Wayne Tolleson, Joel Skinner, Butch Wynegar, Paul Zuvella, Matt Nokes, Cecilio Guante...

Phil Lenz.... anyone remember him? Best utility player the Yanks ever had.

dennis rasmussen
wayne tolleson
rod scurry
mike easler
john candelaria

as you i can see, i've got a soft spot for those mid 80's yanks

oooh, cecilio guante ... nice one!

Ah, and Celerino Sanchez too!

Pags was no scrub. 4 straight years of OPS+, solid D, etc.
And it's Azocar.
Bam Bam was a perennial prospect.
Hal Morris was another, and he went on to have a surprisingly solid career.
Sam Militello- whee!
Remember when Domingo Jean had to sprint across the GWB (due to Reggis Jackson Day traffic) to make his scheduled start? I do- we were at that game, it was a blast.
How about when the Yanks' rotation of the future consisted of Scott Kamienicki, Jeff Johnson, Dave Eiland, and Chuck Cary? Those were heady days, I tell ya.

Man, I thought Jerry Kenney was going to be great, eclipsing Murcer.

Dave Silvestri, Andy Stankiewicz and Mark Hutton. My dad and I always mess around saying that Dave Silvestri and Andy "Stinkiewicz" were the wors players we ever saw. And this turned into a running inside joke to this day. Whenever one of says someone is good the other says not as good as Silvestri. As far as I know there was not much basis to this. They must have done something to warrant this, but I'll be damned if I remember.

As for Mark Hutton, I remember seeing his debut and all the hype that followed. So he became an instant favorite that faded real fast.

Let's not forget Andre Robertson...

Wil Nieves

This has been one of my favorite things to do on Dodger Thoughts:

https://dodgerthoughts.baseballtoaster.com/archives/014388.html

Dunno if he was scrubby, but I really enjoyed watching Oscar Gamble. And, of course, Bye Bye Balboni. I remember him (Bye Bye) putting on a show in BP when I took my only trip to the stadium in the early 80's. His bat looked huge.

Ok - sort of same topic - did anyone in the history of baseball swing and miss with as much flare as Reggie? He's just awesome to watch.

My all-time favorite scrubby Yankee list

1. "Bye-Bye" Balboni - Talent set included: Not being able to play a position, not being able to hit breaking pitches, not being able to run the bases, and, every once in a while, hitting 400-plus-foot bombs.

2. Pags - The prototypical gritty, gutty infielder

3. Oscar Gamble - Best. 'Fro. Ever. Bake McBride, eat your heart out.

4. Andy Stankeiewicz - Was once tabbed as "the next Scotter." Closer to the next Brian Dayette.

5. Dan Pasqua - Best scrub stance to imitate when playing Wiffle Ball. I waited patiently for his breakout 35 home run season, which, sadly, never came.

6. Ron Kittle (honorary mention) - Naturally, the Yankees acquired him after his only 35-homer season. He was still fun to watch, in a Steve Balboni kind of way. And his Bill Lumberg glasses don't hurt his standing here.

My Mom, though a Sox fan like me, loved both Mike Pagliarulo and Pete Incaviglia because of the way their names sounded on TV.

Scrubs I liked (pre-ALCS 70s version):
Ron Klimkowski (liked the name)
Joe Verbanic (also liked the name)
Ron Woods
Gerry Moses
Charley Spikes
Walt "No-Neck" Williams
Bill Sudakis
Ron Blomberg (not a scrub; more Oscar Gamble-like; one of my all-time favorites)
Fred Beene
Mike Kekich
Kerry Dineen
Chicken Stanley and Celerino as previously mentioned, of course. I always thought Jerry Kenney could turn it around too.

Scrubs I didn't care for:

Jim Mason
Dave Pagan
Rich McKinney

13 Sounds like Wily Mo Pena is "Bye-Bye" Balboni reincarnated...

As an overweight kid trying to play catcher in Little League in the mid to late 80s, I distinctly remember Don Slaught. The most memorable event of my first trip to the Stadium for a game in mid-September '91 against the Red Sox involved "Bam-Bam" Muelens scoring on a "triple-error" play where the pitcher threw the pickoff away (helped by Mo Vaughn playing first), and then VAughn threw the ball into left field where Mike Greenwell overthrew third. I just looked at the box score on Retrosheet (http://tinyurl.com/2ard6c) and saw a lineup of:
Sax 2b
Williams cf
Mattingly 1b
R. Kelly
Hall rf
Meulens dh
Maas ph,dh
Espinoza ss
Geren c
P. Kelly
Velarde ph,3b
Sanderson p

Luckily 1991 was probably the bottom of the decline and by 92 the team started turning it around with Showalter as manager. Donnie must have grimaced every time he looked at that lineup card. It's memories like these that has prevented me from taking the lineups of the last 10 years for granted.

