Alabama's Baseball All-Time Dream Team
What would a dream team roster look like for major league players born in Alabama?
Issue #145
This is the 31st article in a series where I am creating all-time dream teams for players born in each of the fifty US states. I’m publishing each write-up on the anniversary date that the particular state joined the union. So far I’ve covered Maryland, Louisiana, Minnesota, South Carolina, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, West Virginia, New Hampshire, Virginia, Idaho, Wyoming, New York, Colorado, Missouri, Hawaii, California, Nevada, North and South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Illinois, Delaware, Mississippi, Indiana, and Pennsylvania.
Next up is Alabama, which on December 14th, 1819, became the 22nd state to join the union (according to Wikipedia).
Important caveat to what follows: I’m creating these all-time dream teams based on the birthplace data available at baseball-reference.com. I realize this might mean some players will appear for a state’s all-time dream that seems odd, e.g., a player who was born in one state but lived there only briefly, while then spending most of his youth, or especially critical years playing baseball in high school in another state. So that is an important caveat to the below dream team roster—and I’ll discuss the players that I know went to high school in a state other than Alabama towards the end of this article (and vice-versa, those born elsewhere but who went to high school in Alabama.)
Here is the all-time dream team I came up with for players born in Alabama:
Many fans know of the three most famous superstars who were born in Alabama: CF Willie Mays, RF Hank Aaron, and SP Satchel Paige. But there have been a host of other other star players who hail from Alabama, such as nine additional Hall of Famers in SP Early Wynn, SP Don Sutton, SS Ozzie Smith, SS/3B Joe Sewell, LF/RF Billy Williams, 1B Willie McCovey, OF/1B Monte Irvin, LF/CF Heinie Manush, and 1B/LF Mule Suttles.
Mule Suttles isn’t as often mentioned as Paige, or other all-time great Negro Leagues stars such as Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, or Oscar Charleston. But he probably should be, as he played from 1924-1944 in leagues now recognized as major leagues and according to the numbers available at baseball-reference.com retired with a .339/.410/.620 slash line, a 172 OPS+, two batting titles, and 180 HR in 3,220 recorded at-bats.
Another very interesting player mentioned above is Joe Sewell, who played from 1920-1933, mostly for Cleveland and the last three years for the Yankees. He didn’t have much power or speed, but got on base a lot with a .312/.391/.413 slash line. Most impressively though is the fact that he never had more than 20 strikeouts in a season, and only struck out 114 times in 1,903 games played and 8,333 plate appearances!
The talent on this dream team roster isn’t evenly distributed around the diamond, as 3B, 2B, and C were noticeably weaker positions than the others. In fact, 3B had so few good candidates that I listed Sewell as the top choice even though he played far more games at SS (obviously the Wizard of Oz gets the starting nod there).
Starting lineups for this all-time dream team could look like this:
Against RHP:
Joe Sewell (L) 3B
Willie Mays (R) CF
Billy Williams (L) LF
Mule Suttles (R) 1B
Hank Aaron (R) RF
Willie McCovey (L) DH
George Scales / Frank Bolling / Newt Joseph (R) 2B
Virgil Davis (R) C
Ozzie Smith (S) SS
Against LHP:
Joe Sewell (L) 3B
Willie Mays (R) CF
Mule Suttles (R) 1B
Hank Aaron (R) RF
George Foster / Rudy York / Monte Irvin (R) DH
Billy Williams (L) LF
George Scales / Frank Bolling / Newt Joseph (R) 2B
Virgil Davis (R) C
Ozzie Smith (S) SS
Joe Sewell almost never hit leadoff during his career. Neither did Willie Mays. But I think those are the two best options to hit leadoff for these lineups, so I went with Sewell given his high OBP, with Mays batting second. There are lots of options for how you arrange the other power hitters in spots 3-6, and also who is used as the designated hitters. I listed McCovey as the DH against RHP, with Foster, York, and Irvin as the best candidates against LHP.
Virgil Davis and Ozzie Smith were the obvious starters at C and SS, respectively. At 2B all three candidates hit right-handed, with I think George Scales deserving the most playing time. He was a solid hitter in the Negro Leagues, playing in leagues now recognized as major leagues for 20 seasons, from 1921-29, 1935-36, and 1938-46. He played all over the field, including all four infield positions and the outfield too, and according to the numbers at baseball-reference.com had a .320/.424/.509 career slash line and 147 OPS+. Newt Joseph played a mix of 3B and 2B in major Negro Leagues from 1922-1930, and posted a .291/.369/.423 slash line and 112 OPS+. And Frank Bolling played 12 seasons, mostly with the Detroit Tigers and Milwaukee Braves. He was an All-Star in both 1961 and 1962, and earned a Gold Glove Award in 1958.
There were several other solid position players who were born in Alabama and deserve at least honorable mention, including: LF Bo Jackson, SS Tim Anderson, CF Bill Bruton, CF Tommie Agee, DH/1B Andre Thornton, 1B Don Mincher, OF/DH Oscar Gamble, LF Rusty Greer, CF Terry Moore, LF Josh Willingham, LF/CF Cleon Jones, CF/LF Juan Pierre, LF/1B Gary Redus, 2B Ted Sizemore, CF Jerry Benjamin, SS/OF Sam Bankhead.
As for the pitching staff, the ace is clearly Satchel Paige, one of the truly all-time greats. We’ll never know what his numbers would have been had baseball always been integrated, but based on the numbers we do have and the endless anecdotal evidence, I have little doubt he belongs in the conversation with Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Lefty Grove, and a few others as the greatest in the first half of the 20th century.
