Oklahoma's Baseball All-Time Dream Team

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

Issue #137

This is the 24th 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, and Washington.

Next up is Oklahoma, which became the 46th state to join the union, on November 16, 1907 (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 Oklahoma towards the end of this article (and vice-versa, those born elsewhere but who went to high school in Oklahoma.)

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

Going into this analysis I knew of a few famous players who were born in Oklahoma, such as Hall of Famers Mickey Mantle, Johnny Bench, and Willie Stargell (my favorite player when I was young).

But this dream team has a lot more depth than I was expecting, with many other stars including four more Hall of Famers in Paul and Lloyd Waner, and two of the all-time greats from the Negro Leagues in Bullet Rogan and Willie Wells. (I also included two other Negro Leagues players that readers might be less familiar with, LF Wilson Redus and SP Roosevelt Davis.)

Looking at the roster by position, the OF had plenty of candidates that I wanted to include, with some listed at two or even all three OF spots (e.g., Mickey Mantle and Joe Carter). Willie Stargell played a bit more at LF than 1B, but not many great 1B have been born in Oklahoma, so I listed him there which allows Bob Johnson and Matt Holliday to move up to the top two spots in LF.

Shortstop is well stocked with Willie Wells, Al Dark, and Freddie Patek. 2B on the other hand was relatively light, with Johnny Ray and Hank Thompson being the best options. Thompson and Dark also played 3B, so they’re listed as backups to Harlond Clift who had a .390 OBP over 12 seasons, mostly with the Browns. Catcher is of course well stocked with arguably the greatest ever in Bench, and then more than capable backups in J.T. Realmuto and slugger Mickey Tettleton.

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

Against RHP:

1. Willie Wells (R) SS

2. Paul Waner (L) RF

3. Mickey Mantle (S) CF

4. Willie Stargell (L) 1B

5. Johnny Bench (R) C

6. Bob Johnson (R) LF

7. Matt Holliday (R) / Bobby Murcer (L) / Johnny Callison (L) DH

8. Harlond Clift / Al Dark (R) 3B

9. Johnny Ray (S) / Hank Thompson (L) 2B

Against LHP:

1. Willie Wells (R) SS

2. Paul Waner (L) RF / Bullet Rogan (R) RF

3. Mickey Mantle (S) DH

4. Johnny Bench (R) C

5. Bob Johnson (R) LF

6. Joe Carter (R) 1B

7. Paul Blair / Matt Kemp (R) CF

8. Harlond Clift / Al Dark (R) 3B

9. Johnny Ray (S) / Hank Thompson (L) 2B

These lineups would rank a notch below California’s and a few other states, but overall I find them surprisingly impressive. According to the statistics we have at baseball-reference.com, Willie Wells had a .330/.407/.535 slash line and 152 OPS+ over a 20-year major league career. Then batting second you could go with Paul Waner (.330/.404/.473, also over a 20-year career) as the everyday RF, but I’ve listed Bullet Rogan as an option against the tougher LHP. Rogan was both a great pitcher and a great hitter, slashing .338/.413/.521 with a 152 OPS+ in 13 seasons with major league status.

I slotted Mantle third, though I gave his knees a rest by having him DH against lefties. That allows some other great defensive CF on this roster some playing time, such Paul Blair or Matt Kemp. Against RHP there are plenty of DH options, including Matt Holiday or left-handed hitters Bobby Murcer or Johnny Callison.

Plenty of other power bats are available to hit 4-6, like C Johnny Bench, 1B Willie Stargell, and LF Bob Johnson. You could play Stargell every day, but he generally didn’t hit LHP nearly as well as RHP, so at least against the toughest southpaws Joe Carter would be a sensible option at 1B (or you could use Mantle at 1B with others playing CF and DH).

Harlond Clift and Al Dark both hit right-handed, so they could share most of the playing time at 3B. And then in the ninth spot I listed both Johnny Ray and Hank Thompson, because even though Ray was a switch-hitter, they both hit RHP better than LHP.

As for the pitching staff, I gave Bullet Rogan the top spot, as he led his league in wins twice, ERA once, and had a 161 ERA+ over 1,500 IP. You could debate who should come next, but I went with Allie Reynolds, a six-time All-Star who racked up lots of victories (182-107, .630) playing for some powerful Yankees teams. Harry Brecheen was the other candidate here, as he went 133-92 (.591) with a 2.92 ERA and 133 ERA+, with 1948 being his best year when he went 20-7 while leading the NL with 149 strikeouts and a 2.24 ERA.

How you rank the other seven starting pitchers that I included could be argued, but I liked Ralph Terry and Dallas Keuchel as the fourth and fifth guys in this dream team’s rotation. In both cases there was a single season that was truly impressive. For Terry it was 1962, his one season as an All-Star, when he went 23-12 with a 3.19 ERA for the Yankees and then took home World Series MVP honors. Keuchel has been an All-Star twice and has won five Gold Glove Awards, but 2015 was clearly his best as he went 20-8 with a 2.48 ERA for the Astros, taking home the AL Cy Young Award.

The bullpen lacks any recent, dominant closers, but nonetheless has solid depth. Lindy McDaniel (1955-75) and Frank Linzy (1963, 65-75) both pitched just before relievers really became hyper-specialized, and Al Brazle (1943, 46-54) was a generation earlier and started out as a mixed starter/reliever, before finishing his career exclusively out of the bullpen. More recent relievers fill out this dream team’s relief corps, and how you rank them could be argued of course.

What about players who went to High School in Oklahoma?

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

First off, some of the players on the roster above were born in Oklahoma but went to high school elsewhere, including:

• SS Willie Wells – Texas

• LF/1B Willie Stargell – California

• LF Bob Johnson – Washington

• SS/3B Al Dark – Louisiana

• RF Johnny Callison – California

• CF Paul Blair – California

• SS Freddie Patek – Texas

• RP Ted Power – Kansas

If we eliminate those players from the above roster, we definitely lose some key hitters. The most impacted position is clearly SS, as we’d be losing Wells, Dark, and Patek. I checked who the next best SS born in Oklahoma was, and ironically it is the guy who replaced Patek as the regular SS for the Royals — U L Washington.

However, there are also some interesting players who were born elsewhere, but went to high school in the state of Oklahoma and would deserve consideration for such a dream team:

• C Darrell Porter – Missouri

• SP Carl Hubbell – Missouri

• SP Milt Wilcox – Hawaii

• RP Jim Brewer – California (1960-76, mostly with Dodgers)

• RP Eddie Fisher – Louisiana (1959-73, with six different teams)

• RP Ryan Franklin – Arkansas

The biggest name here is obviously Hall of Famer Carl Hubbell. He would slot in as either the new top SP, or at least co-ace with Rogan. Darrell Porter would also make the roster, either as the top backup to Bench, or at least in place of Tettleton as the third catcher. And the three relievers listed above—Brewer, Fisher, and Franklin—would probably be included as well, in place of Power (who gets dropped for not going to HS in Oklahoma) as well as Fulmer and Wright.

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.