Rich Coggins

Center Fielder
Manhattan Gray Sox (MON, BOS, SEA)
1974-1990

In real life, Richard Allen Coggins was drafted out of high school in Pomona, CA by the Orioles. He played two full major league seasons, 1973-74, as the fourth OF for those great Baltimore teams. He finished sixth in Rookie of the Year voting in 1973, so the dude had legitimate promise. Prior to the 1975 season he was traded with Dave McNally to the Expos for Ken Singleton and Mike Torrez. McNally retired after the '75 season and Coggins suffered the onset of a debilitating nerve condition that effectively ended his career at the age of 24. That trade was considered the worst in Expos history until Pedro Martinez for two guys you ain't never heard of. Back to Coggins—the 'Spos sold his contract to the Yankees for cash that same season. Richie tried to play the following season but after 40-odd games with the Yankees and White Sox, his career was over. Insert sad trombone sound.  

In fake baseball life, Rich Coggins also had a promising career limited by injury. But Digital Rich did manage to produce 17 UL seasons that featured some truly superb moments and achievements. He was drafted in the fifth round of the 1972 rookie draft by the Flying Scotsman Douglas Aiton of the Washington Monuments, making Coggs the 57th of 59 players drafted that year. For those keeping score at home, that's the same draft that produced Craig "Babe" Robinson and Rick Reuschel. In career WAR terms, the '72 draft goes CRob, Big Daddy, Mike Schmidt and my man Richie C. 

He was left unprotected in the 1974 expansion draft, probably because he had already shown himself to be injury prone. Indeed, he was felled by the dreaded "post concussion syndrome" and missed 12 months from mid-'73 to mid-'74. Nevertheless, so badly did I lust after the guy that I drafted him with my second pick for the expansion Montréal Voyageurs despite the injury and full-blown risk of a CEI.

He fit right into my long-time fake baseball fixation on pacey lefty-hitting leadoff CF glove wizards—a lineage which includes Richie Ashburn, Sandy Amoros, Lenny Dykstra, Jim Edmonds and probably some other guys I'm forgetting right now. See also Vada Pinson and why I keep aggressively voting him for the Hall. Coggins, in other words, is one of my favorite UL players.

He was the leadoff hitter for the 1975 Voyageurs, the fastest expansion team to 100 wins. His contribution was crucial not just from the leadoff spot, but in the center of the park. Along with Gary Carter, Rooster Burleson and Bobby Grich, Coggins was the last piece of the puzzle to complete the vaunted "all blue dudes up the middle" (that is, defense rating 9 or 10) dream of one G. Richard Reed. His sterling OBP and glove wizardry would propel his teams to the playoffs over and over again.

It's hard to overstate just how good this guy was in the period from 1975 to 1986, both 4.5 WAR seasons. In three seasons from 1975 to '77, his team made the playoffs twice. In two years with Boston, 1978-79, his team made the playoffs twice. In four years in Seattle, 1980-83, his team made the playoffs twice. In six years in post-C-Rob Manhattan (1984 to '89), his team made the playoffs five times. In 1990, he ended his career in Boston as a late-game defensive replacement, where you guessed it, his team made the playoffs. I'm no math major, but that sounds pretty good.

Despite his incredible talent, his seasons were continually and sometimes massively limited by injury. In the 12-season stretch from 1975-86, he reached 500 ABs just three times. Three other times he failed to appear in even 100 games. The injuries pretty much wreck his candidacy in career-totals terms. I mean, he managed a solid 49.7 career WAR, but I ask you to look instead at his rate stats—the dude averaged .292 with .378 OBP. He was a walks and singles guy, so his SLG and OPS are a relatively modest .364/.742. But again, you didn't look to this dude to hit dongs; that's not in his job description. Rather, he was supposed to be standing on first when your three or four hitter pokes a diplodocus clout.  

In defensive terms, he was a two-time Gold Glove center fielder, and put up a career 113.2 ZR with greater than 1.000 defensive efficiency and average range factor >3 over his career. In one of his healthy seasons, he won the CF platinum stick award finishing in the top 10 in average, OBP, runs created, RC/27, WAR, walks and SBs. Strong individual seasons, leadoff excellence and sterling CF play that made him a key building block for a succession of winning UL franchises suggest a player worth of Hall consideration. (Glen Reed)