Major League Baseball has a campaign asking fans to vote for the four “most impactful” players in their team’s history, with the winners being announced at the 2015 All-Star Game in Cincinnati. A panel of experts created an eight-man ballot for each team. This panel consists of MLB’s Official Historian John Thorn and representatives from MLB’s official statistician (the Elias Sports Bureau), MLB.com, MLB Network, and the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

“Most impactful” is open to interpretation, which makes this an interesting exercise. It isn’t “best” or “most famous” or “most popular”, but “most impactful.” I decided to look at the eight players on the ballot for each franchise and where they rank in FanGraphs WAR during their time with that franchise.

For each franchise, I’ve listed their top 10 in FanGraphs WAR along with any players who are on the ballot who are below the top 10. The players in BOLD are those who are on the ballot and the years listed are the years in which they played for that team.

Chicago Cubs (1871-2015)

(1) Cap Anson, 81.8 WAR

(2) Ron Santo, 71.9 WAR (1960-1973)

(3) Ernie Banks, 63.3 WAR (1953-1971)

(4) Ryne Sandberg, 61.0 WAR (1982-1994, 1996-1997)

(5) Sammy Sosa, 60.7 WAR (1992-2004)

(6) Billy Williams, 58.9 WAR (1959-1974)

(7) Stan Hack, 55.8 WAR

(8) Fergie Jenkins, 53.3 WAR (1966-1973, 1982-1983)

(9)Gabby Hartnett, 52.7 WAR (1922-1940)

(10) Frank Chance, 48.1 WAR

(16) Mordecai Brown, 41.0 WAR (1904-1912, 1916)

On the ballot: Half of the players on the Cubs’ ballot were members of the team in the late 1960s, a rare period of success for the team. From 1967 to 1972 the Cubs never finished lower than third place. Ron Santo, Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, and Fergie Jenkins, all Hall of Fame players, formed the core of those Cubs teams.

Santo provided strong hitting ability with Gold Glove play at third base and is the Cubs’ all-time leader in WAR among players who played for the team post-1900. Ernie Banks won back-to-back NL MVP Awards as a shortstop and was a seven-time All-Star for the Cubs in the late 1950s. He then moved to first base and played in four more All-Star games. Billy Williams manned left field in Wrigley for sixteen years, won the NL Rookie of the Year in 1961, and led the league in hitting in 1972. Fergie Jenkins averaged 301 innings pitched and 20 wins per season from 1967 to 1973, including six years in a row with 20 or more wins. During this stretch he led the league in complete games three times and innings once and finished in the top three in Cy Young voting three times, winning the award for his 1971 season.

Two players of more recent vintage on the Cubs’ ballot are Ryne Sandberg and Sammy Sosa, who were teammates at the end of Sandberg’s career and the early part of Sosa’s career. Sandberg’s best season was in 1984 when he was worth 8 WAR and named NL MVP. He hit .314/.367/.520 with 19 homers and 32 steals while playing above-average defense at second base. The Cubs made the playoffs that year for the first time since 1945 but lost the NLCS to the San Diego Padres in five games. Sandberg was also part of the 1989 Cubs team that made the playoffs but lost to the San Francisco Giants. In 10 playoff games, Sandberg hit .385/.457/.641. Sammy Sosa joined the Cubs in 1992 but only played 67 games. He became a full-time player for the Cubs in 1993 and began a stretch of 10 seasons during which he averaged 5.5 WAR per season. His best year was the 9.9 WAR season of 2001 when he hit .328/.437/.737 with 146 runs, 64 homers, and 160 RBI.

The two old-time players on the ballot are Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown and Gabby Hartnett. Brown pitched for the Cubs during a time when they were one of the top teams in the National League. They went to four World Series in five years from 1906 to 1910, winning twice. During this five-year stretch, Brown averaged 292 innings and 25 wins per season, good for 5.7 WAR per season. During his 19 years with the Cubs, Gabby Hartnett played on four World Series squads. They lost each time, of course, because they’re the Cubs. Hartnett was the 1935 NL MVP.

