C Mitch Melusky 1b Glen Davis 2b Bill Doran 3b Buddy Bell ss Eric Yelding Of Gerald Young Of Eric Anthony Of Willie Tavares P Doug Drabek P Greg Swindell P Mark Portugal P Pete Harnisch P Danny Darwin P Jose Lima P Charlie Kerfield P Mitch Williams
This is the correct answer..... there hasn't been more of a baseball player in a good 50 years... Dr. Death was 100% bad ass and never missed an opportunity to bust Nolan Ryan's chops and got away with calling Mike Scott plump butt to his face and at award dinners..... If I had to have one brawler from the history of the Astros, gimme Darwin over Rusty Staub, Cesar Cedeno, Bill Spiers and Nolan Ryan..... sorry Brian Backe, you are too soft with your hook.
C - Mitch Melusky (A top 40 prospect)/John Buck (#43), JR Towles (#52) 1st - AJ Reed (#11)/ Daryl Ward (#71)/Jon Singleton (#27) 2nd - Chris Burke (#51) SS - Andujar Cedeno (As high as #2) Orlando Miller (#46), Jio Mier (#73) 3rd - Tom Nevers (#47) LF - Eric Anthony (As high as #1) RF - Willie Ansley (Top 35) CF - James Mouton (#72) SP - Forest Whitley (#5) SP - Frances Martes (#15) SP- Brian Williams (#24) SP - Jeff Juden (#27) SP - Wilfredo Rodriguez (#23) SP - Mark Appel (#31) SP - Taylor Bucholz (#40) SP - David Paulino (#41) SP - Jason Hirsch (#52) SP - Troy Patton (#58) SP - Ezequiel Astacio (#80) SP - Matt Albers (#82) SP - Jared Cosart (#50) There are others, but prospect rankings were not as widely know commercially. Cameron Drew was a top prospect, considered a top 5 prospect by some and viewed as a future batting champion before he has a catastrophic injury. Ty Gainey is a player than some feel was left in the minors too long, but had a lot of talent..... we can go back to the 60's and the Astros wasted a lot of top picks.... Martin Cott, Wayne Twitchell and Alex Barrett all were taken in the top 5 and didn't pan out. @bobrek Probably can remember some from the 70's and early 80's to add to the list. The oddest cases of players "busting" has been AJ Reed who had a lot of emotional issues off the field and Mitch Melusky who literally gave zero effort as a professional baseball player. There are lots of guys on this list with either substance abuse issues or poor attitudes, but Melusky is the only one I can think of that really just gave no effort. Tom Nevers was a high school SS the Astros drafted years ago, that at 19 flashed a lot of power and a strong glove.... but he never learned how to hit an off speed pitch and never made it to the big leagues.
Lemongello is another odd one. He had two "okay" seasons with the Astros, an era under 4.00 in 200 innings for the Astros.... he had a WHIP his last year with the Astros of 1.17........ then was traded to the Blue Jays, had a bad year and retired at 24 years old. I am assuming injuries were involved or he just didn't want to play. Knicely court crush AAA pitching but was one of those guys that never did it at the big league level.
Fun Fact: the airport on the sitcom "Wings" was named Tom Nevers Field, I wondered back then why they named an airport after an obscure HS baseball player from Minnesota, but of course it was a different guy: https://nha.org/research/nantucket-history/history-topics/who-was-tom-nevers/
Started putting a list together and had a ton of difficulty. Mainly I couldn't figure out what to do with Biggio since I put Altuve ahead of him at 2B and didn't feel right putting him at C or OF because he didn't play in those positions very long. And OF was hard because guys like Alou and Tucker have been great, but either didn't play or havent yet played enough seasons for me to consider them all-timers. Really I got Berkman and Springer in the OF but I don't know who gets the third spot. Then you have pitchers like Clemens and JV that won Cy-Youngs here but there stints have been relatively short. Keuchel won a Cy Young and a WS here but does that put him ahead of Oswalt, Scott, or even Reynolds? I had more fun putting together a list of guys I liked that were a bit forgettable: C - Mitch Melusky 1B - Orlando Merced 2B - Mark Loretta 3B - Vinny Castilla SS - Ricky Gutierrez OF - Chucky Carr OF - Colby Rasmus OF - Daryl Ward SPs - Scott Elarton, Chris Holt, Rodrigo Rosario, Carlos Hernandez, Pedro Astacio CL - Jose Valverde UTIL: Jose Vizcaino
You only liked him because you never had to actually be around him. He had the greatest offensive season a catcher has ever had here ...and we couldn't trade him fast enough.
Yeah I know he had the reputation for being absolutely awful as a person. Didn't he get in a fight with Matt Mieske for cutting in line at batting practice?
Ah, a team of my favorites, for whatever reason, would be tough too...but i'd go with C: Quintero 1B: Bagwell 2B: Altuve 3B: Caminiti SS: Thon OF: Biggio (it's my favorite, i can put them where I want lol) OF: Alou OF: Springer DH: Evan Gattis SP: Nolan SP: Scott SP: Oswalt SP: Keuchel SP: Verlander Closer: Lidge (Hey, we went to the world series the year of the famous pujols blast) RP: Kerfeld Utility: Marwin Manager: Dierker GM: Luhnow Owner: Crane
C: Eusebio 1B: Bagwell 2B: Doran 3B: Caminiti SS: AE OF: Cruz OF: Alou OF: Springer (I'm a little young to remember proper Cedeno, Puhl was a close 4th) DH: Glenn Davis (it's my favorite, i can put them where I want lol) SP: Darwin SP: Scott SP: Oswalt SP: Ryan SP: Big Unit Closer: Lidge RP: Kerfeld RP: Wagner RP: Doug Jones RP: Joe Sambito RP: Will Harris RP: Mitch Williams Utility: Marwin, Candaele, Cangelosi (you should know why), Altuve, Ashby (he can broadcast from the dugout) Manager: Terry Collins GM: Spec Richardson Owner: Ford Motor Credit Company
C-Biggio 1B- Baggy 2B- Tuve 3B- Bregman SS- CC OF- Springer, Alou, Beltran SP- Randy Johnson, Cole, Oswalt, JR, Hampton(99) Closer- Wagner DH- Alvarez
