Haha yep, he was on the list.
2 Likes
Since I was a kid living in Chicago at the time, I thought…maybe it was Shawn Dunston. LOL me. The dude had a lifetime .296 OBP. He would never have an 18 year career in this era, right?
1 Like
I don’t think Dunston took walks.
Wow he’s a terrible player considering he was a star. Probably wouldn’t even get out of AAA if he played today.
He only had 20 or more walks 3x. And his career high was 30. Bonds had more than that in a 2 week stretch I’m sure LOL.
1 Like
Bonds usually had more intentional walks than Dunston had total walks in any given season.
1 Like
If only you got credit for OBP every time you swung at a ball two feet in front of the plate and had to be thrown out at first on strike three, Dunston would be in the Hall.
2 Likes
Dunston is an interesting case study. He did post a 20 WAR for his career, so its not like he sucked. But he also played at a time when if you could hit at all as a SS they like moved you to the outfield because Everyone Knows that SS are supposed to hit .214 with no power and bunt a lot.
1 Like
I also think that because he hit 30+ doubles and 17 HR in his first full season he had a “good hitting SS” halo for his whole career that he didn’t really deserve. He also could throw the ball really, really hard. That’s cool!
given walks weren’t preached back then I don’t think you can correlate straight up like that. He’d still make the majors but wouldn’t be thought of as a star.
he also often hit after sandberg/dawson instead of in front of them, would def be swinging more in that spot
obviously he wouldn’t be some OBP/walk artist–would just need enough.
StL 1b - Jack Clark
Giants OF - Brett Butler (don’t think I could have gotten that one without the full career)
Pirates 3b - Bobby Bo (IIRC he should be overlapping with Bonds)
Looked up the Reds guy and vaguely recalled the name, but never would have come up with it on my own.
1 Like
I’ll give a hint.
He had a famous at bat.
1 Like
Good ol’ Kalvoski Daniels. Crap fielder, as I recall, but could have been a great hitter if not for all the knee injuries. Should have been a DH. The Reds outfield looked promising, with budding superstar Eric Davis flanked By Daniels and Paul O’Neill.
@skydiver8 knows who he is, obviously.
1 Like
yup.
You know, everyone seemed so surprised by the 1990 Reds and their wire-to-wire run + WS sweep, but looking back, all the building blocks were there.
I get why it was surprising. The team had 75 wins in 1989 and 74 wins in 1991. In the era before people embraced sabermetrics, they had almost no one among the league leaders in majority categories. The Reds looked like a plucky band of try-hards and 91 wasn’t a lot of wins for a division winner. Pittsburgh seemed like the better team. Oakland seemed invincible.
It was a magical, underdog season, culminating in a shocking sweep of a dominant Oakland team that was deservedly deemed the favorites. A lot of things aligned to go right for one season. It was in no way inevitable.
I was in high school…it was glorious.
However, I may have to turn in my Reds fan card. Last WSOP I pushed into a table and this dude was there playing. He was obviously Somebody™ because people kept coming up and saying hi, etc. but I couldn’t place him.
It was Jose Canseco and I still cannot believe I missed my chance to needle that guy about the '90 WS. UGHHHH
1 Like
Dodgers 1B/OF - Pedro Guerrero
Phillies 1B - Von Hayes?
1 Like
Should be Hayes. Kruk is mistakenly listed as a Phillie when he was still a Padre that season.
Was 88 when Butler was in SF?
Yep, I was 10 in 93. That absolute stomping by the Dodgers was devastating, and I was still young enough to think “They could come back” but when the final out was recorded I was emotionally spent.
1 Like