Diamonds in the Rough

If you're like me, the horror we call a draft board has already been wrecked.  The early value picks are gone and one can predict the 2nd and 3rd rounds won't be much better.  Last year our champion DC Chips drafted Ty Cobb and Stan Musial as their first and second round choices.  This year, the two players were both mid 1st rounders selected at 13th and 14th.  Last year Randy Johnson was a late 2nd rounder, selected 33rd overall.  This year 22nd.  The draft has tightened up as owners get smarter and I continue to publish resims (sorry JP!).

Given the competitiveness, I thought I would take a look back in our history to try to identify the Top-5 surprising seasons of all time.  After all, it may come down to an unlikely hero to get our teams into the playoffs.

This is purely a subjective exercise.  My definition of a surprise is certainly different than yours.  In no particular order:

1973 Willie Stargell (MIC)

79 Resims: .267 / .322 / .527

ATB VIII : .282 / .341 / .644, 60 HR, 117 R, 145 RBI

Much of the data from ATB VIII has been lost so we don't know exactly where Stargell was drafted.  Last season he went in the 4th round, at the 60th overall pick.  We do know that no one expects 60 homers and 145 RBI that late in the draft.  

Stargell didn't even lead the league in home runs or RBI, but he did lead a poor on paper Lakers squad to almost a .500 record.

1914 Steve Evans (WPP)

79 Resims: .296 / .351 / .443 in a platoon

ATB XI ::  .361 / .407 / .539, 35 2B, 18 3B

Incredibly, Evans was an 11th Rounder picked 260th overall, and helped lead the Windy City Potato Pickers to one of the best records in our league's history.  Evans was injured for about 30 games, keeping his Runs and RBI totals down to a meager 78 and 69 respectively, but he did bat 2nd against righties and 5th against lefties when healthy.

As a testament to how much better we are at drafting nowadays, he had many teammates that are now 1st or 2nd round picks - Ty Cobb, Babe Adams, Randy Johnson, Jeff Bagwell, and one of the league's best catchers, Bill Dickey.  It's no wonder Windy City went 111-51.

1972 Don Sutton (FRL)

79 Resims: 11 W, 4.24 ERA, 1.46 WHIP

ATB VII :: 14-7, 2.45 ERA, 1.22 WHIP

And frankly, that 79 Resim ERA seems awfully low.  

Sutton is so ill thought of by ATB owners he wasn't even drafted last year, but the Franklin Lakes Pillpoppers saw something in the righty, taking him in the 11th round and inserting him into the third spot in the rotation.  It paid dividends, as the squad won 108 games before bowing out in the 1st round of the playoffs.

1966 Gary Peters (P10)

79 Resims:  Did Not Get Drafted

ATB IX:  7-2, 1.94 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, 

What did I stumble upon here?  1966 Gary Peters has only been used twice in ATB history.  Once for the Rocherster Beau Brummels he stunk, giving up 119 hits in 88 innings and amassing a 5.95 RCERA.  He was truly bad, but also played in an extreme batters park, so forgive  him a bit.

A few years earlier in ATB IX, Peters was a monster.  His line: 125 IP, 108 H, 55 K in 58 games.  He played in a batters park but did have very good defense behind him.

I wonder which Peters is real?

1912 Frank Baker (STL)

79 Resims: .285 / .328 / .415, 262 TB

ATB VIII:: .301 / .342 / .534, 380 TB

We all know Frank Baker is a good player, but would you have ever guessed he holds the 8th best single season mark for total bases in history? Better than Stan Musial ever did, better than Mickey Mantle, Jimmie Foxx, Tip O'Neill, and a score of other batters typically picked ahead of him.

In ATB VIII Baker had what now must be ruled my favorite season of all time - 47 2B, 25 3B, and 23 HR.  No other player has ever had 40 doubles, 20 triples, and 20 homers in the same season.

The St Louis Slammers were a PC run powerhouse that year, winning 88 games with Babe Ruth, Mark McGwire, Roger Maris, Carl Yastrzemski, Javy Lopez, and Baker all belting over 20 home runs.  The scored 1001 in total but missed the playoffs.