Monday, March 23, 2020

Every MLB Team's Greatest Player

A little exercise to get us through this long stretch with no sports. I'll name a greatest player ever for each team. If a team has been in more than one city, I'll do it for each separate city. In following entries, I'll do it for the other North American major league sports.

Alphabetical order by current team name:

Arizona Diamondbacks, 1998-2019 (since the 2020 season hasn't happened yet): Randy Johnson. Their only qualified Hall-of-Famer. Their only other player in the Hall is Roberto Alomar, and he only played 38 games for him, in his last season, 2004.

Atlanta Braves, 1966-2019: Greg Maddux. Milwaukee Braves, 1953-1965: Eddie Matthews. Boston Braves, 1871-1952: Warren Spahn. Braves overall, 1871-2019: Hank Aaron.

Baltimore Orioles, 1954-2019: Cal Ripken Jr. St. Louis Browns, 1902-1953: George Sisler. Browns/O's overall: Sisler. Ted Williams called Frank Robinson the most underrated player of all time, but he only played 6 (admittedly important) seasons with the O's. Picking Cal ahead of Brooks Robinson was tougher. But Sisler may be the greatest forgotten player: A .340 lifetime hitter who was considered the best-fielding 1st baseman of his era. His 257 hits in 1920 stood as a record for 84 years. He could even pitch a little. He'd be remembered a lot more if he hadn't fallen 188 hits short of 3,000.

Boston Red Sox, 1901-2019: Ted Williams. Not quite the greatest hitter who ever lived, but he could be 2nd behind Babe Ruth. Carl Yastrzemski was a very good fielder, as well as a great hitter, so he makes this closer than you might think. David Ortiz, of course, is Sox fans' biggest hero. But he is ineligible, and you know why.

Chicago Cubs, 1876-2019: Ernie Banks. Maybe, with the 2016 World Series win under his belt, someone like Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez or Kris Bryant will surpass the man known as Mr. Cub. But 512 home runs, and excellence over 19 seasons (1953 to 1971) and at 2 different positions (shortstop and 1st base) helps Banks.

Chicago White Sox, 1901-2019: Frank Thomas. If Shoeless Joe Jackson had been allowed to finish his career, he might rank ahead of the Big Hurt. But he wasn't, and so he doesn't.

Cincinnati Reds, 1882-2019: Johnny Bench. I could tell you that Pete Rose is ineligible, but I won't. I can tell you that Rose split his career between Cincinnati and Philadelphia, but, really, it wouldn't matter. If Pete had spent his entire career in Cincy, Bench would still be ahead of him. No runs, no drips, no errors.

Cleveland Indians, 1901-2019: Bob Feller. A tough call, but Napoleon Lajoie, Tris Speaker and Jim Thome all split their careers with at least 1 other team.

Colorado Rockies, 1993-2019: Larry Walker. Their only Hall-of-Fame player, qualified or otherwise.

Detroit Tigers, 1901-2019: Ty Cobb. The Georgia Peach hasn't played a game in 92 years, but that .366 (or .367) lifetime batting average is still a record, and those 4,189 (or 4,191) hits still put him ahead of Hank Greenberg and Al Kaline.

Houston Astros, 1962-2019: Craig Biggio. Over 3,000 hits, 4 Gold Gloves, 7 All-Star Games, 6 postseason berths including the Astros' 1st Pennant, and, as far as we know, no cheating.

Kansas City Royals, 1969-2019: George Brett. It took the Royals until 2014 to so much as make the Playoffs without him. And I doubt that any player on their 2014 and '15 Pennant winners will surpass him.

Los Angeles Angels, 1961-2019: Nolan Ryan. So many great players have played for the Halos, but split between them and other teams: Frank Robinson, Hoyt Wilhelm, Nolan Ryan, Rod Carew, Reggie Jackson, Don Sutton, Bert Blyleven, Dave Winfield, Lee Smith, Eddie Murray, Rickey Henderson, Vladimir Guerrero, Hall-of-Famers all. Guerrero recently became the 1st player to go into the Hall with an Angels cap on his plaque. But he was only with them for 6 years. Ryan was there for 8, and the bulk of his achievements was with them: 138 of his 324 wins, 2,416 of his 5,714 strikeouts, 5 of his 8 All-Star Games, and 4 of his 7 no-hitters.

Los Angeles Dodgers, 1958-2019: Sandy Koufax. Brooklyn Dodgers, 1883-1957: Duke Snider. Dodgers overall, 1883-2019: Koufax. Jackie Robinson was their most important player, and a great player, but not their greatest player.

Miami Marlins, 1993-2019: Miguel Cabrera. The toughest call for any team. They've had 5 players reach the Hall of Fame, but they had a combined 5 years with the Marlins. I could have chosen Gary Sheffield, but we'll never know how much of his contributions were real. I could have chosen Jeff Conine, the man known as Mr. Marlin, who was on both World Championship teams, but didn't come close to a Hall of Fame career. So I went with Cabrera, who only spent the 1st 5 seasons of his career with the Fish.