Notable snubs: Cap Anson is one of three players who leads his franchise in WAR but is not on their team’s ballot. Of course, he played more than 100 years ago and likely would not resonate with today’s voters. He also is considered to have been one of the driving forces in keeping baseball segregated because he refused to take the field with African American players numerous times in his career, so he may not really be a snub. Perhaps one could argue for Frank Chance or Mark Grace having a place on the ballot. Chance was a big part of the Cubs’ World Series teams from 1906 to 1910 and Grace was one of the Cubs’ most popular players in the 1990s.

My Franchise Four: Ernie Banks, Ron Santo, Ryne Sandberg, Billy Williams

Cincinnati Reds (1882-2015)

(1) Pete Rose, 76.2 WAR (1963-1978, 1984-1986)

(2) Johnny Bench, 74.8 WAR (1967-1983)

(3) Barry Larkin, 67.0 WAR (1986-2004)

(4) Bid McPhee, 62.7 WAR

(5) Frank Robinson, 59.6 WAR (1956-1965)

(6) Joe Morgan, 57.2 WAR (1972-1979)

(7) Tony Perez, 49.5 WAR (1964-1976, 1984-1986)

(8) Paul Derringer, 45.6 WAR

(9) Vada Pinson, 42.8 WAR

(10) Edd Roush, 42.0 WAR

(14) Dave Concepcion, 39.7 WAR (1970-1988)

(26) Eric Davis 29.3, WAR (1984-1991, 1996)

On the ballot: “The Big Red Machine” is well represented on the Reds Franchise Four ballot with Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, Tony Perez, and Dave Concepcion all making the cut. All five were teammates on the Reds teams that went to three World Series and one NLCS in five years from 1972 to 1976. They won back-to-back championships in 1975 and 1976. In both of those seasons, Joe Morgan was the NL MVP, leading the league in on-base percentage both years. Joe Morgan was quite amazing. In his eight years with the Reds from 1972 to 1979, Morgan averaged 7.2 WAR per season while hitting .288/.415/.470 and playing good defense at second base. Even though Morgan played more games in his career with the Houston Astros, it’s his time with the Reds that made him a first ballot Hall of Famer.

Pete Rose played the first 16 years of his career with the Reds and won the NL Rookie of the Year Award in 1963 and was the NL MVP for his 1973 season. He also played wherever the team needed him. In his career, he played over 500 games at five different positions (1B, LF, 3B, 2B, RF). He came back to the Reds for the final two seasons of his career and broke Ty Cobb’s all-time record for career hits.

Johnny Bench and Tony Perez provided the power to many of the Reds teams in the 1970s. Bench was a two-time NL MVP, winning the award in 1970 and 1972. He led the league in home runs and RBI both seasons and was a terrific defensive catcher. In his prime, Tony Perez made seven All-Star teams as a Reds player. Dave Concepcion didn’t provide the power that Bench and Perez did, but he was a nine-time All-Star who won five Gold Glove Awards.

One of the players in the “non-Big Red Machine” category is Frank Robinson, who came up with the Reds in 1956 and was terrific right from the start, winning the NL Rookie of the Year award and making the All-Star team. He won the NL MVP in 1961 with a .323/.404/.611 batting line. Even though he played more years with the Reds than any other team, Robinson may be better known as a member of the Baltimore Orioles.

Barry Larkin and Eric Davis were teammates in the late 1980s. Larkin had a Hall of Fame, 19-year career with the Reds that included the NL MVP Award in 1995. Eric Davis was immensely talented but injuries prevented him from ever playing more than 135 games in a season.

Notable snubs: None. I don’t think anyone is pining for Bid McPhee or Paul Derringer on the ballot.

