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Top 100 Angels: Don BAYLOR #16

#16 DON BAYLOR - OF/DH (1977-1982)

If the only season Don Baylor ever played as an Angel had been his 1979 AL MVP campaign, he would still be in the top 40 on this Top 100 Angels list.

If the 1979 Angels had won the World Series he'd be in the Top 3.

They called him GROOVE. We wrote about him in our Top 100 Angels compiled after the 2005 season. His CAREER STATS are not quite Cooperstown but are the essence of a great player. If Don has any knocks on him it could be his "product of his time" fluidity, moving from team to team, not quite associated with any single franchise in a solid way. He won a ring with Minnesota in 1987, the MVP in Anaheim, a Silver Slugger with Boston and even won the Roberto Clemente Award with the Yankees in 1985. This was after his magnificent early days with the Orioles and a curtain call with the AL pennant winning A's in 1988.

Plus he managed the Rockies and Cubs for a total of 8 and a half seasons.