I'll second Nieves, he seemed very nice.

No love for Clay Bellinger? I'll always remember that diving catch he made in Moose's nearly perfect game.

I saw Chuck Cary shut out the Orioles 2-0 in Memorial Stadium in either 1989 or 1990. It was my first game, so nobody talk bad about old chuck please. Donnie got a hit and maybe a RBI (I think).

could anyone videotape that game for me when it comes on? I'll be happy to pay for the cost of the tape and postage.

Every scrub should be as scrubtastic as Luis Sojo.

Balboni was actually a pretty good 1B, but only had a league average bat. He was in the middle of the line-up for the WS champion 85 Royals.

I remember a 3B coming up and being very shaky at 3B in 61. He was part of the trade for Bud Daley trade, and then KC shipped him to Cincy for cash. He had a decent career, topping 30 HR twice. In 65 he had 130 RBI and finished 4th in the MVP race.

2 Linz was a heckuva harmonica player, too.

Steve Hamilton and the Folly Floater; Dave LaRoche and LaLob.

Gene Michael, back when his claim to fame was being the Master of the Hidden Ball Trick.

I loved, loved, loved Oscar Gamble. One of his nicknames was Doc, because he was a self-proclaimed Doctor of Hittology. For anyone who doesn't know about his hair, or any of us who just love to see it: http://tinyurl.com/3y42yr

Scott Brosius.

14 So, who were some favorite Sox Scrubs?

Gamble was one of my all time favorite players. Mr Ratio.

20 Amen.

21 I was curious about who you were talking about there. With help of baseball-reference.com, I discovered it was Deron Johnson who I remembered as a decent DH for the Reggie era A's. Johnson was a darned good hitter. His similarity scores included Jeff Burroughs, John Mayberry, Ben Oglive, and Andre Thornton among others.

And btw, Jim "The King" Leyritz also deserves a little love. Say what you will about the guy, he sure had a flair for the big moment. A stat that bowled me over: in 61 postseason AB, he had 8 HR and 20 RBI.

And while we're on BUCs, I always liked Cliff Johnson a lot. He always looked like he was really enjoying himself. I remember seeing him run back after a foul pop that went into the stands; when he got to the wall he just leaned on it and chatted with the fans for a few seconds. Nice gesture.

23 I love Brosius but Scotty was the World Series MVP in 98, and as such, is no scrub. Luis Sojo, however, is my favorite scrub from that team.

No love for Alvaro Espinosa?

29 World Series MVP is all fine and dandy, but over the course of his career Scott Brosius OPS+ 95.

I will always have a soft spot for Pat Kelly. Ricky Ledee seemed like a nice-enough guy, and had a nice cameo in the Kevin Costner movie about the perfect game at the end of a career that was eerily like Cone's and came out right after. As for unlikeable scrubs, my top 3 are Neon Deion, Enrique Wilson and Dougy M (although it was lessened by the rough injury and the fact he hasn't been around to suck much).

My friend and I got Pasqua and Meacham jerseys made for the playoffs a few years back. We got a lot of love from the crowd but the yanks never seemed to play well when we wore them so they've been retired.

henry cotto!

Yeah, Pags wasn't a scrub. Maybe I should have said, "Scrubby-looking." Oscar Gamble was far from a scrub himself.

I liked Clay Bellinger and Homer Bush too. But good call, nobody was more scrubtastic than Sojo. Remember when he tripped on his shoelaces warming up between innings against the A's in the 2000 playoffs?

Heathcliff Johnson was a personal favorite.

I hated Henry Cotto. Struck out looking to end a game I was at. Never forgave him. lol

oh, of course clay bellinger. he's from my hometown of oneonta.

and damn! clay was born on my birthday, too.

35 I remember a game when Sojo was in the middle of a long slump and shaved his moustache between innings. Afterwards, he said, "I have to see the ball and swing. I don't hit the ball with my mustache."

Mariano Duncan was kinda scrubby, but also authored the most famous Yankee quote of the last decade.

