Washington's Baseball All-Time Dream Team
What would a dream team roster look like for major league players born in the state of Washington?
Issue #134
This is the 23rd 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, and Montana.
Next up is Washington, which became the 42nd state to join the union, on November 11, 1889, three days after Montana, and nine days after North and South Dakota had been admitted (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 Washington towards the end of this article (and vice-versa, those born elsewhere but who went to high school in Washington.)
Here is the all-time dream team I came up with for players born in Washington:
Given its much larger population, Washington’s dream team roster is far richer than those of the three states that joined the union just prior (Montana, and North and South Dakota). First, there are three Hall of Famers in 2B Ryne Sandberg, 3B Ron Santo, and CF Earl Averill. But there are plenty of other stars too, such as 1B John Olerud, 3B Ron Cey, and many outfielders, including 2023 rookie sensation Corbin Carroll.
There is generally solid depth as well, except for the middle infield where I was limited to Sandberg at 2B, 8-year veteran Kevin Stocker at SS, and utility man Willie Bloomquist as a backup. I gave an extra spot to DH and Seinfeld punchline Ken Phelps, and one more to Champ Summers, who had 21 and 17 HR in the two seasons in which he got into more than 100 games, but who was more often used as a pinch hitter during his career overall.
Starting lineups for this all-time dream team could look like this:
Against RHP:
Corbin Carroll (L) RF
Ryne Sandberg (R) 2B
Earl Averill (L) CF
John Olerud (L) 1B
Ron Santo (R) 3B
Geoff Jenkins (L) LF
Michael Brantley / Ken Phelps (L) DH
Ryan Doumit (S) / Ed Kirkpatrick (L) C
Kevin Stocker (S) SS
Against LHP:
Bill North (S) CF
Ryne Sandberg (R) 2B
Ron Santo (R) 3B
Earl Averill (L) / Ron Cey (R) DH
Jeff Conine (R) LF
John Olerud (L) 1B
Michael Conforto / Geoff Jenkins / Corbin Carroll (L) RF
Sammy White (R) C
Kevin Stocker (S) SS
These lineups are very solid 1-7, with the C and SS spots being the weak spots offensively. I like having speedsters in Carroll and North leading off, with North in the lineup against lefties who he hit better. Then Sandberg most often hit second during his career, so is a great fit there.
I see plenty of power bats that you could arrange in a variety of ways for spots 3-7, though the roster is heavy on left-handed batters in Averill, Olerud, Overbay, Brantley, Jenkins, Conforto, Carroll, Torgeson, and Sizemore. I like platooning Jenkins and Conine in LF, as Jenkins was a better fielder than Brantley and I wanted to keep Olerud in the lineup at 1B pretty much all the time. Ditto for Averill, though that makes it hard to get Cey any at-bats, so he could spell Santo at times at 3B or be the DH against the toughest lefties to give Averill a break.
I like Brantley as the DH against RHP, though I also listed Phelps as he of course hit righties with some power. RF was the toughest to figure out, as all the candidates hit left-handed. I went with Carroll against righties in the leadoff spot, but then a mix of him, Conforto, and Jenkins lower in the lineup against lefties.
As for the pitching staff, Lester, Lincecum, and Snell are the headliners, and I gave the top spot to Lester given his longer career. Snell is 30, but if he can keep striking guys out (and maybe walk fewer people), he could move up in this rotation someday.
Vean Gregg won't be as familiar to many readers, but he joined the Cleveland Naps (Indians) in 1911 and immediately went 23-7, leading the AL with a 1.80 ERA (189 ERA+). He went 20-13 in each of the following two seasons, but then was traded to the Red Sox during the 1914 season. He developed a sore arm that year, and never again pitched at the high level of his first three seasons.
You could argue about who should get the fifth spot in this dream team rotation, but I went with Fred Hutchinson of the Tigers. He pitched a little in the majors in 1939 and 1940 with mixed results, and so spent 1941 in the minors. He then served in the Navy during World War II, and so lost four full seasons of baseball. He came back strong in 1946 though, and had six consecutive seasons with 10+ wins, including going 18-10 in 1947 and 17-8 in 1950, before being selected as an All-Star in his last full season in 1951.
