Rafael Almeida is a somewhat similar case to Armando Marsans–a player with a long NeL career who also spent a few years in segregated MLB; in Almeida’s case, he spent 3 years (1911-1913) as a part-time player in the NL. He was elected to the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939.
The challenge of what to do with those seasons is the same as with Marsans, and our landing point is essentially the same as well: we believe that, absent the obstacles Almeida faced, he would have had a significantly longer MLB career, but that his overall skillset is actually decently represented in his time in MLB.
There are some discrepancies over his birth date: some sources have 7/30/1885; others 6/30/1887. I don’t have any particular insight in terms of historical research. We’ve gone with the earlier date, which makes the overall shape of his career more palatable: he debuts in Cuba at 18 (not 16), and his time in MLB is when he is in his late 20s, which means he was scouted and recruited during his true prime, then plays in the NL after that. It just seems more likely.
It’s an odd career for other reasons as well: there are a few years missing where Almeida didn’t play organized baseball anywhere, then a late career revival in the early 1920s that, honestly, wasn’t very effective. We’ve settled on a long tail for Almeida. His last truly productive season is 1914, he’s usable for a few years, then just sort of muddles around, not doing poorly but not doing well, until his exit from the game in his late 30s.
You really could argue that he vanishes from baseball after 1915, and I would be fine with that. But partially to remind folks of Almeida’s historical presence and partially because when he did reappear in his mid 30s, he wasn’t terrible, we’ve settled on giving him 4 years at a reducing usage rate from 1916 to 1919.
This has an impact of drawing his career numbers down, and giving us a player who was quite useful through his late 20s, and then a minor contributor thereafter. This shows up especially in his power numbers: while never a slugger, Almeida hit a few doubles and had some speed early in his career, then very little later on. I don’t think Almeida was ever a full-time, first name on the lineup card, player. But there are several seasons I think he would see time in the majority of a team’s games (certainly, 1911-1914 stand out).
At his best, he hit for a decent average and had some speed. He had very little power. His control of the strike zone improved as he aged, but his BA dropped over the same time period, marking a net degradation of offensive impact. These projections have him over .300 as a BA twice, and never reaching a SLG of .400, which about sums him up.
Almeida was primarily a 3B, and he was decent there before a late-career decline. Early on, he played some SS, late in his career some 1B and some RF, and throughout a few games behind the plate. In all of that, he only was a positive defensive contributor in RF, where he showed decent range and a strong enough arm.
Clearly, the usage question is the biggest: if you see has actual NL career as his peak, everything should be reduced somewhat drastically; and if you see him as not warranting a spot on a MLB roster after 1915, the tail of his career goes away. So this is a projection that has a decent shot at being reduced in the future, but my instinct is this overall shape is decent.
| Name | Rafael Almeida (El Marqués) |
| ID / Status | almeid001raf / Draft |
| Pos | 3B |
| DOB / i9s Career | 07/30/1885 / 1904 - 1922 |
| Birthplace | Havana, Cuba (Cuba) |
| Height / Weight | 5'9" / 164 |
| B / T | R / R |
Batting Projections
| Year | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | SO | SB | CS | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| 1904 | 360 | 78 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 20 | 37 | 21 | 4 | 0.217 | 0.258 | 0.267 | 0.525 |
| 1905 | 439 | 104 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 37 | 60 | 33 | 6 | 0.237 | 0.296 | 0.294 | 0.590 |
| 1906 | 569 | 153 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 36 | 66 | 31 | 9 | 0.269 | 0.312 | 0.302 | 0.615 |
| 1907 | 513 | 119 | 17 | 5 | 1 | 29 | 52 | 20 | 6 | 0.232 | 0.273 | 0.290 | 0.564 |
| 1908 | 449 | 91 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 27 | 42 | 25 | 4 | 0.203 | 0.248 | 0.258 | 0.506 |
| 1909 | 416 | 99 | 11 | 4 | 0 | 33 | 46 | 21 | 6 | 0.238 | 0.294 | 0.284 | 0.578 |
| 1910 | 467 | 118 | 13 | 7 | 1 | 36 | 59 | 47 | 8 | 0.253 | 0.306 | 0.317 | 0.623 |
| 1911 | 454 | 139 | 19 | 6 | 1 | 53 | 44 | 29 | 8 | 0.306 | 0.379 | 0.381 | 0.760 |
| 1912 | 380 | 105 | 13 | 6 | 0 | 39 | 40 | 22 | 7 | 0.276 | 0.344 | 0.342 | 0.686 |
| 1913 | 421 | 130 | 13 | 3 | 0 | 46 | 41 | 22 | 10 | 0.309 | 0.377 | 0.354 | 0.731 |
| 1914 | 489 | 143 | 15 | 8 | 0 | 51 | 57 | 29 | 7 | 0.292 | 0.359 | 0.356 | 0.715 |
| 1915 | 414 | 98 | 12 | 2 | 1 | 46 | 44 | 15 | 9 | 0.237 | 0.313 | 0.283 | 0.596 |
| 1916 | 280 | 64 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 24 | 30 | 10 | 4 | 0.229 | 0.289 | 0.246 | 0.544 |
| 1917 | 232 | 53 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 23 | 31 | 4 | 3 | 0.228 | 0.298 | 0.246 | 0.536 |
| 1918 | 217 | 49 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 19 | 19 | 7 | 3 | 0.226 | 0.288 | 0.253 | 0.542 |
| 1919 | 154 | 35 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 18 | 3 | 2 | 0.227 | 0.300 | 0.227 | 0.527 |
| 1920 | 129 | 27 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 14 | 1 | 1 | 0.209 | 0.271 | 0.248 | 0.519 |
| 1921 | 94 | 24 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 0.255 | 0.346 | 0.266 | 0.612 |
| 1922 | 53 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0.151 | 0.211 | 0.189 | 0.399 |