Fantasy RBI 2018 Draft Thread

[GDavis]

Bruce Hurst

[nomaaa]

Willie McGee, CF

[GDavis]

https://www.nytimes.com/1982/10/17/sports/sports-of-the-times-cardinals-willie-mcgee-is-not-et.html

Sports of The Times; Cardinals' Willie McGee is Not 'E.T.'

FOR nearly six decades, the romance of the World Series for the St. Louis Cardinals has always glowed with some of baseball's most familiar nicknames. Bullet Bob Gibson. Stan The Man Musial. Country Slaughter. Harry The Cat Brecheen. Whitey Kurowski. Dizzy Dean. Pepper Martin. Ol' Pete Alexander. But a Cardinal in this World Series resents his nickname.

Willie McGee, the rookie center fielder who hit two homers in the Cardinals' 6-2 victory Friday night, does not want to be identified as ''E.T.,'' thank you.

''I appreciate people calling me by my name,'' Willie Dean McGee was saying, politely but firmly, at his locker in the Cardinals' clubhouse. ''People say things and I really don't like it.''

Not long after the June release of the motion picture ''E.T.,'' some opposing players began calling him ''E.T.'' after the fictional extraterrestrial visitor from another planet.

During the recent National League championship series, the television announcer Howard Cosell also used that nickname, to Willie McGee's dismay.

Many people who saw the movie thought E.T. to be a loveable creature. Rudy May, the New York Yankees' left-handed pitcher, enjoys being known as ''E.T.'' to his teammates but 23-year-old Willie McGee does not.

''Nobody should be able to change your name,'' he said. ''It's almost like changing your life.''

Willie McGee won't elaborate on his dislike for the nickname. Perhaps he thinks that it's a racial slur since E.T. is dark-skinned. Perhaps he's embarrassed because he has the hooded eyes and pinched nose similar to that of the little creature; he also wobbles when he walks, as E.T. does in the movie. Whatever the reason, Willie McGee is entitled to prefer his name to that nickname, even though he has virtually landed in the World Series from another planet.

Going into today's fifth game, Willie McGee has been the Cardinals' most productive hitter in their postseason games, despite having grounded into a double play that ended a potential rally in the eighth inning of their 7-5 loss yesterday. Over seven games, including the three-game sweep of the Atlanta Braves in the National League championship series, McGee has hit three homers, two triples, and two singles, driven in nine runs, scored eight and batted .291.

Willie McGee also has emerged as the final embarrassment for the Yankees this season. He is another of the many prospects deemed expendable by George Steinbrenner and the principal owner's ''baseball people,'' his advisers in the Yankee organization. During last year's World Series, the Yankees traded Willie McGee, who had batted .322 at their Nashville farm team in the Class AA Southern League, to the Cardinals for Bob Sykes, a left-handed pitcher with an ailing arm.

According to Bill Bergesch, the Yankees' vice president for player personnel, Willie McGee's departure has to be traced to the signing of Dave Winfield as a free agent late in 1980 to a projected 10-year, $23 million contract.

''When we signed Winfield, somebody had to come off our 40-man roster to make room for him,'' Bill Bergesch explained. ''It was between McGee and another player I won't mention. We decided to outright McGee to our Columbus farm team, which meant he was a 'frozen' player - he couldn't be reacquired by us without going through major-league waivers.''

The other Yankee farmhand under discussion was Ted Wilborn, an outfielder-infielder later dealt to the San Francisco Giants in the trade for the pitcher Doyle Alexander.

''McGee couldn't make our Columbus team in spring training a year ago, so we sent him to Nashville, where he had a good year,'' Bill Bergesch said. ''But we knew that if we tried to get him back through waivers, we'd probably lose him for $20,000 so we decided to try to trade him. That way at least we would get a player for him, so I phoned Joe McDonald, now the Cardinals' general manager.''

Willie McGee was mentioned to at least one other National League club, the San Diego Padres, who spurned him. When the Cardinals offered Bob Sykes, the Yankees agreed. Bob Sykes, meanwhile, drifted to Columbus and then to Nashville during the recent season.

