MLB Network, launched on Jan. 1, 2009, is celebrating its 15th anniversary in 2024. Through Jan. 19, MLB Network will count down the top 15 moments it has covered in its history, via weeknight segments on MLB Tonight (6 p.m. ET), as well as across its social platforms. And don’t forget to catch MLB Network’s 15th Anniversary retrospective show -- “MLB Network Legendary Moments” presented by Budweiser, with Greg Amsinger, Sean Casey and Harold Reynolds -- scheduled for 7 p.m. ET on Monday, Jan. 22.

No. 13 on the countdown: Looking at MLB Network analysts, then and now.

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Throughout its history, MLB Network has always sought to bring fans inside the game, in part by employing a roster of ex-player analysts who can break down swings, pitch arsenals and much, much more with the perspective of having been on the field on the biggest stage.

Some of these analysts were in uniform within the past few years, while others are far more removed from their playing days. Some spent multiple decades in the Majors and others just a few years. But regardless of when they were in The Show and for how long, each can look back on some huge moments and fantastic games.

So as MLB Network shines a light on its analysts as part of its 15th anniversary celebration, here are our picks for a top moment from the career of each former player who you can now see breaking down the action on your TV screen.

Yonder Alonso
Alonso played 10 seasons in the Majors but enjoyed a career year in 2017, including a huge first half for the A’s. That earned him his lone All-Star selection, and Alonso responded by going 2-for-2, with singles off Zack Greinke and Kenley Jansen. He followed the latter hit with a stolen base, despite swiping only 22 bags during his entire career.

Ruben Amaro Jr.
While he was mostly a bench player during parts of eight MLB seasons, Amaro enjoyed a spectacular first start as a member of the Phillies on April 8, 1992, the team’s second game of the season. Leading off against the Cubs at Veterans Stadium, he went 3-for-4 with two doubles, his first career homer and three RBIs in an 11-3 blowout. Amaro would go on to greater acclaim as a front-office executive, most notably as GM of the Phillies.

Alex Avila
Avila logged 929 big league games behind the plate over 13 seasons, and on May 7, 2011, at Toronto, he checked off a major accomplishment for any catcher. The 24-year-old helped guide Justin Verlander to the second of his three career no-hitters and smacked a two-run homer for good measure. (Avila also caught Armando Galarraga’s near-perfect game in 2010.)

Sean Casey
A three-time All-Star with more than 1,500 hits, Casey enjoyed perhaps his finest game for the Reds on June 23, 2004, at Shea Stadium. He went 5-for-6 -- one of his three five-hit games -- and popped a pair of two-run homers. The second, off Mets lefty John Franco, broke a 4-4 tie in the top of the 12th inning to deliver a Cincinnati victory.

Ron Darling
Before he was part of the Mets’ beloved three-man broadcast booth, Darling was a Mets World Series hero in 1986. While he didn’t have his best performance in Game 7 against the Red Sox -- being lifted in the fourth after allowing three runs -- New York would come back to win, and the club would not have reached that point without him. After taking a hard-luck loss in Game 1 (seven innings, one unearned run), Darling won Game 4, twirling seven scoreless innings in hostile territory at Fenway Park.

Ryan Dempster
In 16 Major League seasons, Dempster made two All-Star teams and took home a World Series ring as a member of the 2013 Red Sox. It was during his first All-Star campaign, way back in the year 2000, when a 23-year-old Dempster, then with the Marlins, turned in a complete-game one-hitter against the Mets on May 7, which would remain his best start by game score (89) for the rest of his career.

Mark DeRosa
DeRosa was no stranger to an offensive outburst -- he had four total six-RBI games in his 16-year playing career. Among the best of them was a 4-for-5 day he had against the A's on Aug. 9, 2006, in which he tallied a double and two home runs in an authoritative 14-0 victory -- no small feat, given Oakland had started Barry Zito.

Cliff Floyd
Floyd, the Expos' first-round pick in the 1991 Draft, was a force to be reckoned with at the plate in his playing career, and he proved as much during his six-season stint with the Marlins from 1997-2002. On Sept. 30, 2000, against the Phillies, Floyd went 4-for-5 with two doubles and a home run and drove in six runs, accounting for more than half of the Marlins' offense in an 11-5 victory.

Al Leiter
Leiter, a two-time World Series champion, accomplished a lot over 19 seasons, but you can probably guess where this is going: right to the no-hitter. On May 11, 1996, Leiter threw the first no-no in Marlins history, walking two and striking out six on just 103 pitches in a memorable 11-0 rout of the Rockies. Safe to say a statement was made that day.

Mike Lowell
Lowell, a four-time All-Star and the 2007 World Series MVP, hit 223 home runs over 13 Major League seasons. His one career three-homer game came for the Marlins against the Phillies on April 21, 2004, a tightly contested game the Marlins won 8-7 in 12 innings while the Phillies completed the game under protest. Lowell went 4-for-6 on the night with two huge game-tying shots, first in the seventh and later in the ninth.

