1989 Debut All Stars

While looking through research for the trivia question, I came across an interesting fact: 1989 was a pretty great year for players to debut. So here's my crack at the All-Star team for players who debuted in 1989:

• Catcher- Chris Hoiles. He's not a great option, but it's not even close. Hoiles led all 1989 rookies by far in HR, BB, OBP and SLG over the course of his career. His .833 OPS for a catcher was nothing to sneeze at either while playing his entire career for Baltimore. Backups: Darrin Fletcher, Lenny Webster, Joe Oliver and Joe Girardi.
• Firstbase: John Olerud. One of the most underrated players of the 90s, Olerud racked up 2239 hits, 500 2B, 255 HR, 1230 RBIs, 1275 BB to 1016 K and a nice line of .295 /.398/.465 to go along with Gold Glove defense. If he hadn't stepped on his own bat in the 2004 playoffs, I still think the Yankees get by the Red Sox. Backup: Paul Sorrento 
• Secondbase/Shortstop: Omar Vizquel/Jose Vizcaino. There were no pure shortstops so I needed to make this a combined category. Vizquel isn't much of an OBP guy (.338 career so far), but he has racked up 2,677 hits while playing amazing defense. At second base is Vizcaino who playing second for the Yankees in the 2000 World Series went 4-6 in Game 1 and won the game off Turk Wendell in the 12th. Backup: Gary DiSarcina.
• Thirdbase: Robin Ventura. It's Ventura in a very close race over Todd Ziele. Ventura's stats are just better. Amazingly, both played 1989 to 2004, but Ventura stuck to third base longer. Plus, Ventura had a great nickname: Batman. Backups: Ziele, Dean Palmer (who was actually a pretty good player), and Mike Blowers
• Outfield: Larry Walker/Ken Griffey/Sammy Sosa. This is by far the toughest category. I could have easily put in Albert Belle, Juan Gonzalez, David Justice, Marquis Grissom or Steve Finley in this. This is also the suspected steroids-user position (Greg Vaughn and Glenallen Hill as well). Why Walker, Griffey and Sosa? Mostly because of longevity. Belle was great, but his career was done by 2000. Juan Gone had a few tremendous years in there and Justice won a bunch of rings but neither came close to the top 3 overall. Marquis Grissom was another one of those 90s underrated players (the guy hit 227 HRs and stole 429 bases) and Steve Finley had longevity and 2500+ hits and 300+ HRs. But Walker had the highest OBP and SLG of the group (though Albert Belle wins out in OPS+ because of the Coors Field factor). Sosa and Griffey both hit over 600 HRs and were 1-2 in RBIs. I also think, steroid-era aside, those three are the best bets for the Hall Of Fame. Backups: Belle, Gonzalez, Justice, Grissom, Finley, Vaughn, Hill, and Deion Sanders.
• Starting Pitching: Kenny Rogers/Kevin Appier/Andy Benes/Kevin Tapani/Jim Abbott. I think this team is going to have to score a lot of runs. I'll go backwards on why they were on this list. Jim Abbott was my throw-in. It could have been Wilson Alvarez, Jaime Navarro or Ben McDonald (good stats, but not enough longevity, especially for a #1 overall pick). But after seeing my only no-hitter in person courtesy of Jim Abbott, plus the inspiration he was to a lot of disabled kids, he gets the #5 slot. #4 is Tapani who leads this group with a 2.68 K/BB ration, only walking 554 in 2,265 innings (2.20 BB/9). #3 is Andy Benes who had a 7.17 SO/9 ratio, recording exactly 2,000 Ks in his career . #2 is Kevin Appier whose 121 ERA+ and 3.74 ERA is tops on this list as is his 12 SHO. And Kenny Rogers was definitely the best of this bunch (sad as that is), winning 219 games with the best winning % and (finished 133 games as well with 28 saves). Rogers finally was the ace in 2006, leading the Tigers to the World Series against the Cardinals (though a "foreign substance" may have aided him there). Backups: Alvarez, Navarro, McDonald, and Mark Gardner.
• Bullpen: Mike Stanton/Mike Fetters/Rudy Seanez/Stan Belinda. I decided to just go with a few guys here. It's really Stanton and everyone else. Again, this team will need to win with their bats. Rudy Seanez was the surprise person on this list. He had the most longevity and the highest SO/9 ratio. Seanez was followed on the SO/9 ratio by Stan Belinda and Belinda had the highest K/BB ratio and lowest WHIP. Mike Fetters was good enough to save 100 games so we could use him as our backup closer. Backups: Mark Guthrie, Chuck McElroy, Jason Grimsley and Xavier Hernandez.
• Closer: John Wetteland. 330 career saves with a 2.93 ERA. ERA+ of 148. There wasn't anyone even close. No matter how many "heart attack saves" Wetteland may have had with the Yankees.

How would this team do? I don't know. If they were an AL team and had the DH, I'd put Albert Belle there and having bats like Juan Gone and David Justice off the bench and Marquis Grissom to pinch run would be helpful. The order would go something like: Vizquel (just because of lack of leadoff man), Walker, Olerud, Griffey, Sosa, Belle, Ventura, Hoiles and Vizcaino. Not too shabby. I think this is probably an 85 win team. Maybe more, maybe less. But now looking back on 20 years ago, some pretty great players debuted in 1989.