The Best of the Best...The Best 25-Man Roster in Blue Jays History

Alright, I'm going to take on this challenge and try and put together the best 25-Man Roster that Jays history has ever produced. Here we go. My offense consists of the following. I tried to insert a chart that I made on Microsoft Word, I have no idea what happened.


|# |Pos |Player         |Year |Age |G   |AB  |AVG. |HR |RBI |SB |OPS+ |

|1 |2B  |Roberto Alomar |1993 |25  |153 |589 |.326 |17 |93  |55 |140  |

|2 |OF  |Shawn Green    |1999 |26  |153 |614 |.309 |42 |123 |20 |143  |

|3 |1B  |Carlos Delgado |2000 |28  |162 |569 |.344 |41 |137 |0  |182  |

|4 |OF  |George Bell    |1987 |27  |156 |610 |.308 |47 |134 |5  |146  |

|5 |OF  |Jesse Barfield |1986 |26  |158 |589 |.289 |40 |108 |8  |147  |

|6 |DH  |Jose Canseco   |1998 |33  |151 |583 |.237 |46 |107 |29 |113  |

|7 |3B  |Kelly Gruber   |1990 |28  |150 |595 |.274 |31 |118 |14 |131  |

|8 |C   |Ernie Whitt    |1982 |30  |105 |284 |.261 |11 |42  |3  |99   |

|9 |SS  |Russ Adams     |2005 |24  |139 |481 |.256 |8  |63  |11 |87   |

I'm pretty happy with this batting order. I'm dissappointed in who ended up as my shortstop and my catcher, although the Jays have never really had an all-star catcher. I tried to use Tony Fernandez at short, but he spent a few years at third late in his career and every time I wanted to use him there was someone else much better to plug into the line-up. But there is more then enough power (283 home runs) and speed (145 steals) in this line-up to make up for those weaker positions. This line-up also boasts some fantastic defensive players as well. Barfield and Green were complete 5 tool players with canons for arms. Alomar is one of the best, acrobatic, athletic defensive second basemen of all-time, he's second bases Ozzie Smith. He would have made a well above average short stop. I don't remember a lot about Kelly Gruber as a defender, but I remember his triple play in the '92 World Series, everyone here knows that he made that tag. All-in-all this is a fantastic line-up that any organization would be proud of.


|Pos |Player        |Year |Age |G  |AB  |AVG. |HR |RBI |SB |OPS+ |

|bC  |Buck Martinez |1983 |34  |88 |221 |.253 |10 |33  |0  |111  |

|Util|Garth Iorg    |1985 |30  |131|288 |.312 |7  |37  |3  |122  |

|R   |Manuel Lee    |1989 |24  |99 |300 |.260 |3  |34  |4  |82   |

|R   |Vernon Wells  |2001 |22  |30 |96  |.312 |1  |6   |5  |98   |

|R   |Jose Cruz Jr. |2002 |28  |124|466 |.245 |18 |70  |7  |99   |

My back-ups consist of 3 outfielders.  But Iorg plays every infield position.

|# |Pos. |Player         |Year |Age |IP    |GS |W  |L |K   |ERA  |WHIP |ERA+ |

|1 |SP   |Roger Clemens  |1997 |34  |264.0 |35 |21 |7 |292 |2.05 |1.03 |226  |

|2 |SP   |Roy Halladay   |2003 |26  |266.0 |36 |22 |7 |204 |3.25 |1.07 |145  |

|3 |SP   |Dave Stieb     |1984 |26  |267.0 |34 |16 |8 |198 |2.83 |1.14 |145  |

|4 |SP   |Pat Hentgen    |1996 |27  |265.2 |35 |20 |10|177 |3.22 |1.25 |165  |

|5 |SP   |Jimmy Key      |1991 |30  |209.1 |33 |16 |12|125 |3.05 |1.20 |138  |

My pitching includes three people that have won Cy Young awards with the Jays. Dave Stieb should have, and Clemens '97 season was just as good as his '90 season. The first 4 pitchers all pitched more then 260 innings which is impressive in any generation. 95 wins between the 5 of them. You couldn't ask for a more complete staff, Clemens is one of the best pitchers of all time, Halladay is an excellent mix of power and a ground ball machine, Stieb, just awesome. Hentgen wasn't the most consisten pitcher, but his '96 season was of the Cy Young caliber, and then there is the soft throwing, very effective lefty who a year later would guide the Jays to the World Series.


