Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Best Ever Batters by Teams, Week 9 Countdown

The final week of the countdown starts with the St. Louis Cardinals and spans the back of the alphabet through the many incarnations of the Washington Nationals. It's been a good ride, and we hope you enjoyed the journey, plus bought a Stat Geek Baseball, the Best Ever Book or two. Thanks for joining in and following along, plus those sales. We'll end the Bonus Coverage with a look at five of the best players from the Washington Nationals of today, plus those old Montreal Expos. And we'll leave you with some final guesses to just who are in the top spots.

Part of the Top Twenty
8. Larry Walker. He played for the Montreal Expos when it was still cool to be one, ending his career there in 1994 before moving on, as almost all of them did, to other pastures, particularly one that now has a humidor. But over those six seasons north of the border, he would have 56.370 PEVA position player points while batting 0.281. That average would rise once he made it to Colorado, think 0.334 and the #2 spot on their list.

9. Larry Parrish. Back one more decade and you get the 56.177 PEVA career of Expo Parrish. Parrish played eight seasons there through 1981 and might just have played some of them in Jerry Park, we think without checking.

10. Warren Cromartie. One of the troika of great outfielders who came up in the Expo system at the same time, including new Hall of Fame electee Andre Dawson, Cromartie played nine seasons in Montreal and collected 1,063 hits for a PEVA total of 56.137. Anybody remember the name of the third guy?

11. Jose Vidro. At one time, Jose Vidro looked like a lock to be one of the best players to play for this franchise, well above the #11 spot, but things waned once he got to Washington. Still, with that 0.301 average and 55.678 PEVA, he became one of the few bridge players between the two cities, adding to the trivia that will mark the franchise going forward, in what looks to be better days.

12. Ryan Zimmerman. Now we've reached the best position player of the Washington Nationals era and before he end of his career, a potential #1 player on this list in years to come. Lots of time before that will happen, but with 55.064 PEVA through his first 5 years, and seemingly better seasons ahead, we surely wouldn't be surprised if Zimmerman ends up in the top three at least.

So what does that Top Seven look like. Try two Hall of Fame players in Andre Dawson and Gary Carter, add in some flavor with Rusty Staub and Vladimir Guerrero, and fill it out with Bob Bailey, Tim Raines, and Tim Wallach. Put them in order for some fun and check out the final rankings in Stat Geek Baseball, the Best Ever Book at Google Books or Amazon.com.

Best Players by Team (Cardinals, Rays, Rangers, Blue Jays, Nationals)
Week Nine Countdown Sample

Read More @ Google Books

Buy Stat Geek Baseball, the Best Ever Book in paperback @ Amazon.com
or Ebook @ Baseballevaluation.com

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