visick wrote:PITCHING:
1982 Steve Rogers
2003 Javier Vasquez
1985 Bryn Smith
1992 Dennis Martinez
1986 Floyd Youmans
2005 Hector Carrasco
1978 Ross Grimsley
1979 Scott Sanderson
1979 Dan Schatzeder
1998 Ugueth Urbina
HITTERS:
2000 Jose Vidro
1973 Ron Fairly
1973 Ken Singleton
1993 Delino DeShields
2010 Ryan Zimmerman
1986 Hubie Brooks
One player missing is 1987's Tim Burke. 7-0, era 1.19, his card is fabulous
http://365.strat-o-matic.com/player/831554/1680/1/80But top priority for me should be Dennis Martinez.
http://365.strat-o-matic.com/player/37591/1690/1/90First, his 1992 is extremely good, he instantly becomes Expos second best SP. Second, the 1992 card has incorporated gbA already, so I know it will please the SOM community. Third, Dennis Martinez is one of the worst player represented in ATG. He got two or three cards, and none of them was coming from his better years. Fourth, the man is an outstanding person, one of the most community-involved player, elected man of the year or some sort of similar recognition in Nicaragua. He deserves a better card.
Not sure what should be the second card. Deshields already has a card in ATG, though not an Expos, it's a 2M card reflecting a .360 on-base, low slugging, def-3. Sure his obp reached .389 in 1993, but his slugging was as bad and I still expect him to be def-3 for 1993. So we're talking maybe a 2.5M card, maybe less if he has an inj-2 (he did miss 40 games that season and is at minimum a 1-15 games injury max). Not better than Hunt I think.
Vidro had a def-4 rating for many years, even in his better offensive seasons, I do remember that he got a 3 somewhen, but my memory is that it was in 2002-2003, in any case later than 2000. So he is not likely to be better than Hunt either. This said, if someone can show that Deshields got a 2-rating or that Vidro can be a 3-rating, we're talking of a potential mid 3M card. More interesting, but not breath-taking.
Brooks got a nice 960 OPS in 1986, but I expect him to be a ss-4, since he was very bad (he changed position the year after) and was severely injured. He played only 80 games, so expect an inj-3 or 4 as well. And his card is much better vs lhp, but not better than Gallaraga's 9L card. So with these ratings, he is not likely to be better than Cabrera, and As a dh, he's not better than whoever extra current right-fielders we have.
A 3rd stellar SP, to back up both Martinez, is an interesting option. We know that we don't have the best Rogers nor best Smith cards in the current ATG set, but still, it seems to me that it will be a tough sell to add another card from either. Same argument for Grimsley, even though his ATG card is an Oriole, and consider that despite the 20-win season, his 1978 card, from what we can see in the 70s game, is just somewhat better than his current ATG card based on 1977---probably a mid 4M card, not likely to be a top 3.
The better sell could be Javier Vazquez. He's retired since 2011. He got a nice career, he got 46 career WAR,which is decent (looks better than his carrer era of 4.22 in an era of steroid-inflated offense). And he has no card in ATG. This said, I wonder if the 2003 card is his better card. His split for 2003 in OPS is .677/.647. His split for 2001 looks better .644/.651, in a year which league average for offense was higher. Actually, if my memory serves well, I do remeber the 2001 card, and it was a very good-looking card, very low on-base, but with a few BP dingers that you could fortunately hide in a pitcher's park. Probably a 7M card if I had to take a guess.
And then there's Burke. I know the Expos are solid in the bullpen, but Burke would be the best card, period. Yes, better than Murray (although probably not as expansive because Burke would be a R-2...actually, at 119 IP, maybe he could be R-3).
Another improvement would be to get one of Zimmerman's better years at 3rd...and of course, it's only a question of time before we get the Cy Young year of Scherzer in ATG.
Tue Nov 01, 2016 3:54 am