|Pos. |Player        |Year |Age |IP    |G  |W |L |SV |K  |ERA  |WHIP |ERA+ |

|CL   |B.J. Ryan     |2006 |30  |72.1  |65 |2 |2 |38 |86 |1.37 |0.86 |343  |

|RP   |John Cerutti  |1988 |28  |123.2 |46 |6 |7 |1  |65 |3.13 |1.31 |126  |

|RP   |Tony Castillo |1994 |31  |68.0  |41 |5 |2 |1  |43 |2.51 |1.38 |191  |

|RP   |Mike Timlin   |1995 |29  |42.0  |31 |4 |3 |5  |36 |2.14 |1.31 |220  |

|RP   |Duane Ward    |1992 |28  |101.1 |79 |7 |4 |12 |103|1.95 |1.14 |210  |

|RP   |Justin Speier |2004 |30  |69.0  |62 |3 |8 |7  |52 |3.91 |1.25 |124  |

So this is my 25-Man roster. The Jays haven't had the most storied franchise, but I would put my 25-Man Roster against any team in the league.

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Anonymous Fanatic #1

956 days ago

Score 0

I was working one one too:

The Best Jays (I put totals under the lineups for their stats too)

Starting Lineup

1. John Olerud 1993, 1B, 185 OPS+, LHB, .363/.473/.599, 24 HR, 107 RBI, 200H, 54 2B, 114/65 BB/K. Finished 1st in BA, OBP, OPS, 2B, Times on Base, IBB, Runs Created... His OBP from this monster season is enough to put him in our leadoff spot.

2. Roberto Alomar 1993, 2B, 140 OPS+, RHB, .326/.408/.492, 17 HR, 93 RBI, 192H, 35 2B, 80/67 BB/K. Finished 3rd in BA. All-Star defense for one of the best Blue Jays teams to take the field.

3. Shawn Green 1999, OF, 143 OPS+, LHB, .309/.384/.588, 42 HR, 123 RBI, 190H, 45 2B, 33/117 BB/K. Finished 5th in HR, 1st in 2B and XBH. Gold Glove OF. Monster power contract year.

4. Jose Canseco 1998, DH, 113 OPS+, RHB, .237/.318/.518, 46 HR, 107 RBI, 138H, 26 2B, 28 SB, 65/159 BB/K. Jose had a minor comeback as a Jay having one of his best seasons in years. The Jays finished 26 games behind the Yankees and he was shadowed by the McGuire/Sosa HR race.

5. George Bell 1987, OF, 146 OPS+, RHB, .308/.352/.605, 47 HR, 134 RBI, 188H, 32 2B, 39/75 BB/K. AL MVP, SS. Finished 2nd in HR, 1st in TB, RBI, XBH. He lead the Jays through one of the most thrilling division races in team history with the Jays falling just short. Level of Excellence count = 1.

6. Jessee Barfield 1986, OF, 147 OPS+, RHB, .289/.368/.559, 40 HR, 108 RBI, 170H, 35 2B, 69/146 BB/K. This was Jessee's best year and he earned a Gold Golve and an All-Star appearence on top of it.

7. Darrin Fletcher 2000, C, 116 OPS+, LHB, .320/.355/.514, 20 HR, 80 RBI. Solid defense behind the plate from one of our future color commentators.

8. Troy Glaus 2006, 3B, 119 OPS+, RHB, .252/.355/.513, 38 HR, 104 RBI, 136H, 27 2B, 86/134 BB/K. Troy was brought in to be the bopper in a heavy hitting Jays lineup. He had a solid season at the plate and provided great defense at 3B. There were better defenders on the list but how can you resist the urge to put a power hitter in the #8 slot?

9. Tony Fernandez 1986, SS, 106 OPS+, RHB, .310/.338/.428, 10 HR, 65 RBI, 213 H, 33 2B, 25 SB. 213 hits set a record for shortstops only to be beaten by Alex Rodreiguez in 1996.

Bench

Middle Infielder: Frank Menechino, IF, 2004 119 OPS+, RHB, .301/.400/.504. 71G, Gritty defender and a bat that came out of nowhere for a team that finished 5th...

Utility Outfielder: Frank Catalanotto, OF, 2005 115 OPS+, LHB, .301/.367/.451, 8HR, 59 RBI. A solid .300 leftie hitter off the bench for a late game defensive sub or pinch hit.

Backup catcher: Gregg Zaun, C, 2006, 110 OPS+, SWITCH, .272/.363/.462, 12 HR, 40 RBI. Forced into a backup role after a breakout (at age 34) season in 2005.

Other pinch hitter: Juan Beniquez, DH/OF/PH, 1988, 112 OPS+, RHB, .293/.373/.379, 27 G, 1HR.

