Pujols polishes his wood

We here at Umpbump have done quite a few all-time teams. We’ve also cataloged quite a series of Hot Baseball Wives. In this post, I will attempt the acrobatic feat of bridging the twain. Yes, reader: The All-Hot Team.

For reasons of attention span, or specifically, the lack of it, I am focusing on current major leaguers. However, I’m happy to take your all-time hot nominees (and anyone I may have inadvertently left off) in the comments. The only criteria? A player needs to be physically attractive as well as moderately talented. After all, we want Team Hottie to be able to old their own against Team Canada, or the All-Mormon Team. Not to mention the All-Ugly Team, which is next on my list.

Without further ado, I give you:

1B: Albert Pujols (he’s pretty easy on the eyes, but his OPS is still the hottest thing about him)
2B: Chase Utley (would have been Ian Kinsler but Chase finally cut off this mess)
SS: Derek Jeter (one for the gentlemen out there!)

New life goal: be that t-shirt

3B: David Wright (yes…you can actually call him “Mr. [W]Right”)
RF: Nick Markakis (pronounced properly, it’s Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmarkakis)
LF: Ryan Braun (thanks to these Bette Davis eyes)
CF: Jacoby Ellsbury (thanks to…well…everything)
DH: Pat Burrell (soley on the basis of this photo and the fact that Ladies… proclaimed his ass the best in all of baseball. And I trust their judgment.)
C: Joe Mauer (more like “Joe Mrowr”)

Bench: Gabe Kapler, Curtis Granderson, Grady Sizemore, Torii Hunter, Ichiro*

*Don’t know what it is about outfielders, but apparently most of them are hot. This led to something of a logjam (so to speak), and hence a disproportionate number of OFs on the bench. Your suggestions for “hotility infielders” welcomed in the comments.

So hot, he's Cole

P1: Roy Halladay (likes to play “Doc”)
P2: Cole Hamels (the ace of the “staff”)
P3: Andy Pettitte (wants to know if you want to “Pettitte”)
P4: Rich Harden (Huh huh huh…his name is “Harden.” Heh heh, I said “Harden.”)

CL: Huston Street (nevermind the crooked grin; the name alone sounds like a Harlequin hero: “Oh Mr. Street!” she whimpered, melting into his arms. “Darling, he huskily murmured, “Call me Huston.”)

Our fifth starter is still up for grabs (so to speak…) so leave your nominations in the comments. The future of the All-Hot team is in your hands (so to speak).

(So to speak.)

Ned Colletti has only been a general manager since 2006, but now that he has designated Delwyn Young for assignment, you can now officially field an entire major-league starting lineup out of the players he has given up on and traded away in just three years.

Apparently, Colletti only gave up on Young, a 26-year-old, major league ready 2B/outfielder with a career .303/.363/.514 minor league line, just so he can call up non-roster futility infielder Juan Castro instead of actually-on-the-roster shortstop Chin-Lung Hu (who is also better than Castro in every way).

Look I’m not saying this team I’ve crafted below is better than the team the Dodgers currently have.  Obviously, it’s not.  But it’s worth pointing out just how much talent Ned Colletti has given up on and traded away for basically no return in just slightly over three years on the job.

The All Ned-Colletti-Gave-Up-On-Them Team:

C Dioner Navarro - Traded to the Rays along with P Jae Weong Seo and OF Justin Ruggiano for C Toby Hall and P Mark Hendrickson. Now the starting catcher for the Rays. Hit .295 last season and is still just 25 years old.

1B Willy Aybar - Traded to the Braves along with P Danys Baez for Wilson Betemit. Became the first man off the bench for the AL Champion Rays last season, often getting starts at 3B, 1B, and DH.

2B Delwyn Young – Designated for assignment and set to be traded because Ned Colletti and Joe Torre like journeyman Juan Castro off the bench more than prospect Chin-Lung Hu, and apparently are willing to sacrifice a perfectly good player for this.

