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Thought this would be a fun topic which I will update each week. I started watching baseball around 1980, collecting baseball cards, etc. Watched the Phillies win their first world series in that same year. Of course there was no fantasy baseball back then, probably a good thing because otherwise I would have been risking my lunch money on it. Everyone remembers the stars, but how about the nobodies, especially those guys who played for quite a while and never really accomplished much in the way of either individual or team awards. So with that in mind, I bring you the first weekly update for--- Kurt Bevacqua. This guy hung around for 15 years, hitting a total of 27 home runs, and 275 RBI's. Career average of .236. I count a total of 7 different teams.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/playe ... ku01.shtml

You have to mention his career highlight.

Not to mention this beauty courtesy of Tommy Lasorda.

Very NSFW, like most of Tommy's enduring contributions to modern culture.

http://youtu.be/fzjWQF1oP2M

Always wondered: any relation to Bruce Bevacqua (NFBC player)?

This week's player is one that many will remember, and yes, he hit a lot of home runs. But if you had him anywhere near your fantasy baseball team, you probably wish you didn't. I remember well a quote about Rob Deer --- "he swings a bat as if his off season hobby is killing flies with a sledgehammer'. Classic.


http://www.baseball-reference.com/playe ... ro01.shtml

The only thing I can really remember about this guy was that his first & last name rhymed.

Mark Clark

http://www.baseball-reference.com/playe ... ma01.shtml

TOXIC ASSETS wrote:The only thing I can really remember about this guy was that his first & last name rhymed.

Mark Clark

http://www.baseball-reference.com/playe ... ma01.shtml

I barely remembered the name, but could not remember him.

I was really surprised to see that he started 42 games over 2 seasons for the Cubs. I totally blanked him from my mind

Navel Lint wrote:

TOXIC ASSETS wrote:The only thing I can really remember about this guy was that his first & last name rhymed.

Mark Clark

http://www.baseball-reference.com/playe ... ma01.shtml

I barely remembered the name, but could not remember him.

I was really surprised to see that he started 42 games over 2 seasons for the Cubs. I totally blanked him from my mind

I met Mark Clark. My best friend in high school was a #1 pick for St. Louis in the late 80's. He played with and became friends with Mark Clark in the minors. When my friend got married, I met Clark at his wedding.

Actually, my high school friend would fit perfectly in this thread category of 80's/90's scrub.

MM - good stuff.
One of the more amazing things on Clark's stat sheet is the salary he had at the end of his career.
1999 = $4,000,000
2000 = $5,000,000

The GM of Texas must have gotten crushed on talk radio for this signing.

Had very little trouble finding this week's addition to this list. A guy best remembered in Philly for getting caught with sandpaper while on the mound. I didn't remember Kevin Gross doing a whole lot else in his career, and a quick check of his stats proved me right. The only interesting thing I see on the numbers sheet is that he led the league in hit batters for three straight years -- 1986, 1987 and 1988.

This guy would have hurt many a fantasy team in most of the years he pitched.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/playe ... ke01.shtml

For this week's player we go pitching and we go with Steve "Rainbow" Trout.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/playe ... st01.shtml

Proof that a lefthander will continue to find work when maybe he shouldn't. Interesting thing here: Every year between 1979 and 1987, except for one, he gave up more hits than innings pitched. Poor strikeout totals as well.

For the Memorial Day Weekend edition of this topic, we go back to hitting and we go with:

Kevin "Smallmouth" Bass. He had a couple of decent seasons, but a .411 career slugging percentage for an OF isn't going to win you a lot of games.


http://www.baseball-reference.com/playe ... ke01.shtml

TOXIC ASSETS wrote:For this week's player we go pitching and we go with Steve "Rainbow" Trout.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/playe ... st01.shtml

Proof that a lefthander will continue to find work when maybe he shouldn't. Interesting thing here: Every year between 1979 and 1987, except for one, he gave up more hits than innings pitched. Poor strikeout totals as well.

It took me a week to find this photo, but here is a picture of me and my sister and the sign we made before heading to Wrigley for a game. Steve Trout was pitching that day for the Cubs.

For anyone that remembers Steve "Rainbow" Trout, his "out " pitch was a sinker and we made the obvious play on words with this sign.

Trout now runs a baseball camp in the Chicagoland area and my sister took her son to the camp. She told me that Trout was great with the kids. She also took this picture and showed it to Steve 30 years after the fact. I guess Steve thought it was cool and he graciously took new pictures with my sister and her son.

