Build an All-Star team with just your initials

[John Marzano Olympic Hero]

Fake edit: I originally was going to post this in P&G but there's a lockout and there's nothing going on, so let's do something dumb.

Sometimes it's difficult to go to sleep. So to wind myself down, I'll try to think of an All-Star team made up of players with just my initials.

C: Brian McCann
1B: ??? (maybe I'll play there)
2B: Bill Mazeroski
SS: Bobby Meachum
3B: Bill Mueller
OF: Bobby Murcer
OF: Bake McBride
OF: Brian McCrae
DH: Bill Madlock
P: Ben McDonald
RP: Brett Myers
Mgr: Billy Martin (not happy about this)
Bench coach: Brad Mills

There are a ton of BM catchers: Buck Martinez, Brent Mayne, Bob Montgomery and some more pitchers Bob Milacki, Bob McClure among others.

What do you have?

 

[tonyandpals]

Coming up a bit short so I mixed Tony/Anthony
C: Ted Simmons
1B: Terry Steinbach
2B: Alfonso Soriano
3B: Travis Shaw
SS: Trevor Story
OF: Tris Speaker
OF: Turkey Stearnes
OF: Al Simmons
DH: Tim Salmon
P: Tom Seaver

edit: good call on Ted Simmons

 

[Philip Jeff Frye]

Coming up a bit short so I mixed Tony/Anthony
C: Terry Steinbach
1B: Travis Shaw
2B: Alfonso Soriano
3B: Andrelton Simmons (he agreed to move to 3B for the exercise)
SS: Trevor Story
OF: Tris Speaker
OF: Tim Salmon
OF:...Travis Snider?
DH: me?
P: Tom Seaver

I'm a TS too. Ted Simmons would by my choice at catcher.

 

[Cesar Crespo]

Brandon Moss at 1b?

 

[tims4wins]

Per B-R, there are only 15 players in MLB history with my initials (NP)... so therefore I submit:

C: Nick Punto
1B: Nick Punto
2B: Nick Punto
3B: Nick Punto
SS: Nick Punto
LF: Nick Punto
CF: Nick Punto
RF: Nick Punto
DH: Nick Punto
SP: Nick Punto
RP: Nick Punto
Manager: Nick Punto

 

[Marceline]

Looking for a list of players by initials -- I stumbled across this which I thought was interesting. Looks like whoever has JM, JB, and JS should be in great shape here.



With that in mind, here are the most common initials in major league history. Thirty sets of initials have been shared by 100 or more major league players:

1. JM - 281 players
2. JB - 275
3. JS - 235
4. BB - 200
5. JC - 196
6. JH - 189
7. BS - 186
8. BM - 182
9. BH - 172
10. JD - 152
11. JG - 150
12. JR - 148
13. DM - 147
14. JW - 144
15. JP - 141
16. BC - 135
17. RM - 133
18. RS - 131
19. DS - 130
20. MM - 122
21. JL - 111
22. RB - 111
23. CS - 110
24. DB - 109
25. CB - 108
26. CM - 107
27. JK - 107
28. CC - 102
29. JF - 102
30. DC - 101

http://reconditebaseball.blogspot.com/2009/01/baseballs-most-and-least-common.html

 

[Red(s)HawksFan]

C: Jason Castro
1B: Joe Cunningham
2B: Jamey Carroll
SS: Joe Cronin
3B: Jimmy Collins
OF: Jose Cruz Sr
OF: Jose Cardenal
OF: Jose Canseco
DH: Jack Clark
(plenty of solid reserve OF - Joe Carter, Jeff Conine, Jose Cruz Jr)

SP Johnny Cueto
RP Jim Corsi

And I'm going with co-player-managers, Joe Cronin and Jimmy Collins, simply because they're the best of a not so spectacular bunch.

 

[John Marzano Olympic Hero]

Brandon Moss at 1b?

Dude. I can RAKE.

 

[Jed Zeppelin]

Exactly 0 players in MLB history have my initials. Tough to even scrape together a team with last initial:

C: Chris Iannetta
1B: Travis Ishikara
2B: Omar Infante
SS: Jose Iglesias
3B: Brandon Inge
OF: Monte Irvin
OF: Ender Inciarte
OF: Pete Incaviglia
DH: Raul Ibanez

SP: idk, Hideki Irabu?
RP: Jason Isringhausen

Between Cesar and Maicer Izturis I do have utility on lockdown.

