All Dodgers team 1965-2016, position players

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In looking at Dodger teams over the past 50 years or so, the Dodger infield of the 70's is well represented. Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes and Ron Cey all made this team and Bill Russell is a near miss. The outfield is much more of a question. So here's what I have:

Catcher: Mike Piazza Mike Piazza was an absolute terror at the plate when he was a Dodger. In 1995-97 Piazza's OBP was .400 or better. In 1995 and 97, Piazza's OBP was over 1.000. In 1997 alone, Mike's WAR was 8.7. His WAR for the almost 7 seasons with the Dodgers was 31.9. Mike Sciosia gets honorable mention for his years with the Dodgers and bonus points for being one of the best plate blockers in the history of the game.

First base: Steve Garvey Steve Garvey was a hitting machine. In his 14 years with the Dodgers, Steve had a WAR of 36.4 and an OPS of .796. From 1978-80 Garvey had 200 hits or more. While not a big home run hitter, Garvey was good for 20 or more homers and 100 RBI's in a good season. Steve's defensive metrics produced a -5.8 defensive WAR, but his bat more than made up for it. I thought I might have a sleeper pick of slick fielding Wes Parker, but the numbers just weren't there.

Second base: Davey Lopes Lopes added an element of speed in his 10 years with the club. Davey finished with a WAR of 32.1 in his tenure with the Dodgers. His OPS was .749. Lopes edged out Jeff Kent primarily by virtue of longevity. In 4 years with the Dodgers, Jeff's OPS was .847. Kent is hurt by his defensive WAR of -4.0.

Shortstop: Rafael Furcal The battle here was between Furcal and Bill Russell. The primary argument for Russell is longevity. Russell spent 18 years as the Dodgers shortstop. I remember Russell as being error prone. Sure enough, in checking, Russell led the National League in errors in 1972 and 74. Despite that the defensive WAR over his 18 seasons was a strong 19.1. Over all, his WAR of 31.2 wasn't bad, but his OPS was .648. Furcal played 6 years for the Dodgers. In those 6 years Furcal's WAR was 15.4. Furcal swung a much better bat than Russell with an OPS of .757 and an overall WAR of 15.4. Pretty good for six years.

Third base: Ron Cey The Dodgers have had a number of decent third basemen, but Ron Cey makes the team. The Penguin played for the Dodgers and was productive offensively, as well as defensively. Ron looked stiff in the field, as his nickname of Penguin might indicate, but put together a defensive WAR of 10.5. Ron had a decent batting average of .264 in his 12 seasons with the Dodgers to go with 228 homers and 842 RBI's. Nice work Ron. Adrian Beltre spent some time with the Dodgers and had a monster season before going on to the Texas Rangers. Look for him on that team.

Left field: Gary Sheffield Before Dusty Baker was getting ripped for overusing starting pitchers, he was a pretty good left fielder. Initially I thought he would be the left fielder on this team, but upon looking at his statistics Dusty was kind of up and down. On the other hand, Gary Sheffield had some monster years for the Dodgers. They were so good that they pretty much overcame his defensive numbers, which are some of the worst I've seen. Sheffield's home run totals from 199-2001 were 34-43-36. In two of those seasons Sheffield had an OPS of 1.000 or better. Sheffield takes this slot, though I'm not that adamant about it.

Center field: Willie Davis Davis gets the decision over Matt Kemp, Rick Monday and Brett Butler. Butler and Monday had some nice seasons with the Dodgers, but some of their best season occurred elsewhere. Matt Kemp had one great season and some more decent decent seasons but Willie Davis wins out be virtue of consistency. Some of Willie's best season were before 1965 but even after that, his defense, speed and offense made him an effective player. His career started in 1960 and spanned 14 years. Generally Willie had a WAR from 2.0 to 5.6. In 1964, a year before I'm really counting, Willie had a WAR of 8.3. Willie had a rough go in post season, but overall, he was an excellent Dodger.

Right field: Raul Mondesi This was a tossup between Mondesi, Shawn Green and Reggie Smith. Green had some big home run years, and Smith had some nice OBP years but Mondesi won out by virtue of his consistency. From 1995-99 Mondesi his between and 33 home runs. His OPS during that same period was between .813-.901. As a bonus, Raul had a great throwing arm.

That's my 1965-2016 Dodgers. What's yours?