Kevin Bass
Bryn Smith
Juan Samuel
Sam Horn
BEST PHOTO
I like the Smith card. It's two photos probably from the same spring training game but taken from very different angles. On the front, the guy in the background is a 3B, probably Todd Zeile even though he was primarily a catcher that year. On the back, the background player is probably 2B Jose Oquendo.
I dig the Kevin Bass photo card, too. The posed shot on the front is unusual and neat. But, he stole Terry Kennedy's bat (#16).
Nice smirk for Juan Samuel, too, and an action shot showing him do what he did best (run, I mean, not get thrown out...heh.)
BEST STAT
Juan Samuel led the universe in strikeouts from 1984 to 1987, including leading the NL each of those years. My eye tracks down that list to #5
BEST IN 1990
Hmm, this is a toughie. Bryn Smith had a down year in 1990 and Bass and Samuel both had slightly below-average OPS+ numbers. I'm going with Sam Horn, who had 14 HR and 45 RBI in just 79 games. The knock on my choice is that he played only those 79 games.
BEST ANAGRAMS
Kevin Bass = Vans & bikes
Sam Horn = Harm son (of Sam Horn..?)
Tough anagrams here as the short names "Bryn Smith" and "Juan Samuel" aren't very fertile material.
BEST CAREER
Another very tough decision. Bass, Smith, and Samuel finished with slightly above-average numbers. Horn finished with really good numbers except for perhaps the most important one: games played. I can't pick a batter with just 389 career games as having had the best career. Nobody had much post-season experience, with Bass and Samuel just getting a whiff each. (No pun intended on the use of the word "whiff" although we could certainly apply that term to Samuel and Horn both.)
Anyway, at the end of the day, I'm going with Juan Samuel. He was runner-up for Rookie of the Year, a 3-time All-Star, topped 40 steals 4 different times and twice led the league in triples.
I can't in good conscience vote for Kevin Bass sans mustache. He looks naked!
ReplyDeleteJuan Samuel is currently coaching third base for the O's, and is an unmitigated disaster a la Dale Sveum. Some of the players pointed out his resemblance to Billy Dee Williams, which I can't believe I'd never considered. Wikipedia claims that his son is named Samuel. If that's true, he should be arrested.
I had the same thought about Bass and his mustache.
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