 

[E5 Yaz]

C Russ Gibson / Rich Gedman platoon
1B Ryan Garko
2B/Mgr Ron Gardenhire
SS Ricky Gutierrez
3B Ryan Goins
LF Rusty Greer
CF Ralph Garr
RF Ron Gant
DH Randall Grichuck
SP Ron Guidry
Set-up Rich Garces
Closer Rich Gossage

A solid 72-win team

 

[Captaincoop]

Now...build an all-star team made entirely of guys whose career OPS is also your Bank of America password.

 

[The Talented Allen Ripley]

I might have the lowest total WAR from my starting lineup.

C - Keith Moreland (Kirt Manwaring was more of a true C, but his hitting reallly sucked, and Moreland did play 169 games there during his career)
1B - Kendrys Morales
2B - Keith Miller
SS - Ketel Marte
3B - Kevin Mitchell (235 games at 3B over his career, mostly early on, saved my ass here)
LF - Kevin McReynolds
CF - Keith Marshall (some stiff who played 2 games in CF in 1973 in a career that totaled 8 games, best I could do)
RF - Kevin Millar
DH - Kevin Maas

SP - Kirk McCaskill
RP - Kent Mercker

Manager - Ken Macha

 

[Max Power]

My pitching won't be great, but I think the team will score runs. And I got to include a player named Glasscock, so that's pretty sweet, too.

C: Josh Gibson
1B: Jason Giambi
2B: Joe Gordon
3B: Jim Gilliam
SS: Jack Glasscock
OF: Jonny Gomes
OF: Jack Graney
OF: Juan Gonzalez
DH: Jim Gentile
SP: Juan Guzman
RP: Jason Grilli

 

[Just a bit outside]

I got Sam Horn!

 

[E5 Yaz]

I almost cheated and put nomaR Garciaparra at SS

 

[Ale Xander]

I almost cheated and put nomaR Garciaparra at SS

You can just call him Ramon Jr.

 

[E5 Yaz]

You can just call him Ramon Jr.

His real first name is Anthony

 

[Mooch]

This ended up being a pretty intriguing team. Nice speed/power balance and a really good pitching staff top to bottom:

C: Duke Sims
1B: Dick Stuart
2B: Dee Strange-Gordon
SS: Dansby Swanson
3B: Daryl Spencer
Utility IF: Dave Stapleton (because)
OF: Deion Sanders
OF: Duke Snider
OF: Darryl Strawberry
DH/1B/OF: David Segui
SP: Don Sutton
SP: Dave Stewart
SP: Dave Stieb
SP: Diego Segui
SP: Danny Salazar
Closer: Dave Smith
RP: Drew Storen
RP: Duaner Sanchez
RP: Dave Schmidt
RP: Doug Sisk

 

[Marceline]

Here's what I got. Pretty solid all around for the JK lineup with only a couple of weak points. The reference is BB-Ref WAR.

STARTING PITCHERS
Jim Kaat 50.5
Jerry Koosman 53.7
Jimmy Key 48.9
Jack Kralick 18.0

RP - Joe Kelly 6.5

LINEUP
Joe Kelley (LF) 50.4
Jason Kendall (C) 41.7
Jeff Kent (2B) 55.5
John Kruk (DH) 25.1
Joe Kuhel (1B) 30.3
Jeff King (3B) 16.9
Jim King (RF) 11.1
Jerry Kenney (CF) 9.0
John Knight (SS) 4.5

Bench:
Johnny Kling, C
Jason Kipnis, 2B

Prospects:
Jarred Kelenic, CF

 

[YTF]

1B Adam LaRoche
LF Adam Lind
LHP Al Leiter
MGR Al Lopez

With a quick look this seems to be the best of the best for me. Not a whole lot of A&Ls to pick from. Certainly not enough that I'm going to do a deep dive into unfamiliar names to suss out what positions they played

 

[DJnVa]

This ended up being a pretty intriguing team. Nice speed/power balance and a really good pitching staff top to bottom:

C: Duke Sims
1B: Dick Stuart
2B: Dee Strange-Gordon
SS: Dansby Swanson
3B: Daryl Spencer
Utility IF: Dave Stapleton (because)
OF: Deion Sanders
OF: Duke Snider
OF: Darryl Strawberry
DH/1B/OF: David Segui
SP: Don Sutton
SP: Dave Stewart
SP: Dave Stieb
SP: Diego Segui
SP: Danny Salazar
Closer: Dave Smith
RP: Drew Storen
RP: Duaner Sanchez
RP: Dave Schmidt
RP: Doug Sisk

You just stole my initials! Dammit.

