Baseball's October Birthday Dream Teams
Lots of great players have October birthdays. But who would make an all-star team amongst active players? And who would make an all-time October Birthdays dream team?
Issue #40
Continuing my series of active and all-time dream teams for players born during each month—how about October? Demographic oddities aside, on average you'd expect such rosters to be composed of about 1/12th of the top players during whatever period is under consideration.
I'll start with an active players October Birthday dream team, choosing players based on their entire careers to-date both in terms of credentials and what positions they could play at. Here is the roster I came up with—in this case with each player only listed at one position:
This October birthdays roster is dominated by great outfielders. RF in particular was very crowded with Mookie Betts, Bryce Harper, Juan Soto, and others, so I listed Harper at DH (since that was his position this year), and Soto I shifted over to LF which is where he played when he first came up to the majors. McCutchen is past his prime but has had a good career, so I gave him the nod as the starting CF here.
I listed Evan Longoria as the top 3B, given his solid career, even though obviously right now Rafael Devers is the better player. I’ve included Robinson Canó even though its unclear what his future beyond this season will be—I’ve not heard a retirement announcement, so he remains active for this exercise.
And SS and 1B did not have very many candidates to choose from. Xander Bogaerts is great, but then I really only had the impressive Pirates’ rookie Oneil Cruz as a backup. And at 1B there was really just Eric Hosmer—I blame September, which was loaded with great 1B in Joey Votto, Freddie Freeman, and Paul Goldschmidt.
Starting lineups for this roster might look like this:
Against RHP:
Mookie Betts RF (R)
Rafael Devers 3B (L)
Juan Soto LF (L)
Bryce Harper DH (L)
Cedric Mullins CF (L)
Xander Bogaerts (R)
Robinson Cano (L)
Eric Hosmer 1B (L)
Sean Murphy C (R) / Kurt Suzuki C (R)
Against LHP:
Mookie Betts RF (R)
Xander Bogaerts (R)
Juan Soto LF (L)
Bryce Harper DH (L)
Evan Longoria 3B (R)
Andrew McCutchen CF (R)
Ketel Marte 2B (S)
Eric Hosmer 1B (L)
Sean Murphy C (R) / Kurt Suzuki C (R)
That is a scary bunch of left handed batters against righty pitchers. I platooned Longoria and Devers at 3B, Cano and Marte at 2B, and McCutchen and Mullins in CF.
The starting pitching begins strong with veteran Zack Greinke at the top, followed by two more Cy Young Award winners in Robbie Ray and Corbin Burnes. I then went with longevity in Alex Cobb and Kyle Gibson. Hopefully Lance McCullers Jr. can be healthy and solid going forward, and obviously Kyle Wright finally had a big breakout year in 2022. Other options included Jack Flaherty, Merrill Kelly, Patrick Sandoval, and another Atlanta Braves hurler, rookie Spencer Strider.
For relievers, there really aren’t any active closers with October birthdays who’ve had sustained success over many years. The closest is Jeurys Familia, who had two outstanding seasons with the Mets in 2015-16 when he locked down 43 and 51 saves, respectively. But I listed him second in deference to sidearmer Darren O’Day, who owns a career 2.59 ERA and 167 ERA+ in 644 games.
