The 85 Club

Few players attain the elusive overall rating of 85 or higher. As GAP’s season 3 has gotten underway, the Reds’ SS Andres Mieses and the Cardinals’ SS Barry Clayton are now at 84, and with a bit of diligent effort are poised to join this prestigious club. The current members of the Club are:

96 Cliff Simms, SP, New York Mets
90 Brian Snyder, SS, San Francisco Giants
90 Chuck Hoover, 2B, Minnesota Twins
89 Tom Buchanan, SP, Detroit Tigers
88 Douglas Diaz, CF, Cincinnati Reds
88 Joe Warden, LF, Detroit Tigers
88 Todd Linebrink, SS, Oakland Athletics
88 Danny Taylor, SP, New York Yankees
88 Harry Wilfredo, SP, Seattle Mariners
88 Greg Stewart, SP, Cleveland Indians
87 Clyde Valentin, RF, Oakland Athletics
86 LaTroy Franco, LF, Cleveland Indians
86 Mark Moore, 3B, Atlanta Braves
86 Clarence Cooke, SP, San Francisco Giants
86 Wilton Chang, SP, Chicago White Sox
85 Joe Linden, 2B, Atlanta Braves
85 Nick Alexander, SP, Tampa Bay Rays
85 Nipsey Morris, C, New York Mets
85 Brandon Freeman, SP, Detroit Tigers

Oddly enough, 10 of these 19 players have not made the All-Star team in GAP’s first 2 seasons, and only 3 members of this fraternity (the Tigers' Freeman and the Indians’ Stewart and Franco) appeared in both All-Star games. Seven others (Simms, Alexander, Cooke, Linebrink, Moore, Valentin and Morris) had one All-Star appearance in the first 2 seasons.

These players certainly don’t make their mark on the defensive end of the game, as the only Gold Gloves in this group went to SS Moore and C Morris in season 2.