Florida's Baseball All-Time Dream Team

Issue #167

This is the 47th article in a series where I am creating all-time dream teams for players born in each of the fifty US states. I’m publishing each write-up on the anniversary date that the particular state joined the union. So far I’ve covered Maryland, Louisiana, Minnesota, South Carolina, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, West Virginia, New Hampshire, Virginia, Idaho, Wyoming, New York, Colorado, Missouri, Hawaii, California, Nevada, North and South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Illinois, Delaware, Mississippi, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Alabama, New Jersey, Iowa, Texas, Georgia, Alaska, Utah, New Mexico, Connecticut, Michigan, Kansas, Massachusetts, Oregon, Arizona, Ohio, and Nebraska.

Next up is Florida, which became the 27th US State on March 3rd, 1845 (according to Wikipedia.)

Important caveat to what follows: I’m creating these all-time dream teams based on the birthplace data available at baseball-reference.com. I realize this might mean some players will appear for a state’s all-time dream that seems odd, e.g., a player who was born in one state but lived there only briefly, while then spending most of his youth, or especially critical years playing baseball in high school in another state. So that is an important caveat to the below dream team roster—and I’ll discuss the players that I know went to high school in a state other than Florida towards the end of this article (and vice-versa, those born elsewhere but who went to high school in Florida.)

Here is the all-time dream team I came up with for players born in Florida:

Florida has long been a very populous state—currently it is third largest, behind only California and Texas. That combined with having a warm climate that allows for baseball essentially year-round, I expected a Florida dream team to be pretty loaded. The above roster is indeed full of stars, though I notice a bias towards more recent players with very few from the 1950s and earlier. Also, as you’ll see at the end of this write-up, there have been a great many players born elsewhere who later went to High School in Florida—some are from Cuba, but others likely located there due to the baseball-friendly climate.

There are six Hall of Famers on the above roster, including SP Steve Carlton, 3B/LF Chipper Jones, LF Tim Raines, CF/RF Andre Dawson, 1B Fred McGriff, and Negro Leagues star SS/2B Pop Lloyd. Though he played more often at SS early in his career, I listed Lloyd as the starting 2B for two reasons: this roster was relatively weaker at 2B than SS, and that is the position he played more often late in his career and in leagues that are now recognized as major leagues.

The position with the most depth above is obviously 1B, where I decided to include six guys, including Steve Garvey who some support as a Hall of Famer, and Anthony Rizzo who could be in that conversation one day as well. Beyond 1B, there is RF/LF/3B Gary Sheffield who had great numbers in his career and has come close to HOF election. And like Rizzo, SS Trea Turner, 3B/SS Manny Machado and CF/LF Andrew McCutchen are still playing and adding to their career accomplishments.

Starting lineups for this all-time dream team could look like this:

Against RHP:

1. Tim Raines LF (S)

2. Pop Lloyd 2B (L)

3. Trea Turner SS (R)

4. Chipper Jones 3B (S)

5. Fred McGriff / Boog Powell DH (L)

6. Anthony Rizzo 1B (L)

7. Gary Sheffield RF (R)

8. Andre Dawson CF (R)

9. Mike Napoli / Charles Johnson C (R)

Against LHP:

1. Tim Raines LF (S)

2. Trea Turner SS (R)

3. Chipper Jones 3B (S)

4. Gary Sheffield RF (R)

5. Andre Dawson CF (R)

6. Steve Garvey 1B (R)

7. Manny Machado / J.D. Martinez / Andrew McCutchen DH (R)

8. Mike Napoli / Charles Johnson C (R)

9. Pop Lloyd 2B (L)

I like the switch-hitting speedster Tim Raines as the leadoff man, though others such as Pop Lloyd or Trea Turner could also leadoff on Raines’ days off. Those guys all make great table-setters for the power bats that follow, which admittedly could be arranged in a variety of ways in these lineups.

As noted, I included a lot of 1B on this roster, so I’ve tried get several of them into these lineups with Anthony Rizzo and Steve Garvey platooning at 1B, and then Fred McGriff and Boog Powell getting the DH at-bats against RHP, and then Manny Machado, J.D. Martinez, and Andrew McCutchen splitting the few DH at-bats against LHP. All of those guys would also make great pinch-hitters off the bench, as would Hal McRae, Luis Gonzalez, J.D. Drew, Josh Donaldson, Tino Martinez, and Dick Lundy—a Negro Leagues star (1923-29, 32-35, 37) who according to the stats available at baseball-reference.com had a .331/.394/.477 slash line and 129 OPS+ in 2,016 official at-bats.

The catcher spot lacks a standout starter by all-time dream team standards, but I like a mix of Mike Napoli for his offense and Charles Johnson for his defense getting most of the playing time. And if Boog Powell (or any of the other slower guys above) got on base in a critical moment, I’d be happy to use either Mickey Rivers or Vince Coleman as pinch-runners.

There were many other position players that I considered and deserve at least honorable mention, such as current stars RF Kyle Tucker, 1B Pete Alonso, SS Bo Bichette, and RF/3B Nick Castellanos. Others include SS/2B Scott Fletcher, CF Denard Span, 2B Davey Johnson, OF Marlon Byrd, 3B/SS Howard Johnson, 3B/1B Dave Magadan, SS David Eckstein, CF/RF Carl Everett, 2B/1B Daniel Murphy, 1B Glenn Davis, 1B Eric Hosmer, C Jonathan Lucroy, 3B/RF Larry Parrish, CF Brian McRae, 3B Dean Palmer, LF Lou Piniella, and RF/LF Dante Bichette.

