Saturday, May 2, 2009

The All-Brittle team

Having players like Chipper "Day to Day" Jones on my teams got me thinking-who are the players at each position who just can't seem to stay healthy? I bet you could come up with a pretty good lineup. I reviewed the cheatsheets on rotowire.com and created a lineup. I omitted pitchers (Chris Carpenter) because they are too numerous to mention(Ben Sheets):

1B-Nick Johnson-he's healthy and hitting .350, so I hope I don't jinx him. He is a very good hitter with, as rotowire describes him, "A gypsy curse on his head." Broke his leg in 2006 and missed all of 2007. His long awaited comeback was cut short last year after 109 at bats when he broke his wrist. Here's hoping 2009 is his lucky year! Honorable mention to Chad Tracy.

2B-Rickie Weeks-remember when he was a prized rookie in 2005 at age 22? Since then he's missed chunks of time for surgery to repair ligaments on his thumb and wrist, both in separate years. Already this year he collided with J.J. Hardy and suffered a concussion. Second base is one of the more durable positions, but Weeks makes the lineup here.

3B-Chipper Jones-I could list all of his assorted aches and pains causing him to miss time over the years, but I think there's a maximum number of characters I can type, so I'll leave that alone.

SS-Nomar Garciaparra-part of the holy trinity of AL shortstops, along with Jeter and ARod. These days, he literally can't run out a grounder with out something popping or pulling. I added him to one of my teams with Stephen Drew went on the DL and that actually happened the day after I picked him up!

C-Doumit-catcher is another position like second base where it was more difficult to find a worthy player. I finally settled on Doumit, who has had 7 of 9 seasons cut short by injuries between the majors and minors. Wait, he's out two months this season. make that 8/10.

OF-Milton Bradley-see Chipper Jones, then add a temper so scary that even when he's healthy he's often ejected and/or suspended. Actually tore his ACL one year in San Diego when his first base coach tried to restrain him during an argument.

OF-J.D. Drew-may even miss more time than Chipper, which is quite an accomplishment.

OF-Griffey-how many career home runs would he have right now if he didn't miss so much time? Still a sure-fire Hall of Famer.

Honorable mention to Jim Edmonds and Rondell White, both no longer active.

No comments: