The A-Z Player Challenge

Editor's note:  There will be no Breaker's Club tonight.  I'm hoping to reschedule for tomorrow night (Wednesday, 6/2).

-----------------------------------

Over the years, there have been a number of fads that have made their way through the baseball card blog-o-sphere.  We've had bipping, we've had Blog Bat Arounds, and now, perhaps, the year 2021 is the year of the A-Z challenge.

Last month, the A-Z challenge that made waves was for each blogger to list their favorite bands for each letter of the alphabet (you can find my entry here).  

This time around, The Diamond King has come up with a more baseball-centric A-Z challenge, namely, a list from A to Z of your favorite ballplayers (using last names for the letter slots).  I'm going to modify his challenge slightly in that I'm going to go A-Z of favorite players who have played (or currently play) for the Reds (my favorite team).

• A  Aquino, Aristides  
  
  
  
• B  Bauer, Trevor
• C  Casey, Sean
• D  Dunn, Adam
• E  Encarnacion, Edwin
• F  Frazier, Todd
• G  Griffey, Jr., Ken
• H  Harang, Aaron
• I  Izturis, Cesar
• J  Jackson, Danny
• K  Kluszewski, Ted
• L  Larkin, Barry
• M  Morgan, Joe
• N  Nuxhall, Joe
• O  O'Neill, Paul
• P  Phillips, Brandon
• Q  Quinones, Luis
• R  Rijo, Jose
• S  Sabo, Chris
• T  Taubensee, Eddie
• U  --- 
• V  Votto, Joey
  
  
  
• W  Winker, Jesse
  
  
  
• X  --- 
• Y  Young, Dmitri
• Z  --- 

A few quick thoughts:

1. The letters "U" and "Z" both have had a few Reds with last names beginning with those letters but none of the players were people that I know much about (especially in their time with the Reds).  I can't justify naming any of them a favorite player for the purposes of this list.
2. No Reds' player has had a last name beginning with "X" (that I know of).
3. The letter "I" is a stretch but at least I remember Izturis.  He's not a favorite, but for that particular letter he was the one name I could justify putting on the list.
4. I wanted to put Sonny Gray on the list for "G" but I couldn't bump off Ken Griffey, Jr.
5. Bauer made the list this year but if I'm being honest in a couple of years he probably would be replaced by someone else (namely Johnny Bench).

Overall, it's a decent list of players - many of whom I have at least small PCs of as well.