My Franchise Four: Joe Morgan, Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Barry Larkin

Milwaukee Brewers (1969-2015) 

(1) Robin Yount, 66.5 WAR (1974-1993)

(2) Paul Molitor, 56.0 WAR (1978-1992)

(3) Ryan Braun, 32.6 WAR (2007-2015)

(4) Ben Sheets, 32.2 WAR

(5) Cecil Cooper, 29.5 WAR (1977-1987)

(6) Teddy Higuera, 26.8 WAR

(7) Don Money, 26.2 WAR

(8) Jeff Cirillo, 25.9 WAR

(9) Geoff Jenkins, 24.2 WAR

(10) Moose Haas, 22.1 WAR

(14) Prince Fielder, 20.2 WAR (2005-2011)

(16) Jim Gantner, 19.5 WAR (1976-1992)

(17) Gorman Thomas, 19.5 WAR (1973-76, 1978-83, 1986)

(74) Rollie Fingers,  5.1 WAR (1981-1982, 1984-1985)

On the ballot: In their first 39 years of existence, the Milwaukee Brewers made the playoffs twice, in 1981 and 1982. That 1982 team not only made the playoffs but also advanced to the World Series, which they lost in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals. Six of the eight players on the Brewers’ ballot played on those two postseason teams. Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, Cecil Cooper, and Jim Gantner were teammates for ten seasons from 1978 to 1987 and all but Gantner played in multiple All-Star games during this time. They are also the top four players in games played in Brewers’ history.

Robin Yount won MVP Awards at two positions—shortstop and center field—and had over 3000 hits in his career. Paul Molitor also had over 3000 hits and was an All-Star five times as a Milwaukee Brewer. Cecil Cooper won two Gold Gloves, was a five-time All-Star, and hit .302/.339/.470 for Milwaukee. Jim Gantner was the Ringo of the Brewers’ Fab Four. In 17 years with the team, he was worth 2 or more WAR just four times.

Gorman Thomas did very little in his first four seasons with the Brewers, hitting under .200 three times, but had a good stretch of play from 1978 to 1982 when he averaged 35 home runs and nearly 4 WAR per season. He led the league in home runs twice as a Brewer.

Rollie Fingers was only with the Brewers for four seasons. He led the league in saves in the strike-shortened 1981 season and was effective again in 1982 before being injured. The injury made him unable to pitch in the World Series. He missed all of 1983 but came back to have a good 1984 season (1.96 ERA, 23 saves) that was shortened by a herniated disk in July, then was terrible in 1985 before hanging up his spikes. He’s way down the list for Brewers’ career WAR but his contributions to the Brewers’ first two playoff teams and his top notch mustache will get him some votes.

The other two players on the Brewers’ ballot, Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder, were teammates for five years and played on the two most-recent Brewers’ playoff teams, in 2008 and 2011. Braun came up in 2007 and won the NL Rookie of the Year Award despite playing in just 113 games. In his first six seasons with the team, he made the All-Star team twice, won the Rookie of the Year Award, the 2011 NL MVP, and hit .313/.374/.568 while averaging 34 homers and 21 steals per season. Over the last two full seasons, he’s hit just .275/.339/.466. Prince Fielder was an All-Star three times in his six seasons with the Brewers, led the league in home runs once and RBI once, and had a .282/.390/.540 batting line.

Notable snub: Ben Sheets had more WAR as a Milwaukee Brewer than five guys on the ballot. Sure, he had problems with injuries that limited him during multiple seasons but he was very good when he was healthy and had 4.8 WAR during the 2008 playoff season.

My Franchise Four: Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, Cecil Cooper, Gorman Thomas

Pittsburgh Pirates (1882-2015) 

(1) Honus Wagner, 127.0 WAR (1900-1917)

(2) Roberto Clemente, 80.6 WAR (1955-1972)

(3) Paul Waner, 70.5 WAR (1926-1940)

(4) Arky Vaughan, 63.3 WAR

(5) Willie Stargell, 62.9 WAR (1962-1982)

(6) Bob Friend, 60.0 WAR

(7) Max Carey, 57.7 WAR

(8) Fred Clarke, 50.9 WAR

(9) Babe Adams, 50.2 WAR

(10) Barry Bonds, 48.4 WAR (1986-1992)

