I pulled this weeks Sports Illustrated out of the mailbox and was greeted with a lovely 
picture of Yogi Berra (Who will be a living legend until he’s gone) and the title Where Are They Now? I loved it, today’s pictures of some of yesterday’s stars. There was Jim Taylor, Jim Brown, and Ricky Vaughn (Charlie Sheen), Dikembe Mutombo, and the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates minus Roberto Clemente. This got me thinking of doing a Where Are they Now with the Top Prospects of the 90’s. The problem? Most of you know where guys like Chipper Jones, Alex Rodriguez and Andruw Jones are now. So I browsed the internet a bit and find Baseball America’s Top 100 Prospects from as far back as 1990 and decide to do a little background check on some the guys ranked No. 100 on those lists. In football the last guy picked in the draft is Mr. Irrelevant, on these lists, I think the term carries over. Without further ado, Mr. Irrelevant 1990..
Reid Cornelius, P, Montreal Expos: Cornelius moved up to No. 21 on the list in 1991 and pitched a total of 211 big league innings. He started 33 games and won 8. Not a great Major League career but about what you should expect from a number 100.
1991: Dan Peltier, of, Texas Rangers: Peltier had 274 career plate appearances hitting .255 with a home run and was out of the game in 1996.
It only makes sense in a post about Mr Irrelevents to put up a picture of something completely irrelevent.... like this mokey cofee
92: Kevin Young, 1b/3b, Pirates: Kevin Young proved to be very successful. He moved up to No. 33 on the list for 1993 and hit .238 that year for the big club. In 1997, he hit .300 with 18 home runs and actually received an MVP vote. Young’s 144 home runs could have been steroid aided but, still represent an impressive total for a Mr. Irrelevant. At the time of his retirement in 2003, he was the last player to leave the Pittsburgh Pirates who had played on a winning team with the club (their last winning season was in 1992, which was his rookie year). He currently works at a Cal Ripken Jr Baseball camp.
1994: Roger Salkeld, P, Mariners: Roger was No. 3 in the 1992 rankings and No. 5 in the 1991 rankings, and No. 16 in 1990. Apparently, he was a fastball pitcher striking out over a batter and a half per inning in the minors. But, shoulder soreness in 1992 shut him down and he was never the same.
95: CHRIS CARPENTER, P, Blue Jays: Chris Carpenter was Mr. Irrelevant in 1995. He moved up the list to 28 in 1997 and has enjoyed a somewhat successful career since then. He won the Cy Young in 2005, and finished third in ’06, and finished second in ’09. He has almost 1600 career strikeouts and 137 wins. He’s 11th in active career winning percentage and hasn’t committed an error this year. Not exactly irrelevant.
96: Josh Booty, 3b, Florida: Josh had 30 career plate appearances spread out over three cups of coffee over three years but, his last name is Booty and that’s awesome. Josh is listed at 6’3, 210 so I doubt he had much of a booty unless we’re talking about a pirate booty. Yarrrrrrrr.
1997’s Mr Irrelevant was Livan Herndandez: Yes, that Livan Hernandez. He made it big time and has enjoyed a 16 year Major League career. He’s lead the league in IP three times and has 171 career wins. He’s lead the league in hits allowed 5 times and a 4.37 career ERA is respectable. Livan will never be confused with the best pitcher in the game but, for an ex-Mr. Irrelevant, he’s done pretty well.
2000: Aubrey Huff, 3b, Devil Rays: Aubrey is another one who has made it good since 
scraping his way onto BA’s prospect rankings. Huff sports a .280 career average and has smashed 237 homers and received MVP votes three times.
2002: Jack Cust, OF, Rockies: Cust has played 10 seasons in the Majors and lead the league in strikeouts in 3 of them. Cust does sport a career .375 OBP and currently has a job with the Mariners.
2008: Drew Stubbs, OF, Reds: Stubbs is one of the young centerfielders in today’s game. He plays with grit and hustle and walks back to the dugout alot. Stubbs is on pace to break the strikeout record this year and leads off for the Reds.
As you can tell, being Mr. Irrelevant doesn’t seem all too bad. Chris Carpenter, Livan Hernandez, Aubrey Huff and Drew Stubbs have had successful Major League careers. By this logic, there’s hope for the Twins in the form of 2011 No. 100 outfielder Joe Benson and the Royals in the form of 2010 No. 100 Pitcher Noel Arguelles. Who knows? But, I can certainly tell you that over the past few years, Mr. Irrelevant on Baseball America’s list has been anything but irrelevant.
Stat of the Day: The Braves (54-37) lineup on Sunday featured exactly two (2) guys with batting averages over .255. For comparison, the Red Sox (54-35)had seven (7) with six (6) over .284. Part of what makes baseball so great: different ways to win.
-Sean Morash
