Constructing a team of players who have been both Padres and Orioles

The timing of this post is apropos to nothing, as the Padres and Orioles didn’t just make a trade, and they certainly aren’t playing each other; I found it mostly completed in my drafts, so I figured there was no time like the present to finish it up and move one step closer to finally completing this series. The first one of these combined team posts that I’ve done was the Padres/ Marlins edition... and that was over five years ago, so yeah, it’s really beyond time to get it over with. After this one, I’ll have only the Angels, Astros, Pirates, and Cardinals left to do.

For those of you unfamiliar with the premise: It’s pretty basic. I just use the Baseball Reference Multi-team Finder tool to bring up the list of players who have played for the Padres and whichever other team, then I pare that down into a 25-man roster. I go by each player’s entire career and peak, not just how they did when they were with one or both of the teams in question. It’s fairly informal and a bit subjective, but above all, supremely dorky.

More Combined Teams: Padres/Blue Jays Padres/Phillies Padres/Expos Padres/Red Sox Padres/Rays Padres/Mariners Padres/Dodgers Padres/Rangers Padres/Braves Padres/A’s Padres/Mets Padres/Rockies Padres/White Sox Padres/Twins Padres/Royals Padres/Giants Padres/Indians Padres/Diamondbacks Padres/ Marlins Padres/ Brewers Padres/ Reds Padres/ Cubs Padres/ Tigers Padres/ Yankees

Starting lineup:

C - Terry Kennedy - Bats L, 96 OPS+, 21.5 bWAR/ 14 seasons

Terry Kennedy was a very good hitting catcher in an era in which that was a relative scarcity. His best seasons happened in brown uniforms from 1981 through ‘86, but he did make his third All-Star team in his first year with the O’s, 1987.

1B - Derrek Lee - R, 122, 34.3/ 15

Photo by Rich Pilling/MLB Photos via Getty Images

D. Lee went on to have a terrific career and a monstrous offensive peak, but not a day goes by that I don’t say a quick, silent thanks to Kevin Towers for trading him for that one season of Kevin Brown.

2B - Roberto Alomar - S, 116, 66.8/ 17

Photo by Allen Kee/WireImage

Alomar is the lone Hall-of-Famer out of the 85 guys who have been Padrioles, with no one else coming close despite how inevitable it once seemed that this squad’s center fielder would be a shoo-in.

SS - Miguel Tejada - R, 108, 46.9/ 16

Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images

Tejada is one of two MVP award winners on this roster, along with that just-mentioned center fielder. He also made six All-Star teams, all before 2010 when he brought his spotlight to San Diego.

3B - Mike Pagliarulo - L, 93, 10.6/ 11

On the other hand, the third baseman known to his teammates as Pags is the lone member of this starting lineup who was never selected to an All-Star squadron. He was still no slouch out there though, generally blending in to his surroundings with yawn-inducing lines never far from league averages.

LF - Joe Carter - R, 105, 19.3/ 16

Joe Carter’s stats — and how they compared to those of his contemporaries — are in the school as Pagliarulo’s, but there’s something to be said for timing.

CF - Fred Lynn - L, 129, 50.0/ 17

Looking back at how Lynn’s career played out is one of those things I try to avoid. It’s such a bummer. He had the world in his palm, he was his day’s Mike Trout, and then... well, if only there was a dramatic way to end that sentence. Maybe there’s something to that tired chestnut about it being better to burn out rather than fade away.

RF - Steve Finley - L, 104, 44.0/ 19

Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images

I figure that you, like me, see Steve Finley’s name and associate him with center field, but there is really no unseating Peak Lynn. There’s no sleeping on Peak Finley though, and he was beyond decent for many a year even when he was far from his best.

Bench:

C/1B - Ramon Hernandez - R, 96, 21.6/ 15

Photo by Kirby Lee/Getty Images

Underrated in his day and unfairly forgotten after it, Ramon Hernandez had a beyond-solid career. On a side note, I still have a Venezuela shirsey bearing his name and number from the first World Baseball Classic:

IF/OF - Jerry Hairston, Jr - R, 85, 13.6/ 16

Photo by Andy Hayt/Getty Images

Shrek’s older brother makes the imaginary squad thanks to his real-world versatility. None of his numbers in any niche of any facet of the game jump out, but he was alright enough at enough things to merit inclusion just because his presence and ability to look passable anywhere allows for some roster flexibility that wouldn’t be there with, y’know, good backups at each spot he could play.

OF/1B/C - Curt Blefary - L, 115, 11.0/ 8

Photo by: John Vawter Collection/Diamond Images/Getty Images

Buffalo! He had a solid career, but like anyone who played for the Seattle Pilots or Houston Astros in 1969, I’ll remember him above all for his inclusion in the greatest book of all time, Ball Four.

RF/3B/C/1B - Keith Moreland - R, 104, 3.3/ 12

Photo by Owen C. Shaw/Getty Images

Like most of his benchmates in this exercise — and some of the starters — “Zonk” could help his team out no matter where his skipper told him to stand that day. Moreland played more games in right field than anywhere else, but he also started as many as 148 games at third base in one season, started behind the plate 137 times in his dozen seasons, and played in over a season’s worth of games in both left field and at first base.

OF - Al Bumbry - L, 104, 24.4/ 14

Photo by Owen C. Shaw/Getty Images

Bumbry is like Charles Nagy in that he was very good, I have nothing but admiration for him, and yet I wish he never played for my favorite team. If not for his 68 games hitting at the Mendoza Line for the 1985 Padres, Bumbry would have had a 13-year, one-team career. There’s something special — dare I say sacred? — about guys who put it all out there for one team; I call this phenomenon “Gwynning”.