I was trying to work Donnie Sadler onto the team.

 

[Jack Rabbit Slim]

C - Jorge Posada
1B - Joe Pepitone
2B - Jorge Polanco
3B - Jhonny Peralta
SS - Johnny Pesky
LF - Joc Pederson
CF - Jim Piersall
RF - Juan Pierre
DH - Josh Phelps
4th OF - Jay Payton (why did he sign here?)

Rotation - Jim Palmer, Jim Perry, Jack Powell, Jake Peavy, Johnny Podres
CL- Jonathon Papelbon

Outfield is a little weak, but over 1000 wins in the rotation is nice.

 

[nayrbrey]

This was a fun dive into Baseball History.

c- Buddy Rosar
1B- Bob Robertson
2B- Brian Roberts
3B- Brooks Robinson
SS- Bill Russell.
OF- Bryan Reynolds
OF- Ben Revere
OF- Bip Roberts
DH - Babe Ruth
SP- Bullet Rogan/Babe Ruth/Brad Radke/Bruce Ruffin/Bruce Rondon
RP- BJ Ryan
MGR- Buck Rodgers
GM - Branch Rickey
Edit-putting Ruth at DH to keep him fresh for his turn in the rotation.
Edit 2: russell mostly played SS for Dodgers, so moving him there, putting Brian Roberts at second and adding Ben Revere to OF.

 

[E5 Yaz]

This ended up being a pretty intriguing team. Nice speed/power balance and a really good pitching staff top to bottom:

C: Duke Sims
1B: Dick Stuart
2B: Dee Strange-Gordon
SS: Dansby Swanson
3B: Daryl Spencer
Utility IF: Dave Stapleton (because)
OF: Deion Sanders
OF: Duke Snider
OF: Darryl Strawberry
DH/1B/OF: David Segui
SP: Don Sutton
SP: Dave Stewart
SP: Dave Stieb
SP: Diego Segui
SP: Danny Salazar
Closer: Dave Smith
RP: Drew Storen
RP: Duaner Sanchez
RP: Dave Schmidt
RP: Doug Sisk

Wait, no room for this guy?

 

[Mooch]

You just stole my initials! Dammit.

I was trying to work Donnie Sadler onto the team.

I had him as a placeholder until I remembered Strange-Gordon, who actually made two All-Star teams.

 

[Mooch]

Wait, no room for this guy?

I thought about Full Pack, but he just missed the cut.

 

[Pablo's TB Lover]

KD didn't get me a lot, have a few outfielders and a bunch of pitchers. Most of whom had a cup of coffee in the majors...

Khris Davis - OF
Kal Daniels - OF
Kory DeHaan - PH

Kyle Drabek - P
Ken Dixon - P
Kirk Dressendorfer - P
Kyle Davies - P
Ken Dayley - P
Kyle Dowdy - P
Kane Davis - P
Kelly Downs - P
Kyle Dohy - P
Karl Drews - P

Honorable mention: Kentrail Davis - OF. Scott Boras got him a $1.2 million signing bonus from the Brewers, but he never played a major league game.

2nd Honorable mention: Kevin Durant for his glove and arm.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9--93wpvp0

 

[glennhoffmania]

Per B-R, there are only 15 players in MLB history with my initials (NP)... so therefore I submit:

C: Nick Punto
1B: Nick Punto
2B: Nick Punto
3B: Nick Punto
SS: Nick Punto
LF: Nick Punto
CF: Nick Punto
RF: Nick Punto
DH: Nick Punto
SP: Nick Punto
RP: Nick Punto
Manager: Nick Punto

How did you find that? I can find players with a last name starting with a certain letter but not both initials. And I don't see an option to sort alphabetically.

 

[tims4wins]

How did you find that? I can find players with a last name starting with a certain letter but not both initials. And I don't see an option to sort alphabetically.

Went to B-R, got last names with P, then put it into Excel and filtered / sorted

 

[glennhoffmania]

Went to B-R, got last names with P, then put it into Excel and filtered / sorted

Oh so you actually put some effort in? Damn you, Tim.

I don't think I'll be able to put together a viable team.