(12) Ralph Kiner, 42.2 WAR (1946-1953)

(15) Pie Traynor, 37.8 WAR (1920-1935, 1937)

(23) Bill Mazeroski, 30.9 WAR (1956-1972)

On the ballot: The players on the Pirates Franchise Four ballot span every decade of the 20^th century, from Honus Wagner to Barry Bonds. Honus Wagner has significantly more WAR than any other player in Pittsburgh Pirates’ history. The gap between Wagner and Roberto Clemente is 46.6 WAR, good for the third-highest gap between the top two players of any team. Honus Wagner played 18 seasons with the Pirates and averaged 7 WAR per season, including eight seasons with 8 or more WAR. He led the league in hitting eight times, on-base percentage four times, slugging percentage six times, and steals five times. And he did all that damage with the bat while playing shortstop. He’s fifth all-time in FanGraphs WAR, behind only Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, Willie Mays, and Ty Cobb.

Roberto Clemente came up with the Pirates in 1955, had his first good season in 1958, was injured in 1959, then had a run of greatness from 1960 to 1972, averaging 5.6 WAR per season and helping the Bucs to two World Series titles. Along the way he was a 12-time All-Star, 12-time Gold Glove winner, and won the 1966 MVP. In the 1972 World Series, Clemente hit .414/.452/.759 and was named MVP of the series.

Paul Waner was good in his rookie year of 1926 but really came into his own in the 1927 season when he led the league in average (.380), hits (237), triples (18), RBI (131), and total bases (342). He was the MVP that year and led the Pirates to the World Series, which they lost in four games to the “Murderer’s Row” 1927 Yankees. He would lead the league in hitting two other times during his 15 years with the Pirates and is one of three Pittsburgh players with at least 3000 career hits (along with Wagner and Clemente).

During the 1970s the Pirates had an extended run of success when they made the playoffs six times in 10 years and won two World Series titles. After Roberto Clemente’s death following the 1972 season, Willie Stargell became the heart and soul of the “Lumber Company” Pirates. Stargell’s best year by WAR was 1971 when he hit .295/398/.628 with a league-leading 48 home runs. He was nearly as good in 1973 when he hit .299/.392/.646 and again led the league in home runs (44), and led in RBI also (119). As good as he was in 1971 and 1973, Stargell’s most-celebrated season was in 1979, when he was 39 years old. He was co-MVP of the National League during the regular season, then hit .455/.571/1.182 and was named MVP of the NLCS, and followed that up by winning the World Series MVP Award for his excellent hitting and clutch home runs in a seven-game series victory against the Baltimore Orioles.

Because Wagner, Waner, Clemente, and Stargell were so good, it’s hard to imagine any of the other four players on the ballot making the cut ahead of them. Barry Bonds, of course, was a terrific player with the Pirates. He averaged nearly 7 WAR per season but only played seven of his 22 years with Pittsburgh. His five best seasons by WAR were with the San Francisco Giants. Ralph Kiner only played eight seasons with the Pirates but led the league in home runs during seven of them. He had great power and good on-base abilities but was limited on defense.

At one time, Pie Traynor was considered the best third baseman of his generation, but a look back has diminished his standing historically. During the prime of his career, Traynor averaged 3.4 WAR per season. He was an above-average player but not an all-time great. Bill Mazeroski was a terrific fielding second baseman who never had even a league-average season with the bat (per wRC+). Despite this, he was a seven-time All-Star and part of two World Series-winning teams. His home run in the bottom of the ninth of the seventh game of the 1960 World Series was the first World Series walk-off ever.

Notable snub: Arky Vaughan averaged 6.3 WAR per season over 10 seasons with the Pirates and hit .324/.415/.472 while playing above-average defense at shortstop. Surely he deserves a place on the ballot.