3B Wilson Betemit – Traded to the Yankees for Scott Proctor.  Currently a bench player for the White Sox.

SS Cesar Izturis - Traded to the Cubs in 2006 for two months of Greg Maddux. Currently the starting shortstop for the Baltimore Orioles. Amazingly, Ned Colletti somehow failed to even offer arbitration to Maddux that offseason, in a decision which has still never been explained, so the Dodgers got nothing when he then signed with the Padres. This decision looked even sillier when the Dodgers traded for Maddux *again* in 2008.

LF Milton Bradley - Traded to the A’s along with infielder Antonio Perez for Andre Ethier. Currently the starting rightfielder for the Cubs.

CF Cody Ross - Traded to the Reds for P Ben Kozlowski. Currently the starting centerfielder for the Marlins

RF Jayson Werth - Colletti allowed Werth to walk as a free agent after the 2006 season when he could have been resigned for a song. Werth signed with the Phillies for $850,000 and helped lead them to a World Series championship in 2008. Werth is currently the Phillies starting rightfielder.

SP Edwin Jackson - Traded along with P Chuck Tiffany for relievers Danys Baez and Lance Carter. Currently the no. 3 starter on the Detroit Tigers.

Amazingly, out of all the players Colletti got in return when he traded these players away, only Andre Ethier is still with the Dodgers, and only Ethier was even really worth much of anything to the team.  Granted, Ethier is a pretty good player, but outside of that Bradley trade, Colletti’s trading record shows that he has kindly stocked the lineups, benches, and minor league systems of his opponents while basically getting nothing in return and then having to fill all those holes he created with expensive free agents.

Over the past week or so, we here at UmpBump have been honoring the festival of baseball joy that is the World Baseball Classic with a series of posts in which we compile our versions of the All-time greatest teams for as many countries around the world as we can.

In the end, we managed to come up with pretty good squads for Canada, Italy, Japan, Panama, Venezuela, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic.

So now it is time to pit our 8-team field of all-time teams against each other in an apocalyptic battle for eternal baseball glory – The All-Time Baseball World Classic!  Now, it almost goes without saying that an all-time team of US players would win this tournament if they entered, but for the sake of debate let’s just assume the All-American team were banned for various abuses like the color barrier, moving the Dodgers from Brooklyn, appointing Bud Selig commissioner, and the abomination that is American Idol – who would win in an all-out grudge match between the rest of the world?

Take a look at each of the teams linked above and vote below for who you think would win it all in our All-Time Baseball Classic!

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In honor of the World Baseball Classic, we are coming up with “All-Time Teams” for as many of the participating nations as we can. So far, we’ve done the Canadians, the Italians, the Japanese, the Puerto Ricans, the Cubans, the Venezuelans,  and the Panamanians. Now, we aim the spotlight on the Dominicans! Alas, this year’s Dominican team has already been eliminated from the WBC, causing a national outpouring of shame and lamentation in that island country. But how would an All-Time DR team fare? Let’s take a look.

For some teams, such as the Italian team (a total of six native-born players), fielding a roster of native-born major-leaguers is challenging, if not impossible.That’s not the case with creating an all-time team from the Dominican Republic. The DR has sent 472 sons of the soil to the majors, more than any other foreign country. More than 42 US states, too, as a matter of fact. Since they have such a large pool to draw from, I am not going to go the route of some of my fellow Umpbumpers and use American-born players of Dominican descent or argue that a guy with 12 starts at centerfield deserves to start there on the All-Time team. Ahem.

Lineup:

Designated Hitter – David Ortiz – David Ortiz finished the five seasons from 2003 – 2007 in the top five of MVP voting, an impressive feat – but downright incredible when you consider that many voters refuse to support a full-time DH for the honor. Since coming to the Red Sox (in 2003), he did not hit fewer than 30 home runs until last year, when he only played in 109 games. Even in 2007, a supposed “off-year” in the eyes of the media, he recorded his highest-ever OPS+ at a ridiculous 171.