We play today, we win today, that's it.

I had a home version of Wheel of Fortune when I was 10 and one of the puzzles I made was 'Yankee reliever Paul Mirabella'. That stumped everyone in my family. I must have liked hearing his name on the radio because he was unimpressive in his 10 career Yankee appearances. I also like Joe Lefebvre and remember being mad when they traded him.

37 I kind of liked Henry Cotto. Reminds me of that 1985 season when I was in college in Philly and it was pleasure to read the box scores everyday. Plus, #2 on his list of similar players: Walt Williams!

No love up in here for Karim Garcia?

You know else who I liked? John Vander Wal.

He had an old-time ballplayer's name, and I recall Sheppard liked to break it down, emphasizing the awkward pause between "Vander (wait for it) Wall."

Also, every day that Vander... Wall was on the team was a day that Jay Witasick was not.

In the early 80's the Yankees had an outfielder named Bobby Brown. He had tons of tools - especially speed - and he looked more like a ballplayer than anyone this side of Bernie Williams. Unfortunately, he didn't play nearly so well.

My most vivid memory of him was when Lenn Sakata hit one to deepest left-center field, which was still 430' then. (Thanks to the miracle of Retrosheet: http://tinyurl.com/3cuw9g.) Obviously, Brown wasn't playing Sakata all that deep, and there was absolutely no way anyone was going to be able to get to it. It was completely impossible. Except Brown took off, turned on the afterburners, and somehow, breathtakingly, got close enough, stretched out his arm and made this completely impossible catch.

And dropped it, for a triple.

José Cruz - in 1988, his final season he was traded to the Yankees and I distinctly remember him tying or winning a game in extra innings against the Orioles in Baltimore.

Don't think anyone mentioned him yet:

Brian Doyle.

Can't forget how he subbed for Randolph in the 78 playoffs.

For my money, he and not Dent, should've been the mvp of the 78 serious.

35 Alex, Sojo tripped on his shoelaces during the game, not before the game. It was the 8th inning of game 2 and was the last batter Pettitte faced. Mo came in to bail Luis out.

when i was about 9 or so, i met new york yankees starting pitcher dave lapointe in the albany airport.

i got his autograph. he was a nice guy.

a year or so later, i ran into him again. he remembered my name.

i was really disappointed. i remember thinking, "man, you're a yankee... you shouldn't remember who the hell i am..."

i should have been excited. instead i was kind of a jerk.

fast forward to today, mr. lapointe is managing the long island ducks. the team that features carl everett, pete rose, jr. and jose offerman.

http://tinyurl.com/24h3q6

oh... last i knew alvaro espinoza was infield coach for the pirates, and former yankee utility man mike gallego (a favorite of mine) is 3B coach for the rockies.

Paul Zuvella!!

I kinda miss Scott Kamieniecki and Pat Kelly. Although Kammy was semi-decent, and Kelly played for years, and the theme here is "scrubby." In that case, sticking with 1995, Joe Ausanio, Dion James, and the final week edition, Rick Honeycutt.

Mike Blowers (who went on to have a couple of decent years with the M's, but was scrubby on the Yanks).

John Habyan wasn't much of a scrub (check out his 1991!) but I liked that name.

Steve Adkins, who (IIRC) Tony Kubek always talked about because he threw a circle change. (Why that was such a big deal, I don't know.)

And the best name of a scrubby Yankee, Kevin Mmahat, who finished his career with an ERA north of 12.00. That's what happens when you allow 11 runs in less than 8 IP.

44 Who?

What about Damaso Garcia from the late 70's teams? Didn't the Yankees trade him along with Chris Chambliss and P__L M_R_B_LL_ (tip of the hat to 42) for Rick Cerone, Tom Underwood and Paul Wilborn?

Mike Gallego's a no doubter he was there right before the resurgence. I was 8 when he played and I still remember him all the time. go yanks.

47 you beat me to it!

Brian Doyle.

i liked fred stanley and pags, too.

how 'bout Barry Foote?

Matt Nokes is part of my favorite scrub Yankee moment: http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1991/B05010OAK1991.htm

Rickey Henderson is about to break Lou Brock's all-time stolen base record. The Yankees with the awesome Tim Leary on the mound, don't waste time and give him an oppotunity by walking him in the first. Henderson immediately takes off for second and Nokes says, "Not on my watch!". He guns out the SB King.

