In a recent thread here on Da Box, the self-awarely-named Cynicalguy ranted, "I remember [Richard Griffin] writing a column comparing the Jays all-time team vs the Expos all-time team and commenting that the Expos all-time team was better ... which was laughable."
Let's see if that holds up ...
For our purposes here, we will only consider Jays who played during the time the Expos actually existed, so no Aaron Hill and no Orlando Hudson who was in the big leagues only two and a half years before the move ... yes this is a bit unfair as it gives the Expos an eight-year jump on the baby Jays as a franchise, but you'll see that almost universally, the players listed below are from the "overlap" years.
For our position-by-position comparisons, eligibility-wise, those named have played with the team long enough to appear in at least one of the franchise's "counting stats" Top 10 lists as published by BaseballReference.org. Does this list miss anyone? Post your objections, corrections and compliments below ...
C:
This one's a no-brainer. Apologies to Ernie Whitt and Pat Borders, but Gary Carter is one of the top 10 catchers in MLB history. Advantage: Expos. (Expos up, 1-0).
1B:
A surprisingly weak position for the historial Expos, though Andres Galarraga was fine player -- better than, say, Willie Upshaw and John Mayberry, but lagging behind all of John Olerud, Fred McGriff and Carlos Delgado. Advantage: Blue Jays (Tied, 1-1).
2B:
The Expos had an awful lot of quality keystoners in their abbreviated history --Jose Vidro, Delino DeShields, Mike Lansing, Ron Hunt, even Dave Cash. But with apologies to Damaso Garcia, this spot goes to future Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar. Advantage: Blue Jays (Jays up, 2-1).
3B:
At the hot corner, Kelly Gruber was a fine player and Gance MullinIorg was one of the great platoons of all time, but neither lives up to either of Tim Wallach or Larry Parrish. Advantage: Expos. (Tied, 2-2).
SS:
Rounding out the infield at shortstop, Orlando Cabrera and Hubie Brooks were both All-Stars in the six-hole for Les Expos, but clearly the best Canadian franchise shortstop ever was Tony Fernandez. Manny Lee is a distant second on the franchise list and well behind both Cabrera and Brooks. Advantage: Blue Jays. (Jays up, 3-2).
LF:
We love George Bell and have a respectful nod for Shannon Stewart, but Tim Raines ... c'mon, he was Tim Raines! Advantage: Expos. (Tied 3-3).
CF:
The young Vernon Wells was good, Devon White could pick it with anyone, and Lloyd Moseby deserves accolades, but here we'll go with Andre Dawson. Advantage: Expos. (Expos up, 4-3).
RF:
Hate to call a position a "draw," but who are YOU going to choose between the pairing of Vladimir Guerrero and Larry Walker and that of Jesse Barfield and Joe Carter (or even Shawn Green)? Advantage: Draw (Expos up, 4-3-1).
DH:
Hard to make a call here since the Expos never actually played with a DH, but one of the great early DH's was an Expo first in Rusty Staub. Still, with another nod to the he-wasn't-here-very-long Dave Winfield, we'll go here with Paul Molitor. Advantage: Blue Jays. (Tie, 4-4-1).
Rotation:
The Expos all-time five-man rotation is probably Steve Rogers, Dennis Martinez, Pedro Martinez, Bill Gullickson and Bryn Smith. The Blue Jays all-time five-man rotation is probably Dave Steib, Roy Halladay, Jim Clancy, Jimmy Key and Pat Hentgen. These are surprisingly even head-to-head, with just a slight nod to the Jays. (Jays up, 5-4-1).
Bullpen:
The Expos' all-time bullpen, let's see ... Jeff Reardon, Ugueth Urbina, Mel Rojas, Mike Marshall and we need a lefy, so apologies to John Wetteland, but Dale Murray over Woodie Fryman. The jays' all-time bullpen, again, let's see ... Tom Henke, Duane Ward, B.J. Ryan is the lefty, Mike Timlin and Paul Quantrill. Again, you can't go wrong with either group, but give me the Expos' group by the slightest of margins. (Tie, 5-5-1).
That's right, given the historical Expos against the historical Jays of roughly the same time frame, the two franchises are pretty much exactly even from a talent perspective. So Griffin might have been overstating to say the Montre-all-stars were "better" but the idea is far from "laughable."
Over to you Bauxites -- who's missing? What'd I get wrong?
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20100404171912919