Hall of Scrubs

Our next inductee into the Hall of Scrubs is yet another example of why Spring Training performances mean nothing.  Scott Pose entered his first Spring Training in 1993 with the expansion Florida Marlins.  He was not one of the Marlins expansion draft picks.  They picked him up in the Rule 5 draft from the Reds system.  He was coming off a season in Double-A in which he hit .342 and had an OBP of .414.  He also stole 21 bases.

Despite his excellent minor league stats, Pose was not considered a prospect.  The centerfield and leadoff jobs belonged to Chuck Carr, whom the Marlins selected from the Cardinals with the 14th pick of the expansion draft.  But Pose had such a great Spring Training that manager Rene Lachemann handed him Chuck Carr’s position.  Along with that came  the honor of having the first at bat in the Marlins franchise history.

Unfortunately, once again, the realities of the regular season set in.  Pose fizzled out quickly after 15 games.  He hit .195 and was demoted.  Chuck Carr got his job back and finished the year with 58 stolen bases and was fourth in the voting for NL rookie of the year.

Pose did not appear in the majors again until 1997 when the Yankees called him up after he hit .308 on their Triple-A team.  Joe Torre used him quite a bit as a reserve outfielder, but he hit only .218. 

The Royals gave him another shot in 1999, and he seemed to finally get comfortable as a major league hitter.  He ended the season hitting .285 and he earned a spot on the Royals 2000 opening day roster.  It would be the second time in his 11 year career that he made an opening day roster.  He struggled again though by hitting .188 that year.  It was his last year in the majors.

 Despite his struggles in the majors, Soctt Pose will always be remembered fondly for  being the first man to bat for the Florida Marlins.

You can view Scott’s stats at www.baseball-reference.com:

Scott’s stats

Karim Garcia is another former major leaguer making news in the World Baseball Classic.  As the leader of a potent Mexican offense, Karim is hitting .385 with three homers and 5 RBI.  Fans of Garcia are certainly not surprised to hear this.  He has been tearing up the Japanese, Korean and Mexican leagues the last few years.  He is ready to do more damage this year as a member of the Lotte Giants in the Korean League, where he is known as the “Latino Bambino.” After his major league career, he learned a little patience at the plate and has emerged as an offensive force.

It is too bad he could not learn that in the big leagues.  He was given several opportunities to do so, but poor defense, lack of plate discipline, and an awful attitude lead to his early departure from many major league organizations.

Karim started out as a top prospect in the Dodgers organization.  He was picked as Sporting News Minor League Player of the year in 1995 and made his major league debut that year at the age of 19.  He was also ranked higher than Alex Rodriguez as a prospect in AAA Pacific Coast League.  He was certainly on the fast track,  but he failed in 3 brief stints with the Dodgers and was selected by the Diamondbacks in the 1997 expansion draft.

Arizona made him part of a platoon in the outfield and he responded with nine homers.  The power was the only part of his game.  His defense in the outfield made him a liability.  Arizona swindled the Tigers in the off-season by shipping him to Detroit for Luis Gonzales, who went on to lead the Diamondbacks to a World Series championship.  The Diamondbacks took advantage of the Randy Smith’s obsession with power-hitting prospects to pull off the best trade in their short history. 

Karim, a left-handed hitter,  used the short right field porch in Tiger Stadium in 1999 to hit 14 homers in 288 at bats.  But Detroit had enough of his antics after one season.  They dumped him off on the Orioles in 2000.  It was the beginning of his career as a journeyman.  The Orioles released him after he went 0 for 16.  The Indians picked him up in 2001, but released him even though he hit 5 homers in 45 at bats.  The Yankees picked him up and released him.  The Indians picked him up again.  He hit 16 homers in limited duty and had a .584 slugging percentage.  But the Indians couldn’t wait to dump him again and sold him to the Yankees in 2003. 

Karim had a decent year for the Yankees in 2003 and was a member of their ALCS and World Series rosters.  However, he embarassed himself that year by joining Yankees reliever, Jeff Nelson, to beat up a member of the Fenway Park grounds crew in the visitor’s bullpen during the ALCS. 

The Yankees let him leave as a free agent in the off-season.   The Mets picked him up and traded him to Baltimore where he was released a second time. It was the end of his major league career.

You can view Karim’s stats at www.baseball-reference.com:

Karim’s stats

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In 1979, two rookies appeared in the American League with the same last name - Jones.  Few people realized that these 2 rookies were in fact brothers.  Lynn and Darryl debuted for the Tigers and Yankees respectively.  Lynn went on to be named Rookie of the Year (for the Tigers) while Darryl played sparingly for the Yanks and was never called upon again to play in the majors.

How did this happen?  It all started when the brothers were drafted out of college.  Darryl, the eldest, was drafted in ‘72.  Lynn was drafted in ‘74.  While Darryl worked his way up through the Yankees farm system, Lynn played in the Reds system.  In 1978, the Tigers plucked Lynn from the Reds system in the Rule 5 draft.  They were forced to carry him on the roster or lose him.  The gamble paid off as Lynn hit .296 with 4 homers. 

Not to be outdone, Darryl joined the the Yankees in June.  Unfortunately, he hit only .255 with no homers and never appeared again in the majors.

Lynn lived off his rookie year stats and hung on with the Tigers for 4 more years.  He was dumped before 1984, so he did not get a World Series ring in Detroit.  He did join the Royals and got a ring in 1985.

Lynn is still coaching in the majors.  Darryl is not and never was.

Together, the two brothers combined for 7 career homers.

You can view Lynn’s and Darryl’s stats at www.baseball-reference.com:

Lynn’s stats
Darryl’s stats

Oh great! Another brother of Hall of Famer, Eddie Murray. Right? … Wrong! Larry is not related to Eddie.

He is often confused with Rich Murray, who was Eddie’s only baseball-playing brother. In fact, when baseball scrub experts across America were asked who was Eddie Murray’s brother, 95% of them answered Larry. Only 3% answered Rich correctly. The other 2% claimed it was Dwayne Murphy.. obviously mistaking the similar last name.

Larry failed to hit above .200 in any of the 6 seasons he played in the majors. His career .177 average did not come close to Rich’s .216 career average. If Larry would have also been Eddie’s brother, it would have been safe to say that Rich was Eddie’s best baseball-playing brother.

Larry was basically a defensive outfield backup throughout his career. He did manage to steal 12 bases for the Oakland A’s in 1977. That is his lone career highlight.

You can view Larry’s statistics at www.baseball-reference.com:

Larry’s stats