Of course Rickey went on to break the record that day, but still, he got caught on the first attempt.

kevin maas.

roberto kelly was a starter for a while, but never really lived up to the hype i remember hearing. (at least he brought paul o'neil over.)

ron hassey and luis polonia just popped into my head as well.

...pascual perez...

and the floodgates have opened...

I always liked Chicken Stanley. Over the past three years I was tempted to order a Yankee shirt with the number 11 and the name STANLEY. It would have served as a quiet protest against another #11...my little twerp nephew did get me a Sheffield/11 shirt, but that was just to get under my skin.

57 Ron "Babe" Hassey! So nicknamed because he hit 13 HR as a BUC one year...

Maas's great half-season was nice, but I never much liked him. Didn't like Nokes, either.

My favorites were Luis Sojo, Jim Leyritz, and from those '61-'63 teams, Hector Lopez and Johnny Blanchard (hard to call him a "scrub")

6 Oooh, I just noticed that you mentioned Jeff Johnson. He was the classic AAAA pitcher. He'd roll over minor league competition, get called up and pounded in the bigs, then get sent back down and dominate again.

Which reminds me of another guy who always looked like he might be good but never was: Joe Cowley.

and Cairo has been DFAd and Bruney sent down. Joba and Giambi are active.

57 If you mention Pascal, how can you omit Melido? Jay Johnstone. Charlie Spikes. Doug Drabek (not a scrub post-Yankees). Butch Wynegar. Randy Velarde. Omar Moreno.

62 Oh. My. God.

I thought Pete Abe said it was going to be Karstens. Well, BB could use some Scranton time. Maybe we'll see him next year in a better incarnation.

Not sure if these have been mentioned yet, but here's a team's worth of scrubs from what I think is left...

C- Barry Foote, Joel Skinner. btw - I remember being excited about Brad Gulden because he was the Yankees "Future Prospect" on the 1979 and (I believe 1980) Topps cards.

1B- Dave Revering

2B- Larry Milbourne

3B- Aurilio Lopez, Toby Harrah, Eric Soderholm

SS- Spike Owen

OF- Omar Moreno, Jerry Mumphrey, Ruppert Jones

SP- Ken Clay, Jim Beattie, Andy Hawkins, Dave LaPoint, Tim Leary

MR- Dale Murray, Bob Shirley

CL (not really)- George Frazier (Have to look it up to confirm, but I seem to remember that he lost 3 games in the 81 Series).

38 We're practically neighbors - I'm originally from Cooperstown.

Cairo musta left his compromising photos of Torre out in the open. Evidence destroyed = DFA.

63 Pascual and Melido couldn't have been more different. Melido was quiet and professional - and he had at least one damn good year with the Yankees.

Wynegar wasn't a scrub, and dthere was nothing likable in his time with the Yankees. Omar Moreno was, well, Omar the Outmaker. They had a lot of trouble finding a center fielder in those years - Ruppert Jones and Jerry Mumphrey come to mind, both of whom wore #22 - but why anyone ever thought Omar Moreno was a good idea is beyond me.

62 Link? I can't believe they sent Bruney down to keep Karstens (and Brower) up . . . maybe Karstens does down for Edwar on Friday??

And Cairo seems like a nice guy and all, but wow . . . no more Miggy Mantle. WOW.

65 Good list, Emy, but one correction. You don't mean Aurelio Lopez - he was "Senor Smoke," a chunky reliever with the Tigers. You're thinking of Aurelio Rodriguez, an absolutely superb glove at third who couldn't hit a lick. We used to call him "The Colonel," which might make sense to those who've read One Hundred Years of Solitude.

69 DFA'ing Cairo was the right move, and many thought they'd never do it. They really haven't made much of a wrong step lately.

I guess we'd all rather have them DFA Farnsworth than any other bullpen move, but I don't mind their keeping Karstens over Bruney, at least for now. It's nice to have three guys in the bullpen who can go more than one inning. It gives them 10 days to decide if Farnsworth can provide any value at all, and if Karstens and/or Brower are worth keeping around. If not, Bruney and Britton are waiting in the wings.

Meanwhile: I don't know if this has been posted here already, but the Red Sox signed Bobby Kielty. Nice pickup for them.

The other catching Brad...Brad Ausmus. Dartmouth grad. Probably the only ex-Yankee catcher who would have gotten JL25and3's obscure reference to magic realism.

