All time great team of players-Career w/ one team?

Reading the article on ESPN about Chipper Jones got me to thinking. Could you put together an all time great team of players who spent their entire careers with just one team? I'll count Chipper, since he will retire after this season ends. I've added him and T. Williams, just to start. Can you guys fill in the rest? Try and do this just from your own knowledge, and not looking things up on the internet. (Honor system here).

C -
1b -
2b -
SS -
3b - C. Jones (Braves)
Lf -
Cf -
Rf - T. Williams (Red Sox)
SP -
RP -

Chipper doesn't make the cut for me...

C - Johnny Bench
1b - Lou Gehrig
2b - Jackie Robinson
SS - Cal Ripken, Jr.
3b - Mike Schmidt
Lf - Ted Williams
Cf - Mickey Mantle
Rf - Stan Musial
RHP - Walter Johnson
LHP- Sandy Koufax
RP- Mariano Rivera

Shortstop probably has the most depth-- in addition to Ripken, there's Jeter and Larkin, plus guys like Banks and Yount who spent half of their career there before being moved to other positions.

A more interesting list would be "free agent era" greats that began their career after the mid-70s when the reserve clause was struck down.

A more interesting list would be "free agent era" greats that began their career after the mid-70s when the reserve clause was struck down.

I would make cutoff for beginning career 1980 because it took a few years and collusion judgement to really get free agency rolling.

Chipper, Rivera and Ripken still on list. Gwynn qualifies.

Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2012 2:30 pm

Re: All time great team of players-Career w/ one team?

Unread postFri Sep 28, 2012 12:42 am
Chipper doesn't make the cut for me...

C -
1b -
2b -
SS - Cal Ripken, Jr.
3b - Chipper Jones
Lf -
Cf -
Rf - Tony Gwynn
RHP -
LHP-
RP- Mariano Rivera

Old school perhaps, but I'll go with Dukie's SP (no RP on my list...not that there aren't greats, but old school me is still in the zone where if you were a great RP it meant you weren't good enough to start.

C - Yogi Berra
1b - Lou Gehrig
2b - Charlie Gehringer
SS - Honus Wagner
3b - Pie Traynor
Lf - Ted Williams
Cf - Ty Cobb
Rf - Stan Musial
RHP - Walter Johnson
LHP- Sandy Koufax

A more interesting list would be "free agent era" greats that began their career after the mid-70s when the reserve clause was struck down.

I would make cutoff for beginning career 1980 because it took a few years and collusion judgement to really get free agency rolling.

Chipper, Rivera and Ripken still on list. Gwynn qualifies.

Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2012 2:30 pm

Re: All time great team of players-Career w/ one team?

Unread postFri Sep 28, 2012 12:42 am
Chipper doesn't make the cut for me...

C -
1b -
2b -
SS - Cal Ripken, Jr.
3b - Chipper Jones
Lf -
Cf -
Rf - Tony Gwynn
RHP -
LHP-
RP- Mariano Rivera

Post Free agent era 1980-2012
C - Jorge Pasada
1b - Jeff Bagwell
2b- Craig Biggio
SS - Cal Ripken
3b- Chipper Jones
Lf-
Cf-Bernie Williams
Rf-Tony Gwynn
Dh-Edgar Martinez

Another year (his 10th) and I would put Joe Mauer over Posada.

This gets really hard when you try to do post-free agency. Especially for pitchers. One obvious guy is John Smoltz -- except for he spent the last few minutes of his career bouncing around. Then there are guys who had their careers truncated by injury ... Brandon Webb is one good example, J. R. Richard another. I'd have to say definitely Ron Guidry for lefties. Maybe Dave Stieb for righties? You could throw Steve Rogers in there ... he spent his whole career with Montreal. Mario Soto? Bob Forsch? Surely I'm forgetting a few. Paul Splitorff could be a distant second behind Guidry.

Jim Palmer is another obvious choice, but he spent half of his career pre-free agency.

This is tough!

Good stuff, guys!

Don't think you can include John Smoltz as he started his career with the Detroit Tigers. He was sent to the Braves in the infamous (for Tiger fans) trade for Doyle Alexander.