But if you've ever wondered why baseball players resent the way they're sometimes treated as if they were slabs of meat, or wondered why they look forward to the opportunity of being a free agent, consider how Willie McGee learned he had been traded.

''I picked up the paper one day at home,'' he said, referring to Richmond, Calif., ''and read about it in 'transactions.' The Yankees never called me. The Cardinals never called me. After two weeks of not hearing from either of 'em, I finally called the Cardinals.''

Willie McGee was inspected in spring training this year, but the Cardinals shipped him to their Louisville, Ky., farm team in the American Association. He was batting .291 in May when the Cardinals promoted him; their center fielder, David Green, had been put on the disabled list with a pulled hamstring muscle. By the time David Green was healthy, Willie McGee had taken his job, finishing the season with a .296 average, 56 runs batted in and 24 stolen bases, but only four homers.

''In the Yankee organization, we were always told that if you were good enough, you'd make it,'' Willie McGee was saying now. ''But everybody knew that getting traded somewhere else was your best bet because the Yankees sign free agents instead of going with young players.''

Ironically, when Willie McGee hit two homers Friday night, he was only the third rookie to accomplish that in a World Series game. The other two were rookies the Yankee organization of those eras had developed and promoted - Tony Kubek right here against the Milwaukee Braves in 1957, and Charley Keller against the Cincinnati Reds in 1939.

In that four-game sweep, Charley Keller had perhaps the best World Series a rookie hitter ever had - three homers, a triple, a double and two singles for a .438 average, eight runs scored and six runs batted in.

When that World Series ended, some people were suggesting, ''Break up the Yankees'' but one Cincinnati loyalist shrugged and said, ''Just break up Keller.'' Charley Keller had a nickname that he might have resented. Instead, he relished it: King Kong.

But no nicknames for Willie McGee, please. At least not ''E.T.''

[BeefMaster]

Darrell Evans played more career games at 3B than 1B

He taught to pull everything as I've said before when he was my hitting instructor in my first year in the Rockies farm system.

Was that good advice?

[fightonusc]

Willie McGee, CF

Strassy, you have this listed as GDavis' pick on the main draft list, I think.

[Nacho]

Yeah, Beefy is up, right?

[TempoGL]

Ah, I didn't the posts ahead of the article.  They were obscured by the sad tale of E.T McGee, so I assumed that was GDavis' way of saying he picked him

Beefmaster is up

[Darky]

Darrell Evans played more career games at 3B than 1B

He taught to pull everything as I've said before when he was my hitting instructor in my first year in the Rockies farm system.

Was that good advice?

I did learn some drills to help me pull the ball better, but a sheer pull philosophy was just not suited for me since I used the entire field and was bred to look middle-out and look to hit up the middle and react on pitches in. Evans preached to look for all balls from the middle of the plate to the inside of the black on your hitting side (middle-in). I remember a player wondering how he would reach the ball since he would bat off the plate a bit. Evans told him to crowd the plate so that every pitch would appear middle-in, haha. The tee drill and soft toss drills that Evans taught were effective as far as turning on balls that were jammed right in your kitchen. Imagine this, as a lefthand hitter, the tee would be placed way off the right of my right hip and the same would flip balls coming right at my right hip and to the right of it.

[BeefMaster]

John Blank Morris

[Gantry]

That's Blank to you, sir...

[Nacho]

Roger McDowell

[BeefMaster]

That's Blank to you, sir...

Fixed.

[fightonusc]

Dee-Nee legend Danny Cox

[Gantry]

THAT'S MY FRIEND!!!!!

[Shooty]

SS Dickie Thon(g)

[TempoGL]

I had a plan to take Dickie as a PH next round if neither or the two teams that still need an SS took him as part of a nefarious plot to force someone into using either Spike Owen or Al Pedrique as their SS

[1987CardsRule]

Randolph, por favor

[TempoGL]

Got a proxy via text from Ryno

2B Robbie Thompson
3B Terry Pendleton

[1987CardsRule]

Gwynn

[TempoGL]

Beefmaster's strategy of ignoring starting pitching is interesting.  He's only got three choices left.  I've often wondered how different computer pitchers really are, so this could work out in his favor or work against him.