As one who shares a birth year** with Dave Winfield, and suffered the heart break of my early life in 1964 along with Allen, yeah, I feel old, wise ###.

joe, I think that there is only one GM older than us, IIRC from last year. That's sad, my friend.

Which leads to my question, for anybody who isn't as lazy as I am and wants to research it. Are there any "year" 25 man rosters that don't look like they could win the World Series?

I don't think they'd win a World Series, simply because the starting pitching isn't enough to get them into the playoffs in the first place.

In 1938, for a publicity stunt, some Cleveland Indians caught baseballs that had been lobbed off a skyscraper.

In response, the publicity man for the San Francisco Seals pro baseball team came up with an idea to go them one better.He figured that catching a baseball tossed out of the Goodyear Blimp would set a world’s record and make a great season-opening stunt for the San Francisco team.

Not that he was completely unaware of the dangers. Figuring that extra padding and paraphernalia would lessen the impact, he recruited Seals catcher Joe Sprinz to do the honors while in full regalia.

At the appointed time, the blimp lumbered into position about 800 feet overhead. After much fanfare and ballyhoo, a player in the blimp dropped a ball and watched it disappear into the field below. It missed its mark and landed in the bleachers, cracking a board as it hit.

A second ball at least landed within the playing field, landing outside the baseline and imbedding itself in the dirt. A lesser man might’ve quit, but Sprinz was determined to see the stunt through. Finally the blimp got into perfect position, and a third ball came rifling from the sky. Joe positioned himself underneath it and waited while the speck rapidly grew in size as it came screaming toward his outstretched glove.

It hit the glove squarely and with a tremendous thwack, but it didn’t stay there. Before Sprinz could close his hand and capture the ball, it bounced up and hit him in the face, splitting his lip, breaking his upper jaw, and knocking out several of his teeth.

The ball then dropped to the ground, and so did Joe.

I don't think they'd win a World Series, simply because the starting pitching isn't enough to get them into the playoffs in the first place.

It depends on when you were born in 1951, though probably not. Alderson's got you by four years, but Jack Z was also born the same year, but on Jan. 11.

I'd try Parker at 1B, although back in the day, Evans would have been the one who moved because of Parker's rep/arm rep.

SoSH, the memory of Parker rep > Evans rep is probably my NL bias in listening habits. The Phils announceers, including Ashburn, were just in awe of the Cobra.

If you can cherry-pick JUST their best season, I'm sure you'd get there:

Martinez, 2000: 217 innings, 291 era+, 10.1 WAR
Loaiza, 2003: 226 innings, 159 era+, 6.5 WAR
Sirotka, 2000: 197 innings, 133 era+, 3.7 WAR
Contreras, 2005: 204 innings, 125 era+, 3.9 WAR
Moehler, 1998: 221 innings, 121 era+, 3.7 WAR

C Mike Piazza
1B Jeff Bagwell
2B Roberto Alomar
3B Gary Sheffield
SS Jose Vizcaino
LF Sammy Sosa
CF Bernie Williams
RF Tim Salmon
DH Frank Thomas

Bench: John Olerud, Jeff Kent, Chuck Knoblauch, Carlos Baerga, Dean Palmer, Matt Stairs

Great lineup, not so great pitching.

What I learned from this exercise: Stan Javier had a hell of a career.

Now, at first look, that seems off. During a 17 year career, he never hit .300, and his season-high home run total was 10. And he never got over 510 PAs in a season. Even if we assemble a 'dream' season for him--in which he matches his season high in ever category--we still wind up with a guy who wouldn't even make an All Star game: .298/385/401, 10 homers, 56 RBIs, 81 runs, 36 steals.

And I remember him for being completely unremarkable in every aspect of the game--an outfielder who couldn't hit for power OR average, and was so-so as a base-stealer. I was very close to leaving him off even my list of "Bench" players on the 1964 Birth Year team...until I discovered that he had 25 WAR in his career.

...

It's just amazing. A 4th outfielder who slugged .363 in the Sillyball era is good for 25 WAR. What an odd player.