All-time Baltimore Orioles team

[Knick9]

What's your all-time Baltimore Orioles team? You can choose who you think were the best O's players in their time. You can only choose O's players from the beginning in 1954-present.

1B: Eddie Murray
2B: B.J. Surhoff
3B: Brooks Robinson (RBI driver in 2 seasons)
SS: Cal Ripken,Jr. (most consecutive games played, he's on for sure)
C: Rick Dempsey
LF: Al Bumbry
CF: Paul Blair (decent hitter for 6 seasons, good fielder)
RF: Joe Orsulak (decent fielding plus hitting %)
Util: Boog Powell (OF) (helpful pinch hitter if RBI's are needed)
Don Buford (OF) (Pinch hitter #2)
Jefferey Hammonds (OF/IF)
Merv Rattenmund (OF)


SP: Steve Barber
Jim Palmer
Mike Mussina
Tom Phoebus (decent enough ERA and some shutouts)
Milt Pappas


RP/CP: Tippy Martinez
Mike Boddicker (barely misses the starting rotation)
Stu Miller
Mike Cuellar (also barely misses the starting rotation)
Eddie Watt

Manager: Earl Weaver

[The Commissioner]

Excellent selections, overall. I'd have to make room for Frank Robinson in the outfield, though, and replace Surhoff (never played a game at second base for the O's) with Dauer, Johnson, or Grich at second.

[Iron Jaw]

1b - Boog Powell/Eddie Murray
2b - Davey Johnson
ss - Cal Ripken
3b - Brooks Robinson
of - Frank Robinson
of - Paul Blair
of - Don Buford/Al Bumbry
c - Gus Triandos/Andy Etchebarren

I don't include a DH because I don't believe it belongs in baseball. If I did, it would be Tommy Davis.

SP - Jim Palmer
SP - Dave McNally
SP - Mike Cuellar
SP - Steve Barber
SS - Robin Roberts
SS - Mike Flanagan
RP - Dick Hall
RP - Stu Miller
RP - Eddie Watt
RP - Pete Richert
RP - Moe Drabowsky

Manager: Earl Weaver.

[The Commissioner]

I don't include a DH because I don't believe it belongs in baseball.

[HDH]

C Rick Dempsey
1B Boog Powell
2B Davey Johnson
SS Cal Ripken
3B Brooks Robinson
CF Al Bumbry
RF Frank Robinson
LF Ken Singleton
DH Eddie Murray

SP Jim Palmer
SP Dave McNally
SP Mike Cuellar
SP Mike Mussina
SP Denny Martinez

RP Tippy Martinez

[westsidegrounds]

You might want to keep somebody around for if Ripken decides to go fishing or something ... maybe a guy who won eight Gold Gloves at short ...?

[Iron Jaw]

You might want to keep somebody around for if Ripken decides to go fishing or something ... maybe a guy who won eight Gold Gloves at short ...?

Like maybe a Mark Belanger or something? But then, Cal wasn't known for taking a lot of time off.

The guy right before Belanger was pretty darned good too. Luis Aparicio.

[J W]

Some interesting lists there, and some surprise picks...

My all-time O's team:

C - Gus Triandos. Dempsey played a full decade with the team, and he had his heroic moments... but I have to go with the guy who produced at a much higher level. Tough call, because Triandos didn't get a chance to play in the postseason.

1B - Eddie Murray. OK, so he shopped around the league a bit--but he still played more games as an O than Boog Powell, and that, combined with league averages, gives him higher counting numbers. Both of them had an MVP season (though Murray didn't actually win it in '83).

2B - Davey Johnson. Eight years with the team; four World Series. Did very well in the league championship series. Considering there's no real standout at the position, I give the nod to him.

SS - Cal Ripken, Jr. Duh.

3B - Brooks Robinson. ^

LF - Al Bumbry. This is the one spot I'm really unsure of. Bumbry played too much CF... Robinson and Singleton manned RF for the O's. I guess you could put B.J. Surhoff here, but that doesn't mean much either. Don Baylor? naw. How about Mike Young?

CF - Paul Blair. Bumbry was only moved over to CF because Blair retired. One of the better defensive CFers in MLB history.

RF - Frank Robinson. Only six years--and despite that, he is my all-time #1 Oriole. The man that put the franchise on the map.

DH - Ken Singleton. A huge part of the O's run in the 3rd edition era. Second to Don Baylor (of all people) in the '79 AL MVP race. Batted .333 between the '79 and '83 postseasons. Played DH almost exclusively his last three seasons with the O's. Wanted to include him but couldn't shove him in front of Frank.

SP - Jim Palmer, Mike Mussina, Mike Cuellar, Dave McNally, Mike Flanagan. The usual names. Good call with Steve Barber guys... he played half as many seasons as Flanagan with the team, but all his best seasons were with the O's. I really wanted to include Milt Pappas and him but ran out of rotation room. Eh, I'll probably wind up kicking Flanny out. Roberts didn't do enough as an Oriole, and Martinez's best years were with Montreal.