Left Field – Manny Ramirez – Somehow, in between all the hijinks and shenanigans, Manuel Aristides Onelcida Ramirez has amassed, in 16 years in the majors, 527 homers and 2,393 hits. Given how he plays when he’s motivated – he hit 17 homers in 53 games with the Dodgers last year after hitting 20 dingers in 100 games with the Red Sox – can you imagine what he could have accomplished by now if he hadn’t been faking those knee injuries and striking out on purpose? But in the bottom of the 9th when your team is down a run and there’s a man on base, there’s still no one you’d rather have at the plate than this future Hall of Famer. And he just gets tougher with two strikes against him.

Right Field – Vladimir Guerrero – While Manny had scouts drooling over him when he was in high school, Vladi had to prove he could play ball. His older brothers, Elisier and Wilton, had already been scouted by the Dodgers, but they weren’t sure about Vladimir’s strange-looking body and ungainly movements. Well, little bro gets the last laugh. A career .323 hitter who hits what he wants to – whether or not it’s in the strike zone – he’s also just 8 shy of 400 homers. Despite looking like an old man when he runs (there’s that ungainly physique again) he’s still only 32 and, for the last 13 years, has been one of the game’s more durable stars. (And for those of you who might wish I had gone with Sammy Sosa, well – yes, Slammin’ Sammy certainly epitomized his, um, era. A seven-time All-Star, the 1998 NL MVP, 609 career home runs. But Guerrero still has a better career OPS+, so I don’t feel too bad about going with Vlad. That rhymed.)

Center Field – Cesar Cedeno – from his debut in June of 1970 at the age of 19 until his retirement from baseball 16 years later, Cedeno had six years where he had 50+ steals and three years where he had 20+ homers. He also had a couple of neat years where he hit .320. Welcome to the team, Cesar.

Third Base – Aramis Ramirez – Expecting to see Alex Rodriguez here? Well, too bad. A-Rod was born in New York, NY so he doesn’t count towards the REAL Dominican team. But A-Ram, on the other hand, hails from Santo Domingo, DR. And in 8 seasons as a regular, he’s averaged 29.6 home runs per season. Not too shabby.

Shortstop – Hanley Ramirez - There are a lot of great Dominican shortstops out there. Tejada. Reyes. Fernandez. But after just three full seasons in the majors, Hanley beats ‘em all. The 25-year old phenom is just approaching his prime and already averages 27 home runs a season with a career OBP of .379. These averages are depressed slightly by what would turn out – in hindsight – to be a lackluster debut season (only 17 dingers; just a .353 OBP). But that rough first year was still impressive enough for him to scoop up a Rookie of the Year trophy. Last year saw him add an All-Star nomination and a Silver Slugger award. An MVP nod surely won’t be far behind. And yes, his defense ain’t great. But you know what? It’s better than Derek Jeter’s. So there.

Second Base – Luis Castillo -A three-time Gold Glover and three-time All Star, Castillo also has a World Series ring from his days with the Florida Marlins. After 13 seasons in the bigs, he has amassed a career .292 average and a .363 OBP. So his career 27 homers aren’t going to blow anyone away. But 342 stolen bases aren’t anything to shake a stick at! Even so, I nearly went with Placido Polanco, who hits for more power. Close call.

First Base – Albert Pujols - It seems almost silly to have to make a case for Albert Pujols, but I’ll play along. Born in Santo Domingo in 1980, Pujols is 28 years old, has never missed significant time, has won two MVP awards (and come in second three times) and was the 2001 Rookie of the Year. His career OBP is .425. He has never hit fewer than 30 home runs in a season. Never. Not even one time. Yes, your girlfriend would rather be with him. But face it: so would you.

Catcher – Tony Pena – Yes, his career .309 OBP is downright hideous, as is his career 84 OPS+. But he did hit .300 a couple of times. And twice he slugged 15 (count ‘em!) home runs. He debuted at age 23 and managed to hang around until he was 40. And he was the 2003 Manager of the Year for the Kansas City Royals!