Defensive replacement: Alfredo Griffin, 2B/SS, 1992, RHB, .233/.273/.280, 63 G, solid defense and a great vetern pickup for the playoffs.

Hitting Totals: .298/.371/.517, 314 HR, 1072 Runs Scored.

Starting Rotation

1. Roger Clemens 1997 ERA+ 226 21-7 264.0 IP 292/68 K/BB 1.030 WHIP 9 CG 3 SHO. Clemens was considered by many to be in the twilight of his career when he signed with the Jays. 2 Cy Youngs and 2 triple crowns later and my hardest choice is which season to use.

2. Roy Halladay 2003 ERA+ 145 22-7 266.0 IP 204/32 K/BB 1.071 WHIP 9 CG 2 SHO. "Doc" Halladay is a true ace of any staff and this season he lead the AL in innings and tied for the lead in complete games.

3. Pat Hentgen 1996 ERA+ 165 20-10 265.7 IP 177/94 K/BB 1.250 WHIP 10 CG 3 SHO. Each Jays hometown hero managed at least one epic season and Hentgen is no different. He helped bring home the repeat in '93 and anchored the staff through the late '90s.

4. Jimmy Key 1987 ERA+ 164 17-8 261.0 IP 161/66 K/BB 1.057 WHIP 8 CG 1 SHO. Lead the team in innings pitched and wins. Jimmy anchored the staff with Dave Steib throughtout the late 80's and early 90's.

5. Dave Steib 1990 ERA+ 135 18-6 208.7 IP 125/64 K/BB 1.165 WHIP 2 CG 2 SHO, Sept 2 No-hitter vs Cleveland. He had 2 consecutive no-hitters broken up with 2 outs in the 9th inning in 1998 and his no-hitter in 1990 was (and is) the only in Jays history. I believe that they should retire '37' for Dave. He hold most of the pitching records for the team and was such a big part of what built Toronto into the winner it became after his departure.

Bullpen

CL: B.J. Ryan 2006 ERA+ 343 38 SV 72.3 IP 86/20 K/BB 0.857 WHIP. Only 42 Hits and 3 HR allowed. B.J. held opposing batters to a .169 BA and didn't allow an earned run until May 7th. His sneaky delivery, nasty slider, and formidable mound presence makes him an ideal stopper.

Middle Relievers:

1. Mark Eichorn 1986 ERA+ 246 14-6 157.0 IP 166/45 K/BB 10 SV. Mark was a submarine pitcher who burst onto into the league as the Jays primary reliever aside from Tom Henke. His sneaky delivery lead to 166 K in 157 innings in his rookie year along with setting records for Jays rookies in ERA, games, wins, saves, strikeouts, and hit batsmen.

2. Duane Ward 1992 ERA+ 210 7-4 101.3 IP 103/39 K/BB 12 SV. As the primary setup man to Tom Henke, Ward racked up 25 Holds and 12 saves throwing hard heat. He is one of the unsung heroes of the Jays bullpen and he truly gave his career to bring home two championships.

3. Paul Quantrill 1997 ERA+ 238 6-7 88.0 IP 56/17 K/BB. He is the only Canadian on the roster and he deserves to be here. He was the setup man for Kelvim Escobar and was quite successful racking up 15 holds.

4. David Wells 1989 ERA+ 157 7-4 86.3 IP 1.089 WHIP 78 K. Boomer was brought up in through the Jays orgainzation and posted his best ERA in 1989 at 2.40. He was the top middle reliever and lefty specialist and showed his telltale control with a 78/28 K/BB ratio in 86 innings.

5. Justin Speier 2005 ERA+ 173 3-2 66.7 IP 0.945 WHIP 56 K. Speier was the Jays setup man through a retooling phase and threw one of his best seasons walking only 15 batters in 66.7 innings.

Pitching Totals: 137-63 W/L record, 588 Runs scored against.

In theory, this team would have a pythagorean W/L % of 0.750 (122-40) through stellar pitching and a powerful offense. There have been some great players to suit up north of the border. The past 25 years have seen some of the greater individual performances that often went unnoticed south of the border. In the past 25 years, I think it'll be hard to put together a team that can beat this one.

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Anonymous Fanatic #2

955 days ago

Score 0

The only problem with yours Anonymous Fanatic #1 is that you didn't follow that rule that you were only allowed to pick one player per year...you picked Olerud and Alomar both for 1993 as well as doubling up on 1986 as well.

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Manny StilesMajor Leaguer

955 days ago

Score 0

What the Anonymous is going on here? ArmchairUP, ya hosers!

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