USVI's Baseball All-Time Dream Team

Issue #122

For my series of articles on baseball dream teams for players born in each US State, I found myself with a gap in statehood anniversary dates: no state joined the union between September 9th (California) and October 31st (Nevada). That is OK, as I’ve got a lot of 2023 recap articles planned for the weeks right after the regular season concludes.

But this gap also presented me with another opportunity. I happen to be on a vacation as I write this article—I turn 50 on September 29th, and my wife Kassy and I decided to celebrate that milestone birthday by visiting USVI, the US Virgin Islands. In particular we are staying at a resort on St. Thomas, one of the main three islands that make up the USVI. People rave about the natural beauty of St. John, with several great beaches and 80%+ of the island being parkland. St. Thomas is admittedly more built up and commercial, but there is plenty to do so we are keeping plenty busy here: mangrove kayaking, lots of great snorkeling (including a trip to St. John for that), relaxing on many great beaches, and plenty of swimming. Oh, and great food pretty much every where you turn.

While here I also found myself wondering… which major league baseball players hail from the US Virgin Islands? My assumption was the short answer would be “not many”, since the population is only a bit over 100,000, with nearly half living on St. Thomas and most of the rest living on the other two major islands of St. John and St. Croix.

That short answer is of course correct, though I did find enough players to build out an all-time dream team lineup, if not really a full roster. Pitchers from USVI, it seems, have been particularly rare. Here is the depth chart of major league players born in the US Virgin Islands:

Obviously no Hall of Famers here. In fact, only one of these players even has a career OPS+ over 100, pinch-hitter extraordinaire Jose Morales with a 103 OPS+. Here is the starting lineup I’d go with based on this roster:

1. Horace Clarke 2B (S)

2. Jerry Browne 3B (S)

3. Jose Morales DH (R)

4. Joe Christopher LF (R)

5. Midre Cummings CF (L)

6. Calvin Pickering 1B (L)

7. Elrod Hendricks C (L)

8. Alphonso Gerard RF (L)

9. Callix Crabbe SS (S)

Horace Clarke's name has at times been unfairly used as the namesake, a la "The Horace Clarke Era," of the Yankees pennant dry spell from 1964-76. Why not call it the Mel Stottlemyre Era, as he pitched for the Yankees from 1964-1974? I guess that is an extra couple of syllables. Or the "Roy White era" would be another candidate, though he played his entire career with the Yankees spanning 1965-79, so was also on the team during their late-1970s resurgence.

Nicknamed Hoss, Clarke's defense was sometimes criticized, though he led AL 2B in assists six straight years (1968-73), putouts for four in a row (1968-71), range factor per game four times, and fielding percentage once (1967). Offensively he was consistent, but didn't provide a lot as the most common leadoff hitter for the Yankees from 1965-1974. He led the AL in singles twice and at-bats twice, but never had more than 26 doubles or 6 HR in a season. He could steal bases, with 20+ in four consecutive seasons, but overall retired with a .256/.308/.313 slash line and 83 OPS+. Fun trivia... in 1970, within a one-month period, Clarke broke up three possible no-hitters in the ninth inning: he victimized Jim Rooker on June 4, Sonny Siebert on June 19, and Joe Niekro on July 2.

Jerry Browne played the majority of his major league career at 2B (609), but also got in games at 3B (155) and across the OF (175). He came up through the Rangers organization and initially skipped AAA after batting .303 with 39 SB in 1986 for their AA club. He swiped 27 bases in his rookie season in 1987, but never reached that level again. His best hitting season came in 1989 for the Indians when he batted .299 with a .370 OBP, 31 doubles and 14 SB. Browne later played for the A's and Mariners, and overall posted a .271/.351/.351 slash line and 94 OPS+ over 10 seasons.

Jose Morales toiled in the minors from 1964-73, including five seasons at AAA. He played in the majors from 1973-1984 for the Expos, Twins, Dodgers, Orioles, and A's, primarily as a pinch hitter and DH, as he was not strong defensively at his primary position of catcher (he led his league in errors as a catcher in the minor leagues four times). He had four seasons of 90+ games and a batting average over .300, but had limited power and never successfully stole a base in the majors (he was caught four times). For a while he held the single-season pinch-hits record with 25, which he set in 1975 and which stood until broken by John Vander Wal of the Rockies who had 28 in 1995.

Joe Christopher rose up through the minor leagues from 1955-59, and then played in the majors from 1959-66 for the Mets, Pirates, and Red Sox, mostly in RF but also spending some time in LF and CF. His best season came in 1964 when he had 16 HR, 8 triples, 76 RBI, a .300/.360/.466 slash line, and an impressive 135 OPS+.

Midre Cummings was a first round draft pick (29th overall) by Minnesota in 1990. He did well in the minors, but was traded before the 1992 season to the Pirates along with SP Denny Neagle for SP John Smiley. Cummings played about half his career with the Pirates, but also bounced around with six other teams over eleven years. He only played 100+ games in a season once, in 1997 for the Pirates and Phillies, when he played 115 games and had 22 doubles, 6 triples, 4 HR, and a .264/.330/.411 slash line.

Calvin Pickering was drafted by the Orioles in 1995 and quickly rose up through Rk, A, and AA ball hitting over .300 each year from 1996-98 including .309 with a 31 HR and 114 RBI in AA in 1998. AAA proved a bit harder, but in 2001 he hit 22 HR with 99 RBI and a .282 average for the AAA teams of the Orioles and Reds. He struggled to hit well in the majors, so only got into 95 games across five years and four teams (Orioles, Reds, Royals, and Red Sox). In total he had 14 HR in 310 at-bats with a .223/.329/.428 slash line and 96 OPS+.