Bench - Jose Reyes, Miguel Tejada, Placido Polanco, Carlos Pena, Sammy Sosa, Alfonso Soriano, Rico Carty, Tony Fernandez, Jose Offerman (you know, for those bench-clearing brawls)

SP1 – Pedro Martinez - They called him El Duro in the Dominican – the Hard One. He has famously long, crazily-jointed fingers that create more spin on the ball than the ball knows what to do with. He once told Tom Verducci, “There are days when I first get out to the mound and it feels just like this, like the plate is closer than it’s supposed to be. Then I know right away. It’s over. You are f——-. F——-.” Even though he has not been able to find an employer yet this year, he still owns the best winning percentage of any active pitcher. I am almost certain that Pedro lied about his age when he was first signed – the age of his grown son strongly suggests at least a little fibbing – but there is no doubt that the three-time Cy Young winner is the ace of the Dominican staff. He has amassed not only an impressively long, consistent career – a 2.91 ERA over 17 seasons, with a career 151 ERA+ – but achieved a peak that has not been matched by any other man. In 1999, the annus mirabilis that saw him robbed of his dual MVP and Cy Young awards by a couple of douchebag writers, he logged a 2.07 ERA and 313 strikeouts over 213.3 innings. His record: 23-4. His ERA+: 243. While the following year, his win totals and strikeouts were down, he finished the year having pitched 217 innings with an ERA of 1.74 and an ERA+ of 291. Why do I feel the need to recite all of these well-known stats? I guess, somehow, even though I was there and watching – glued to the old TV during that 17-strikeout game against the Yankees – I still can’t believe it really happened. That’s how good he was. Now I have to move on before my head explodes.

SP2 – Juan Marichal - It may seem a little crass to put the Hall of Famer second, but it’s only a matter of time until Pedro is inducted anyway. After 16 years in the majors, Marichal retired with an ERA under 3. He never won a Cy Young, but he was a perennial all-star and a six-time 20 game winner. (And, through modern eyes, it seems pretty bad-ass that he broke the 300-innings barrier three times.)

SP3 – Ramon Martinez – He won 20 games once and 17 games twice, and also threw a no-hitter and once struck out 18 batters (in a game Nick was at!).

SP4 – Jose Rijo - Six consecutive seasons of sub-3.00 ERAs helped fuel a 1990 World Series sweep in which the Reds hurler earned two of the victories – and the Series MVP award. Though he often struggled with injuries and was out of baseball between age 30 and age 36 with elbow problems, he did return – albeit briefly – in 2001 and 2002, lifting the hearts of Cincinnatans everywhere. Or, you know, in Cincinnati. Unfortuantely, this uplifting tale – which saw Rijo win a Tony Conigliaro Award – has taken a recent sad twist, with Rijo being fired from the Nationals after one of his Dominican scouting finds was discovered to be  a totally different person – and, like, a totally older person.

SP5 – Bartolo Colon – Would you believe that Colon has a .607 career winning percentage? Colon is a former Cy Young-winner and a two-time 20 game winner, even though his career ERA is a hardly ace-like 4.09. Well, I guess he’ll round out the rotation anyway.

Relievers: Rafael Perez, Damaso Marte, Jose Valverde, Rafael Soriano, Octavio Dotel, Armando Benitez, Mel Rojas, Jose Mesa, Alejandro Pena

CL – Francisco Cordero

Manager – Felipe Alou

Final Verdict – Just for fun, I plugged the career OBPs and SLGs of this lineup into the lineup analysis tool at Baseball Musings. This had the unfortunate impact of wiping out some players’ impressive career peaks, but the overall result was still heartening:  an average of 6.17 runs per game, with the ideal lineup producing 6.426 runs per game. But we don’t need a fancy interwebby gizmo to tell us that a lineup featuring Hanley, Prince Albert, Papi, Manny, and Vladi is going to score a lot of runs. As for the pitching, the DR’s team features one Hall of Famer, one future Hall of Famer, and a back-end of guys who were all, at one time, team aces. Sure, Felipe Alou would have his hands full – but as far as I can tell, this fearsome Dominican squad would lose to only one foe:

Read the rest of this entry »

Today we continue to honor the World Baseball Classic with another entry in our ongoing series, in which we come up with an “All-Time Team” for as many of the participating nations as we can. Here’s the team for Puerto Rico – the land of mofongo, Menudo and Molinas.

The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico currently boasts the second highest number of MLB players among Latin American countries and has been feeding the talent pipeline for decades, starting with pitcher Hi Bithorn in 1942. Since then, we’ve seen 225 native Boricuas play big league ball, two of whom are now enshrined in Cooperstown. Sometime in the next decade, you’d imagine that the number will at least double when Roberto Alomar and Pudge Rodriguez rightly find their places in the Hall’s Plaque Gallery.

With so much talent, especially at the catching, first base, and outfield spots, there were a lot of close calls when constructing this team. But here’s the lineup that we came up with:

C – Pudge Rodriguez
1B – Orlando Cepeda
2B – Roberto Alomar
SS – Jose Valentin
3B – Edgar Martinez
LF – Juan Gonzalez
CF – Carlos Beltran
RF – Roberto Clemente

The Puerto Rican lineup has several strengths. For one, their catching depth is incredible. In addition to Pudge, there’s Jorge Posada, Javy Lopez, Benito Santiago, and of course, the Catching Molinas. The outfield trio of Juan-Gone, Beltran and Clemente has a good blend of power and defense with Bernie Williams and Jose Cruz Sr. to back them up. And despite his faults as a human being, Roberto Alomar was the player I wished to emulate most in my early teens. Felix Millan may have been the more likable guy, but Alomar was the far superior second baseman.

Now to defend my pick at third base. Yes, Edgar Martinez was a DH for most of his career. But we haven’t been creating DH spots throughout these “All-time” posts and I’m not going to start now. Martinez played 563 games at the hot corner, and that’s where I’m putting the guy because it’d be rather foolish to leave a player of his caliber off. And while it’s true that he was born in New York, he was raised in Puerto Rico.

Aside from a weak spot at shortstop, the Puerto Rican lineup is very potent. Imagine a batting order of Alomar-Beltran-Clemente-Cepeda followed by Pudge, Edgar Martinez and Juan Gonzalez. And you still have Carlos Delgado as your lefty pinch-hitter. Not too shabby, wouldn’t you say? If this were for real, this aspect of the team will make or break them since their pitching is going to be a weak spot.

SP – Javier Vazquez
SP – Juan Pizarro
SP – Ed Figueroa
SP – Hiram Bithorn
SP – Jose Guzman

RP – Roberto Hernandez
RP – Guillermo “Willie” Hernandez
RP – Kiko Calero
RP – Pedro Feliciano
RP – Luis DeLeon

While not a bad group per se, it’s definitely not up to the caliber of their offense.  There’s one Cy Young winner among them (Guillermo Hernandez) and it was really due to a fluke season (Hernandez also won the AL MVP that year). The rotation basically consists of league average pitchers, though I’m giving Hi Bithorn extra points for being the first Puerto Rican to play in MLB.

Finally, I’d be remiss if I did not mention Jose Oquendo, one of my favorite players growing up. Oquendo was not a great player by any means, ending up with a career .317 SLG. But the man played all nine positions in his career, and for that, he will always have my utmost respect, and a place as the utilityman on this All-Puerto Rican Team.

Final Verdict: Puerto Rican baseball fans have much to be proud of. Not only have they produced a player like Clemente who deserves immortality, the current crop of young MLB players such as Mike Aviles, Jonathan Sanchez, and Geovany Soto have the talent to join this All-Time squad in several more years. But even as it currently stands, their offense could easily average six runs scored per game.