After Paige, you could debate how to rank fellow Hall of Famers Early Wynn and Don Sutton. Both had 23-year major league careers, with Sutton winning 324 games and Wynn exactly 300. Sutton was a model of consistency and durability, an All-Star four times, led the NL in WHIP four times, and led the NL with a 2.20 ERA in 1980. Wynn was an All-Star seven times, mostly late in his career, including in 1959 when at the age of 39 he won the AL Cy Young Award after posting a 22-10 record. Both men had relatively modest career ERA+ marks—108 for Sutton and 107 for Wynn—but their longevity secure them spots in this dream team’s pitching rotation.
How you rank the next several guys could also be argued, with I think four candidates vying for the fourth and fifth spots:
Corey Kluber’s best days seem to be behind him, but he has two Cy Young Awards on his resume.
Three-time All-Star Jake Peavy similarly was great early in his career, winning two ERA titles and the NL Cy Young Award in 2007 after winning the pitching triple crown with a 19-6 record, 2.54 ERA, and 240 strikeouts.
Five-time All-Star Jimmy Key pitched 15 years for the Blue Jays, Yankees, and Orioles, and led the AL with a 2.76 ERA in the high-offense 1987 season.
Two-time All-Star Virgil Trucks pitched over half of his 17 year career with the Tigers and retired with a career 3.39 ERA and 117 ERA+.
I further included four other starting pitchers—Frank Lary, Rip Sewell, Bob Veale, and Matt Cain—and again, how you rank them could be debated.
The bullpen on this dream team is headlined by Craig Kimbrel, who just signed with he Baltimore Orioles for the 2024 season. Since 2019 its been a bit of an adventure each time he comes into a game—some nights he’s still great, others not so much. But from 2011-2014 he was the best reliever in the game—indeed that four year span is one of the most dominating by any closer ever. And he was an All-Star seven times in eight years from 2011-2018, which again is one of the best 8-year spans of any relief pitcher.
As with Wynn and Sutton, how you rank David Robertson and Clay Carroll for the next two spots could be argued, but either way they are solid support for Kimbrel on this dream team’s roster. Robertson was a great setup man before having several solid years as a closer. And Carroll was a key pitcher on the Big Red Machine teams of the early and mid-1970s, retiring after 15 years with a career 2.94 ERA and 121 ERA+.
Jeff Brantley had some really good seasons, including his one year as an All-Star when in 1990 he posted a 1.56 ERA with 19 saves for the Giants, and in 1996 when he led the NL with 44 saves for the Reds. And like many of his era, Al Worthington, who pitched 14 seasons in the majors between 1953-1969, began as a starter but found more success later as a reliever, including a six year stretch from 1963-68 for the Reds and Twins when he posted a 2.55 ERA, 136 ERA+, and 95 saves.
As with the position players, there were a few other solid pitchers born in Alabama that couldn’t be squeezed onto this dream team roster, but that deserve honorable mention, including: Doyle Alexander, Sam Streeter, and Harry Salmon.
What about players who went to High School in Alabama?
As noted at the outset of this article, and as I’ve done for my other US State dream team write-ups, what if you change the criteria from players who were born in the state of Alabama to players who grew up—which we’ll define as going to high school—in the state of Alabama?
First off, some of the players on the roster above were born in Alabama but went to high school elsewhere, including:
1B/C Rudy York – Georgia
SS Ozzie Smith – California
C Virgil Davis – Mississippi
LF/CF Heinie Manush – Tennessee
CF/LF Willie Wilson – New Jersey
LF/CF George Foster – California
LF/RF/1B/SS Monte Irvin – New Jersey
RF/CF Álex Ríos – Puerto Rico
SP Don Sutton – Florida
SP Corey Kluber – Texas
SP Matt Cain – Tennessee
RP Dave Veres – Oregon
RP Adam Warren – North Carolina
If we eliminate those players from the above roster, we lose a lot of outfielders, but not the starting trio of Mays, Aaron, and Williams. Losing Smith at SS would either mean Sewell would need to shift back to SS from 3B, or that Negro League star Artie Wilson would need to step up and play SS. On the pitching side losing Sutton and Kluber hurts, but there is plenty of depth on this dream team’s staff.
On the other hand, I only found four guys who were born elsewhere but went to high school in the state of Alabama and would be deserving of roster spots here:
2B Del Pratt – South Carolina
3B Josh Donaldson – Florida
OF Ben Chapman – Tennessee
SP Tim Hudson – Georgia
Picking up Donaldson would be great, especially if Sewell needs to see action at SS. Del Pratt (1912-24) would join the mix at 2B, and Ben Chapman would become the lead DH candidate against LHP since the roster no longer has Foster, York, or Irvin. And the addition of starter Tim Hudson would help soften the blow of the loss of Sutton and Kluber.
All data is from Baseball-Reference.com, and also their subscription service Stathead.com. If you are a big sports fan, be sure to check out the latest features at Stathead and the Sports Reference family of sites. The state map, flag, flower, and bird images are from Wikipedia.
Did you know? I wrote a book with the same title as this Substack newsletter / blog: Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises. It was published in early 2019, by ACTA Sports, the publisher of the annual Bill James Handbook and other popular titles. You can learn more about it at www.NowTakingTheField.com, or buy directly at Amazon and other booksellers.