Starting rotation:

Kevin Brown - Throws R, 127 ERA+, 68.3 bWAR/ 19 seasons

Thanks for the National League championship, Brownie. I know a lot of people dump on him for signing with the Dodgers the next season, even though he said things about wanting to be closer to his Georgia roots, but hopefully everyone who had those takes has grown up by now.

Ha, who am I kidding? I’m sure there is still many a tool in the greater San Diego metropolitan area who still, upon seeing Brown’s name, quickly types out “TRADER!!!1!”

David Wells - L, 108, 53.6/ 21

JEFF HAYNES/AFP/Getty Images

Boomer has led a charmed life, and just a small part of that was his long-stellar results at his day job.Never a Cy Young Award winner, but often in the mix, Wells was a reliable second-slot starter for longer than the entirety of most careers.

Pat Dobson - R, 100, 16.9/ 11

Photo by Louis Requena/MLB Photos via Getty Images

Dobson is most certainly best recalled for being part of a history-making quartet in Baltimore, as part of the first and likely last set of four teammates to be credited with 20 wins apiece in a season. Back in 1971 he strong-armed his way into the books along with showermates Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, and Mike Cuellar.

Fernando Valenzuela - L, 104, 42.1/ 17

Second-act Fernando was a far cry from the mania-inducing younger version, but he still got the job done as he hopped around the league in the ‘90s.

Storm Davis - R, 99, 17.4/ 13

George Earl Davis pitched well everywhere but San Diego, and if you’d like the specifics, well then, I guess I’m good at clickbait.

Bullpen:

Randy Myers - L, 123, 15.7/ 14

TED MATHIAS/AFP/Getty Images

You know what rhymes with ‘Myers’? ‘Two-time Friars’. He was one of those, although he was a lot more welcome the first go-’round. The second time was one of the most infamous waiver-wire block attempts which backfired, but it still wasn’t all that bad. I mean, it wasn’t my money.

Scott Williamson - R, 136, 8.7/ 9

Williamson was a textbook phenom, or as Jim Bouton used to write it before it became an accepted and widely understood word, “phee-nom”. He notched his lone All-Star nod in his National League Rookie of the Year season and had a few more impressive showings left in the tank for the following few summers, but he was drained by the mid-aughts, at which time Padres and Orioles fans never had any reason to get enthused when he came through the gate.

Steve Reed - R, 132, 18.0/ 14

One time I was having a completely unrelated conversation with an acquaintance who used to play Major League Baseball and somehow the chit-chat came around to him unsolicitedly blurting out that Steve Reed has “the biggest hammer you’re ever gonna see”. Just to make it one hundred percent clear, by ‘hammer’ he meant penis.

Brad Brach - R, 134, 6.4/ 7

Photo by Denis Poroy/Getty Images

I don’t know anything about Brad Brach’s hammer, but he’s darned good at his job, and his wife is also superb at hers. She’s a singer/songwriter, and while her jams aren’t really my cup of tea (I like coffee), it’s clear that the skill is there in spades.

Jesse Orosco - L, 126, 23.9/ 24

Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images

Bob Dylan’s doppleganger finally checked off the Padres in his final season, 2003, but was much younger when he played for the O’s- only in his late-30s and early-40s. Between those two spots and time wearing the polyester of the Mets, Dodgers, Clevelanders, Brewers, Yankees, and Twins, the Santa Barbara native pitched in an MLB-record 1,252 games.

Luis DeLeon - R, 116, 3.4/ 7

Photo by Bruce Bennett Studios/Getty Images

DeLeon appeared in 1,045 fewer games than Orosco, but he was very effective, especially in the two seasons in which he put it all on the table. His third-highest tally of games in a season was 32, but he was lights-out the two times he exceeded 60, 1982 and ‘83. It was downhill from there but still, there’s no taking away those beautiful ERA+ showings.

Ryan Webb - R, 115, 3.8/ 8

Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

Webb’s body of work is not all that dissimilar from that of DeLeon, but he gets bonus points for being traded for the eternally lovable Cameron Maybin. With the bouncing around that Cam has done, it’s a surprise that he’s not eligible for this particular combined team, but give it a year or two and I imagine I’ll have to revisit this and try to convince myself that he’s worthy of bumping Bumbry.

Organizational depth:

C - Nick Hundley, Greg Myers, Mark Parent

IF - Alan Wiggins, Everth Cabrera, Chris Gomez, Manny Alexander, Jemile Weeks, Jace Peterson, Deivi Cruz, Luis Sardinas, Jerry DaVanon, Luis Lopez, David Newhan

OF - Seth Smith, Jay Payton, Gary Matthews Jr, Merv Rettenmund, Jack Cust, Oscar Salazar, Trenidad Hubbard, Sir Eugene Kingsale, Jarvis Brown, Jon Knott

P - Randy Wolf, Andrew Cashner, Edwin Jackson, Adam Eaton, Craig Lefferts, Odrisamer Despaigne, Heathcliff Slocumb, Ricky Bones, Mark Thurmond, Chuck McElroy, Tim Worrell, Gene Harris, Tim Stoddard, Jaret Wright, Cla Meredith, Brian Williams, Troy Patton, Danny Boone, Tom Phoebus, Pete Smith, Aaron Rakers, Mike Oquist, Bud Norris, Mike Griffin, Al Severinsen, Rodrigo Lopez, Sean Henn, Brian Falkenborg, Tom Dukes, Jim Brower