Pedro Martinez
One could make a convincing argument that no pitcher in MLB history has been better than Martinez was in winning back-to-back AL Cy Young Awards in 1999-2000. And Peak Pedro was never better than on Sept. 10, 1999, when he went into Yankee Stadium, faced the eventual World Series champion Yankees and threw a one-hitter (allowing only Chili Davis’ second-inning solo homer), while walking none and striking out 17 in overwhelming fashion.

Cameron Maybin
Few Major League careers are busier than Maybin's was, as he played 1,162 games for 10 teams over 15 seasons. Near the tail end of his career, he had a short stint with the Angels, where he had one of his best single-game performances on June 9, 2017, against the Astros, a game in which he went 3-for-4 with a double and four stolen bases, setting his own career high and tying the Angels' franchise record. As of the end of the 2023 season, he remains the last Angel (of four total) to record four steals in a single game.

Kevin Millar
Millar spent just three of his 12 Major League seasons in Boston, but he took especially well to the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry while he was there. That was especially evident on July 23, 2004, the date of his only career three-homer game. Despite Millar's efforts -- which included a perfectly-timed game-tying home run in the eighth off Tom Gordon -- the Yankees would ultimately win, 8-7.

Jake Peavy
The 2007 NL Cy Young Award winner had an eventful and successful career. But in terms of single-game performances, it doesn't get much better than the one he turned in on April 25, 2007, against the D-backs. A 25-year-old Peavy threw seven scoreless innings, giving up two hits, walking three and striking out 16. That tied the Padres' single-game strikeout record -- a record he had set a year earlier, and one that still stands through the 2023 season.

Carlos Peña
Usually better remembered for his time with the Rays -- understandable, given that he averaged 33 homers per season in Tampa Bay -- Peña initially caught on with the Tigers, where, on May 27, 2004, he went 6-for-6 with a double, two homers, five RBIs and four runs scored. It was an incredibly impressive outburst from the 26-year-old first baseman and came as part of a banner day for Detroit, which scored 17 runs on 27 hits in a rout of Kansas City.

Hunter Pence
Sandwiched between winning his two World Series rings with the Giants in 2012 and '14, Pence put up one of the best single-game offensive performances of his career on Sept. 14, 2013, going 3-for-5 with a home run and a career-best seven RBIs in a 19-3 rout of their rival Dodgers, still the highest-scoring game against the Dodgers in Los Angeles since 1961.

Dan Plesac
Plesac became a successful closer early in his career with the Brewers, reaching three straight All-Star Games from 1987-89. In the 1988 contest in Cincinnati, the left-hander came through in a big spot. The AL was clinging to a 2-1 lead in the eighth inning when Plesac was called in with a runner on first, two outs and Darryl Strawberry coming to the plate. Strawberry would go on to lead the NL in homers and OPS that season, but Plesac struck him out to end the inning, setting up Dennis Eckersley’s ninth-inning save.

Albert Pujols
How do you choose just one? There was Pujols’ three-homer game in the 2011 World Series, his 700th career homer in his final season, and so many more. But nobody will ever forget his titanic three-run blast off the Astros’ Brad Lidge in Game 5 of the 2005 NLCS at Minute Maid Park, which turned a two-run deficit into a one-run Cardinals lead with two outs in the top of the ninth inning. It remains an iconic postseason moment.

Harold Reynolds
A three-time Gold Glove Award winner at second base who stole 250 career bases, Reynolds was not known for home runs. He hit just 21 of them in 5,398 trips to the plate. That included one grand slam -- and it came in a tied game in the ninth inning on Sept. 5, 1990, at Baltimore. Now that’s good timing.

Bill Ripken
Speaking of well-timed homers: Ripken finished his 12-year tenure in the Majors with just 20 big flies. But two of those came in special circumstances. On both Sept. 15, 1990, at Toronto, and May 28, 1996, at Seattle, Bill and older brother Cal Jr. homered not only in the same game but also the same inning for the Orioles. (Cal swatted three homers and drove in eight in the latter game.)

Xavier Scruggs
By August 2016, Scruggs was close to turning 29, with more than 150 Minor League home runs to his credit -- but none in the Majors. After 61 homerless plate appearances for the 2014-15 Cardinals, he got another shot with the Marlins late in the ‘16 season. In his second game for Miami, on Aug. 20 at Pittsburgh, he ripped a two-run homer. It was his lone big league big fly.

Jim Thome
One of the great sluggers in the game’s history, Thome became only the eighth member of the 600 Home Run Club on Aug. 15, 2011, while with the Twins. The milestone homer at Detroit’s Comerica Park, which came a little shy of Thome’s 41st birthday, put the Hall of Famer in exclusive company.

Chris Young
This is the former outfielder, not the former pitcher and current Rangers GM who did not allow a hit to this Chris Young in 16 career at-bats. Anyways, outfielder Chris Young filled up the stat sheet in his rookie season with the 2007 D-backs, and on Sept. 11 at San Francisco, his fourth-inning solo homer clinched a 30-20 campaign. Young remains one of only three rookies -- along with Nomar Garciaparra (1997) and Mike Trout (2012) -- to accomplish that feat.