My Franchise Four: Honus Wagner, Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell, Paul Waner

St. Louis Cardinals (1882-2015)

(1) Stan Musial, 127.0 WAR (1941-1944, 1946-1963)

(2) Rogers Hornsby, 93.5 WAR (1915-1926, 1933)

(3) Bob Gibson, 83.0 WAR (1959-1975)

(4) Albert Pujols, 81.4 WAR (2001-2011)

(5) Ozzie Smith, 59.5 WAR (1982-1996)

(6) Ken Boyer, 50.7 WAR

(7) Ted Simmons, 49.2 WAR

(8) Enos Slaughter, 47.0 WAR

(9) Jim Edmonds, 42.4 WAR

(10) Lou Brock, 41.6 WAR (1964-1979)

(14) Dizzy Dean, 37.1 WAR (1930, 1932-1937)

(25) Red Schoendienst, 29.2 WAR (1945-1956, 1961-1963)

On the ballot: Stan Musial is an icon in St. Louis. He was an amazing player for 22 years with the Cardinals and a baseball ambassador after his career ended. As a player, he was a three-time MVP Award winner, 20-time All-Star, seven-time batting champion, and helped the Cardinals to three World Series titles. Based on FanGraphs WAR, he’s one of the 10 best hitters to ever play the game.

Rogers Hornsby was another Cardinals player who was terrific with the bat. Hornsby played 13 years with the Cardinals and hit .359/.427/,568 with the team. He led the league in hitting six straight years from 1920 to 1925. Over that stretch, he averaged .397/.467/.666 and 10.3 WAR per season.

Bob Gibson and Dizzy Dean are the only two pitchers among the eight players on the Cardinals’ ballot. Gibson’s 1968 season is legendary. He completed 28 of 34 starts, had 13 shutouts, a 1.12 ERA, 0.85 WHIP, and 268 strikeouts in 304 2/3 innings. He was the NL Cy Young and NL MVP. He was the NL Cy Young again in 1970. From 1964 to 1968, Gibson helped the Cardinals make three World Series, winning in 1964 and 1967, with Gibson being named World Series MVP both years. Dizzy Dean’s stretch of greatness came about 30 years before Gibson. Dean was a meteor who shined brightly across the sky but burned out too quickly. From 1932 to 1936, Dean averaged 24 wins, 306 innings pitched, 25 complete games, and a 3.04 ERA during a hitter’s era. He was the NL MVP in the Cardinals’ 1934 World Series-winning season.

Albert Pujols averaged 7.4 WAR per season in his 11 years as a Cardinal. He also won the NL Rookie of the Year Award and three NL MVP Awards, while hitting .328/.420/.617 with an average of 40 home runs per year. Ozzie Smith was a wizard on defense who held his own with the bat. He won 13 consecutive Gold Gloves during his prime. Another well-regarded defensive player on the Cardinals’ ballot is Red Schoendienst. Red doesn’t rank high among the Cardinals’ all-time WAR leaders, but his post-career time as a manager and coach since his retirement has earned him a soft spot in the hearts of Cardinals’ fans.

Lou Brock played 16 years with the Cardinals and led the league in steals during eight of them. He was well regarded during and after his career and made the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, but more advanced metrics suggest he was a very poor fielder for many years and was not as good a player as many thought at the time.

Notable snubs: Ken Boyer is sixth in career WAR for the Cardinals, ahead of Lou Brock, Dizzy Dean, and Red Schoendienst, so he has an argument. He doesn’t have the narrative of the other three, but he was a more valuable player.

My Franchise Four: Stan Musial, Bob Gibson, Albert Pujols, Ozzie Smith

Major League Baseball has a campaign asking fans to vote for the four “most impactful” players in their team’s history, with the winners being announced at the 2015 All-Star Game in Cincinnati. A panel of experts created an eight-man ballot for each team. This panel consists of MLB’s Official Historian John Thorn and representatives from MLB’s official statistician (the Elias Sports Bureau), MLB.com, MLB Network, and the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

“Most impactful” is open to interpretation, which makes this an interesting exercise. It isn’t “best” or “most famous” or “most popular”, but “most impactful.” I decided to look at the eight players on the ballot for each franchise and where they rank in FanGraphs WAR during their time with that franchise.

