All-Star Team of the Decade: 1950's

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Posted By: Gilbert Maines

Mize was a great clutch hitter, and a darn good one even in non-clutch situations. Nobody is disputing this. And the Giants sure could have used him. No one is disputing that either.

The same is true for Koufax, he was a tremendous pitcher. But if selections can be made on the basis of "what ifs", you really can not find a more overpowering starting AL pitcher to go against Koufax than Herb Score.

But Score is a true whatif. Koufax and Mize had their day. But that "day" was in decades other than the subject matter selected by the thread's author. If you can't play by the rules ...

I've got no beef with Snider. No one hit more HRs than him in the 50s. And other than Snider, no one hit more HRs in the 50s than Hodges. And putting Mays in RF may be a good choice with this crew.

Where I start diverging from your thinking Ted, is where you ignore 50s productivity. Based on that criteria (50s production) Robinson wasn't half the player that Schoendinst was at 2B.

There is more, but lets see if this flys

Edited to add:
And you are correct: both Hodges and Musial are not valid replacements for Mize. I forgot that you broke this out into seperate leagues.

And Brian is right. The AL looks weak. If Mize goes, the punch drops plenty, and Mize is gone in my thinking. Who can replace him? The AL was weak at 1B + SS throughout the decade. I always liked Vic Wertz, especially watching him try to win the '54 series single handedly. He hit .500, he was the one to hit the ball on which Mays made The Catch (and throw). But really, he doesn't have the punch needed. Noone does. The most that can be brought to bear is Roy Sievers. You give up a lot in batting average tho, compared to Vic Power or Mickey Vernon.

And Rizzuto has the same problem that Jackie Robinson has. He didn't play out the decade. I think about '56 was his last year. And the only other choice is the no field, all hit Harvey Kuenn; a .300+ hitting sieve.