RP - Tippy Martinez, Gregg Olson, Dick Hall, Eddie Watt, Stu Miller. Tried to go with at least 6 years exp. here, but, wound up with Miller anyway. Surprised no one has mentioned Olson yet, the closer for the "Why Not?" Orioles. A lot of terrific relievers have passed through town in the past decade (Smith, Orosco, Myers) but none of them stuck. Martinez gets the nod for longest tenure.

[BoSox Rule]

Ripken is the SS, no doubt, but you gotta give him more credit than just the streak.

[Be The Reds!]

Best Team

C - Rick Dempsey
1B - Eddie Murray
2B - Roberto Alomar
SS - Cal Ripken Jr.
3B - Brooks Robinson
LF - Brady Anderson
CF - Steve Finley
RF - Albert Belle
DH - Reggie Jackson

SP - Palmer
SP - Flannigan
SP - Mussina
SP - McGreggor
SP - Schilling

RP - Olson
RP - Lopez

My favorite players team
C - Kennedy
1B - Segui
2B - Bill Ripken
SS - Bordick
3B - Batista
RF - Gibbons
CF - Mora
LF - Anderson
DH - Palmeiro

SP - Moose
SP - JJ
SP - Rolo
SP - Ben McD

[J W]

Curt Schilling? If that's the case, you should make Lee Smith your closer and put Tim Raines in LF! Like I tried to do for my Diamond-Mind team.

[Be The Reds!]

Curt Schilling? If that's the case, you should make Lee Smith your closer and put Tim Raines in LF! Like I tried to do for my Diamond-Mind team.

Well I guess it depends on if they have to have accomplished something for the Orioles or if you're taking their whole career into account. If it's the latter, then by all means, take Albert Belle, Mr. October, and Kurt Schilling off my list.

[buckeyeangler]

first base oversight...

Polls such as these should be qualified by the age of those polled...The only people that could seriously pick an Eddie Murray over Jim Gentile would almost certainly be those that never saw both, or are giving inordinate importance to length-of-service, not unimportant but not what the poll asked.You younger(under 40)fans look up the stats, and then factor in the fact that Gentile hit in notoriously tough- on- power- hitters Memorial, played when they used a real ball, and had no protection in the lineup for most of his sadly short Oriole reign.
Such polls remind me of those "Top 300 Hits of Rock N' Roll History", which are always comically skewed towards the most recent decade.
Still fun and a thought -prompter, though.

[J W]

I can see the argument for Boog Powell over Murray, but not Gentile. I heavily weighed in playing time for the team, and success on the team while playing for them.

Gentile however may have had the best season at 1B for the Orioles:

1961: 486 AB, 96 runs, 147 H, 46 HR, 141 RBI, .302/.423/.646, 314 TB

5th in bavg
3rd in OBP
3rd in SLG
3rd in OPS (1.069)
3rd in OPS+ (184)

...he wasn't even the best 1Bman in the AL (Norm Cash). And of course he wasn't going to win the MVP with the Maris-Mantle battle for the HR crown happening.

Those numbers still stack up very well against Boog Powell's '64/'70 seasons or Eddie Murray's though '82-'84. The MVP results stack up well too--Baltimore finished well behind Detroit for 2nd in the AL, and Cash's #s were much better than Gentile's (.361/.487/.662 !!!), but the writers still voted Gentile 3rd, behind Maris/Mantle and ahead of Cash. In a similar vein, when Boog Powell won the AL MVP in 1970 (3rd in OBP, 2nd in SLG, 3rd in OPS), Carl Yastrzemski was the one with the best numbers. But then the Orioles won 108 games and the World Series that year.

I'm inclined to rank Gentile's 1961 season #1 just because "if it were any other year..." Take that saying for what it's worth, but if Diamond Jim put up those same numbers in 1960 they'd have been the best in the AL.

I don't remember Gentile... actually, I don't remember Powell. I'm too young. So ultimately I can only rely on two things: production, and heresay. There certainly is the "you never saw him play" argument against me, but then nobody here (I don't think) has seen Honus Wagner play so how do we know he was so good? Production and heresay.

[Iron Jaw]

I remember both players pretty well.


Diamond Jim was my first Oriole hero when I was about six years old (I turned six in November of 1961 - that's right......I'm about to turn 29 again . He was just coming off that splendid season, where he also hit five grand slams, and he was doing a couple of TV commercials (the usual, for Wheaties and other products). After Gentile was traded, my Oriole favorite became Brooks Robinson.

Diamond Jim was the slugger for the O's when I was just learning the game in the pee wee leagues. Boog came up in 1962, but because Gentile was at first, big Boog played the outfield for a few seasons. Even when the Orioles traded Gentile to Kansas City in 1964, Boog remained in the outfield because Norm Siebern was a much better first sacker than an outfielder. Boog played first between OF stints during that period.

Of course, Boog gave the O's many memories. As did Eddie Murray, the stellar, very consistent first sacker. There was another big guy in between Murray and Powell who many may forget at first base. Lee May. He came to Baltimore in 1975 from Houston for Enos Cabell and Rob Andrews. May gave the Orioles some pretty good years with the bat. And he started at first during the initial three years. When Murray came up in 1977, Eddie played the DH (ugh ) position because May was at first. The following year they flip-flopped.

I remember watching Gentile play during his last season in baseball, playing for the then minor league (AAA) San Diego Padres in 1968.