68 thoughts on “2020 WGOM Draft: Round 11”

  1. I D-bated B-tween 2 2B SelectShow

    The other possible pick would have been a lot of fun to have on my team, given one of his teammates, but when it comes down to it, Alomar is just a significantly better player, including defensively. His defense dropped off a lot late in his career, but overall was pretty solid. And with Chipper at 3rd and Larkin at Short, I don't think there's a lot getting through my infield. (I might be overselling Larkin...). But I like my up-the-middle defense. (Also, Cheaptoy, holy crap, you got defense!).

    Still, Alomar's batting average (career .300), stolen bases (474), power (210 HR, .443 SLG), are all what really set him apart.

    I feel like this pick really rounds out my lineup. I still need a DH, but once I've got one, I'm going to try to set a batting order, just for fun.

    1. You're overselling Chipper. The best thing that can be said about his hot corner defense is that it was better than his left field defense.

      2. Oof. You are definitely right. I always thought of him as a whiz at 3B (though I'm guessing I looked when I picked him, I have forgotten, and it likely didn't matter that much to me anyway).

        I must have been thinking of some other third baseman from ATL.

  2. Time to round out the infield. A major plus is that his last name rhymes with the first name of my favorite fictional bus driver.

    Spoiler SelectShow

  3. Like the previous two picks did this round, I'm going to complete my starting lineup here.

    He's currently 13th for WAR7 among third basemen, which is already not too shabby. But he's only had 6 seasons with 100+ games played, so right now one of his top 7 seasons was an injury-shortened one that garnered only 1.2 WAR. So, assuming he's healthy this year, he should easily get into the top 10, with an outside chance of jumping all the way up to number 6. That plus a personal value bump for being a Twin sealed it for me.

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  4. Spoiler SelectShow

    His career is just starting, but he came up at about the same age as Mookie Betts and his first 3 full seasons are better than Mookie's first 3 full seasons. That's good enough for me.

  5. Spoiler SelectShow

    Good average, took plenty of walks before it was fashionable to do so, and slugged the heck out of the ball. He led the league in homers three times, slugging percentage thrice, OBP once, and BtRuns three times--all consecutive years. His peak was phenomenal: from 1968-1970, he was the best hitter in baseball, posting a 188 OPS+ (1st overall each of those years) and racking up more than 22 WAR. Plus the dude has a Cove named after him.

  6. Round 11, Pick 6 SelectShow

    He hit well, went to the war, and then continued hitting exactly the same. Despite missing three full years, he still accumulated 70 rWAR. Ended his career with the Yankees, did almost nothing (3.7 rWAR), but lucked out and earned a few rings.

  7. Round 11 SelectShow

    His stats don't really stand out to me, except for the length of his career and that he pitched over 200 innings 15 out of 17 seasons from age 22 to age 37. And then he pitched 7 more seasons, just for good measure.

    And according to b-ref, his nickname was "Kitty". Oof.

  9. I can't decide yet if this guy is my 1B or DH

    Spoiler SelectShow

    Let's start with the bad. According to Fangraphs, he was beyond awful as a defender (third worst defensive fWAR ever, behind Manny B and Gary Sheffield). He wasn't much of a runner.

    But everything he did with the bat... oh, man. Check out his AVERAGE season during his 1991-1997 peak.

    .330/.452/.604, 35 HR, 119 BB, 75 SO, 107 R, 118 RBI.

    He's a cleanup batter in a lineup that features Frank Robinson and Mickey Mantle.

    1. Very nice. He, The Kid, and Pudge were key figures for me during that peak period of "old enough to be paying attention, young enough to be excited" baseball era in the early 90's.

      1. Absolutely. The Big Hurt wasn't quite the icon that Griffey was, but during our backyard home run derbies, he was always the second player we cosplayed.

  10. I have a pretty good three-man rotation. But my team is disturbingly clean-shaven. I considered the Mad Hungarian for his bodacious Fu Manchu and mitt-pounding mound antics. But this guy was such a force out of the bullpen, I gotta have him.

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    Second in WAR7 for relievers, and the guy above him earned (much!) more WAR as a starter, even though he punched his HoF ticket with 9th-inning dominance. My guy scoffed at the LaRussian constraint of closers only pitching the 9th and starting with clean slates. He was a true fireman. In 1975, he racked up 8.2 rWAR, all in relief. He followed that up with a 6.0 season in 1977, all in relief. In contrast, Mariano's best year only tallied 5.0 and Eck's best as a closer only 3.3.

    And he had a bad-ass Fu too.

    2. In my historical OOTP with bjhess (among others), I rode him crazy hard in 1984. Check out those stats, including leading the league in ERA and striking out 220 batters all from the bullpen. (Yes, I know it wasn't real, but still!)

