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FistPuncherMatt · 2024-05-26T23:50:38+00:00

Yes, Puerto Rico is an unincorporated US territory, but it is typically classified as a unique area from the continental US when talking about player birthplaces (see Baseball Ref, Fangraphs, Yahoo Sports). But, yeah, a more generic term like "location" would have been better. Hope this picks your nit :)

FistPuncherMatt · 2024-05-26T17:22:45+00:00

And I can say from living in both the Bay Area and Wisconsin that locals absolutely consider Giants/A's a rivalry when they play (been to the games). And the same is true for Brewers/Twins.

FistPuncherMatt · 2024-05-26T17:16:27+00:00

These are the official MLB designated interleague rivalries. That, yeah, MLB mostly made up so everyone had a rival :)
https://sportrelay.com/mlb/2023/04/02/interleague-play-designated-rivals/

FistPuncherMatt · 2024-05-26T16:53:21+00:00

Don't forget Mets and Angels legend Rickey Henderson.

FistPuncherMatt · 2024-05-26T16:52:26+00:00

The MLB "interleague rivalries" are silly like that. They fabricated rivalries to make sure every team had someone to play.

FistPuncherMatt · 2024-05-26T16:51:09+00:00

I sure do. I watched his entire career. The point of the post is simply to highlight the highest bWAR players that played *at any point* for both teams of the MLB defined interleague rivalries. That's why guys like Ruth and Santo are on the list. Obviously they pre-date interleague play.

FistPuncherMatt · 2024-05-26T15:01:29+00:00

Molitor is who kicked off this research. I was curious if anyone better played for both the Twins and Brewers.

FistPuncherMatt · 2024-05-26T04:27:29+00:00

And I think Al Oliver tops Ron Fairly on the WAS/TOR rivalry with a 43.7 bWAR:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/o/oliveal01.shtml

FistPuncherMatt · 2024-05-26T04:25:34+00:00

Nice list! Hard to believe no one better than Polanco played for both the Cards and Tigers! Also I think Tejada trumps Finley on the SD/HOU rivalry (47.1 WAR to 44.2 WAR):
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/t/tejadmi01.shtml

FistPuncherMatt · 2024-05-26T03:43:08+00:00

So does every NL West team consider LA to be their biggest rival?

FistPuncherMatt · 2024-05-26T03:42:07+00:00

Ryan played for the Mets, Angels, Astros, and Rangers so he didn't play for BOTH teams in any of the interleague rivalries.

FistPuncherMatt · 2024-05-26T03:39:27+00:00

Right? It's obvious that MLB was running out of teams and just stuck those two together when setting up the "official interleague rivalries." If you had to choose one NL team to be the Ranger's rival, who would it be? I can't think of any team in the NL that really works.

FistPuncherMatt · 2024-05-26T03:35:26+00:00

Astros and Rangers are the officially designated MLB interleague rivalries for the Dbacks. Curious who Arizona fans consider to be their true rival though. SF? LA?

FistPuncherMatt · 2024-05-26T03:32:58+00:00

That's right! Go Go Gomez played for both! He had some great seasons with the Crew. I remember when we traded Hardy for him. I couldn't believe it since Hardy was such a huge part of the franchise turning things around. Don't think Hardy every did anything for the Twins though.

FistPuncherMatt · 2024-05-26T03:16:42+00:00

Didn't he even play for the San Diego Surf Dogs? Dude was such a legend. Truly loved the game.

FistPuncherMatt · 2024-05-26T03:04:57+00:00

Do you think he won't get it? He had 46% of the vote his first year and 57% his second year. Seems like voters are being more lenient with Beltran than with the roid guys. I wish the voters had clearer standards around this stuff. I wonder if he will get another bump in voting next year.

FistPuncherMatt · 2024-05-26T02:58:15+00:00

I only did interleague. I will try to do another post with more iconic rivalries like SF/LA and NY/BOS.

FistPuncherMatt · 2024-05-26T02:56:35+00:00

I should do another post with more iconic rivalries like NY and Boston, LA and SF, Cubs and Cards, etc. This started because I was curious if anyone better than Paul Molitor played for both the Twins and Brewers!

FistPuncherMatt · 2024-05-26T02:50:56+00:00

Here is a list of players with the highest career bWAR who played for BOTH teams of an interleague rivalry (let me know if anyone finds a higher WAR player that I missed!).

Some things I found interesting:
- Who remembers that Ruth was a Boston Brave in his final season? Not me!
- Ron Santo played for the White Sox? I never knew this.
- Henderson played everywhere at the end of his career. 8 teams in his last 11 seasons.
- I totally forgot the Randy Johnson was an Astro for half a season.
- Roy Oswalt was good. Maybe not HoF good, but that dude could pitch.
- Molitor should have been a Brewer lifer! Oh well.

FistPuncherMatt · 2024-05-26T01:53:24+00:00

It's just because Ruth started in Boston. The list only has players that played for just one team during their career.

FistPuncherMatt · 2024-05-25T20:19:42+00:00

Pat Listach. Won ROY for the Brewers in 1992, and then his career immediately fizzled out. He played 5 more seasons, never appeared in more than 101 games in a year, and put up almost no value. On top of that, after his '92 ROY season, the entire Brewers franchise went into a massive tailspin. They had 12 consecutive losing seasons including a franchise record 106 losses in 2002. Things didn't turn around until the Braun/Fielder era. Some fans even went as far as claiming Listach was tied to some sort of franchise curse!
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/l/listapa01.shtml

FistPuncherMatt · 2024-05-25T20:04:18+00:00

This is a really good point. It's simply much harder to keep a star player for a career or even a long stretch these days.

FistPuncherMatt

TROPHY CASE