Here are the players above listed in order by birthday, first hitters, then pitchers:
October 1: SS Xander Bogaerts (R)
October 1: CF Cedric Mullins (L)
October 2: CF Aaron Hicks (S)
October 4: C Kurt Suzuki (R)
October 4: C Sean Murphy (R)
October 4: SS Oneil Cruz (L)
October 7: 3B Evan Longoria (R)
October 7: RF/CF Mookie Betts (R)
October 9: OF Starling Marte (R)
October 10: OF Andrew McCutchen (R)
October 10: 2B Kolten Wong (L)
October 10: LF Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (R)
October 11: 3B Gio Urshela (R)
October 12: 2B/SS/CF Ketel Marte (S)
October 14: RF Kole Calhoun (L)
October 15: OF Teoscar Hernández (R)
October 16: RF/DH Bryce Harper (L)
October 16: 2B Jonathan Schoop (R)
October 22: 2B Robinson Cano (L)
October 24: 1B Eric Hosmer (L)
October 24: 3B Rafael Devers (L)
October 25: LF/RF Juan Soto (L)
October 1: SP Robbie Ray (L)
October 1: RP Lou Trivino (R)
October 2: RP Lance McCullers (R)
October 2: SP Kyle Wright (R)
October 7: SP Alex Cobb (R)
October 9: RP David Phelps (R)
October 10: RP Jeurys Familia (R)
October 10: RP David Bednar (R)
October 19: RP Tyler Matzek (L)
October 21: SP Zack Greinke (R)
October 22: RP Darren O'Day (R)
October 22: SP Corbin Burnes (R)
October 23: SP Kyle Gibson (R)
All-Time October Birthdays Dream Team
What about an all-time October birthdays dream team? Do Zack Greinke, or any of the great outfielders from the active players roster above, make this all-time dream team?
As with every month’s all-time dream team, this roster is loaded. In August, it was the outfield with Williams, Trout, Clemente, F. Robinson, and Yastrzemski. In September, it was clearly the infield that led the way in superstar power, especially at 2B with Morgan, Lajoie, and Sandberg.
For October… where to begin? All three outfield positions presented challenges. CF has both Yankees legend Mickey Mantle and Negro Leagues legend Oscar Charleston. RF has Ichiro Suzuki and Dave Winfield, not to mention Mookie Betts too. And then LF has four worthy guys: old-timers Ed Delahanty and Fred Clarke, and then Goose Goslin and slugger Ralph Kiner.
In the infield, 2B, SS, and 3B all seemed pretty straightforward. But 1B is loaded, with Jimmie Foxx as the clear starter but then a logjam of others including Keith Hernandez, Mark McGwire, Bill Terry, and Fred McGriff. I don’t want to over think this for now, so I just included all of them.
Catcher wasn’t super deep with candidates, so after Rick Farrell and Brian Downing (who also played a lot of games at DH and LF), I added old-timer Buck Ewing (who spent some time as a catcher) as a utility guy, along with infielder Toby Harrah in another utility spot.
Starting lineups, against righties and lefties, might look like this:
Against RHP:
Ichiro Suzuki RF (L)
Rod Carew 2B (L)
Oscar Charleston CF (L)
Mickey Mantle DH (S)
Eddie Mathews 3B (L)
Jimmie Foxx 1B (R)
Fred Clarke LF (L) / Goose Goslin LF (L)
Joe Sewell SS (L)
Rick Farrell C (R)
Against LHP:
Ed Delahanty LF (R)
Joe Cronin SS (R)
Mickey Mantle CF (S)
Jimmie Foxx 1B (R)
Mark McGwire DH (R) / Ralph Kiner DH (R)
Dave Winfield RF (R)
Evan Longoria 3B (R)
Buck Ewing C (R)
Rod Carew 2B (L)
Pretty scary lineups here. Some would argue that Oscar Charleston deserves to be in both lineups, but I opted to get some right-handed power—either McGwire or Kiner—in the lineup against LHPs. LF was an obvious spot to platoon, though it is hard to choose between the two lefty hitters Clarke and Goslin. And RF also offered a platoon option with two very different types of hitters in Ichiro and Winfield.
Initially, I thought SS was the only infield position where a platoon made sense. Sewell is of course famous for being almost impossible to strikeout, while Cronin often hit third or fourth and so got a lot of RBIs for someone with only modest HR numbers.
I’m comfortable listing Carew and Foxx in both lineups. But at 3B the fact is that Eddie Mathews, as great as he was, really didn’t hit LHPs very well: he slashed .284/.389/.538 against RHPs, but only .229/.330/.407 against LHPs. That is a big difference, and Longoria definitely hits LHPs better than RHPs, so that is why I have them platooning above.