For each franchise, I’ve listed their top 10 in FanGraphs WAR along with any players who are on the ballot who are below the top 10. The players in BOLD are those who are on the ballot and the years listed are the years in which they played for that team.

Arizona Diamondbacks (1998-2015)

(1) Randy Johnson, 54.9 WAR (1999-2004, 2007-2008)

(2) Luis Gonzalez, 33.8 WAR (1999-2006)

(3) Brandon Webb, 29.1 WAR (2003-2009)

(4) Curt Schilling, 24.9 WAR (2000-2003)

(5) Steve Finley, 18.2 WAR (1999-2004)

(6) Justin Upton, 16.0 WAR

(7) Chris Young, 15.3 WAR

(8) Paul Goldschmidt, 15.0 WAR (2011-2015)

(9) Miguel Montero, 14.1 WAR

(10) Dan Haren, 13.8 WAR

(17) Matt Williams, 8.8 WAR (1998-2003)

(87) Mark Grace, 1.3 WAR (2001-2003)

On the ballot: Six of the eight players on the Diamondbacks Franchise Four ballot played on their 2001 World Series Championship team. Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling were the co-aces of that squad. The Big Unit was 21-6 with a 2.49 ERA and an amazing 372 strikeouts in 249 2/3 innings that season, then won three games in the World Series to share MVP honors with Curt Schilling. He also won the NL Cy Young award in 2001, one of the four he won in four consecutive seasons with the Diamondbacks. In two of those seasons, including 2001, Curt Schilling finished second behind the Big Unit in the NL Cy Young voting. In 2001, Schilling was 22-6 with a 2.98 ERA and 293 strikeouts in 256 2/3 innings, then started three games in the World Series and had a 1.69 ERA in 21 1/3 innings.

Luis Gonzalez provided some serious offense to the Diamondbacks’ 2001 championship team. He had 8.9 WAR that season as he hit .325/.429/.688 with 57 homers and 142 RBI.

Steve Finley was worth 4.6 and 3.3 WAR in his first two seasons with the Diamondbacks in 1999 and 2000, but slipped to 1.6 WAR in the 2001 season. He hit well in the 2001 World Series, though: .368/.478/.526.

Matt Williams was also better in his first two years with the team. He had 2.3 WAR in 1998 and 4.0 WAR in 1999 but was limited by injuries and had just 2.4 WAR total over the final four years of his career with the Diamondbacks.

Brandon Webb had 4.2 WAR in his rookie season in 2003 and was a mainstay in the rotation for the next five years, averaging 5 WAR per season. He won the NL Cy Young award in 2006 with a 16-8, 3.10 ERA season (6.4 WAR). Webb had an amazing ability to generate ground balls, with a GB% of 64.2% in his career. Unfortunately, the end came quickly. Webb was 22-7 with a 3.30 ERA in 2008 and finished second in the Cy Young voting for the second straight year. He then pitched four innings in 2009 and never threw another pitch in the major leagues. He tried to come back in 2011 but lasted just 12 innings in AA and had a 9.75 ERA.

Paul Goldschmidt is currently the best player on the Diamondbacks. He was worth 6.3 WAR in 2013 when he hit .302/.401/.551 and led the league with 36 homers and 125 RBI on his way to finishing second in the NL MVP voting. He was on a similar pace last year with 4.4 WAR in 109 games before his season ended when he was hit by a pitch that fractured his hand. He’s off to a good start to the 2015 season.

There are 86 players who were worth more wins than Mark Grace as a Diamondback. Grace joined the team at the end of his career after 13 seasons with the Cubs. He played three years with the Diamondbacks and was worth 2.6, -0.3, and -0.1 WAR. He was an announcer for the team after his career and is well liked in Arizona, particularly at the team’s annual fantasy camps.

Notable snubs: Based on value, one could argue for Justin Upton or Chris Young. In fact, I believe an argument could be made for any number of players over Mark Grace based on value to the team, but Grace was a very popular player so why not give the fans a chance to remember one of their favorites? I just don’t consider him to be “impactful.”