My friend is a Red Sox fan. His wife loves the Yankees. She owns two baseball cards, both proudly displayed on their bookcase. One is of her favorite star -- Bernie -- and the other is of her favorite scrub -- Clay Bellinger.

Just wanted to add that to the discussion.

I'll always remember the story of how the 30-year-old Bellinger fell to his knees and cried the day he finally learned he was being called up.

70 Yes, good catch! Wow, been too long I guess.

Wasn't Rodriguez one of the fill-ins for Nettles when he was out with hepatitis?

I loved the nickname "Senior Smoke."

73 Only because Moe Berg was never a Yankee.

And when it comes to nicknames, the more obscure the better.

I think this pic from our cinco de mayo trip this year is appropriate for this post:

http://tinyurl.com/384896

But I'm most fond of Paul Zuvella and his "on-fire" summers with the Yanks in 86-87.

Hey, Clay Bellinger has a World Series ring. If I understand it correctly, that means he's a better player than Alex Rodriguez.

52 Adkins threw a knuckle curve. I remember that, b/c I couldn't believe there was such a pitch. Since this was 1990, this was pre Mussina... Had lousy control, from what I could remember

I remember big 3 in '91 of Kamie, Wade Taylor (a throw in for Steve Trout), and Jeff Johnson. Dave Eiland also being a AAAA pitcher. 9-19 Tim Leary.

Charles Hudson had a pretty good arm, couldn't control his stuff.

Dave Winfield missed '89, the Yanks tried to replace his production with Jesse Barfield, Mel Hall, and Steve Balboni.

Speaking of 89, that was the offseason after we unloaded Jack Clark on the Padres. The return, Lance McCuellers, Clay Parker, and Stanley Jefferson. Lance was supposed to be co-closer with Rags, IIRC.

Other names of note, Bob Brower, Jamie Quirk, Walt Terrell, Pat Sheridan, Mike Humprheys, Mike Witt, Jim Walewander and Alan Mills, who made the jump from AA Albany.

This compendium of names from the '80s just emphasizes how pivotal Gene Michael being named GM in 1990 was to making the organization respectable again. It's good to see that there are hints that Michael is once again one of the leading figures in the team's hierarchy. His baseball background really balances out Cashman's executive skills to form a complete profile of an ideal GM.

77 That is an awesome picture! You guys are dedicated.

72 Wouldn't surprise me if it was to keep him from the Yanks. Not that they have room for him with Giambi et al coming back, but Kielty does crush lefties.

79 You're right, it was a knuckle curve. Don't know why I mixed it up with a circle change.

Alan Mills is another guy who went on to go fortune elsewhere.

Robert Eenhoorn!

I saw one of his few starts as a Yankee!
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK199505270.shtml

Jerry Mumphrey was my favorite player when I was 5. Then he got traded, Winfield showed up and I had my favorite player for life.

When I was in junior high, I was in a Micro League Baseball league (a low quality graphics, stats based baseball game that played on my Commodore 64) and Brian Dayett was a stud, hitting 4 HRs in a single game one time.

Finally, Shane Spencer deserves a mention, if only for his positively Ruthian month at the end of the '98 season.

What? No Claudell Washington??

No Ken Phelps? How could you trade Buhner for Phelps? Other luminaries: Bobby Meacham, Roberto Kelly (not a true scrub, but no stud CF, either), Eddie Lee Whitson, Greg Cadaret, Eric Plunk, Lee Guetterman and Oscar Azocar were classics. BamBam Muelens, Luis Polonia Part I. The mentions of Wayne Tolleson and Spike Owen were automatics. Yikes.

85 No Ken Phelps? How could you trade Buhner for Phelps?

It's easy; Yanks were too righthanded, Buhner struck out too much, and wasn't going to get much playing time with Winfield, Washington & Henderson in the OF, and Clark @ DH.

ah, what a classic thread! we could distinguish between the guy with "potential", who briefly appeared a potential star but never panned out--the mid-80s Yanks teams I grew up with seemed to have many such guys--and the pure "scrub", the guy who nobody, including his mama, thought had much upside at all.......

but then what about guys who should have been scrubs but were just bad regulars?? check out Bobbby Meacham's numbers for, say, 1985:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/m/meachbo01.shtml

--was it the .302 OBP or the .261 SLUG that earned him what I recall as a reputation for a "smooth glove"?

How could you forget Andy Stankewicz and Cecilo Guante?!@!