All Slow Poke?

[honestiago1]

I'm in a league finishing up, and somehow, with 99 SB's, I'm 5th in that dept. Got me to wondering, how slow a team could I field? Someone wanna finish this list?

C- Kennedy
1B-
2B-
SS-
3B-
LF-Luzinski
CF-
RF-
DH-Simmons (is he slow?)

[hechojazz]

C- Kennedy
1B- CLIFF JOHNSON (8E)
2B- ART HOWE (10D)
SS-
3B-
LF-Luzinski
CF-
RF-
DH-Simmons (is he slow?) - yes, (9E)

[LMBombers]

There may be scrubs slower than these guys but if you are really planning to put a lineup together I thought I would only look at guys that usually (or at least half the time) start in a normal league.

How about:

1B - McGwire E10
2B - Grich D13
SS - Smalley or Oquendo D12
3B - Horner or Buddy Bell D11
C - Gedman or Simmons E9
LF - Downing D11
CF - Armas E13
RF - Singleton E10
DH - Luzinski E8

Thats pretty slow!

[honestiago1]

A pitching rotation featuring dudes with slow pitches (real life):

Hough, Candiotti, Niekro (anybody with a knuckler, right?)
Tanana (had no zip left)
Eichorn (supposedly pitched slow and slower)

4 more 'slow' relievers?

[Outta Leftfield]

If Stu Miller had pitched into the 80's he'd be your ideal relief ace. I think Proly was mostly a junk ball pitcher. I'm guessing your high WHIP, low ERA pitchers like Proly and others might generally be slow ball guys. They give up walks and singles because they through mostly slop, but not a lot of HRs. Not sure if that pattern holds but it might be worth checking--e.g. I think Candiotti fits the pattern.

Scioscia is D8, so maybe he should be your catcher. Or Ron Hassey, who at E8 is I guess even worse.

Incaviglia, D12, is another CF candidate--slower than Armas, anyway, if not a full time CF.

Cey is another D11 at 1B and Nettles is an E11. Interestingly Bell and Nettles were excellent 3Bs and Cey wasn't too bad. As they say, it's not speed but reflexes at that position.

Ken Phelps at 1B is an E9 and Cliff Johnson is a E8 wherever you'd want to put him. I think E8 is the rock bottom. Strat does go lower than that.

An interesting fact is that most of these guys are pretty good players. I use a lot of them quite frequently and am particularly enamored of Luzinski, Sciosia and Hassey as well as the slightly faster Grich and Bell. Both Luzinski and Bell are performing well on two current teams. I guess it shouldn't surprise us that they're good is because lack of speed is a deficeit and they must have significant ability elsewhere to make up for it.

[Outta Leftfield]

OK, let's compile this into an actual lineup--we've had some duplication, overlaps, and there's a question about the slowest possible configuration of C/1B/LF/DH that I've tried to sort out. Here's the team as I now see it:

1B –Ken Phelps 9E
2B –Art Howe 10E
SS - Smalley or Oquendo 12D
3B –Nettles 11E
C – Hassey 8E
LF – Luzinski 8E
CF - Incaviglia12D
RF - Singleton 10E
DH - Cliff Johnson 8E

Is that about right? Have I missed anyone already mentioned? Are there guys who have been overlooked? SS and CF are comparatively speedy--any slower guys out there or is this a reflection of the nature of the position?

Another question--are these figures accurate? Was Luzinski slower, really, than Ken Phelps? Somehow, the image of Luzinski in LF doesn't seem completely absurd to me. I saw him out there and he wasn't great but he was OK. But Phelps was barely passable even at 1B and the thought of him playing OF is hard to visualize. In fact, Luzinski played 1200 games in the OF. Phelps never played anywhere but 1B and DH. Of course, I'm taking the ability to play OF as an indication of relative speed.

BTW, the guys I use most frequently from this list, in descending order of frequency, are Singleton, Hassey, Luzinski, Incaviglia and Smalley. I've never quite caught the wave for Phelps or Oquendo.... :D

Anyone have other favorites among the Slow Poke All-Stars?

[honestiago1]

I've had good luck with Luzinski. He really doesn't have an unusable year (just an unusable glove). :)