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Just before the conversation in a recent thread could veer off into a wildly inappropriate non-basebally political wing-ding, the always-brilliant Mike Green defused it all with a simple comment, "The best PM in recent memory?  Hmm, I vote for this guy." Hard to argue.

But that did call to mind another burning question ... would would a whole team of PMs look like, er, "initially" speaking? We've done tons of all-initial teams previously, and one for Presidents of the United States name-alikes. But what about the erstwhile PMs? Let's find out as we meet ...



Prime the pump, Mr. Minister ...
**indicates Hall of Famer
* indicates All-Star

MGR: Pat Moran (748-586, 1915-23; '19 champs)

LINEUP
C Phil Masi* (.264, 1939-52)
1B Paul Molitor** (.306, 3319 hits, 504 SB)
2B Pete Mackanin (did all but P, C: .226, 1973-81)
SS Pat Meares (.258, 1993-2001)
3B Phil Mankowski (.264, parts of 1976-82)
LF Pat Mullin* (.271 career; .288/23/80 with '48 DET)
CF Pepe Mangual (.242, 1972-77)
RF Pat McNulty (.290, 1922, 24-27 CLE)
DH Pedro Munoz (.273, 67 homers, 1990-96)

BENCH
C Pat Moran (.235, 1901-14)
IF Peter Morris (Welshman was 0-for-3 in one game, 1884 WAS)
IF Paul McSweeney (3-for-12, 1891 SLB)
OF Pete Milne (.233, 1948-50 NYG)
OF Paul McAnulty (.208 since 2005 with SDP)
UTIL Pryor McElveen (.209, 1909-11, played all but P)

ROTATION
RHSP Pedro J. Martinez* (214-99 through 2008)
LHSP Paul Minner (69-84, 1946, '48-56)
RHSP Pat Malone (134-92, 1928-37; two 20-win seasons)
LHSP Paul Maholm (30-35 since 2005 with PIT)
RHSP Phil Marchildon (68-75, parts of 1940-50)

BULLPEN
CL-RH Pete Mikkelsen (45-40, 49 saves, 1964-72)
LHRP Paul Mirabella (19-29, 13 saves, 1978-90)
RHRP Pat Mahomes (43-49, 5 saves, 1992-2003)
LHRP Pedro A. Martinez (7-4, 3 saves, 1993-97)
RHRP Peter Munro (13-19, parts of 1999-2004)

The final cuts from the roster were three right-handed pithers, in starters Paul Mitchell (32-39, 1975-80) and Paul Moskau (32-27, 1977-83) and active reliever Peter Moylan (5-4 since 2006 with ATL).  As per HoN protocol, nicknames were not considered acceptable, so apologies to Paddy, Pinky, Polly, Patsy and the surprisingly many folks nicknamed Pete; we also did not consider middle names, unless the player actually went by that, so as nice as Joseph Patrick Mauer might look behind the plate, he's no PM in our book ...

So, Bauxites, is this team too conservative? Overly liberal? How many games would it win in the 2009 AL East? And how can it be better?

Primely Ministering a Lineup ... | 3 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
ayjackson - Tuesday, October 14 2008 @ 01:48 PM EDT (#193311) #
I guess even the always-brilliant can deal in the wildly inappropriate non-basebally political wing-ding.
Mike Green - Tuesday, October 14 2008 @ 02:00 PM EDT (#193313) #
Oh yeah.  Knuckles rapped, but balls in place...(pace Tim Wakefield)
Mick Doherty - Tuesday, October 14 2008 @ 02:40 PM EDT (#193316) #

Back on baseball ...

One great starting pitcher, one really good SP (Malone), a decent rest-of-the-rotation, a deep and versatile, if not brilliantly overwhelming bullpen, lots of good hitters but virtually no power --- who's the cleanup hitter, Munoz? I guess Molitor-Munoz-Mullin are the 3-4-5 "heart" of the order. And a manager probably still recovering from his one World Series title being tainted by the Black Sox ...

I put this team in the 2009 AL East at 59-103. If the bullpen is even better than expected and Pedro J. stays healthy and wins 27 or 28 games, possibly 70 wins. But still, probably last place.

Primely Ministering a Lineup ... | 3 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.