | OPS+ | rWAR |
| Ernie Whitt | C | L | 1983 | 115 | 3.0 |
| Pat Borders | C2 | R | 1990 | 120 | 2.7 |
| John Olerud | 1B | L | 1993 | 186 | 8.2 |
| Roberto Alomar | 2B | S | 1992 | 130 | 6.4 |
| Tony Fernandez | SS | S | 1987 | 112 | 5.0 |
| Kelly Gruber | 3B | R | 1988 | 113 | 4.8 |
| Manny Lee | UTIF | S | 1992 | 83 | 2.8 |
| Jose Bautista | RF | R | 2011 | 181 | 8.5 |
| Lloyd Moseby | CF | L | 1984 | 127 | 6.2 |
| Shawn Green | LF | L | 1999 | 143 | 5.9 |
| Jesse Barfield | 4OF | R | 1986 | 145 | 7.3 |
| Paul Molitor | DH | R | 1993 | 143 | 5.7 |
If you think I cheated by moving Green from RF to LF, George Bell's 1987 would be my replacement.
I also debated using Damaso Garcia as the utility infielder - he had more speed in case you need a stolen base late in the game - or John McDonald's 2007 (where he put up 1.8 rWAR which was 100% defense) for a pure defensive replacement able to play 2B, SS and 3B.
There was plenty of choice at first. Olerud's '93 was outstanding, plus his career dWAR was 9.7.
The corner outfielder aren't defensive butchers, but neither are known for their defense. Barfield was the best defensive corner outfielder that was a regular starter. Can you imagine Barfield as the 4th outfielder? from '85 to '88 his dWAR was never below 2.0!
For DH, I restricted my choices to players that primarily DH'd, otherwise, Delgado (2000, 7.6 oWAR) or McGriff (1989, 6.6 WAR) would have been in the running.
We haven't had great season by a catcher. I hope if I revisit this list in 4 or 5 years that Lawrie will have supplanted Gruber off the list and either JPA or Travis d'Arnaud are among the catchers.
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My dream broadcast crew
Radio: Tom Cheek / Jerry Howarth
TV: Dan Shulman / John Cerruti
Follow me @Minor_Leaguer
I think Shulman...
…is the best sports broadcaster out of Canada, ever. Sentimentally, I like Tom Cheek the best, but my head says that Shulman is better.
Hugo thinks I'm a lazy academic
by bluejaysstatsgeek on Feb 5, 2012 4:57 PM EST up reply actions
Great team
Barfield as a 4th OF speaks to the great players we’ve seen grace the Blue Jay OF.
No one better than Castillo in the Bullpen? I’ve have to think about that one.
Yeah, I don't get Green over Barfield
Both were RFs and Barfield had the higher peak season. Barfield’s 1986 season was insane. I’m pretty much fine with the rest except maybe have David Wells over Stottlemyre as the swingman.
Hic sunt fortuna dracones
There is only 1 "n" in Hutchison
I think
It can’t, because he had already filled the closer role.
Oh
You mean he should be there instead of Henke.
I'd vote for Ryan
If it means he comes with his fire themed Slipknot walkout video. That was the best thing evar!
thisrighthere!
by TonyFernandezSavedMyLife on Feb 6, 2012 11:57 AM EST up reply actions
Found a cell phone video of it!
I used to love this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_E4UeRteUk
Song and lyrics if your interested and too lazy to do Le Google:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3kvZGWNgos
thisrighthere!
by TonyFernandezSavedMyLife on Feb 6, 2012 12:02 PM EST up reply actions
Agreed, put the Beej in the pen
Hic sunt fortuna dracones
There is only 1 "n" in Hutchison
1990 Gruber
Id take the 1990 Gruber that was his sliver slugger year I believe, so funny that Lawrie could replace him easily this year. Also don’t rule out the 1984 Rance Mulliniks .823 OPS with a .324 avg. no power numbers at all though.
Yes, I overlooked a few...
John Buck, 2010 – OPS+ 114, rWAR 2.9 – that’s pretty close to Borders’ ‘90.
Mulliniks, ’84 – His best rWAR year was actually ’85 and only 3.0. 1983 through 1988, his OPS+ was below 124 only once! Because he was in a platoon, he wasn’t able to put up that much WAR.
Ryan, ‘06 – Yup, his ’06 was better than Henke’s best year. Hat tip to benk
Wells 2006 – at OPS+ of 129 and rWAR of 6.7, this is better than Moseby’s ’84 Good Point Defense Counts!
Other comments:
Castillo, ‘94 – that was a 115 game season, which projects to a rWAR of 3.4 over 162 games.
Barfield vs. Green – it wasn’t really Barfield vs Green. Barfield was beat out for RF by Jose Bautista. Looking at LFers, Bell was the best in terms of WAR, but shifting Green to LF seemed to make sense. Barfield had the best RF arm I’ve ever seen and his range could be quite useful in LF but you would give up some of the value of his arm, He could have played CF if not for Moseby. I also liked having Green and Moseby’s lefty bats.
I think the ideal scenario is having 6 guys that play the three OF positions, 1B and DH, which is not how I chose this roster, but this roster could play that way:
Bautista’s day off: Green, Wells, Barfield LF to RF, Olerud 1B, Molitor DH
Olerud’s day off: Barfield, Wells, Bautista LF to RF, Molitor 1B, Green DH
Wells’s day off: Green, Barfield, Bautista LF to RF, Olerud 1B, Molitor DH
Green’s day off: Barfield, Wells, Bautista LF to RF, Olerud 1B, Molitor DH
Barfield’s day off: Green, Wells, Bautista LF to RF, Olerud 1B, Molitor DH
Molitor’s Day off: Bautista, Wells, Barfield LF to RF, Olerud 1B, Green DH
One more thought: Moseby’s range allowed Barfield to play RF instead of CF, but Barfield had great range too. My sense is that with both Bautista, Wells and Barfield in the OF, Barfield plays CF and Wells LF and Bautista RF.
Of course, once you start shuffling players around in the OF, WAR changes due to different positional adjustments. CF is +0.5 and the corners are -0.5
Hugo thinks I'm a lazy academic
by bluejaysstatsgeek on Feb 7, 2012 1:18 AM EST reply actions
Delgado has to make the team somewhere.
I just can’t see how the best position player we ever developed doesn’t make an all-time BlueJays 25 man roster, even as a reserve.
Carlos’s 2000 or 2003 needs to be on there somewhere.
Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.
by Jevant on Feb 7, 2012 9:54 AM EST reply actions 1 recs
good point
statsgeek noted the difficulties in moving players around the diamond for this thought experiment, but Delgado 2000/2003 would probably be the best DH on this team
Ace?
We all agree that Roger had the best pitching season ever as a Jay. However we all agree he had some “help”? With that said who is your ace? A 1984 Dave Steib or the good Doctor of 2003? Better yet Game 7 World Series, you have a rested Dave Steib and a rested Doc? Who you pick an emotional Dave Steib with his sick Slider or the day in day out bet your paycheck Halladay? Both will go deep? Remember that at the time of their peak season both Steib and Halladay had no post season experience.
apples to apples?
One thing we need think about is that everyone who played before 1989 played there home games in Exhibition Stadium. From what I can remember this was an unfriendly hitter park. Windy, Cold with seagulls flying everywhere. Imagine putting a 1987 George Bell in a comfy climate controlled SkyDome?

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