Today's Birthday Team has a nice pitching staff and a couple of star outfielders. It's got some serious question marks among most of the other position players, though.

C: Art Watson (0.4 WAR)
1B/Manager: Lloyd McClendon (-0.6 WAR)
2B: Warren Morris (2.9 WAR)
3B: George Pinkney (21.1 WAR)
SS: Roy Hughes (4.2 WAR)
LF: Max Carey (54.5 WAR)
CF: Jermaine Allensworth (-0.1 WAR)
RF: Elmer Flick (53.0 WAR)

SP: Silver King (50.4 WAR)
SP: Schoolboy Rowe (42.3 WAR)
SP: General Crowder (27.8 WAR)
SP: Don Mossi (23.5 WAR)
SP: Danny Salazar (9.3 WAR)
RP: Harry McIntire (9.2 WAR)

General Manager: Jack Zduriencik
Backup IF: Rey Ordonez (1.24 WAR)
Inexplicably wanted to move the Expos to Detroit: Nikco Riesgo
Minor leaguer: Wonderful Terrific Monds III
"Describe the Battle of Waterloo in two words.": Dutch Mele
No relation to Dutch Mele: Danny Napoleon

SP: Silver King (50.4 WAR)

Just your routine 50 WAR pitcher, with a couple of 13+ WAR seasons :-) 19th c baseball was so nuts.

SS: Roy Hughes (4.2 WAR)

Roy Hughes was one of only two players that the 1938 St. Louis Browns used at second base all season. Hughes was the backup, playing 21 games, 15 of them starts, there. Don Heffner was the regular, playing 141 games, all starts. According to BR, Hughes' nickname was "Jeep". And according to BR, Heffner's nickname was "Jeep". That may have been a bit confusing.

1B/Manager: Lloyd McClendon (-0.6 WAR)

McClendon was traded by the Mets to the Reds in the deal that brought Tom Seaver *back* to the Mets (another of today's birthday boys, OF Dan Norman, was traded by the Reds to the Mets in the original 1977 trade *for* Seaver).

I can only surmise that McClendon wasn't a very good defensive catcher, because after hitting very well in the Mets' system, he spent three years with the Reds' AAA team, continuing to hit very well, while the Reds trotted out Dave Van Gorder, Dann Billardello, and an aging Bo Diaz behind the plate.

McClendon eventually spent less time at catcher and more time at 1B and the OF corners, and had two very good seasons as a role player for two playoff-bound teams---the 1989 Cubs and the '92 Pirates. He had an insane 1992 LCS series against the Braves, starting four of the seven games, and going 3-for-3 in both games 5 and 6, while walking twice after being inserted as a PH in Game 7; in those final 3 games he reached base 9 times in 10 PA, with a SF, in an ultimately losing effort. For the series he hit .727/.750/1.182, for a 1.932 OPS.

"...while walking twice after being inserted as a PH in Game 7"

Looking at this as a Pirate fan and going "wha'?" Drabek pitched into the 9th, Lind made an error in the 9th - who would McClendon pinch hit for, and then stay in the game?

Well, Alex Cole started Game 7 in right field and led off. The Pirates won 96 games with right fielders who went .233/.301/.339. Cole (who hit .278, with no homers) McClendon, Gary Varsho, Cecil Espy did most of the RF work in the second half. Gary Redus did some in the first half, but then John Wehner (.179) was at first. Kirk Gibson was Plan A. He hit .196 in April, was released and came back with the Tigers the next year.

The right guy was Dave Clark, who they signed as a depth guy, didn't hit in 40 mid-season at-bats, but went .304/.390/.549 at Buffalo. He got a better shot the next season, and had about a three-year run as a good hitter.

Putting McClendon at first base seems to me like tempting fate.

Schoolboy Rowe could probably help the Birthday Team's anemic batting order with an occasional pinch-hitting assignment; his career 88 OPS+ is great for a pitcher.

McClendon's a guy who apparently wasn't as good or useful as I recall. I remember him as a guy who hit LHP well -- never gonna have major value but a guy you wanted in the starting lineup 40 times a year plus bench bat, 4th OF, etc. Turns out he didn't hit LHP all that well. No doubt I was influenced by that 1989 with the Cubs when he did post a 985 OPS vs LHP (339/432/554). He did pretty much the same in 91 for the Pirates. The rest of the time, he usually couldn't even break a 700 OPS against them. In 1990, in a mere 122 PA for the Cubs, he put up -1.3 WAR on a 164/256/245 line.