Baseball's Dominican Republic All-Time Dream Team
Albert Pujols just hit his 700th career HR and is obvious. But who else should be included on an all-time dream team for players born in the Dominican Republic?
Issue #31
On Friday Albert Pujols hit his 699th and 700th career homeruns, making him only the fourth player to ever reach that milestone (Ruth, Aaron, Bonds). At age 42 and in his 22nd season in the big leagues, Prince Albert is feasting on left-handers at an impressive .354/.403/.752 clip with 13 HR in only 113 at-bats. (While only batting .208 against RHP, he does have 8 HR against them.)
Born in the Dominican Republic, Pujols is the most obvious selection for an all-time dream team made up of players from that Caribbean country. This is my second write-up in a series during Hispanic Heritage Month in the United States, with the first covering players born in Puerto Rico. For the Dominican Republic, here is what I came up with:
Over the past 50+ years the Dominican Republic has produced many of the best major league players—period, full stop. So selecting players for this dream team roster meant some really good players had to be left off, and there is certainly room for debate at those edges.
There is no shortage of power, especially at the typically power-laden positions of RF, LF, 1B, and DH. Adrián Beltré is secure for now as the starter at 3B, though we’ll have see how José Ramírez’ career continues to progress. If he were to one day shift back to 2B he could also give Robinson Canó a run for the starting spot there.
Shortstop was perhaps the most difficult position to select a starter and to rank the players included. Here are some key stats for four players listed, plus Julio Franco who I included as a utility player:
José Reyes: 1,877 G, 37.5 WAR, 145 HR, 131 T, 387 D, 517 SB (80%), .283/.334/.427, 103 OPS+, 4-time All-Star, led NL in SB three times and triples four times.
Tony Fernández: 2,158 G, 45.3 WAR, 94 HR, 92 T, 414 D, 246 SB (64%), .288/.347/.399, 101 OPS+, 4-time All-Star, 4 Gold Gloves, .327 batting average in 168 post-season plate appearances.
Miguel Tejada: 2,171 G, 47.1 WAR, 307 HR, 23 T, 468 D, 85 SB (69%), .285/.336/.456, 108 OPS+, 6-time All-Star, 2002 AL MVP, led his league in doubles twice, and in RBI with 150 in 2004. Had a streak of 1,152 consecutive games played.
Hanley Ramirez: 1,668 G, 38.0 WAR, 271 HR, 32 T, 375 D, 281 SB (75%), .289/.360/.486, 124 OPS+, 3-time All-Star, 2006 NL ROY, led NL with .342 average in 2009, .380/.450/.577 in 80 post-season plate appearances.
Julio Franco: 2,527 G, 43.6 WAR, 173 HR, 54 T, 407 D, 281 SB (72%), .298/.365/.417, 111 OPS+, 3-time All-Star
Fernandez was the best defensively I think, but he had the least power. He stole some bases, but he had less than half as many SB as Reyes and had a far worse success rate (64% vs. 80%, which is elite). Ramirez had the best combination of power and speed, but played the least of this group. Tejada was an all-star the most often, had the MVP season, and the 150 RBI campaign, but also had a lot of controversy about steroids, amphetimenes, and even truth-telling both in front of Congress and about his age. Franco had the longest career of the group—crazy long really since he was impressively still playing at age 48—but he also played lots of positions, not just SS.
In addition to Franco I also wanted to include Pedro Guerrero and Felipe Alou, who both played various positions and so get listed here as utility players.
Comparing with the Puerto Rico dream team (with Ivan Rodriguez, Jorge Posada, and Yadier Molina), the catchers born in the Dominican Republic were not nearly as strong. Tony Peña was a great defensive catcher (four Gold Glove Awards), and early in his career was above average offensively for a catcher, as he could be counted on to bat .285 with 10 HR and 8 SB each year. But that changed in the second half of his 18-year career, and so he ended up with an 84 OPS+.
I’d give a slight edge to the CF combo of Carlos Beltran and Bernie Williams from the PR squad as well, and Roberto Clemente is the best amongst all the great RF on these two dream teams. But besides that I’d say the lineups for this DR team overall are stronger than those for the PR team:
Against RHP:
José Reyes SS (S)
Robinson Canó 2B (L)
Albert Pujols 1B (R)
David Ortiz DH (L)
Manny Ramírez LF (R)
Vladimir Guerrero (RF) (R)
Adrián Beltré 3B (R)
César Cedeño CF (R)
Tony Peña C (R)
Against LHP:
José Reyes SS (S)
José Ramírez 2B (S)
Albert Pujols 1B (R)
Manny Ramírez LF (R)
Vladimir Guerrero (RF) (R)
Nelson Cruz DH (R)
Adrián Beltré 3B (R)
César Cedeño CF (R)
Tony Peña C (R)
There were only a couple of platoon possibilities with these lineups. José Ramírez as a switch hitter can play 2B in place of Canó against the toughest lefties. And at DH both Ortiz and Cruz have pretty pronounced splits, so it makes sense for them to share that role. And that still leaves some powerful hitters on the bench like Sosa, Bautista, Encarnación, Soriano, Guerrero, and others.
As loaded as this roster is, amongst position players several others deserve honorable mention, including: RF Raúl Mondesi, LF George Bell, 1B Carlos Peña, SS Rafael Furcal, 2B/3B Plácido Polanco, 2B Luis Castillo, LF/DH Rico Carty, SS Jhonny Peralta, CF/RF Matty Alou, and LF/PH Manny Mota.
