Getty ImagesReggie Smith

Reading Evan Bladh’s recent post on Mike Piazza at Opinion of Kingman’s Performance, I got to wondering about the Mike Piazzas of every team in baseball — which players were the most valuable to both the Dodgers and another team.

So I put together this chart of what I thought might be the best. Keep in mind that I tried as hard as possible to avoid technicalities — if the player wasn’t significant to both teams, I wasn’t interested. So no Duke Snider with the Giants, no Frank Robinson. And managing didn’t count, so there’s no place for Gil Hodges or Joe Torre.

Let me know what you think — some choices were tough, but with others I might simply have had a blind spot and forgotten about a better option. Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Arizona and Cincinnati were no picnic, to name a few. If you suggest someone in the comments below who is an improvement, I’ll make the change.

Update: Changes made below thanks to some great reader suggestions. I took several of them and deliberated others before deciding to stick with what I had.

 
Arizona Steve Finley
Atlanta Dusty Baker Rafael Furcal
Baltimore Eddie Murray
Boston Reggie Smith
Chicago Cubs Bill Buckner
Chicago White Sox Tommy John
Cincinnati Kal Daniels Jeff Shaw
Cleveland Brett Butler Orel Hershiser
Colorado Pedro Astacio
Detroit Kirk Gibson
Houston Jimmy Wynn
Kansas City Tim Belcher
Los Angeles Angels Andy Messersmith
Miami Gary Sheffield
Milwaukee Greg Brock
Minnesota Ron Perranoski
New York Mets Mike Piazza
New York Yankees Al Downing
Oakland Bob Welch
Philadelphia Jay Johnstone Dolph Camilli
Pittsburgh Burleigh Grimes
San Diego Steve Garvey
San Francisco Jeff Kent
Seattle Adrian Beltre
St. Louis Joe Medwick
Tampa Bay Wilson Alvarez
Texas Charlie Hough Frank Howard
Toronto Shawn Green
Washington Pedro Martinez Mike Marshall

Here’s how my initial selections shape up by position:

1B 2B SS 3B LF CF RF C SP RP
Murray Kent Furcal Beltre Medwick Wynn Smith Piazza Hershiser Marshall
Garvey       Gibson Finley Sheffield   Grimes Perranoski
Buckner       Howard Green   John Shaw
Camilli             Messersmith Welch
Brock               Downing Alvarez
                Astacio
                Belcher