Paul & Darrell's Fifth Anniversary Team

This afternoon Paul and Darrell took a break from their off-season job of baithing DownTown, to suggest an all-time team from the first five seasons of York Revolution Baseball.  Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.  Here is their team, followed by some thoughts after the jump:

Catcher:  John Pachot (’10)
First Base:  Chris Nowak (’11)
Second Base:  Keoni DeRenne (’07-’09)
Third Base:  Ramon Castro (’10-’11)
Shortstop:  Chuck Jeroloman (’10)
Left Field:  James Shanks (’10-’11)
Center Field:  Scott Grimes (’10-’11)
Right Field:  Jason Aspito (’07-’09)
Designated Hitter:  Jose Herrera (’10-’11)
RHP Starter:  Corey Thurman (’08-’11)
LHP Starter:  Wayne Franklin (’07-’09)
Reliever:  Sean Stidfole (’10-’11)
Manager:  Andy Etchebarren (’09-’11)

Close calls: 
At catcher, even though Luis Taveras played in three seasons (’07-’09), his offensive numbers were underwhelming, therefore Pachot’s lone season in a Revolution uniform in ’10 puts him on the team because he hit .322 as an everyday catcher after hitting in the .240s the year before with Long Island. 

On first base, the Revolution have never had a player at the position in multiple seasons, but most first baseman in team history have been quite good.  Nowak in ’11 gets the nod over Nate Espy (’07), Chris Ashby (’08) and Ian Bladergroen (’10) because of the pace of which he hit home runs, his defense and because he was named team MVP while the others were not.  All four of those players had power and good gloves and were close to being team MVP, but Nowak’s award broke the tie for our all-time team.  Nowak’s 25 home runs edged Jason Aspito’s 24 in 2008 as the single-season team record, and Nowak slugged a team-record .646.  Next closest was Espy at .547. 

Around the infield, Keoni DeRenne and Ramon Castro have played multiple positions, but they stood out easily as the two best infielders the Revolution have had.  Certainly Vince Harrison had a tremendous season at the plate and defensively in ’11, but Castro’s longer tenure with the team pushed him over the top in naming an all-time third baseman.  In ’10, Castro also went 68 consecutive games without an error at third, hitting .339 that season as well, which is the franchise single-season best.  Certainly Harrison would be deserving, but it was one of the close calls we had to make.  The situation at shortstop is similar to first, where no player really stood out over multiple seasons, and we felt Jeroloman was the obvious choice with his superb defense throughout ’10, helping the Revolution to their first championship.  That season he also hit a team-record 14 home runs as a shortstop, and is easily the most natural shortstop the Revolution have ever had.

Selecting a single relief pitcher was the toughest spot to fill.  Six were considered, more than any other position.  The runners up to Stidfole were Franklin Nunez (’07-’08), Jason Olson (’07-’09), Travis Phelps (’08-’09), Michael Nix (’10-’11) and R.J. Rodriguez (’10-’11).  In the end, Stidfole’s career Revolution ERA of 2.72 in a total of 128 games pitched over two seasons, including a then-league record 68 appearances in 2010 had him edge out the other contenders.  This spot generated the longest discussion.

Duhs:
If anyone has an argument about Shanks, Grimes, Aspito or Herrera we would love to hear it.  Selecting Corey Thurman and Wayne Franklin as the right and left starters respectively took the least amount of discussion.  We could not imagine anyone arguing with that.  Obviously Etch is the manager even though Chris Hoiles is also an Orioles Hall-of-Famer aside Etch, and led the Revolution to their first playoff berth in ’08.

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