Missouri's Baseball All-Time Dream Team
What would a dream team roster look like for major league players born in Missouri?
Issue #114
This is the 17th 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, and Colorado.
Next up is Missouri, which became the 24th state admitted to the union on August 10, 1821 (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 Missouri towards the end of this article (and vice-versa, those born elsewhere but who went to high school in Missouri.)
Here is the all-time dream team I came up with for players born in Missouri:
Not a bad dream team roster! There really aren’t any weak positions, though 2B and SS are lighter than the others. Great depth at catcher with the Hall of Famer Yogi Berra followed by three other stars that you could argue about what order to put them in.
Zack Wheat is a Hall of Famer in LF, with some other solid hitters in both CF and RF. Jack Beckley is a Hall of Famer at 1B and is backed up by sluggers Roy Sievers and Ryan Howard, and many would argue that across the diamond 3B Ken Boyer should be in the Hall of Fame.
Other position players beyond those selected were considered and at least deserve honorable mention, including: RF Casey Stengel, 3B Clete Boyer, 1B Nate Colbert, OF/3B Al Smith, C Muddy Ruel, LF Bernard Gilkey, 1B/LF Norm Siebern, 3B Harry Steinfeldt, C Johnny Kling, RF Jack Tobin, OF Bug Holliday, and 1B Charlie Grimm.
Starting lineups for this all-time dream team could look like this:
Against RHP:
George Van Haltren (L)
Zack Wheat LF (L)
Yogi Berra C (L)
Ryan Howard DH (L)
Ken Boyer 3B (R)
Ival Goodman RF (L)
Jake Beckley 1B (L)
Lonny Frey 2B (L)
Glenn Wright SS (R)
Against LHP:
George Van Haltren (L)
Zack Wheat LF (L)
Ken Boyer 3B (R)
Roy Sievers 1B (R)
Bob Allison RF (R)
Elston Howard / Walker Cooper C (R)
Yogi Berra DH (L) / Bill Mueller DH (S)
Jimmy Williams 2B (R)
Glenn Wright SS (R)
Pretty solid lineups overall, with a lot of lefty bats available to hit against RHP. As noted earlier there is strong catcher depth, so I’ve listed Howard and Cooper as catchers against LHP, with Berra’s knees either getting a rest as a DH or letting some of the other guys, like Bill Mueller, get in some DH at-bats. The obvious DH against RHP is Ryan Howard, who hit them well but was not nearly as good against LHP. With him as DH, there was a platoon available at 1B with Jake Beckley vs. RHP and Roy Sievers vs. LHP.
Two other positions had reasonable platoon options: RF with Goodman and Allison and 2B with Frey and Williams. I liked keeping Van Haltren and Wheat in both lineups, though you could move Williams and Wright up to the 1-2 spots if you prefer leading off with righties against some LHPs.
The group of starting pitchers on this dream team roster is arguably even stronger than the position players, starting off with Max Scherzer and then three Hall of Famers in Carl Hubbell and old-timers Pud Galvin and Clark Griffith. For the fifth spot I went with David Cone, and you could make a case for him as the third man in this rotation behind Scherzer and Hubbell.
After those five I decided to include five more, including some underrated names like Steve Rogers, Mel Stottlemyre, and Mark Buehrle. Smokey Joe Wood of course started had some amazing seasons as a pitcher, but also was a capable batsman so I listed him in RF as well. And I listed Van Haltren as a final SP, in recognition of the fact that he was primarily a pitcher in three of his first four seasons before switching to the outfield for the rest of his career.
Several other starting pitchers born in Missouri were considered, and at least deserve honorable mention: SP Jake Arrieta, SP Silver King, SP Theodore Breitenstein, SP Murry Dickson, SP Curt Davis, SP Jeff Tesreau, SP Sonny Siebert, SP Barney Pelty, SP Andy Ashby, SP Jerry Reuss, SP Ken Holtzman, SP Rick Sutcliffe, plus three who pitched in the Negro Leagues: SP Rube Curry, SP Bill Drake, and SP Logan Hensley.
Tom “The Terminator” Henke leads the bullpen on this dream team roster. I then included one of the most dominating active relievers, Milwaukee’s closer Devin Williams. Mike Henneman, Darold Knowles, and Trevor Rosenthal were also effective closers across different decades. Beyond the nine relievers that I included I also considered a few others born in Missouri, including Mark Littell, Joe Boever, and Steve Mingori.
To wrap up, several of the above players were born in Missouri but grew up and in particular went to high school in other states, including at least the following:
Darrell Porter - Oklahoma
Carl Hubbell - Oklahoma
Mel Stottlemyre - Washington
Smokey Joe Wood - Colorado
What about the other direction—born elsewhere but went to high school in Missouri? I found two all-time greats, and several other good players who would definitely have made it on the above all-time dream team if the criteria were altered:
1B Albert Pujols - Dominican Republic
CF Cool Papa Bell - Mississippi
2B Frank White - Mississippi
SP Ed Reulbach - Detroit
SP Babe Adams - Indiana
CF Brian McRae - Florida
RP Brad Ziegler - Kansas
If you were to include some of these players on a Missouri roster, then obviously Albert Pujols would be an improvement over Beckley, Sievers, or Howard at 1B, and Cool Papa Bell would become the starter in CF over Van Haltren and Reiser. Frank White would very much be in the mix at 2B, and SPs Reulbach and Adams would make the roster and somewhat reduce the pain of losing Hubbell, Stottlemyre, and Wood.
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.