 

[EdRalphRomero]

C: Sherm Lollar (.264/.357/..402) - Sorry Sandy, I'll always love you
1B: Sam Leslie (.304/.366/.421)
2B: Steve Lombardozzi [the elder shitty 2b not his son the shitty 2B] (.233/.307/.347)
SS: Sam Laroque (.249/.326/.328)
3B: Scott Livingstone (.281/.317/.369)
RF: Sixto Lezcano (.271/.360/.440) -- An actual good player!
CF: Sam Langford (.275/.382/.698)
LF: Scott Lusader (.246/.313/.346)

Bench: Steve Lyons (.252/.301/.340)

Starting Pitcher Sam Lever (194-100 2.47 ERA)
Closer: Sparky Lyle (238 saves 1.275 WHiP)

P Skip Lockwood (68 saves 1.311 WHiP)

Pitching Coach: Slim Love
Manager: Me. There has never been a manager with my initials and I am capable of scratching myself and requesting a little bingo with the best of them

 

[edoug]

Went to B-R, got last names with P, then put it into Excel and filtered / sorted

It must've taken hours.

 

[glennhoffmania]

Here are the players with my initials who I've heard of:

Al Kaline
Adam Kennedy
Adam Kolarek
Alex Kirilloff
Andrew Kittredge
Andrew Knapp
Austin Kearns

I'm screwed.

 

[Red(s)HawksFan]

How did you find that? I can find players with a last name starting with a certain letter but not both initials. And I don't see an option to sort alphabetically.

Went to B-R, got last names with P, then put it into Excel and filtered / sorted

If you have a Stathead subscription, you can filter searches by first and last initials (or any amount of letters in each name) as well as sort by specific stats.

 

[Bergs]

Nine guys in league history, none of which I have ever heard of, and none of whom were born after the 1940's. Not good.

 

[glennhoffmania]

Nine guys in league history, none of which I have ever heard of, and none of whom were born after the 1940's. Not good.

Are your initial like QX?

 

[Rice4HOF]

My team has a a Hall of Fame pitcher, a guy whose name still gets thrown around here occasionally, lots of guys who made brief appearances with the Red Sox... but overall wouldn't be too competitive. In particular my infield is awful, but I have about 10 guys who could slot into the outfield.

C Ryan Lavarnway, Roger LaFrancois
1B Rick Lancellotti
2B Rafael Landestoy (who?)
SS Bob Lillis (who?)
3B Red Lucas - This guy is listed as a PH and P. He had 12 WAR as a hitter! And he did play 2 games at the hot corner.
OF Ryan Ludwick
OF Ron LeFlore
OF Ray Lankford
Other OF options included Ricky Ledee, Ramon Laureano, Rudy Law, Ryan LaMarre, Ryan Langerhans and one time first round draft pick Rick Leach.

SP Robert (Bob) Lemon
SP Rick Langford
SP Randy Lerch
SP Rodrigo Lopez
SP Ray Lamb
CP Rich Loiselle

Manager Rene Lacheman

 

[NickEsasky]

I can build a nice little starting rotation but the lineup is a bit weak. The bullpen will be a shitshow. I guess Scioscia is player-manager and drives me insane with the smallball crap.

C: Mike Scioscia
1B: Mike Sweeney
2B: Myles Straw
SS: Marcus Semien
3B: Mike Schmidt
LF: Mule Suttles
CF: Manny Sanguillen
RF: Matt Stairs
DH: Mike Stanley
SP: Max Scherzer
SP: Mel Stottlemyre SP
SP: Marcus Stromanm SP
SP: Monty Stratton
SP: Mario Soto
RP: Mike Stanton

 

[GreenMonster49]

My team has some real star potential (five actual all-stars), but the choices at 1B were surprisingly slim (the backup would have to be Tub Welch of the 1890 Toledo Maumees and the 1895 Louisville Colonels). We will definitely hit some--that guy in LF is pretty good.

C: Tony Wolters
1B: Tyler White
2B: Todd Walker
SS: Tony Womack*
3B: Tim Wallach*
LF: Ted Williams*
CF: Tillie Walker
RF: Taffy Wright
DH: Terry Whitfield (I've run out of decent hitters)
P: Tim Wakefield*
RP: Todd Worrell*
RP: Tim Worrell
RP: Turk Wendell
Mgr: Ted Williams (of course)
Bench Coach: (vacant)

 

[Was (Not Wasdin)]

I'm going to try the sorting method described above, but I'm starting off the top of my head with

Mike Torrez
Mike Timlin
Mike Trout
Miguel Tejada
Horseface
Manny Trillo

 

[pedro1918]

Per B-R, there are only 15 players in MLB history with my initials (NP)... so therefore I submit:

C: Nick Punto
1B: Nick Punto
2B: Nick Punto
3B: Nick Punto
SS: Nick Punto
LF: Nick Punto
CF: Nick Punto
RF: Nick Punto
DH: Nick Punto
SP: Nick Punto
RP: Nick Punto
Manager: Nick Punto

The haul tims4twins would get back for trading all those Nick Puntos would be amazing!