The headliner in the bullpen is clearly Randy Myers, who accumulated 347 saves over parts of 14 major league seasons, including leading the NL with 53 with the Cubs in 1993, and again with 38 in 1995, and then leading the AL with 45 for the Orioles in 1997. A four-time All-Star, Myers had a career 3.19 ERA, 123 ERA+, and 884 K in 884.2 IP.
Gerry Staley was a starter early in his career for the Cardinals, winning 17-19 games three times, and was an All-Star in 1952 and 1953. He later was effective as a reliever for the White Sox and other teams, including in 1949 when he led the AL in games, games finished, and saves (15), and again the next year when he was an All-Star with a 13-8 record, 2.42 ERA, and 159 ERA+.
How you rank the rest of the relievers could be debated, but for the third spot I went with Eric O'Flaherty who for a while was an outstanding setup man for the Braves. In 2011 he posted a microscopic 0.98 ERA in 78 appearances, and then had a 1.73 ERA the following year.
What about players who went to High School in Washington?
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 Washington to players who grew up—which we’ll define as going to high school—in the state of Washington?
First off, some of the players on the roster above were born in Washington but went to high school elsewhere, including:
LF Michael Brantley – Florida
RF/LF Geoff Jenkins – California
LF/1B Jeff Conine - California
C/LF/RF Ed Kirkpatrick – California
PH Champ Summers – Illinois
RP Tom House – California
If we eliminate those players from the above roster, the most impacted position is clearly LF. However, here are the many more players who were born elsewhere, but went to high school in the state of Washington and would deserve consideration for such a dream team:
C/1B Scott Hatteberg – Oregon
1B Richie Sexson – Oregon
1B Jack Fournier – Michigan
2B Bump Wills – Washington DC
LF Bob Johnson – Oklahoma
LF Jeff Heath – Canada
CF/RF Ira Flagstead – Michigan
CF Brian Hunter – Oregon
SP Jason Schmidt – Idaho
SP Mel Stottlemyre – Missouri
SP Rube Walberg – Minnesota
SP Floyd Bannister – South Dakota
SP Aaron Sele – Minnesota
SP Bud Black – California
RP Bobby Jenks – California
RP Larry Anderson – Oregon
RP Jeremy Affeldt – Arizona
RP Tom Niedenfuer – Minnesota
RP Keone Kela – California
RP Dan Spillner – Wyoming
RP Alan Embree – Oregon
So using this alternative criterion doesn’t create a problem in LF after all, as Bob Johnson and Jeff Heath were both great hitters. Johnson was an 8-time All-Star, mostly with the Philadelphia Athletics, hitting 20+ HR nine times and having 100+ RBI eight times. Overall he slugged 288 HR, with an impressive .296/.393/.506 slash line and 139 OPS+. Heath was a contemporary of Johnson, but wasn’t nearly as consistent offensively. He was an All-Star twice, and received down-ballot MVP consideration five times, but really only had two outstanding seasons: 1938 when he slashed .343/.383/.602 with 21 HR, 112 RBI, and a league-leading 18 triples, and 1941 when he slashed .340/.396/.586 with 24 HR, 124 RBI, and again led the AL with 20 triples.
Several other position players from this list would be in the mix for roster spots, including speedy Bump Wills as a backup 2B, and then both Richie Sexson and Jack Fournier as 1B, likely taking the spots of Torgeson and Overbay. Sexson (1997-2008) was a two-time All-Star and had 30+ HR six times, including highs of 45 in both 2001 and 2003. He had 100+ RBI six times, and retired with a 120 OPS+, though also struck out a lot with five seasons of 150+. Fournier (1912-27) was not good defensively at 1B, but he slashed .313/.392/.483 with a 142 OPS+, and hit with power in the 1920s including leading the NL with 27 HR in 1924.
On the pitching side there would also be many roster changes under this alternate criterion. I’d probably still list Jon Lester at the top of the rotation, but then Jason Schmidt and Mel Stottlemyre would be in the conversation for the other spots along with incumbents Lincecum, Snell, and Gregg, with Rube Walberg, Floyd Bannister, and Aaron Sele also likely making the roster further down the list.
And in the bullpen, Bobby Jenks would slot in as the number two reliever behind Myers, with Larry Anderson and perhaps Jeremy Affeldt and Tom Niedenfuer earning spots as well.
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.