Elrod Hendricks was a key member of the pennant winning Orioles from 1969-71, including the 1970 World Series winners. More prized for his defensive attributes as a catcher, Hendricks did provide a little pop with 12 HR in both 1969 and 1970. He played 12 years in the majors, mostly for the Orioles, but also briefly for the Cubs and Yankees, ending with a .220/.306/.361 slash line and 90 OPS+.

Alphonso Gerard was the only native of the US Virgin Islands to play in the professional Negro Leagues, which he did from 1945-48. He only got into 50 games, and produced a .253/.324/.318 slash line while mostly playing RF. He spent far more time playing in the Puerto Rican Winter League from 1944-58.

Shortstop was the lightest position on this roster. While Clarke played some SS early in his career, he is needed on this roster at his primary position of 2B. So that left only Callix Crabbe at SS, a player who worked his way up through the Brewers minor league system from 2002-2008, using his speed to hit 11 triples in 2004 and 9 in 2007, while also stealing 20+ bases four times. He was drafted by the Padres in the Rule Five Draft in 2007, and managed to get into 21 games for them in 2008, including 5 at 2B, 3 at SS, 2 in RF, and 1 in LF (the rest as a PH or PR). He only had 39 plate appearances, with a low .176/.282/.206 slash line and 39 OPS+.

Three other non-pitchers were born in the US Virgin Islands, one catcher and two outfielders. Elmo Plaskett played most of his professional career (1957-1969) in the Pirates organization, with almost all of it being in the minor leagues. He had two brief stints for Pittsburgh in 1962 and 1963, getting into a total of 17 games, 9 as a pinch hitter, and then playing catcher in 9 games and at 3B once. He went 7-35 in those games, with a slash line of .200/.222/.286.

Henry Cruz played all three OF positions in four partial major league seasons from 1975-78 for the Dodgers and White Sox. He started with the Dodgers franchise and rose up through the minors from 1972-76, playing a bit for LA in 1975 and 1976. In the 1977 he was excelling in AAA with 18 HR, 12 triples, 88 RBI, and an amazing .353/.434/.560 slash line when the White Sox selected him off waivers and called him up. As before though his success in the minors just didn't translate to the majors, and he ended his MLB career with 8 HR in 280 AB, and a .229/.291/.361 slash line and 84 OPS+.

Lastly, Jabari Blash proved he could hit minor league pitching, including 25 HR in 2013 in A+ and AA, and then 32 HR in 2015 in AA and AAA. But then he played only briefly for the Padres in 2016 and 2017, and the Angels in 2018, mostly in RF but with some games in LF. He hit 8 HR in 274 at-bats, but only posted a career .186/.306/.307 slash line.

As noted earlier, the US Virgin Islands haven't produced very many major league pitchers. Al McBean had by far the longest career, pitching in the majors in 10 seasons, mostly with the Pirates, but a little with the Padres and Dodgers as well. He was primarily a starter in 1962 and 1968, but had his greatest success as a reliever for the Pirates from 1963-1967. He went 13-3 with a 2.57 ERA and 11 saves in 1963, then had a 1.91 and 21 saves in 1964, and a 2.29 ERA and 19 saves in 1965. His career ERA was 3.13 and ERA+ was 111.

Jharel Cotton was drafted by the Dodgers in 2012 and was mostly a starter in their farm system through 2016 when he was traded to Oakland as part of a deal that brought Rich Hill and Josh Reddick to Los Angeles. Cotton did well posting a 2.15 ERA in five starts for the A's, but then had a much higher 5.58 ERA in 24 starts the following season. After undergoing Tommy John surgery, Cotton returned to the majors with the Rangers, Twins, and Giants as a reliever through 2022, before signing with the Orix Buffaloes of the Japanese league.

Lastly, Akeel Morris was drafted out of high school by the Mets in 2010 and had mixed results as a starter and reliever in the low minors through 2013. In 2014 as a reliever in A-ball he posted a 0.63 ERA with 89 SO in 57 IP, and then had a 2.05 ERA with 81 SO in 61 IP across A and AA in 2015. His only experience in the majors however came from 1 game with the Mets in 2015, 8 games with the Braves in 2017, and 9 games with the Angels in 2018. In those 18 relief appearances he pitched 22 IP with a 6.14 ERA.

As I've been doing with my dream team articles for players born in each US State, I'll conclude by noting which of the above players were born in the US Virgin Islands, but went to high school elsewhere (an alternative approach to creating such dream team rosters and lineups). Based on the information at baseball-reference.com, the following players were born in the USVI, but went to high school elsewhere:

• Midre Cummings – Florida

• Calvin Pickering – Florida

• Henry Cruz – Puerto Rico

• Callix Crabbe – Georgia

• Jharel Cotton – Virginia

On the other hand, I found that pitcher Julio Navarro was born in Puerto Rico, but went to high school in the US Virgin Islands. After pitching in the minors for eight years, Navarro was a relief pitcher in the majors for parts of six seasons, from 1962-70, for the Angels, Tigers, and Braves. His best season was in 1963 when he posted a 2.89 ERA with 12 saves for the Angels.

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.

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.