Vermont's Baseball All-Time Dream Team
What would a dream team roster look like for major league players born in Vermont?
Issue #169
This is the 48th 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, Illinois, Delaware, Mississippi, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Alabama, New Jersey, Iowa, Texas, Georgia, Alaska, Utah, New Mexico, Connecticut, Michigan, Kansas, Massachusetts, Oregon, Arizona, Ohio, Nebraska, and Florida.
Next up is Vermont, which became the 14th US State—the first after the original 13 colonies—on March 4th, 1791 (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 Vermont towards the end of this article (and vice-versa, those born elsewhere but who went to high school in Vermont.)
Here is the all-time dream team I came up with for players born in Vermont:
Vermont is a small New England state and has the second smallest overall population (only the sparse western state of Wyoming has fewer people.) So I wasn’t even sure that there would be enough players born in Vermont—across each position—to put together a full roster. But after my standard research process I was able to pull one together—barely—as shown above.
The only real star on this roster is Hall of Fame catcher Carlton Fisk, who admittedly was only born in Vermont because that was the closest hospital for his family who lived across the Connecticut River, in the state of New Hampshire (more on that below.)
After Fisk, the next most impressive position player above is 3B/2B Larry Gardner (1908-1924), who played all but one season for the Red Sox and Indians. Like many during the deadball era, he had virtually no HR power but was capable of hitting triples and did so 10+ times in six seasons, with highs of 18 in 1912 and 19 in 1914. Two other solid seasons came later in his career, when he managed to drive in 118 and 120 runs in 1920-21, even though he only had 3 HR each year.
Birdie Tebbetts (1936-42, 46-52) was a four-time All-Star catcher, twice with the Tigers and twice with the Red Sox, mostly because of his good defense as he had little power or speed, and only provided an 81 career OPS+.
And 1B Pat Putnam was a power-hitting prospect who rose up through the Rangers farm system in the late 1970s, and hit .277 with 18 HR as a rookie in 1979. His career never took off though, in part because he struggled to hit against left-handers (he slashed .266/.319/.430 vs. RHP, but only .200/.239/.285 vs LHP).
Starting lineups for this all-time dream team could look like this:
Against RHP:
Amby McConnell 2B (L)
Fred Mann CF (L)
Larry Gardner 3B (L)
Carlton Fisk C (R)
Pat Putnam 1B (L)
Frank Olin LF (L)
Tom Lynch DH (L)
Chris Duffy RF (L)
Ralph LaPointe SS (R)
Against LHP:
Pat Dealy SS (R)
Fred Mann 3B (L)
Larry Gardner 2B (L)
Carlton Fisk DH (R)
Daric Barton 1B (L)
Frank Olin LF (L)
Birdie Tebbetts C (R)
Jack Fox RF (R)
Chris Duffy CF (L)
I built these lineups by first plugging Gardner and Fisk into the 3-4 spots. I then went searching for players with some speed to lead off, and found that 2B Amby McConnell (1908-1911) stole 31 and 26 bases in his first two seasons. He was a .295 hitter against RHP, but only a .207 hitter against LHP—so I wanted someone else to hit leadoff against southpaws. Right-handed batter Pat Dealy (1884-87, 90) impressively had 36 SB in only 58 games in 1887, so that works. He was primarily a catcher, but with Fisk and Tebbetts ahead him there, I’m using him at his secondary position of SS in a platoon with Ralph LaPointe (1947-1948). Although also a right-handed batter, LaPointe just happened to have reverse splits by actually hitting RHP significantly better (.318/.368/.350) than LHP (.171/.230/.186).
Old-timer Fred Mann (1882-1887) appears to have been a capable hitter, with a 121 OPS+ and four seasons of 10+ triples, so he hits in the two-hole. As noted earlier Pat Putnam (1977-1984) had some power against RHP but struggled against LHP, so I’ve got him in a platoon with Daric Barton (2007-2014)—who like LaPointe just so happens to have reverse splits and hit LHP better even though he batted left-handed. And lastly I decided to give Fisk’s knees a rest against LHP by having him DH, which has the added bonus of getting Tebbetts’ strong defense into some games as well.
As for the pitching staff, the debate over who should be listed first comes down to two guys named Ray. I went with Ray Collins (1909-1915) who pitched seven seasons for the Red Sox, going 19-8 in 1913 and 20-13 in 1914, retiring with a solid 2.51 ERA and 115 ERA+. Ray Fisher (1910-17, 19-20) was his contemporary, pitching mostly for the Yankees, with his last two seasons for the Reds. His best year was 1915 when he posted an 18-11 record with a tidy 2.11 ERA. Overall he had a 2.81 ERA and 106 ERA+, so that is why I rated him just below Collins.
How you rank the other pitchers I included on this dream team staff could also be argued. I liked old-timer Lee Viau (1888-1892) for the third spot in the rotation largely on the basis of his strong rookie campaign when he went 27-14 with a 2.65 ERA for the Reds. Jean Dubuc (1908-09, 12-16, 18-19) had a more disjointed career, but managed a string of five consecutive seasons for the Tigers from 1912-1916 with 10-17 wins each year.
The bullpen lacks any modern-style closer, so I gave the top spot to Ernie Johnson (1950, 52-59) who pitched nine seasons, mostly for the Braves franchise. In over 574.2 innings, mostly in relief, he posted a 3.77 ERA, which translates to a nearly league average 99 ERA+.
What about players who went to High School in Vermont?
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 Vermont to players who grew up—which we’ll define as going to high school—in the state of Vermont?
First off, there were several players on the above roster who were born in Vermont but went to high school elsewhere:
C Carlton Fisk – New Hampshire
C Birdie Tebbetts – New Hampshire
1B Daric Barton – California
CF Chris Duffy – Arizona
SP Jean Duboc – Canada
I mentioned earlier why Fisk identifies as hailing from New Hampshire not Vermont, and losing both him and Tebbetts devastates what was this roster’s strongest position.
On the other hand, I found only one player who went to high school in Vermont but was born elsewhere:
SP Arlie Pond
Arlie Pond pitched from 1895-1898, for the old Baltimore Orioles of the National League, and would be a fine substitute for Jean Duboc on the above roster. He pitched very little in his first and last seasons, but went 16-8 and 18-9 in his two full ones, and overall had a 3.45 ERA and 122 ERA+.
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.
