Question Time

So we still have nothing for news. I’m ready to turn this into a Primer League Soccer blog, at least then there would be something to talk about. I’m not sure what, but something.

There is the rumor that there is nothing going on with Josh Donaldson. Great. The biggest rumor we have is nothing is happening. I guess there is a rumor that Jay Bruce has two “multi-year offers”, but no word on who the teams are.

Last week we played a game of picking a player off the 1985 Blue Jays and putting them onto today’s Jays team. Let’s play the same game with the 1992 Jays.

Just to remind the rules of the game, we pick a player off the 1992 World Series winning Blue Jays, and put him onto the 2018 Blue Jays (and beyond). He’ll be the age he was back then, and have a similar career.

The difference between today’s little exercise and last week’s is this time we’ll pick two players off the 1992 Jays.

Why?

Because I’m stipulating that we are all going to pick Roberto Alomar with the first choice, because you guys are smart. You are all going to take him.

In 1992, Alomar was 24, in the fifth season of a Hall of Fame career. And he would nicely fill a need of the 2018 Jays (and beyond. Can you imagine an infield of Vlad Jr., Bo Bichette and Roberto?).

Who else would you pick off the 1992 team? There are a few good choices:

• John Olerud: John was 23. He was in his 3rd season with the Jays. He hit .284/.375/.450 with 16 home runs. 1993 was his big year, .363/.473/599 with 24 home runs and 54 doubles. He would go on to have a very good career, 17 seasons, 8 of them with the Jays. He wasn’t Cito’s favorite. Cito wanted him to pull the ball more. Cito convince Gord Ash to trade Olerud to Mets for pitcher Robert Person. His career stats are here.
• Pat Borders: Pat was 29. Pat was in season 5 with the Jays. He would have a 17 year career, the first 7 with the Jays. In 1992 he hit .242/.290/.385. And he was the World Series MVP. My personal opinion is that he was about the toughest player I’ve seem. He’d get run over and not miss a beat. His career stats are here.
• Devon White: Devon was 29. It was his 2 season with the Jays and his second with the Jays. In 1992, he hit .248/.303/.390, with 37 steals (a down year, he’d hit .273/.341/.438 in 1993). He played 17 seasons. It would be interesting having him and Pillar in the same outfield. You could take the other outfielder and put him in the infield (or have Jose Bautista out there). Stats here.
• Joe Carter: Joe was 32, playing his second season with the Jays, and his 10th MLB season. He would play 16 seasons, 7 with the Jays. Joe hit .264/.309/.498 with 34 home runs. And he would hit the biggest home run in Jays history (one of the biggest home runs in World Series history) in 1993. Joe would be the last person to touch the ball in 2 consecutive World Series. I wonder if anyone else can say that? Stats.
• Jimmy Key: He was 31. He was in season 9 of a 15 season career. After the season he would sign with the Yankees as a few agent. In 1992, he had a 13-13 record with a 3.53 ERA. Stats.
• Juan Guzman: He was 25. He was in his second season of a 10 year career, 8 the first 8 with the Jays. In 1992 he was 16-5 with a 2.64 ERA in 28 games. He was a favorite of mine. Stats.
• Pat Hentgen: Pat was a rookie in 1992 (he only pitched 50 innings), but would make 32 starts in 1993. He’d go on to have a heck of a career, winning a Cy Young, pitching 265 innings in 1996 and 264 innings 1997 (which likely caused his arm trouble that shortened his career). He’d be good to have over the next few seasons after 2018. Stats.
• David Cone: Cone was a rent-a-pitcher, we picked him up in trade form the Mets on August 27th. He would go 4-3 with a 2.55 ERA in 8 games, 7 starts, down the stretch. He was 29, in season 7 of a 17 year career. He wasn’t much short of a Hall of Fame career, with a 194-126 record in 450 games. Stats.
• David Wells had a pretty poor season, in 1992, 5.40 ERA in 41 games, 14 starts. It was his 6th season since coming up with the Jays. He was 29 and would go on to play 21 seasons, until age 44. He became a better pitcher in his 30s and 40s. Stats.

There were other good players on that team, but many of them were nearing the end of their careers.

• Dave Winfield had a good season, hit .290/.377/.491 with 26 home runs. He would play a few more seasons, but he was 40 in 1992. He had a Hall of Fame career, but he was nearing the end of it.
• Kelly Gurber was in his last season as a Blue Jay, and would play just 18 more MLB games.
• Candy Maldonado was just 31, and hit .272/.357/.462 with 20 home runs, but that was his last decent MLB season.
• Jack Morris won 21 games, but he was 37 and wasn’t the pitcher he once was.
• Tom Henke had 34 saves. He signed with the Rangers as a free agent after the season. He had 3 home seasons in the majors.
• Duane Ward was 28, had a terrific year, 1.95 ERA in 79 game. He became closer in 1993 but that was his last full season in the majors. He’d 2.2 more innings after 1993.
• Mark Eichorn came back to the Jays, after spending his first four seasons with the team then the next 3 with the Braves and Angels. He wasn’t great in 1992, had a 4.35 in 31 innings. In 1993 he had a 2.72 ERA in 72 innings. He would pitch in 1994 with the Orioles, missed 1995 and finished his career in 1996 with the Angels.

Make your case in the comment thread.