Stars who Switched Clubs Very Early in their Careers

Often a player becomes so associated with a team that we forget that he started with another franchise. As a continuation of our conversations from yesterday, here are "the ones that got away", players who played their first season for one franchise and rest of their career for a different (single) franchise.



As you would expect this list is much shorter than yesterday's and Ryne Sandberg tops the chart:

Rk	Player	WAR/pos	From	To	Tm
1	Ryne Sandberg	62.0	1981	1997	PHI-CHC
2	George Stone	26.9	1903	1910	BOS-SLB
3	John Reilly	24.4	1880	1891	CIN
4	Hank Thompson	23.3	1947	1956	SLB-NYG
5	Socks Seybold	22.6	1899	1908	CIN-PHA
6	John Stearns	18.6	1974	1984	PHI-NYM
7	Frank Isbell	16.0	1898	1909	CHC-CHW
8	Darby O'Brien	14.6	1887	1892	NYP-BRO
9	Heinie Wagner	13.8	1902	1918	NYG-BOS
10	Pat Duncan	9.0	1915	1924	PIT-CIN

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 12/13/2011.

I left the years in because of the scarcity of recent players. There are probably few people alive that remember seeing anyone other than Sandberg, Thompson and Steams.

If we loosen our requirements and include the WAR leaders for players who switched teams within the first 2 season of their career regardless of how many teams they ended up playing for, we get the this list which is full of 19th century pitchers.  I assume that this is because of the instability of franchises at the time. Here are the top players who began their careers in 1901 or later:

Rk	Player	WAR/pos	From	To	SLG	Tm
1	Kenny Lofton	65.3	1991	2007	.423	HOU-CLE-ATL-TOT-NYY-PHI-LAD
2	Ryne Sandberg	62.0	1981	1997	.452	PHI-CHC
3	Willie Randolph	60.5	1975	1992	.351	PIT-NYY-LAD-TOT-MIL-NYM
4	Sammy Sosa	59.7	1989	2007	.534	TOT-CHW-CHC-BAL-TEX
5	Jeff Kent	59.4	1992	2008	.500	NYM-TOT-SFG-HOU-LAD
6	Minnie Minoso	52.8	1949	1980	.459	TOT-CHW-CLE-STL-WSA
7	Edd Roush	46.5	1913	1931	.446	CHW-IND-NEW-TOT-CIN-NYG
8	Heinie Groh	46.4	1912	1927	.384	TOT-CIN-NYG-PIT
9	Dolph Camilli	43.0	1933	1945	.492	CHC-TOT-PHI-BRO-BOS
10	Julio Franco	40.6	1982	2007	.417	PHI-CLE-TEX-CHW-TOT-TBD-ATL-NYM
11	Roger Maris	39.8	1957	1968	.476	CLE-TOT-KCA-NYY-STL
12	Ernie Lombardi	39.0	1931	1947	.460	BRO-CIN-BSN-NYG
13	Bill Nicholson	39.0	1936	1953	.465	PHA-CHC-PHI
14	Moises Alou	38.2	1990	2008	.516	TOT-MON-FLA-HOU-CHC-SFG-NYM
15	Eddie Stanky	38.1	1943	1953	.348	CHC-TOT-BRO-BSN-NYG-STL

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 12/14/2011.

This is probably more of what we wanted. With some exceptions, most of these players here starred with a team different from the one with which they debuted.

The pitching list is somewhat trickier to create, but the top 4 pitchers to switch teams within their first 2 seasons and then never again are all old-timers:

Rk	Player		WAR ▾	From	To	Tm
1	Babe Adams	2	45.2	1906	1926	STL-PIT
2	Charlie Root	2	37.9	1923	1941	SLB-CHC
3	Jesse Haines	2	33.8	1918	1937	CIN-STL
4	Deacon Phillippe	2	33.0	1899	1911	LOU-PIT

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 12/14/2011.

Once again expanding our criteria to include any players who switched teams within their first 2 seasons gives us  more interesting list. Again, I have only included players who started their careers in 1901 or later. Most of the more recent players are on the lower half of the list.

Rk	Player	WAR	From	To	Tm
1	Randy Johnson	91.8	1988	2009	MON-TOT-SEA-NYY-ARI-SFG
2	Fergie Jenkins	81.3	1965	1983	PHI-TOT-CHC-TEX-BOS
3	David Cone	57.5	1986	2003	NYM-KCR-TOT-NYY-BOS
4	Dazzy Vance	56.4	1915	1935	TOT-NYY-STL-BRO
5	Mordecai Brown	56.1	1903	1916	STL-CHC-CIN-TOT-CHI
6	Stan Coveleski	54.0	1912	1928	PHA-CLE-WSH-NYY
7	Eddie Cicotte	49.7	1905	1920	DET-BOS-TOT-CHW
8	Waite Hoyt	47.0	1918	1938	NYG-BOS-NYY-TOT-PIT-BRO
9	Babe Adams	45.2	1906	1926	STL-PIT
10	Charlie Root	37.9	1923	1941	SLB-CHC
11	Claude Passeau	35.2	1935	1947	PIT-PHI-TOT-CHC
12	Jeff Pfeffer	34.7	1911	1924	SLB-BRO-STL-TOT
13	Jesse Haines	33.8	1918	1937	CIN-STL
14	Doyle Alexander	31.9	1971	1989	LAD-BAL-TEX-ATL-SFG-NYY-TOT-TOR-DET
15	Preacher Roe	31.8	1938	1954	STL-PIT-BRO
16	Bill Hands	31.8	1965	1975	SFG-CHC-MIN-TOT-TEX
17	Derek Lowe	31.4	1997	2011	TOT-BOS-LAD-ATL
18	Jose Rijo	31.0	1984	2002	NYY-OAK-CIN
19	Trevor Hoffman	30.8	1993	2010	TOT-SDP-MIL
20	Rube Walberg	30.7	1923	1937	TOT-PHA-BOS
21	Tom Zachary	30.6	1918	1936	PHA-WSH-SLB-NYY-BSN-TOT-BRO
22	Sid Fernandez	30.3	1983	1997	LAD-NYM-BAL-TOT-PHI-HOU

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 12/14/2011.