My Red Sox All-Massachusetts Team

While I spent most of the weekend sitting on the couch recovering from a minor surgical procedure and bored absolutely out of my mind, I decided to put together a team of Red Sox players whose share last names with Massachusetts towns. If you ask why I decided to do this, you'll get no answer. I have no idea.

Anyway, I set a few arbitrary parameters for my research:

• The players name has to be a phonetic or spelling match to one of Massachusetts 351 cities or towns. For instance, Mike Lowell is an exact match to the city of Lowell. John Lester is a phonetic match to the town of Leicester.
• Players who have names of Massachusetts places that are not official cities and towns have been excluded (Chad Bradford and Reggie Jefferson, for instance).
• Finally, players whose names are part of a city or town name are not included. So Ted Williams is omitted even though his name is part of Williamstown.

I came up with a nearly complete 40-man roster (see update below), with 22 pitchers and 17 hitters. So I've put together a 25-man playing roster (12 pitchers and 13 hitters) and put the other 14 players in the minors. Here is my Red Sox all-Massachusetts team, with their stats with Boston:

Starting Pitchers

Player          Years      W    L   ERA  SV      IP    SO
Josh Beckett    2006-08   48   28  4.11   0   579.2   524
Erik Hanson     1995      15    5  4.24   0   186.2   139
Bill Lee        1969-78   94   68  3.64  13  1503.1   578
John Lester     2006-08   27    8  3.81   0   354.2   262
Tim Wakefield   1995-08  164  145  4.02  22  2781.2  1797

The starting pitching is clearly the strength of the pitching staff (and the team as a whole). There really weren't any tough choices in putting this group together. The only significant starter left out was Jack Russell, who had three consecutive 18-loss seasons between 1929-31 and ended his career with four straight seasons of 5+ ERAs.

Bullpen

Player          Years      W    L   ERA  SV      IP    SO
Tom Bolton      1978-92   21   23  4.45   1   368.0   231
Wes Gardner     1986-90   17   26  4.73  12   403.0   316
Sid Hudson      1952-54   16   22  3.73   7   361.2   137
Joe Hudson      1995-97    6    7  4.40   2   126.2    62
Mike Paxton     1977      10    5  3.83   0   108.0    58
Allan Russell   1919-22   27   28  3.74  10   527.2   210
Jeff Russell    1993-94    1    9  3.61  45    74.2    63

This is a really mediocre group. When Jeff Russell and Wes Gardner are holding down the back of the bullpen, you're in big trouble. Allan Russell, Tom Bolton and Mike Paxton could all be credible long men who could also start. But I wouldn't want to turn too many leads over to this group.

Starting Line-up (by position)

Pos Player          Years       G    AB    R     H   HR   RBI   SB   OBP   SLG   AVG
C   Bob Montgomery  1970-79   387  1185  125   306   23   156    6  .296  .372  .258
1B  Rip Russell     1946-47   106   326   30    65    7    38    1  .248  .304  .199
2B  Jack Barry      1915-19   319  1074  116   241    2    78   22  .286  .268  .224
SS  Larry Gardner   1908-17  1123  3919  496  1106   16   481  134  .347  .377  .282
3B  Mike Lowell     2006-08   420  1581  216   469   58   273    7  .353  .481  .297
OF  Fred Lynn       1974-80   828  3062  523   944  124   521   43  .385  .520  .308
OF  Carl Everett    2000-01   239   905  143   254   48   166   20  .338  .519  .281
OF  Lou Clinton     1960-64   412  1427  190   359   49   198    7  .307  .440  .252

Not a great group, although Lowell, Lynn, and Everett are all good players. Larry Gardner was a decent SS for his time. But the group of hitters is so weak, I can't even find a DH. Of course, had I expanded the rules I could have included Ted Williams (Williamstown) and Carlton Fisk (Fiskdale, a section of Sturbridge), which would have made for a much more formidable lineup.

Update: Commenter Phil noted that I left off Lou Clinton. I've updated the starting lineup and bumped two other players onto the bench and the 40-man roster.

Bench (by position)

Pos Player          Years       G    AB    R     H   HR   RBI   SB   OBP   SLG   AVG
C   Tubby Spencer   1909       28    74    6    12    0     9    2  .220  .176  .162
IF  Billy Gardner   1962-63    89   283   26    70    0    13    0  .283  .307  .247
IF  Fred Hatfield   1950-52   109   200   32    39    3    19    1  .297  .295  .195
OF  Cleo Carlyle    1927       95   278   31    65    1    28    4  .315  .345  .234
OF  Roy Carlyle     1925-26   138   441   58   137    9    65    1  .341  .454  .311

This group is a whole bunch of awful. Can't hit, can't hit for power, can't run. Yet, they're better than the ones left off the active roster.

Here are the other 14 players who I left off the "active" roster, but who are also all-Massachusetts players.

Pitchers

Player          Years      W    L   ERA  SV      IP    SO
Terry Adams     2004       2    0  6.00   0    27.0    21
Bob Adams       1925       0    0  7.94   0     5.2     1
Ed Barry        1905-07    1    6  3.53   0    79.0    34
Mike Gardiner   1991-92   13   20  4.80   0   260.2   170
Josh Hancock    2002       0    1  3.68   0     7.1     6
Craig Hansen    2005-08    3    5  6.15   2    71.2    58
Sang Lee        2000       0    0  3.09   0    11.2     6
Jeff Plympton   1991       0    0  0.00   0     5.1     2
Jack Russell    1926-36   41   94  4.58   0  1215.0   202
Al Worthington  1960       0    1  7.71   0    11.2     7

Batters

Pos Player          Years       G    AB    R     H   HR   RBI   SB   OBP   SLG   AVG
OF  Walter Carlisle 1908        3    10    0     1    0     0    1  .182  .100  .100
OF  Garry Hancock   1978-82   121   254   26    58    4    26    0  .249  .323  .228
SS  Chick Maynard   1922       12    24    1     3    0     0    0   207  .125  .125
C   Lenny Webster   1999        6    14    0     0    0     1    0  .176  .000  .000
IF  Ray Webster     1960        7     3    1     0    0     1    0  .200  .000  .000

Jack Barry, who was 90-62 as a player/manager for the 1917 Red Sox is the team's manager.

Hmmmm. Maybe I'll see if I can do the same thing with the other Boston teams...

Tags: Boston Red Sox Massachusetts