Not a super Birthday Team today, but it's okay. Every December 2, I'm shocked to learn that Julio Cruz has more career WAR than Gary Sanchez. I know he was a good defensive second baseman, but you have to be a super gloveman to rack up almost 17 WAR while you slug .299.

C: Gary Sanchez (10.6 WAR)
1B: Andre Rodgers (6.3 WAR)
2B: Bob Jones (6.3 WAR)
3B: Chip Hale (1.3 WAR)
SS: Julio Cruz (16.9 WAR)
LF/Manager: Deacon White (45.5 WAR)
CF: Mark Kotsay (21.4 WAR)
RF: Glenn Crawford (1.8 WAR)

SP: Darryl Kile (20.2 WAR)
SP: Johnny Welch (7.0 WAR)
SP: Roscoe Miller (7.1 WAR)
SP: Adrian Devine (2.7 WAR)
SP: Don Brennan (0.5 WAR)
RP: Peter Moylan (5.9 WAR)
RP: Pedro Borbon the Elder (5.2 WAR)

Writer: Tom Verducci
Japanese amateur P/2B from the early years of the 20th century: Yaichiro Sakurai
Drafted as an outfielder, chose football, made millions of dollars: O.J. McDuffie

My first thought was "Cruz was an excellent baserunner too" and, sure enough, he gets credited with 42 Rbase and 11 Rdp which roughly matches his +58 Rfield. He does have a very weird, questionable TZ pattern though -- around +5 for ages 22-24, around average for 25-28, then +14 and +23 at 29-30. That was the year he moved to the White Sox from Seattle so you wonder if it's a turf to grass thing (Comiskey back to grass in 1976, I checked), a GB-heavy staff thing (no idea), a positioning thing. The running and dp numbers behave more normally -- consistently high in his early 20s, a bit above-average 28+. Regardless, even if we shave 3 wins off his Rfield, he was still an average 2B overall.

He's another one of those guys who disprove the notion that pitchers can just throw strikes. Career BA of 237, SLG of 299, an XBH every 27 PA yet a career walk rate of 11%. That at least kept his OBP around league average.