  11. Well, I need a catcher. So I'm going to pick a guy who often isn't remembered as a catcher despite being a six-time All-Star at the position. My pick was once traded for the league MVP, only to be pushed off catcher by a future Hall of Famer a couple seasons later. That move liberated him from the catching grind, and his increased production led to him being named the league MVP. (Judging by rWAR, he shouldn't have won the award.) For a Hall of Famer, he has a pretty underrated playing career, but for various reasons I feel pretty confident he has the game-calling ability necessary to lead not just a pitching staff, but a team drawn from across different eras.

    Round 11, Pick 10 SelectShow
    Rationale SelectShow

  12. In 1985 he had a perfect game broken up in the 9th. In 1988, he had two no-hitters broken up with 2 outs and 2 strikes in the 9th. In 1989, he had another perfect game broken up with 2 outs in the 9th. In 1990, he finally got his no-hitter.

    He helped usher in my favorite dynasty in baseball history, the 1983-1993 Blue Jays. He got his World Series ring in 1992 when he wasn't any good any longer, though I do appreciate he came back in 1998 after being retired for four years (and didn't pitch terribly).

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    1. I almost picked him instead of Schilling (and watched a YouTube video of his slider). What a filthy pitch.

  13. This is the part where this draft has become super fun. I considered a lot of different players here based upon several different theories of roster construction. I have a few guys I really, really want to get but I expect them to be available several rounds away, so I don't want to overdraft too much. Instead, I'm going to just lean into my recent picks. Despite already having Reggie and Curt Schilling, I'm now going to draft yet another badass mutha.

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    Sure he was traded way too many times during his career for being as good as he was, and sure he quit on his team, but I can't even begin to imagine being an outspoken black man on the Phillies in the 1960s. Curt Flood refused to play for the Phillies and hated the Reserve Clause, and he is widely respected to this day as a true hero among former players. This guy felt exactly the same way by the end of the decade, but he was vilified for his methods (which of course led to the trade of Flood to the Phillies). And my gosh, could he destroy a baseball.

    At the beginning of his career, the Phillies insisted on calling him Richie, and printed his name that way on all team rosters, correspondence, and scorecards, despite him wanting to be called Dick. Seriously, WTF?

    “To be truthful with you, I’d like to be called Dick. I don’t know how the Richie started. My name is Richard and they called me Dick in the minor leagues.” He added, “It makes me sound like I’m ten years old. I’m 22. … Anyone who knows me well calls me Dick. I don’t know why as soon as I put on a uniform it’s Richie.”

    When the Phillies finally stopped officially calling him Richie two seasons later, they finally started calling him . . . Rich. WTFx2?!

    I'm not even going to get into the racial abuse he took from the Philadelphia fans after he punched a white teammate who was heckling him. Needless to say, his career careened from one controversy to another.

      1. I seriously considered him for my 3b slot. But he was such a butcher there, being forced to play out of position.

        Great hitter who probably deserved to be in the Hall. If not for the race-fueled conflicts that embroiled him several times, he would probably have the counting stats that would have punched his ticket

        1. Dick Allen sang professionally in a high, delicate tenor. The tone and texture of his voice has drawn comparisons to Harptones' lead singer Willie Winfield.[19] During Allen's time with the Sixties-era Phillies, he sang lead with a doo-wop group called The Ebonistics. Dick Allen and The Ebonistics sang professionally at Philadelphia night clubs. He once entertained during halftime of an NBA Philadelphia 76ers game. The Philadelphia Inquirer printed a review of his performance: Here came Rich Allen. Flowered shirt. Tie six-inches (152 mm) wide. Hiphugger bell-bottomed pants. A microphone in his hands. Rich Allen, the most booed man in Philadelphia from April to October, when Eagles coach Joe Kuharich takes over, walked out in front of 9,557 people at the Spectrum last night to sing with his group, The Ebonistics, and a most predictable thing happened. He was booed. Two songs later though, a most unpredictable thing happened. They cheered Rich Allen. They cheered him as warmly as they have ever cheered him for a game-winning home run.

    3. I remember that it was a huge controversy when he wanted people to call him Dick instead of Richie, silly as it seems now. It makes me wonder how many of today's controversies will seem equally silly in years to come.

        1. Off the top of my head I can think of Giancarlo (Mike) Stanton, Melvin (BJ) Upton, David Ortiz (Arias) who asked to be called by a different name and everyone sorta went "Yeah? Alright, cool." which seems markedly different than what Allen went through.

  17. Time to finish my lineup with a left fielder.

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    Like my right fielder another career cut short by injuries. His WAR7 puts him 8th among all time left fielders, not to shabby for the final bat in my lineup.

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