The World Baseball Classic is now officially under way, and in honor of this nascent tradition and tournament we here at UmpBump are counting down a series of posts highlighting the All-Time teams from several countries. Next up is Cuba.

Like many of the other Caribbean countries, Cuba has a rich and storied baseball tradition. So much so that despite the political and military rift between this island nation and the U.S., the Baltimore Orioles and a team featuring Cuban all-stars played a two-game series in 1999.

Moreover, despite the Castro regime that prohibits Cuban ballplayers to freely travel to the U.S. to play professional baseball, there have been more than 150 peloteros cubanos who have graced the infields and outfields of the major leagues.

Another controversial tidbit that must be mentioned is the fact that two of the greatest Cuban hitters of all time, Rafael Palmeiro and Jose Canseco, have both been implicated in baseball’s struggle with performance enhancing drugs.

So if we were to compile the All-Time Cuban lineup excluding those two, we’d get something like this:

C Joe Azcue
1B Tony Perez
2B Cookie Rojas / Tony Taylor
SS Leo Cardenas / Bert Campaneris
3B Bobby Estalella
LF Minnie Minoso
CF Jose Cardenal
RF Tony Oliva

Bench:
2B Tito Fuentes
SS Zoilo Versalles

Although there have been many outstanding Cuban outfielders, shortstops, and first basemen, the task becomes considerably more difficult when looking for standouts at second base or at the hot corner.

Fortunately, both Cookie Rojas and Tony Taylor were both natural second basemen and amassed more than 500 career RBI each. In the outfield, Minnie Minoso, one of the greatest Cuban hitters, played most of his career in left field. Although Tony Oliva played mostly center, he spent some time in right, so that allows Jose Cardenal to patrol the middle outfield.

Joe Azcue wasn’t the greatest catcher, but he was one of the few Cuban catchers to play in the majors and have a relatively productive career.

As far as the rotation, we have:

Luis Tiant
Dolf Luque
Mike Cuellar
Camilo Pascual
Livan Hernandez

I’d be curious to know how many more games pitchers like Orlando Hernandez and Jose Contreras would have won had they pitched during their prime in the bigs. Livan Hernandez made the list based on the number of career wins, with the other four pitchers being the winningest Cuban starters that have played on American soil.

In the bullpen, the team would have:

CL Danys Baez
RP Diego Segui
RP Mike Fornieles

From the list its not hard to realize that many of those Cuban greats played a few generations ago, and so, I bet this team would look a lot different had the Castro regime and the U.S. embargo not prevented more Cuban ballplayers to freely play in the bigs.

Did we leave anyone out? Let us know in the comments!

With the World Baseball Classic fast approaching (and star players dropping out even faster) we here at Umpbump decided it was time to look at the best all-time teams from several countries. Next up in our series: Venezuela.

There’s only one Venezuelan Hall of Famer, Luis Aparicio, and amazingly he didn’t make the cut. How come? Because he was going up against future Hall of Famer Omar Vizquel, that’s why. But you know what? I can’t keep Aparicio on the bench. He’s clearly one of the best Venezuelan ballplayers of all time. So let’s move him to second base even though that wasn’t his natural position (sorry Melvin Mora) and our new roster looks like this:

C Victor Martinez
1B Andres Galarraga
2B Luis Aparicio
SS Omar Vizquel
3B Miguel Cabrera
RF Bobby Abreu
LF Magglio Ordonez
CF Richard Hidalgo

Aparicio and Vizquel combine to form a lights out up-the-middle defensive duo. Other players of note are Andres Galarraga, who had such a casual swing they called him “Big Cat,” and Bobby Abreu and Magglio Ordonez, who will both get a few HOF votes when their times come. Then there are young players like Victor Martinez and Miguel Cabrera who have been nothing short of brilliant in their brief careers. The only real weak spot in this lineup is center field, where Richard Hidalgo gets the nod over the defensively adept but light hitting Endy Chavez. I didn’t do fantasy baseball when Hidalgo was in his prime, and thank goodness. He would have driven me nuts. His OPS+ from 2000-2003: 147, 102, 87, 143.

