Delaware's Baseball All-Time Dream Team
What would a dream team roster look like for major league players born in Delaware?
Issue #141
This is the 27th 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, and Illinois.
Next up is Delaware, which on December 7, 1787, was the first state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, earning the state the nickname "The First State" (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 Delaware towards the end of this article (and vice-versa, those born elsewhere but who went to high school in Delaware.)
Another quick aside, as this article is focused on people from Delaware, if you ever never saw this quick bit from Christopher Lloyd’s character Jim on Taxi, it is worth 30 seconds of your time. It gets into the question of: What do people from Delaware call themselves?
Here is the all-time dream team I came up with for players born in Delaware:
Delaware is a pretty small state, so it is not surprising that there are no Hall of Famers here—though I predict there will be one someday, as Paul Goldschmidt will likely be elected five years after he retires. There were a few others that were stars for brief periods, such as 2B Delino DeShields (Sr.), who had eight seasons with 35+ steals, including highs of 56 in 1991 and 55 in 1997.
Another position player of note was Ed Stone who was a star in the Negro Leagues from 1934-1946. He made three All-Star Teams, and according to the statistics at baseball-reference.com had a .313/.390/.462 slash line and 128 OPS+ while mostly playing RF.
Starting lineups for this all-time dream team could look like this:
Against RHP:
Delino DeShields (L) 2B
Ed Stone (L) RF
Dave May (L) CF
Paul Goldschmidt (R) 1B
Randy Bush (L) DH
John Mabry (L) LF
Hans Lobert (R) 3B
Chris Widger (R) C
Joey Wendle (L) SS
Against LHP:
Delino DeShields (L) DH
Hans Lobert (R) 3B
Paul Goldschmidt (R) 1B
Kevin Mench (R) LF
Zack Gelof (R) 2B
Ed Stone (L) RF
Dave May (L) CF
Chris Widger (R) C
Joey Wendle (L) SS
As mentioned earlier, the strengths here are of course Goldschmidt in the middle as the true superstar, DeShields speed in the leadoff spot, and the solid batting average that Ed Stone provides.
Also, having seven lefties to hit against RHP is good, with a few spots where platoons make sense, such as Mench and Mabry in LF. I liked getting Gelof into the games at 2B against lefties, and shifting DeShields to DH for those. This helps too because Randy Bush had very extreme splits, even to the extent that he rarely hit against lefties at all.
As for the pitching staff, the ace is 15-year veteran Chris Short (1959-1973). Pitching all but his final season for the Phillies, Short was a two-time All-Star, with four seasons of 17+ wins including 1966 when he went 20-10. He retired with a solid 3.43 ERA, though given when he pitched that equates to only a 104 ERA+.
You could make the case for old-timer Sadie McMahon as the top starter on this roster, as he had a stronger 118 ERA+ (3.51 ERA), pitching from 1889-1897. As was common for the times, he often pitched over 300 innings a year, including pitching 500+ IP in consecutive seasons. He posted records of 36-21 and 35-24 those two years (1890-91).
And like Ed Stone, a Negro Leagues star named Webster McDonald is deserving of a spot in this dream team’s rotation. Pitching mostly as a starter from 1925-1940, he tallied a 3.88 ERA and 119 ERA+, according to the numbers available at baseball-reference.com.
The bullpen on this dream team lacks any strong, modern-era closers. Unlike many pitchers, Walter "Huck" Betts started his career as a reliever (1920-25) for the Phillies, before coming back later more often as a starter (1932-35) for the Boston Braves. And Dallas Green was a mixed starter/reliever in the majors from 1960-67, before serving as a manager for the Phillies, Yankees, and Mets (including leading the Phillies to their first World Series championship in 1980) and also serving six years as the Cubs’ General Manager.
What about players who went to High School in Delaware?
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 Delaware to players who grew up—which we’ll define as going to high school—in the state of Delaware?
First off, some of the players on the roster above were born in Delaware but went to high school elsewhere, including:
1B Paul Goldschmidt – Texas
2B/3B/SS Joey Wendle – Pennsylvania
1B/RF/LF John Mabry – Maryland
C Chris Widger – New Jersey
SP Chris Welsh – Ohio
RP Wayne Franklin – Maryland
If we eliminate those players from the above roster, we definitely lose some key hitters—most notably Goldschmidt, plus the only catcher in Widger.
However, there are also some interesting players who were born elsewhere, but went to high school in the state of Delaware and would deserve consideration for such a dream team:
C/1B/OF John Wockenfuss – West Virginia
CF Homer Smoot – Maryland
LF Derrick May – New York
LF/RF Jake Fraley – Maryland
3B Judy Johnson – Maryland HOF
SP Vic Willis – Maryland HOF
The key star additions here are two Hall of Famers. First is Judy Johnson, who would slot in at 3B, allowing Lobert to shift to SS with Wendle no longer on the roster. And Vic Willis won 20+ games eight times, and had a 117 ERA+ for his career, so he’d become the new ace of this dream team’s pitching staff.
Also important would be John Wockenfuss joining the roster, in place of Widger as the lone catcher. Homer Smoot—and yes his real name was Homer Smoot—only played from 1902-1906, but had a .290 average and 119 OPS+. And Derrick May (the son of Dave May) and Jake Fraley are both lefty hitters, so more than cover for the loss of John Mabry in the platoon with Mench in LF.
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.
