Just before the conversation in a recent thread could veer off into a wildly inappropriate non-basebally political wing-ding, the always-brilliant Mike Green defused it all with a simple comment, "The best PM in recent memory? Hmm, I vote for this guy." Hard to argue.
But that did call to mind another burning question ... would would a whole team of PMs look like, er, "initially" speaking? We've done tons of all-initial teams previously, and one for Presidents of the United States name-alikes. But what about the erstwhile PMs? Let's find out as we meet ...
Prime the pump, Mr. Minister ...
**indicates Hall of Famer
* indicates All-Star
MGR: Pat Moran (748-586, 1915-23; '19 champs)
LINEUP
C Phil Masi* (.264, 1939-52)
1B Paul Molitor** (.306, 3319 hits, 504 SB)
2B Pete Mackanin (did all but P, C: .226, 1973-81)
SS Pat Meares (.258, 1993-2001)
3B Phil Mankowski (.264, parts of 1976-82)
LF Pat Mullin* (.271 career; .288/23/80 with '48 DET)
CF Pepe Mangual (.242, 1972-77)
RF Pat McNulty (.290, 1922, 24-27 CLE)
DH Pedro Munoz (.273, 67 homers, 1990-96)
BENCH
C Pat Moran (.235, 1901-14)
IF Peter Morris (Welshman was 0-for-3 in one game, 1884 WAS)
IF Paul McSweeney (3-for-12, 1891 SLB)
OF Pete Milne (.233, 1948-50 NYG)
OF Paul McAnulty (.208 since 2005 with SDP)
UTIL Pryor McElveen (.209, 1909-11, played all but P)
ROTATION
RHSP Pedro J. Martinez* (214-99 through 2008)
LHSP Paul Minner (69-84, 1946, '48-56)
RHSP Pat Malone (134-92, 1928-37; two 20-win seasons)
LHSP Paul Maholm (30-35 since 2005 with PIT)
RHSP Phil Marchildon (68-75, parts of 1940-50)
BULLPEN
CL-RH Pete Mikkelsen (45-40, 49 saves, 1964-72)
LHRP Paul Mirabella (19-29, 13 saves, 1978-90)
RHRP Pat Mahomes (43-49, 5 saves, 1992-2003)
LHRP Pedro A. Martinez (7-4, 3 saves, 1993-97)
RHRP Peter Munro (13-19, parts of 1999-2004)
The final cuts from the roster were three right-handed pithers, in starters Paul Mitchell (32-39, 1975-80) and Paul Moskau (32-27, 1977-83) and active reliever Peter Moylan (5-4 since 2006 with ATL). As per HoN protocol, nicknames were not considered acceptable, so apologies to Paddy, Pinky, Polly, Patsy and the surprisingly many folks nicknamed Pete; we also did not consider middle names, unless the player actually went by that, so as nice as Joseph Patrick Mauer might look behind the plate, he's no PM in our book ...
So, Bauxites, is this team too conservative? Overly liberal? How many games would it win in the 2009 AL East? And how can it be better?
