The Pecan Park Eagle

"No, I didn't bring you here on a Saturday to pick another Astros All Star Team, but GM Jeff Luhnow wants me to find out if any of you possibly have the talent to play for the Astros when we go into the American League in 2013."

Any all time team of any franchise suffers from one limiting flaw: None of them are real. We cannot actually bring these select players from different eras together to actually play a game at the their peak levels of performance. All we can do is fantasize how they might perform if we did have some magical power to carry out our magical wish for getting them together in the first place.

With input from fans, I think, the new Astros ownership has plans to put together an all time Astros team for the sake of history and also generating new interest in the club’s 2013 American League future. And that’s a good thing. For people to embrace the future, it is important that they also value the lessons and heroes of the past.

What I’ve done here this morning is no substitute for the process that we all need to engage together in selecting the greatest 25-man roster we can put together as the All Time Houston Astros All Stars. And to get there, we need to agree upon certain parameters for making our selections.

In brief, here the questions we shall need to first answer:

(1) Are we selecting players based exclusively on their service as Astros – or are we looking at their body of work in the major leagues with other clubs as well? Joe Morgan is an example of one guy who makes it if you give him credit for his Hall of Fame years with the Reds, but not for what he did in either of his early and late tours with the Astros.

(2) Are we looking at a player’s one great season with the Astros – or are we looking at a player’s performance over several years as an Astro?

(3) If we do choose to go for selections based on careers as an Astro, where do we draw the line on how many years a player needs to play for the Astros before we consider them for the all time team? If it’s one exceptional year only, then outfielder Richard Hidalgo makes it from his lights out year of 2000.

Here’s a 35-man roster I put together this morning based on an arguably, in some cases, “best season” with the Astros. WIth the pitching, I like the guys I’ve selected, but I could have been just as happy with Roger Clemens from 2004 and Nolan Ryan from either 1981 or 1982. I figured we could get by with some combo of active starters from the six I picked while one of them worked long relief in preparation for the four closer quality relievers that awaited whomever down the way and late in the game.

Need a starting lineup? I see all the possibilities in the world built into the available starters, relievers, and position players. Any manager who could not find a lineup to fit his mind from these choices isn’t trying very hard.

If only fielding such a lineup were a real possibility.

Here’s my Astros All Time Roster Based Upon Best Single Seasons as an Astro Player

Starting Pitchers

 (1) Larry Dierker (1969) (20-13, 2.33, 20 CG)

(2) Mike Hampton (22-4, 2.90, .846 W%, 3 CG)

(3) Joe Niekro (1979) (21-11, 3.00, 11 CG)

(4) Roy Oswalt (2005) (20-12, 2.94, 35 GS/0 GC)

(5) J.R. Richard (1979) (18-13, 2.71, 19 CG, 313 K)

(6) Mike Scott (1986) (18-10, 2.22, 7 CG, 306 K)

Relief Pitchers

(7) Brad Lidge (2005) (4-4, 2.29, 42 Sv, 103K/70.2 IP)

(8) Joe Sambito (1979) (8-7, 1.77 83K/91 IP)

(9) Dave Smith (1987) (2-3, 1.65, 24 Sv, 73K/60 IP)

(10) Billy Wagner (2003) (1-4, 1.78, 44 Sv, 105K/86 IP)

 Catchers

(11) Alan Ashby (1987) (.288, 14 HR)

(12) Brad Ausmus (1998) (.269, 6 HR)

Infielders

(13) Jeff Bagwell, 1B (1994) (.368, 39 HR, 116 RBI)

(14) Craig Biggio, 2B (1998) (.325, 20 HR, 51 2BH)

(15) Ken Caminiti, 3B (1994) (.283, 18 HR)

(16) Dickie Thon, SS (1983) (.286, 20 HR, 34 SB)

(17) Denny Walling 3B-1B-OF (1986) (.312, 13 HR)

(18) Roger Metzger, SS (1973) (.299, 1 HR, 14 3BH)

(19) Bill Spiers, 3B-SS-2B-1B (1997) (.320, 4 HR, 10 SB)

Outfielders

 (20) Lance Berkman (2006) (.315, 45 HR, 136 RBI, .621 SLG)

(21) Cesar Cedeno (1973) (.320, 25 HR, 56 SB, .537 SLG)

(22) Jose Cruz (1983) (.318, 189 H, 14 HR, 30 SB)

(23) Richard Hidalgo (2000) (.314, 44 HR, 122 RBI)

(24) Rusty Staub (1967) (.333, 44 2BH, 10 HR)

(25) Jimmy Wynn (1969) (.269, 33 HR, 23 SB, 148 BB)