Milwaukee Brewers, 1970-2019: Robin Yount. Paul Molitor comes close. Prince Fielder does not. Christian Yelich might surpass him, but not yet.

Minnesota Twins, 1961-2019: Kirby Puckett. Washington Senators, 1901-60: Walter Johnson. Senators/Twins overall, 1901-2019: Johnson. Puckett's fine all-around career was shorter than it should have been, but it was still ahead of Rod Carew, who split his career between Bloomington and Anaheim. And while Harmon Killebrew was sensational in his one dimension, he was such a one-dimensional player. But the Big Train was just too good a pitcher to not be this franchise's all-time best.

New York Mets, 1962-2019: Tom Seaver. No other choice.

New York Yankees, 1903-2019: Babe Ruth. For all the amazing things about the Sultan of Swat, consider how good he had to be to finish ahead of Lou Gehrig (the undisputable greatest 1st baseman ever), Joe DiMaggio (a candidate for the greatest center fielder ever), Mickey Mantle (ditto), Yogi Berra (the undisputable greatest catcher ever), Derek Jeter (a candidate for the greatest shortstop ever), and Mariano Rivera (the undisputable greatest relief pitcher ever) -- and, if you don't care if he used steroids, Alex Rodriguez (a candidate for the greatest 3rd baseman ever).

Oakland Athletics, 1968-2019: Rickey Henderson. Kansas City Athletics, 1955-1967: Enos Slaughter. Philadelphia Athletics, 1901-1954: Jimmie Foxx. A's overall: Henderson. Not that Rickey's ego needs any more fluffing, but, as Bill James put it, you could cut his career in half, and have 2 Hall-of-Famers.

Philadelphia Phillies, 1883-2019: Mike Schmidt. Phils fans already chose him as such on their 1883-1982 Centennial Team -- and he still had 199 home runs, 5 All-Star Games, 3 Gold Gloves, a Pennant and an MVP award to go.

Pittsburgh Pirates, 1882-2019: Honus Wagner. Roberto Clemente was a fantastic all-around player, whose cultural importance surpasses that of almost every player who's ever lived. Ralph Kiner and Willie Stargell were two of the greatest sluggers who ever lived. And Bill Mazeroski may have been the best-fielding 2nd baseman ever, and also hit the most important home run ever. But Wagner, 103 years after his last game, is still the greatest shortstop ever, with 3,420 hits and a career OPS+ of 151.

St. Louis Cardinals, 1882-2019: Stan Musial. Say what you want about Rogers Hornsby, Bob Gibson, Lou Brock and Albert Pujols, but none of them did for the Cards what Stan the Man did.

San Diego Padres, 1969-2019: Tony Gwynn. Not every "Mr. (Team Name)" is a team's greatest player ever, but Gwynn is both Mr. Padre and that team's greatest player ever.

San Francisco Giants, 1958-2019: Willie Mays. New York Giants, 1883-1957: Christy Mathewson. Giants overall, 1883-2019: Mays.

Seattle Mariners, 1977-2019: Ken Griffey Jr. This was going to be a tough call, since I thought he had spent only about half of his career with the M's. But once I looked at their career records again, and saw that Junior actually had 13 seasons in Seattle, compared to Ichiro Suzuki's 14, I realized that the power numbers meant that I had to give it to Griffey.

Tampa Bay Rays, 1998-2019: Evan Longoria. Their only player yet to make the Hall of Fame is Wade Boggs, and he played just 2 seasons for them, at the end of his career. But Longoria is their all-time leader in both home runs and RBIs, and he won 3 Gold Gloves with them, making this a little easier than for the other Florida team.

Texas Rangers, 1972-2019: Adrián Beltré. Technically, this shouldn't be all that hard. It should be Ivan Rodríguez. But he used steroids, so he's ineligible. Fergie Jenkins and Nolan Ryan had some great years for the Rangers, but not enough of them. In contrast, Beltré had 8 years with them, the last at age 39, and he was still producing runs for them.

Toronto Blue Jays, 1977-2019: Roy Halladay. The Jays have had 8 Hall-of-Famers, but it could be argued that none of them had their best years in Toronto. Halladay and Roberto Alomar are the only 2 that come close, and, for reasons of longevity -- 12 seasons, as opposed to Alomar's 5 -- Halladay comes closer, even if he was better in Philadelphia.

Washington Nationals, 2005-2019: Stephen Strasburg. Montreal Expos, 1969-2004: Tim Raines. 'Spos/Nats overall: Raines. Admittedly, Max Scherzer makes this a tough call. Bryce Harper no longer does.

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