Who would be selected for a mythical All-Time Pittsburgh Pirates dream team roster? Who would be the starters and who the backups? Who gets snubbed, not quite good enough to make the squad? And how have other authors, as well as fan surveys and the like, answered this fun question throughout the years?<\/p>\n
This is the\u00c2\u00a0third of what will be many postings to Seamheads that summarize draft book chapters in my forthcoming book on baseball “All-Time Teams”<\/a> (book title TBD.) As I update\/write each chapter, I will post an abstract here, with a link to the full draft chapter as a PDF file hosted at my personal website. I am doing this in part to get comments and feedback as I continue the writing process. My intention is to post another team’s chapter every few weeks. To read the entire draft chapter for the Pirates, please see the\u00c2\u00a0 index web page<\/a> and see the PDF for the Pirates chapter<\/a>. Also, I encourage you to read the draft of the book introduction<\/a> as well, which explains a few ground rules for this project (e.g., that I am not separating\u00c2\u00a0 OF positions into RF, CF, LF, and that I am only counting the time players played for that particular franchise, not their time played for other teams).<\/p>\n (This first paragraph is the chapter’s introductory paragraph, as written…)<\/p>\n The Pirates franchise began in 1882 as the Pittsburgh Alleghenys of the American Association. They joined the NL in 1887 and switched to their current nickname in 1891. Generally mediocre or poor during these early years, they became a blockbuster club during the first decade of the 20th century due in large part to the efforts of superstar Honus Wagner and player-manager Fred Clarke. They later had some good seasons here and there, but didn’t approach that level of success again until the 1970s. After a period of decline in the 1980s, they briefly flirted with success in the early 1990s, before the financial reality of being a small-market team set in.<\/p>\n I will now list my selections for starter and backup at each position, including six outfielders (without separation by RF\/CF\/LF), and also including 10 pitchers (any combination of up to 8 starters and up to 4 relievers). For my write-ups on why I chose each player, and for the many other players I considered at each position, see the full draft chapter for this team.<\/p>\n There were some tough decisions, and lots of good players who didn’t make this roster, so see the full draft chapter for details<\/a>. And for each team I am picking one “extra” player, the one who I felt was most deserving amongst those who were not selected as a starter, backup, or amongst the ten pitchers. Who do you think it should be for the Pirates?<\/p>\n So assuming no DH, one reasonable starting lineup might be:<\/p>\n
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