Thanks for remembering Steve Trout and bringing back memories for me.

No cool nickname guy this week. I could not believe that this guy has been out of the game since 1998:

Melvin Nieves

http://www.baseball-reference.com/playe ... me01.shtml

Going back to pitching this week, I was quite surprised at Pat Hentgen's overall numbers looked-- a lot worse than I expected. And that earns him a spot on this ongoing list. Had a great 1996 and a good 1997, but all we care about here are the career numbers and mostly how they relate to fantasy baseball.....

http://www.baseball-reference.com/playe ... pa01.shtml

Wanted to find someone who was on the Expos to add to the list, so I grabbed a random year 1990 and was surprised to see it was a good year for them.....they went 85-77 that season. So I jump of to 1991 and that year was more typical - 71-90, and I find this guy, perfect for our list. Mark Gardner..... 13 seasons in the big leagues and just 2 years with an ERA below 4.00. Don't remember much about him.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/playe ... ma01.shtml

This guy had some great stolen base seasons, so this week we remember Dave Collins.....

http://www.baseball-reference.com/playe ... da02.shtml

Does anyone remember what happened with this guy? Real good year in '87, then production tanked for next three years. Just looked up his Wikipedia profile - looks like he played in Japan in '92, then back in MLB for '93 when he played a few games with Seattle. Then gone.

Larry Sheets
http://www.baseball-reference.com/playe ... la01.shtml

Navel Lint wrote:

TOXIC ASSETS wrote:For this week's player we go pitching and we go with Steve "Rainbow" Trout.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/playe ... st01.shtml

Proof that a lefthander will continue to find work when maybe he shouldn't. Interesting thing here: Every year between 1979 and 1987, except for one, he gave up more hits than innings pitched. Poor strikeout totals as well.

It took me a week to find this photo, but here is a picture of me and my sister and the sign we made before heading to Wrigley for a game. Steve Trout was pitching that day for the Cubs.

For anyone that remembers Steve "Rainbow" Trout, his "out " pitch was a sinker and we made the obvious play on words with this sign.

Trout now runs a baseball camp in the Chicagoland area and my sister took her son to the camp. She told me that Trout was great with the kids. She also took this picture and showed it to Steve 30 years after the fact. I guess Steve thought it was cool and he graciously took new pictures with my sister and her son.

Thanks for remembering Steve Trout and bringing back memories for me.

IMG_5142.jpg

Wasn't it Steve Trout that the Yankees acquired mid season and George Steinbrenner informed his manager that he just won him the pennant with this acquisition?

For the July 4th weekend edition I wanted to find a player with ties to Philadelphia. And I found this guy, who never quite panned out, although he hung around MLB for quite a while:

Chris James

http://www.baseball-reference.com/playe ... ch02.shtml

The last 3 weeks were all hitters, so we move back to the pitching side of things and I find this guy: Tim Leary.

After looking at the career numbers, my first thought was....Who was wearing his uniform in 1988?
Nice year there. Rest of career was a big pile of losing baseball.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/playe ... ti01.shtml

Here's a guy who that had one of the more unique names, and given more playing time might not be on this list, as it looks like he showed some potential. But for whatever reason he seemed to have "career backup' stamped on him by his teams. Actually make that the Tigers, as that's where he played for almost his entire career.

John Wockenfuss


http://www.baseball-reference.com/playe ... jo01.shtml

This guy somehow played for 12 years, hitting 14 home runs (half of them in one year - 1988). I guess he was a good fielder?

Jose Oquendo
http://www.baseball-reference.com/playe ... jo01.shtml

TOXIC ASSETS wrote:This guy somehow played for 12 years, hitting 14 home runs (half of them in one year - 1988). I guess he was a good fielder?

Jose Oquendo
http://www.baseball-reference.com/playe ... jo01.shtml

Oquendo was a super-sub who was much loved in St Louis. He was the last guy to play all nine innings in a game and the first since Bert Campaneris.

Here's a guy I drafted once or twice.

12 years - 4.72 career ERA - 1.461 career WHIP
I also remember one year, maybe 1998, the best pitch he threw all year was the one he fired through a big screen TV in his team's clubhouse!

Jaime Navarro
http://www.baseball-reference.com/playe ... ja01.shtml