I’ll also note that the great Buck O’Neill was born in Florida, and was a fine ball player in the Negro Leagues. However, he primarily made the Hall of Fame (belatedly, most would say) based on his important off-the-field work rather than his playing stats, which according to baseball-reference.com indicate a .256/.316/.357 slash line and 95 OPS+ in 10 major-league seasons from 1937-1948.

As for the pitching staff, the ace is pretty clearly lefty Steve Carlton, who was a 10-time All-Star and took home four Cy Young Awards. I think it is equally clear that Zack Greinke deserves the second spot on this dream-team’s rotation, as at this point he has a career 225-156 record, 3.49 ERA, and 121 ERA+ over 20 seasons in the majors. He’s a six-time All-Star, has six Gold Glove Awards, and two ERA titles, including in 2009 when he took home the AL Cy Young Award.

After those two, you could debate who should come next between two NY Mets greats in Jacob deGrom and Dwight Gooden. You could also make a case for seven-time All-Star Chris Sale, who at the very least deserves the fifth and final spot in the starting rotation.

In terms of peak performance there is a significant drop-off after those five guys, but I included seven other starters that you could argue over how to rank. That group includes Ted Trent, a player who according to baseball-reference.com had a career 3.38 ERA and 126 ERA+ over 11 seasons in major Negro Leagues spanning from 1927-1939.

The bullpen is headlined by Tom “Flash” Gordon who had a 21-year major league career that started with a mix of starting and relief work before switching to being a closer in 1998. He led the AL with 46 saves for Boston that year, his first of three All-Star campaigns.

Bobby Thigpen (1986-1994) had four seasons with 30+ saves, including in 1990 when he posted a 1.83 ERA and set a new major league record with 57 saves. After those two you could debate how to rank the many other relievers I included such as Cody Allen, Jay Howell, and others. I rounded out the pen by including James “Mudcat” Grant, who pitched more often as a starter in his 14-year career, but concluded with some excellent seasons as a reliever, such as in 1968 when he posted a 2.08 ERA in 95 IP for the Dodgers, and in 1970 when he had a 1.86 ERA in 135.1 IP for the A’s and Pirates.

What about players who went to High School in Florida?

As noted at the outset of this article, and as I’ve done for my other US State dream team write-ups, what if you change the criteria from players who were born in the state of Florida to players who grew up—which we’ll define as going to high school—in the state of Florida?

First off, there were several players on the above roster who were born in Florida but went to high school elsewhere:

• 1B Bill White – Ohio

• 3B Josh Donaldson – Alabama

• RF/CF J.D. Drew – Georgia

• RP Jay Howell – Colorado

• RP Billy Taylor – Georgia

• RP Matt Mantei – Michigan

All fine ballplayers, but given the depth of stars available, losing them from this all-time dream team would barely be noticed.

On the other hand, as I noted earlier, I found a huge number of players who were born elsewhere but went to high school in the state of Florida:

• 1B Rafael Palmeiro – Cuba

• 1B Prince Fielder – California

• 3B Wade Boggs – Nebraska

• 3B Mike Lowell – Puerto Rico

• 3B/SS Travis Fryman – Kentucky

• 3B/2B/CF Chone Figgins – Georgia

• SS Francisco Lindor – Puerto Rico

• SS/3B Álex Rodríguez – New York

• C Bill Freehan – Michigan

• C Jason Varitek – Michigan

• C A.J. Pierzynski – New York

• OF/DH José Canseco – Cuba

• RF Danny Tartabull – Puerto Rico

• CF/LF Johnny Damon – Kansas

• CF Lorenzo Cain – Georgia

• LF Michael Brantley – Washington

• LF Shannon Stewart – Ohio

• LF Raúl Ibañez – New York

• LF Mike Greenwell – Kentucky

• SP Don Sutton – California

• SP Charlie Hough – Hawaii

• SP Kenny Rogers – Georgia

• RP Jonathan Papelbon – Louisiana

• RP Danny Graves – Viet Nam

• RP Tyler Clippard – Kentucky

• RP Craig Lefferts – Germany 

Using this alternate dream team criterion, all of these players would at least deserve consideration, and many would need to be included. I think the most obvious guys would be SS/3B Álex Rodríguez, 3B Wade Boggs, 1B Rafael Palmeiro, OF/DH José Canseco, C Bill Freehan, SS Francisco Lindor, SP Don Sutton, and RP Jonathan Papelbon. Those stars, along with a few others, would drastically change the look of such a Florida All-Time Dream Team from the one shown above.

All data is from Baseball-Reference.com, and also their subscription service Stathead.com. If you are a big sports fan, be sure to check out the latest features at Stathead and the Sports Reference family of sites. The state map, flag, flower, and bird images are from Wikipedia.

Did you know? I wrote a book with the same title as this Substack newsletter / blog: Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises. It was published in early 2019, by ACTA Sports, the publisher of the annual Bill James Handbook and other popular titles. You can learn more about it at www.NowTakingTheField.com, or buy directly at Amazon and other booksellers.