 

[Ale Xander]

I'm going to try the sorting method described above, but I'm starting off the top of my head with

Mike Torrez

Subtraction by addition

 

[Lose Remerswaal]

I am sticking to Red Sox

P.
C
1B
2B Phil Gagliano
3B
SS Pumpsie Green
RF
CF
LF

fine. All MLB

P. Pud Galvin
C Peaches Graham
1B Paul Goldschmidt
2B Pedro Garcia
3B Phil Garner
SS Phil Gosselin
RF Pedro González
CF Pedro Guerrero
LF Pete Gray (yup, one arm)

hall of fame pitcher and a one armed war time outfielder. Seems right.

 

[Hendu for Kutch]

Considering there are only 51 players in combined MLB + Negro League history that have the same initials I do and played more than one season, this isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I mean, it's not good, but considering it's 0.2% of all players, it's not half bad? Definitely had to do some digging on some of these spots. Had never heard of 5 of these guys.

C: Elrod Hendricks
1B: Eric Hosmer
2B: Enrique Hernandez
SS: Enzo Hernandez
3B: Eric Hinske
OF: Ed Hahn
OF: Emmet Heidrick
OF: Eric Haase
DH: Elston Howard - the only depth in the EH ranks is at catcher, so I'll take Elston's bat in the lineup every day as DH
P: Erik Hanson
RP: Earl Hamilton
Mgr: Eddie Haas - the one and only MLB manager season for an EH, coming in at a sparkling 21 games under .500 before getting fired 3/4 into his first season ('85 Braves)
Bench coach: Ed Hengel - the only other option was a guy who went 6-36 as a manager without finishing in last place somehow (1926 Dayton Marcos)

Pinch Runner: Ed Hock - OPS+ of -22!

 

[Daniel_Son]

LF	B.J. Surhoff	34.4​
CF	Burt Shotton	23.7​
RF	Billy Southworth	21.7​
3B	Billy Shindle	17.5​
SS	Bill Spiers	10.2​
2B	Bill Sweeney	13.7​
1B	Bill Skowron	27.1​
C	Benito Santiago	27.4​
DH	Bob Skinner	16.6​
P	Bret Saberhagen	58.9​
RP	Bruce Sutter	24.1​
275.3​

 

[scottyno]

SN is absolutely fucking garbage. I couldn't even find a guy I'd ever even heard of on the b-ref list outside of Sheldon Neuse because I've seen him play in the pacific league in Vegas.

 

[RG33]

C Russ Gibson / Rich Gedman platoon
1B Ryan Garko
2B/Mgr Ron Gardenhire
SS Ricky Gutierrez
3B Ryan Goins
LF Rusty Greer
CF Ralph Garr
RF Ron Gant
DH Randall Grichuck
SP Ron Guidry
Set-up Rich Garces
Closer Rich Gossage

A solid 72-win team

Man, you saved me so much time.

C - Rich Gedman
1B - Ryan Garko
2B - Ron Gardenhire
3B - Ryan Goins
SS - Ricky Gutierrez
LF - Robbie Grossman
CF - Rusty Greer
RF - Ron Gant
DH - Randal Grichuk
RHSP - Robet Gibson (literary license?)
LHSP - Ron Guidry
RP - Rich Garces
RP - Rich Gossage

I’m replacing Ralph Garr with Robbie Grossman, and I’m assuredly adding Robert Gibson, one of the two HofFers with RG as my #1 SP.

 

[John Marzano Olympic Hero]

SN is absolutely fucking garbage. I couldn't even find a guy I'd ever even heard of on the b-ref list outside of Sheldon Neuse because I've seen him play in the pacific league in Vegas.

If this was the NFL you'd have a goat kicker, Scott Norwood.

 

[E5 Yaz]

I’m assuredly adding Robert Gibson, one of the two HofFers with RG as my #1 SP.

Almost did that, but since no one called him that during his career, it was too much of a cheat for me

 

[RG33]

Almost did that, but since no one called him that during his career, it was too much of a cheat for me

Well, he’s coming up and in on you as my #1 so back the fuck off the plate rook. . . .