Failed Prospects League
I haven’t started creating this yet, but would there be interest in a league of nothing but “what could have been” players? The player pool would be busts of all kinds such as injury, tools not developing, failing to adjust at the MLB level, etc. I’d use their minor league career stats for most players, individual seasons for some, and for the ones that were terrible in the minors I’d use their projections or college stats (toned down a bit if college stats though). Will be using MLB and Baseball America’s prospect lists from the past to determine players and their real stats.
I’m envisioning it being a league of second chances; an opportunity to rewrite history for some of these guys.
Maybe Rick Ankiel winds up the next Koufax, or Bryan Bullington actually becomes a useful building block. Maybe Dustin Ackley wins a batting title, or Tim Beckham becomes an all-around All-Star shortstop, or Mark Prior never blows out his arm. All of these are possibilities in this league idea.
Like I said, haven’t started yet, but I wanted to gauge interest. If there’s enough interest that suggests I’d be able to fill a league, then I’d get on it immediately.
Re: Failed Prospects League
The Bad News Bears League does something along these lines- Batting average capped at .275 OPS and BA can't combine to be higher than .999 Speed capped at 7 - Pitchers minimum 1.40 Whip
Lot different gameplay than most regular PC leagues- not to everyone's taste of course but BNBL is in Season 18 and chugging along just fine, your idea may work as well good luck, let me know when you are ready to kick it off, I might want to join
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And the best part? The back and forth banter between users is unmatched! Lol
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Wow, really interesting rules!
Mine would likely not have such caps, but would definitely have some kinks in the rules. Thanks for the response! I think I’m gonna try to start chipping away at it. Still several weeks/months away, but I’ll keep you in mind!
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So Todd Van Poppel would be good? Nice. I’m in.
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Sounds like my kind of league!
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Sounds great , but what about guys who had their career cut short like lyman bostock for example.
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Yep, that would be the idea at least. I’m still working through how I’ll decide to handle progressions, how many teams there will be, and if players will be put on teams to start or begin with a massive free agency.
If they do start on teams, would it be the team that they were primarily with as a prospect or their MLB team (think Mark Appel being an Astros bust, but reaching MLB with Phils)? Or assigned by myself to try to begin everybody with balanced teams? Just stuff to figure out.
Seeing that there is some interest out there has me motivated to make it happen. So Im definitely going to go through with it. Starting right now
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Good thinking. They’d be included as well. Perhaps older aged greats that had to retire due to outside circumstances like a 33 year old Munson, 36 yr old Puckett, 30 yr old Brandon Webb, etc. I think those types work great too.
Anybody reading this that may be interested or even just has some names, post player suggestions of “what if” type of players. For the most part busted or injured prospects and players that played well under what they were projected
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There was a guy in the 60's named Steve Dalkowski who some scouts think was the fastest pitcher ever but he had no control. He routinely had games in the minors where he would strike out 15 and walk 10.I'm sure if you make this league there would be countless examples of players. Another one that comes to mind is Jim Paciorek who went 4 for 4 in his only game and never played again in the bigs. You would think that might deserve another chance.
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Ya but if you go with progression you end up with a league like all the others, if you want league of bench type guys progression spoils it
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Yeah there’s going to be all types of different “what if” and 2nd chance guys, got to have enough to fill a league after all.
Excited to start this project! I’ll post more about it in the coming weeks and start locking in owners.
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True, but my goal actually isn’t for a league of bench-type players necessarily. It’s more about just having a league full of former prospects who didn’t pan out, but playing it out as if they *had*.
For real stats I’d use their best minor league season, their college stats (toned down a bit), or their career minor league numbers. Then their potential would be based on their prospect pedigree (such as Ankiel/Van Poppel/Taveras would be classic or S), though I may opt to make most players U instead to add a wrinkle to it.
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Potential players:
Kris Benson, Brien Taylor, Joe Charboneau, Cory Snyder, Brandon Wood, Josh Booty, Matt Anderson, Matt LaPorta, Dewon Brazelton
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Don't forget Shawn Abner...
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Super Joe Charbonneau or even better the can’t miss prospect capable of throwing 106MPH Sid Finch
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Chris Pittaro! The best 2B that Sparky Anderson had ever seen. So good that he was going to move Lou Whitaker to 3B to make room for Pitarro.
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Have to admit that I'm the first to mention David Clyde....
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The dalko in my league is pretty good
Doesn’t matter if they can’t seem to hit you.
