The Squad Begins

Jeremiah Edwards
May 27, 2017
3 min read

Hello dear readers, today I’ve got something new for you. Today marks the beginning of a new weekly article where I start assembling a team with the cards I have selected. Right now, we have enough for a full line-up, a 3-man rotation, with a couple of backups and relief pitchers. The team will grow until we get to a 25-man roster, and then some cuts are going to have to be made. And in case you are wondering I’m going to use a DH, because that’s how God would want baseball to be played. Slowly but surely, we will assemble a team that could rival the greatest teams of all-time. So, without further to do let’s begin.

P.S. The stats you see are representative of their career averages.

Lineup:

2B. Jim Gantner (.274 AVG) (.319 OBP) (4 HR) (51 RBI) (12 SB)
RF. Ryan Klesko (.279 AVG) (.370 OBP) (26 HR) (92 RBI) (8 SB)
LF. Hideki Matsui (.282 AVG) (.360 OBP) (23 HR) (100 RBI) (2 SB)
CF. Vladimir Guerrero (.318 AVG) (.379 OBP) (34 HR) (113 RBI) (14 SB)
1B. Dmitri Young (.292 AVG) (.351 OBP) (20 HR) (81 RBI) (3 SB)
DH. Ben Oglivie (.273 AVG) (.336 OBP) (22 HR) (83 RBI) (8 SB)
3B. Gary Gaetti (.255 AVG) (.308 OBP) (23 HR) (87 RBI) (6 SB)
C. Sandy Alomar Jr. (.273 AVG) (.309 OBP) (13 HR) (69 RBI) (3 SB)
SS. Garry Templeton (.271 AVG) (.304 OBP) (5 HR) (57 RBI) (19 SB)

Bench:

2B/SS. Pokey Reese (.248 AVG) (.307 OBP) (8 HR) (57 RBI) (27 SB)

OF. Wes Swackhamer (.236 AVG) (.287 OBP) (3 HR) (22 RBI) (5 SB)

Rotation:

Luis Tiant (15-11) (3.30 ERA) (224 IP) (155 SO) (2.18 K/BB Ratio)
Fernando Valenzuela (13-12) (3.54 ERA) (227 IP) (161 SO) (1.81 K/BB Ratio)
Bryn Smith (12-10) (3.53 ERA) (196 IP) (113 SO) (2.40 K/BB Ratio)

Bullpen:

CP. Tim Davis (4-4) (4.62 ERA) (91 SO) (1.42 K/BB Ratio) (4 SV)

SU. Chin-Hui Tsao (5-6) (5.75 ERA) (70 SO) (1.67 K/BB Ratio) (2 SV)

Summary:

As you can see the team is loaded with power potential, and players that can drive in runs and get on base at a decent clip. However, even though Gaetti, Templeton, Gantner, and Alomar are all decent fielders the rest of the roster leaves a lot to be desired defensively. While Guerrero has a cannon he’s out of position and isn’t the best glove man of all-time. The rest of the outfield is more of the same, with Dmitri Young being and average defensive first basemen.

Pokey Reese offers speed off the bench, as well as being able to play both the 2B and SS position allowing me to rest both Gantner and Templeton respectively. Wes Swackhamer can make sure the Gatorade bucket is fully stocked at all-times, that’ll be his role on the team.

As far as the rotation goes I got a couple of innings eaters at the top of the rotation, that both can deceive hitters and both have ace level stuff. Bryn Smith offers me a reliable middle of the rotation pitcher that I can trust to pitch in big games. The bullpen is a hope and pray sort of thing, nothing more can be said about it.

And there you have it, the inaugural Behind the Cardboard baseball team.