MLB118582

This theme's dedicated to the forgotten players who made it to the Big Leagues but did not accumulate enough AB/IP to make it to our database. Let's honor the ghosts who have been flushed out of WIStory!

Here's the idea: Find a player at baseball-reference.com who never got to 50 at-bats or 25 innings in a single season. It's okay if this player played more than one season, so long as he never batted/pitched enough to be in the WIS database. Choose one team that he played on, and twist his teammates into an $80M team. (All pre-1920 players are blacklisted; you are allowed to choose a pre-1920 team, but all the twisted players must come from seasons after 1919.)

Now the kicker: Each owner will receive 60 AAA batters and 20 AAA pitchers, all of them Way Above Average. You will select one of these rookies -- AND ONLY ONE -- and rename him (with your ghost player's name), and call him up. Because this rookie is Way Above Average, and because of our relatively low cap, he will be an impact player in this theme. But choose carefully: this is the only rookie you will have access to all season.

NOTE: If your ghost was a batter in real life, you must call up an AAA batter; if he was a pitcher, you must call up an AAA pitcher. I won't be a stickler for exact positions (C or OF doesn't matter, nor SP or RP), but on the batter/pitcher issue there's no leeway.

ALSO: Your "25th" player (the one you send down to the minors to make room for your ghost) can be either a real life teammate or any 200K player in the database; however, if he is the latter, he must never appear in a game. Use of ineligible players will result in automatic forfeits.

SUMMARY
No: DH, WW, Clones, Trading
1920-2016 players only
$80M Cap
60 AAA batters/20 AAA pitchers -- Auto, Fictitious Names, Way Above Average
Park must be the one your ghost's team played in
Random Alignment
Ghosts/Teams are exclusive

OWNER -- GHOST (BATTER or PITCHER) TEAM

1. crazystengel -- Dan Gonzales (B) 1980 Detroit Tigers
2. reddtrain -- Jonathan Diaz (B) 2013 Boston Red Sox
3. redwingscup -- Cotton Nash (B) 1967 Chicago White Sox
4. eschwartz67 -- Bill Latham (P) 1985 New York Mets
5. mars2010 -- Howard Hilton (P) 1990 St. Louis Cardinals
6. combalt -- Pat House (P) 1968 Houston Astros
7. nurple -- Ryan Rohlinger (B) 2009 San Francisco Giants
8. Vindex24 -- Freddie Velazquez (B) 1973 Atlanta Braves
9. midknight -- Hal Stowe (P) 1960 New York Yankees
10. winnteka1 -- Randy Bobb (B) 1969 Chicago Cubs
11. doctorcc -- Tom Wieghaus (B) 1981 Montreal Expos
12. gees51 -- Bry Nelson (B) 2002 Boston Red Sox
13. gorbyruss -- Brian Falkenborg (P) 2008 Los Angeles Dodgers
14. 0soup4u -- Orlando Alvarez (B) 1975 Los Angeles Dodgers
15. italyprof -- Pete Naton (B) 1953 Pittsburgh Pirates
16. sjh0825 -- Chan Perry (B) 2000 Cleveland Indians
17. zdedalus -- Walter Sessi (B) 1941 St. Louis Cardinals
18. wink0094 -- Bob Skube (B) 1982 Milwaukee Brewers
19. ejstockman -- Phil Stockman (P) 2008 Atlanta Braves
20. dweezil -- John Barnes (B) 2001 Minnesota Twins
21. dlchow -- Shane Lindsay (P) 2011 Chicago White Sox
22. ronblood -- Allan Lewis (B) 1972 Oakland A's
23. cpdpoet -- Don McCormack (B) 1980 Philadelphia Phillies
24. paulives -- Elmer Tutwiler (P) 1928 Pittsburgh Pirates

WAIT LIST: MarathonHeel

Will we have access to all the various AAA players throughout the season? May we call several of them up as we need them? Or are we limited to only calling up the one guy and that is it.

Thanks for the question, winnetka1. To be clear, you will be allowed to use only ONE rookie. So before the season begins, you'll have to pick carefully. But you will definitely have a good one somewhere in the bunch, since there are so many of them and they're all Way Above Average.

By the way, here are the salary ranges for Way Above Average rookies:

BATTERS: $3,875,000 to $9,651,076
STARTING PITCHERS: $3,450,000 to $9,174,893
RELIEF PITCHERS: $2,775,000 to $5,246,064

Rookies will be auto/fictitious names. Using the AAA thread, you should be able to ID all of them.

I'll jump in with Jonathan Diaz (B) - 2013 Boston Red Sox

Welcome, reddtrain!

I'm playing, but have no idea as to my ghost yet. Let the research begin.

Bill Latham - 1985 New York Mets

Welcome, redwingscup and eschwartz67!

Sign me up!

I will go with RHP HOWARD HILTON - 1990 ST. LOUIS CARDINALS.

Welcome, mars2010!

5 in!

For right now please give me 'Randy Hunt' 1985 Cardinals

Welcome, combalt!

I'm in. I'll check back with a player.

1973 Braves. Freddie Velasquez.