And then there are plenty of other current players who could one day make for some even harder decisions for such a Dominican Republic all-time dream team, such as Juan Soto, Rafael Devers, Fernando Tatis Jr., Eloy Jiménez, Julio Rodríguez, Wander Franco, Marcell Ozuna, Ketel Marte, Teoscar Hernández, and more.
For starting pitchers, there are clearly two top aces here. For a long time, Juan Marichal, the “Dominican Dandy,” was the clear top of this dream-team rotation. But that was before Pedro Martínez came along. Here are some highlights from their two great Hall of Fame careers:
Pedro Martínez: 86.1 WAR, 476 G (409 GS), 219-100 W-L (.687), 2.93 ERA, 154 ERA+, 3,154 SO, 10.0 SO/9, 4.15 SO/BB, 1.054 WHIP, 8-time All-Star, 3 Cy Young Awards (+ 2 times runner-up), 5 AL ERA titles, 3 AL SO titles.
Juan Marichal: 61.8 WAR, 471 G (457 GS), 243-142 W-L (.631), 2.89 ERA, 123 ERA+, 2,303 SO, 5.9 SO/9, 3.25 SO/BB, 1.101 WHIP, 244 CG, 9-time All-Star, led NL with 2.10 ERA in 1969.
They pitched in different eras, so it is a little hard to compare some things. For instance, it is very impressive that Marichal completed over half of his starts. But Pedro’s lead in ERA titles and their major difference in ERA+, which relativizes ERA to each players time period, put him over the top.
Next up is the great Bartolo Colon, who was a four-time All-Star, including at the age of 43 in 2016, his last good season when he posted a 15-8 record and 3.43 ERA over 33 starts. That was just one of twelve seasons of 14+ wins, including two with 20+. His career ERA (4.12) and ERA+ (106) suffered due to some injury-plagued seasons in the middle of his career and then again at the very end. During his prime dozen or so seasons, his ERA+ was about the same as the other two pitchers who I think clearly deserve spots in this dream team’s five-man rotation:
Johnny Cueto: 38.5 WAR, 353 G (351 GS), 142-106 W-L (.573), 3.43 ERA, 118 ERA+, 7.4 SO/9, 2-time All-Star, led NL in SO with 242 in 2014.
José Rijo: 35.0 WAR, 376 G (269 GS), 116-91 W-L (.560), 3.24 ERA, 121 ERA+, 7.7 SO/9, 1-time All-Star, led NL in SO with 227 in 1993.
After those five, you could probably argue a bit about who else to include on this roster, but I went with Mario Soto (108 ERA+, 3-time All-Star), Ramon Martinez (105 ERA+, All-Star in 1990 with 20-6 record, 2.92 ERA, and 223 SO), and Juan Guzmán who had a higher ERA (4.08) but better ERA+ (112). Honorable mention goes to Ubaldo Jiménez, Joaquín Andújar, Francisco Liriano, Ervin Santana, and Pedro Astacio. And current pitchers Luis Castillo, Sandy Alcantara, Luis Severino, and Framber Valdez could one day make for an even more crowded candidate list.
There have been plenty of great relief pitchers from the Dominican Republic. I picked six for this all-time dream team, but how you rank them could be debated:
Armando Benitez: 762 G, 289 SV, 3.13 ERA, 140 ERA+, 10.9 SO/9, 2-time All-Star, including 2004 when he led the NL with 47 saves and posted a 1.29 ERA.
Francisco Cordero: 800 G, 329 SV, 3.38 ERA, 135 ERA+, 8.7 SO/9, 3-time All-Star, including 2004 when he posted 49 saves with a 2.13 ERA.
José Valverde: 626 G, 288 SV, 3.27 ERA, 133 ERA+, 9.9 SO/9, 3-time All-Star, led his league in saves three times (47 in 2007, 44 in 2008, 49 in 2011).
Rafael Soriano: 591 G, 207 SV, 2.89 ERA, 144 ERA+, 1.078 WHIP, 9.1 SO/9, All-Star in 2010 when he led the AL in saves with 45 and posted a 1.73 ERA.
Fernando Rodney: 951 G, 327 SV, 3.80 ERA, 110 ERA+, 9.1 SO/9, 3-time All-Star, including in 2012 when he posted a microscopic 0.60 ERA with 48 saves, and then again in 2014 when he led the AL with 48 saves.
José Mesa: 1,022 G, 321 SV, 4.36 ERA, 100 ERA+, 2-time All-Star, including in 1995 when he led the AL with 46 saves and posted a 1.13 ERA.
Mesa and Rodney had the longest careers, with Mesa’s beginning as a struggling starting pitcher for seven seasons (one reason his ERA and ERA+ are not as impressive as the others above). Several other modern closers deserve honorable mention, including (in order by career saves): Alex Colomé, Santiago Casilla, Antonio Alfonseca, Mel Rojas, Jeurys Familia, Carlos Mármol, José Jiménez, Octavio Dotel, and Neftalí Feliz. I’ll also mention Alejandro Peña from the 1980s and Pedro Borbón from the 1970s, and wrap up by noting that 24-year old Emmanuel Clase is off to a great start with two dominating seasons in Cleveland.
As with the hitters, I’d say overall this dream-team pitching staff is stronger than that of the Puerto Rico dream-team. Martinez and Marichal are clearly superior, Hall-of-Fame level starters, and while Edwin Diaz and Roberto Hernandez are in the same class as the six relievers chosen here, this roster has far more pitching depth.