Nevada's Baseball All-Time Dream Team

What would a dream team roster look like for major league players born in Nevada?

Issue #130

This is the 20th 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, and California.

Next up is Nevada, which became the 36th state admitted to the union on October 31, 1864 (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 Nevada towards the end of this article (and vice-versa, those born elsewhere but who went to high school in Nevada.)

Here is the all-time dream team I came up with for players born in Nevada:

Obviously the headliners here are the MVP sluggers Bryce Harper and Kris Bryant, though there are several other solid performers amongst the position players. That said, there isn’t much overall depth to the roster, as relatively few MLB players have been born in Nevada.

Starting lineups for this all-time dream team could look like this:

Against RHP:

1. Bryson Stott (L) 2B

2. Tommy Pham (R) CF

3. Bryce Harper (L) RF

4. Kris Bryant (R) 3B

5. Joey Gallo (L) 1B

6. Marty Cordova (R) LF

7. Garrett Hampson (R) SS

8. Nate Schierholtz (L) DH

9. Tyler Houston (L) C

Against LHP:

1. Tommy Pham (R) CF

2. Bryson Stott (L) 2B

3. Bryce Harper (L) RF

4. Kris Bryant (R) 3B

5. Joey Gallo (L) 1B

6. Marty Cordova (R) LF

7. Garrett Hampson (R) SS

8. Joey Rickard (R) DH

9. Tyler Houston (L) C

The thin roster didn’t give me many options at DH, so I went with a platoon of Nate Schierholtz and Joey Rickard.

The pitching staff’s ace is Barry Zito who had a great first half of his career, including winning the AL Cy Young Award in 2002. You could debate who should come next, but I went with Jim Nash next—another pitcher who started his career (1966-72) with the Athletics.

After Tyler Anderson and Shawn Boskie there is a name many readers might not be familiar with. William George “Wheezer” Dell was born in Nevada in 1886 and pitched three games for the Cardinals in 1912 before getting into more action for the Dodgers from 1915-17. His best year came in 1915 when he pitched in 40 games, starting 24 of them, with an 11-10 record, 2.34 ERA, and 120 ERA+.

The bullpen had many candidates and you could certainly argue what order they should be ranked in. To me the most interesting thing about the ten relievers I included is that two of them have the first name “Chasen,” and they were born about one year apart.

What about players who went to High School in Nevada?

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 Nevada to players who grew up—which we’ll define as going to high school—in the state of Nevada?

Several of the players listed above were born in Nevada but went to High School elsewhere, including:

• Nate Schierholtz - California

• Brandon Snyder - Virginia

• Barry Zito - California

• Jim Nash - Georgia

• Mike MacDougal - Arizona

• Ted Davidson - California

• Rocky Biddle - California

However, those losses from the above roster would be more than made up for by including some of the many players who were born elsewhere but went to high school in Nevada:

• SP Greg Maddux - Texas

• 3B Matt Williams - California

• 1B/DH Chris Carter - California

• LF/RF Ryan Ludwick – Florida

• C Doug Mirabelli - Arizona

• SP Mike Morgan - California

• SP Shawn Estes - California

• SP Donovan Osborne - California

• RP Jake McGee - California

• RP Rod Scurry - California

• RP Mike Maddux - Ohio

• RP Kevin Jepsen - California

• RP Mike Dunn - New Mexico

• RP Amir Garrett - California

• RP Charlie Kerfeld - Missouri

The biggest name above is of course Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, who would replace Zito as the ace of this dream team’s staff. Chris Carter would make for a nice platoon slugger with Gallo at 1B. Matt Williams could slot in as the starting 3B, allowing Bryant to serve as the DH. Catcher Doug Mirabelli hit right handed so could platoon with Houston behind the plate. And Ryan Ludwick played mostly LF and RF, and had pretty even splits with three seasons of 20+ HR, so would work his way into the OF mix for sure.

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.

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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.