At Catcher, all three guys were right handed hitters, so I just split up the duties between Ewing and Farrell (who hit righties a bit better than lefties), though you could certainly get Downing in there against some LHPs especially.
Here are the position players in the depth chart above listed in order by birthday, with a few career stat highlights for each:
October 1: 2B/1B Rod Carew (L) 81.2 WAR, 3,053 Hits, 353 SB, .328/.393/.429, 131 OPS+
October 1: 1B Mark McGwire (R) 62.1 WAR, 583 HR, .263/.394/.588, 163 OPS+
October 3: LF Fred Clarke (L) 67.9 WAR, 220 Triples, 509 SB, .312/.386/.429, 133 OPS+
October 3: RF/CF/DH Dave Winfield (R) 64.2 WAR, 3,110 Hits, 465 HR, 223 SB, .283/.353/.475, 130 OPS+
* October 7: 3B Evan Longoria (R) 58.1 WAR, 331 HR, .265/.334/.472, 120 OPS+
* October 7: RF/CF Mookie Betts (R) 56.4 WAR, 213 HR, 158 SB, .293/.368/.520, 134 OPS+
October 9: SS/3B Joe Sewell (L) 54.7 WAR, .312/.391/.413, 109 OPS+ (only 114 SO in 8,333 plate appearances)
October 9: C/LF/DH Brian Downing (R) 51.5 WAR, 275 HR, .267/.370/.425, 122 OPS+
October 12: SS Joe Cronin (R) 64.7 WAR, 170 HR, .301/.390/.468, 119 OPS+
October 12: C Rick Farrell (R) 30.8 WAR, .281/.378/.363, 95 OPS+
October 13: 3B Eddie Mathews (L) 96.1 WAR, 512 HR, .271/.376/.509, 143 OPS+
October 14: CF Oscar Charleston (L) 49.1 WAR, 146 HR, 209 SB, .364/.448/.614, 184 OPS+
October 16: LF Goose Goslin (L) 66.4 WAR, 248 HR, 176 SB, .316/.387/.500, 128 OPS+
October 17: C/1B/3B/RF Buck Ewing (R) 48.0 WAR, 178 Triples, 354 SB (partial), .303/.351/.456 129 OPS+
October 20: CF Mickey Mantle (S) 110.2 WAR, 536 HR, .298/.421/.557, 172 OPS+
October 20: 1B Keith Hernandez (L) 60.3 WAR, 162 HR, .296/.384/.436, 128 OPS+
October 22: 1B Jimmie Foxx (R) 92.3 WAR, 534 HR, .325/.428/.609, 163 OPS+
October 22: 2B Robinson Canó (L) 68.1 WAR, 335 HR, 572 Doubles, .301/.351/.488, 124 OPS+
October 22: RF/CF Ichiro Suzuki (L) 60.0 WAR, 3,089 Hits, 509 SB, .311/.355/.402, 107 OPS+
October 26: 3B/SS/2B Toby Harrah (R) 51.5 WAR, 195 HR, 238 SB, .264, .365/.395, 114 OPS+
October 27: LF Ralph Kiner (R) 48.1 WAR, 369 HR, .279/.398/.548, 149 OPS+
October 30: LF Ed Delahanty (R) 69.6 WAR, 186 Triples, 456 SB, .346/.411/.505, 152 OPS+
October 30: 1B Bill Terry (L) 56.5 WAR, 154 HR, .341/.393/.506, 136 OPS+
October 31: 1B Fred McGriff (L) 52.6 WAR, 493 HR, .284/.377/.509, 134 OPS+
* = Active
The depth of October Birthdays is truly remarkable, and it will only get tougher as active stars like Bryce Harper, Juan Soto, Rafael Devers, Xander Bogaerts, and others progress in their careers.