(4.2H/9 16.3BB/9 17.6K/9
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Some names on my list (haven’t added the suggestions in here yet):
SP Mark Prior
SP Brien Taylor
SP Rick Ankiel/OF
SP Bryan Bullington
SP Matt Moore
SP Daisuke Matsuzaka
SP Ben McDonald
SP Matt Anderson
SP Kris Benson
SP Paul Wilson
SP David Clyde
SP Matt Harrington
SP Greg Reynolds
SP Kyle Drabek
SP Zach Lee
SP Danny Hultzen
SP Todd Van Poppel
SP Shawn Abner
RP Alex Reyes
RP Daniel Bard
RP Juan Cruz
RP Andrew Miller
1B Lars Anderson
1B Matt LaPorta
1B Jon Singleton
1B Justin Smoak
1B Brett Wallace
1B Travis Snyder
2B Dustin Ackley
2B Ty Griffin
2B Gregg Jeffries
2B Chris Pittaro
SS Matt Bush
SS Rey Quiñones
SS Hak Ju Lee
SS Tim Beckham
SS Tyler Greene
3B Josh Vitters
3B Kevin Matian
3B Mike Olt
3B Brandon Wood
3B Drew Henson
3B Andy LaRoache
3B May Gamel
OF Cameron Maybin
OF Lewis Brinson
OF Nomar Mazara
OF Lastings Milledge
OF Ben Grieve
OF Al Chambers
OF Wily Mo Peña,
OF Oscar Taveras
OF Desmond Jennings
OF Colby Rasmus
OF Donovan Tate
OF Clint Hurdle
OF Billy Beane
OF Corey Patterson
OF Dewon Brazleton
OF Joe Borchard
RF Delmon Young
OF Rueben Rivera
OF Fernando Martinez
OF Bubba Starling
OD Dominic Brown
OF Rusney Castillo
OF Billy Hamilton
OF Michael Choice
C Hank Conger,
C JR Toweles
C Tony Sanchez
C Jesus Montero
C Danny Goodwin
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Abner played OF, not a pitcher
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My cousin,Doug Dascenzo played for the Cubs for 5 years.He didn't have a career ending injury or was a prospect,just not that good in MLB.Does he count ?
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Despite sending John Wetteland... The Expos or any MLB team never gave a real chance to huge prospect Fernando Seguignol... what a shame... this guy was 6foot5'' / 260lbs, Switch hitting beast of a 1B....
In AAA he collected through 6 seasons a .944 OPS...and he was let in there...
He end up hitting 17hrs and 23 doubles in only 366 AB in the MLB...
He later went on to get record power numbers as a switch hitter in Japan late in his carrer....
Given a regular job in the Bigs, Fernando Seguignol would of racked up impressive and probably record setting power numbers for a Switch hitter....
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In my league, it’s unlikely he would count. It’s more so for more recognizable names and people who were at least organizational top 10 prospects at one point, top 100 league prospect guys.
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Please count me in - this is a great concept
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surprised Bo Jackson hasn't been mentioned...
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I don't view Bo as a disappointment. He was a football star who also played baseball and made an all-star team. That is pretty damn good in my opinion.
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agreed - he most certainly is not a disappointment in that sense
but he does fit the criteria of the proposed league set forth by Sami Zayn - er, I mean Sammy-Z: "What could have been” players- i.e. players who did not live up to their potential for all sorts of reasons, including injury
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It’s a cool idea for a league, but I think you need to need to be more careful about how you are defining “failed prospects.” Some of the guys on that list were not failed prospects. Ben Greive, Billy Hamilton, and Colby Rasmussen were above average Major league starters for 5+ years, with career WARs of 8+ (20+ I the case of Rasmus). Andrew Miller was a dominant reliever and two-time all star with 5 seasons of 1+ WAR. Ben McDonald started 200 games in the majors with a career ERA under 4 and a career WAR of 20. Even guys like Justin Smoak, Gregg Jeffries, or Kris Benson might feel like busts because they had so much hype, but actually had long and productive major league careers as average to above-average players. It’s not consistent to put them in with guys who completely bombed out (Ruben Rivera, Jesus Montero, etc.), lost their careers because of injuries (e.g. Mark Prior), or just weren’t very good baseball players (e.g. Dustin Ackley, Dominic Brown). Of course every team hopes their prospects become superstars, but every single GM would be happy if they got five or more above average seasons out of even their top prospects.
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Brazelton was a pitcher.
Matt Anderson , Justin Thompson, Ruben Mateo ,Brien Taylor , Nishioka , Kei Igawa , Elijah Dukes , Ron Neccai , Buzz Arlett , Greg “Toe” Nash and Brian Cole would all be good names for this league.