That leaves Carlos Guillen, Chavez, Edgardo Alfonzo, Melvin Mora and Tony Armas on the bench.

The pitching staff looks like this:

SP Johan Santana
SP Felix Hernandez
SP Carlos Zambrano
SP Freddy Garcia
SP Kelvim Escobar

It’s a young staff. Johan Santana is an almost certain future Hall of Famer, but beyond him there’s a lot of uncertainty. Felix Hernandez could certainly join the ranks of elite pitchers any season now, but he’s yet to do so. Freddy Garcia had a few good seasons before an injury sapped him of his velocity. Kelvim Escobar won 18 games in 2008 and Zambrano, well, he’d be worth having in the lineup if only for his bat.

The bullpen is kind of a punch line, with the declining but still effective K-Rod followed by the murderous Ugueth Urbina and the gluttonous Richard Garces.

CL K-Rod
RP Ugueth Urbina
RP El Guapo

The Final Verdict: The Venezuelan team is good, but it is young and it will be a few years before we know if some of the kids really belong. Will King Felix blossom into an ace? Will Miguel Cabrera continue his hot hitting? Will Victor Martinez rebound from surgery and remain effective behind the plate? Stay tuned.

Today we continue to honor the World Baseball Classic with another entry in our ongoing series, in which we come up with an “All-Time Team” for as many of the participating nations as we can.

This time we felt up for a challenge, so we decided to attempt to construct a all-time team of the greatest Panamanians every to play the game, despite the fact that so far only 49 Panamanians have even made the Show for a single at-bat or a single pitch.

Here’s the starting lineup we came up with:

C Carlos Ruiz
1B Olmedo Saenz
2B Rod Carew
3B Hector Lopez
SS Chico Salmon
LF Carlos Lee
OF Roberto Kelly
OF Ben Oglivie

This lineup is actually not that bad.  Rod Carew is of course a Hall of Famer, and despite rumors that he is Jewish, is actually 100% Panamanian. The outfield is also strong, led by slugger Carlos Lee and Ben Oglivie, who was the AL home run champ in 1980 when he slugged 41 homers for the then American League Milwaukee Brewers.  Other options in the outfield include Omar Moreno who had as many as 96 steals for Pirates in 1980, and Adolpho Phillips, remembered for his nickname, “The Panamanian Flash.”  Hector Lopez had a fine career as a utilityman for the Athletics and Yankees in the ’50s and ’60s, and Carlos Ruiz is the current starting backstop for the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies.  Olmedo Saenz, aka “The Killer Tomato,” gets the nod at first base on account of his proven track record in the Major Leagues, but he could easily be replaced by sluggers Julio Zuleta or Fernando Seguinol, both of whom put up monster power numbers in Japan.  Chico Salmon gets the job at short because he is the only Panamanian player who saw any significant time at short in the Majors, and also because he has such an awesome name.

As for the rotation and closer, here’s what we came up with:

SP1 Juan Berenguer
SP2 Bruce Chen
SP3 Ramiro Mendoza
SP4 Rafael Medina
SP5 Ed Acosta

CL Mariano Rivera

Well, the starting rotation is a bit thin other than Berenguer, especially in the back end where Medina and Acosta only made the Majors for a brief stint, but the bullpen is strong. Not only do the Canaleros have the greatest closer of all time in Mariano Rivera, but if we were to fill out the rest of the pen, we could also add outstanding relievers such as Humberto Robinson and current major leaguers Manny Corpas, and Manny Acosta.

Final Verdict: The Panamanian squad is surprisingly good, given how few Panamanians have played in the Majors.  They wouldn’t embarrass themselves on the field, although they would have a hard time matching up to the other all-time teams.