Amongst retired players with October birthdays, several more deserve honorable mention including: RF Chuck Klein, OF Juan Gonzalez, CF/LF/1B Al Oliver, CF/LF Wally Berger, SS/3B Vern Stephens, 2B/3B Jim Gilliam, SS Troy Tulowitzki, RF/3B José Bautista, SS Maury Wills, C/1B Gene Tenace, and C Tim McCarver. Heck, you could make a pretty good looking lineup out of those guys too!
As for the starting pitchers, the ace amongst aces here is Pedro Martinez. After that you could argue how to rank the rest, but for the next two spots I went Juan Marichal and Jim Palmer. I then rounded out the starting rotation with Whitey Ford and Rube Waddell, though you could make a case for Ford’s contemporary Jim Bunning, Waddell’s contemporary Mordecai Brown, or even the still-active Zack Greinke.
I then gave one more spot to Negro League star Leon Day, about whom we have a lot less statistical data, but what we do have is impressive. He played ten seasons, spanning the years 1934 through 1946. He started out primarily as a pitcher, and ended his career with a 50-21 (.704) record, 3.47 ERA, and 133 ERA+. I say started out because since he was a good hitter, later in his career he primarily played CF, 2B, and other positions. He wasn’t a power hitter, but he ended up with a .314 batting average and 119 OPS+ over 601 at-bats.
Here are the starters I chose in order by birthday and with some numbers for each:
October 13: Rube Waddell (L) 60.9 WAR, 193-143 W-L, 2.16 ERA, 135 ERA+
October 15: Jim Palmer (R) 67.6 WAR, 268-152 W-L, 2.86 ERA, 125 ERA+
October 19: Mordecai Brown (R) 57.2 WAR, 239-130 W-L, 2.06 ERA, 138 ERA+
October 20: Juan Marichal (R) 61.8 WAR, 243-142 W-L, 2.89 ERA, 123 ERA+
* October 21: Zack Greinke (R) 71.4 WAR, 223-141 W-L, 3.42 ERA, 123 ERA+
October 21: Whitey Ford (L) 53.6 WAR, 236-106 W-L, 2.75 ERA, 133 ERA+
October 23: Jim Bunning (R) 60.4 WAR, 224-184 W-L, 3.27 ERA, 115 ERA+
October 25: Pedro Martinez (R) 86.1 WAR, 219-100 W-L, 2.93 ERA, 154 ERA+
October 30: Leon Day (R) 14.3 WAR, 50-21 W-L, 3.47 ERA, 133 ERA+
I included nine starting pitchers here, but honorable mention is deserved by Mel Harder, Steve Rogers, Bill Donovan, Al Leiter, Harry Brecheen, Dave McNally, Rube Marquard, and Smokey Joe Wood.
For relievers, this October Birthdays Dream Team is blessed with two of the all-time greatest closers in Dennis Eckersley and Trevor Hoffman. Eck’s career of course began as a starter, while Hoffman spent his entire time as a modern closer. Wilbur Wood came next, an outstanding reliever who mid-career switched to a starting role as his use of the knuckleball let him pitch a large number of games and innings. Three more modern closers in Jeff Reardon, Keith Foulke, and Gregg Olson round out this Dream Team bullpen, though you could argue for other October birthday relievers such as Eddie Guardado, Jeurys Familia, Carlos Mármol, Brad Ziegler, and others.
Again, here are the six I included in order by birthday and with some numbers for each:
October 1: Jeff Reardon (R) 367 SV, 3.16 ERA, 122 ERA+
October 3: Dennis Eckersley (R) 197-171 W-L, 390 SV, 3.50 ERA, 116 ERA+
October 11: Gregg Olson (R) 217 SV, 3.46 ERA, 123 ERA+
October 13: Trevor Hoffman (R) 601 SV, 2.87 ERA, 141 ERA+
October 19: Keith Foulke (R) 191 SV, 3.33 ERA, 140 ERA+
October 22: Wilbur Wood (L) 164-156 W-L, 3.24 ERA, 114 ERA+
Compare this roster with those of the other months I have done so far: July, August, and September.
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.