My Franchise Four: Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling, Luis Gonzalez, Brandon Webb

Colorado Rockies (1993-2015)

(1) Todd Helton, 54.8 WAR (1997-2013)

(2) Larry Walker, 44.4 WAR (1995-2004)

(3) Troy Tulowitzki, 33.7 WAR (2006-2015)

(4) Matt Holliday, 20.2 WAR (2004-2008)

(5) Ubaldo Jimenez, 18.5 WAR

(6) Carlos Gonzalez, 17.5 WAR (2009-2015)

(7) Aaron Cook, 17.5 WAR

(8) Vinny Castilla, 15.5 WAR (1993-1999, 2004, 2006)

(9) Jeff Francis, 14.9 WAR

(10) Andres Galarraga, 13.4 WAR (1993-1997)

(24) Dante Bichette, 6.6 WAR (1993-1999)

On the ballot: Todd Helton leads the Rockies in games played, hits, runs scored, RBI, home runs, doubles, and walks, among other categories. He also had five straight years from 2000 to 2004 with 5.5 or more WAR each season. I would guess he’s an automatic Franchise Four player for the Rockies. Larry Walker is second to Helton in most of those categories and tops the Rockies in career batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage. Walker hit .334/.426/.618 with Colorado.

Troy Tulowitzki, Matt Holliday, and Carlos Gonzalez were part of the only Rockies team to make the World Series, in 2007. On that team, Tulowitzki was in his second year but already one of the best players on the team, as he had 5.2 WAR and hit .291/.359/.479 with great defense at shortstop. Since then, he’s had five more seasons with 5 or more WAR despite being injured a number of times. Matt Holliday had a breakout season in the Rockies’ World Series year with a career-high 6.9 WAR. He followed that with a 5.9 WAR season in 2008 before being traded to the Athletics that winter in a deal that brought Carlos Gonzalez to the Rockies. When healthy, Gonzalez has generally been good with the Rockies but he hasn’t been healthy often enough the last couple years.

Vinny Castilla, Andres Galarraga, and Dante Bichette were teammates in the early years of the Rockies franchise, back in the pre-humidor days. They were part of a cast of hitters known as the “Blake Street Bombers.” Castilla and Galarraga each had three straight years with 40 or more homers from 1996 to 1998. Dante Bichette hit 40 bombs in 1995 and had 141 RBI in 1996. Of course, despite all the home runs these guys hit, they weren’t really all that valuable when you take park effects, base running, and defense into account.

Notable snubs: Considering he had just one season with more than 2 WAR with the Rockies, Dante Bichette could have been left off the ballot, perhaps for Ubaldo Jimenez or Aaron Cook.

My Franchise Four: Todd Helton, Larry Walker, Troy Tulowitzki, Matt Holliday

Los Angeles Dodgers (1884-2015)

(1) Don Sutton, 63.8 WAR

(2) Duke Snider, 63.4 WAR (1947-1962)

(3) Zack Wheat, 62.7 WAR

(4) Pee Wee Reese, 61.3 WAR

(5) Don Drysdale, 59.3 WAR (1956-1969)

(6) Dazzy Vance, 59.0 WAR

(7) Jackie Robinson, 57.2 WAR (1947-1956)

(8) Sandy Koufax, 54.5 WAR (1955-1966)

(9) Ron Cey, 49.9 WAR

(10) Willie Davis, 48.6 WAR

(12) Fernando Valenzuela, 39.4 WAR (1980-1990)

(14) Clayton Kershaw, 38.5 WAR (2008-2015)

(15) Roy Campanella, 38.2 WAR (1948-1957)

(16) Steve Garvey, 36.3 WAR (1969-1982)

On the ballot: The Dodgers are one of three teams whose leader in FanGraphs WAR is not on the eight-man ballot for the team’s Franchise Four. The Dodgers’ leader in WAR is Don Sutton, but he’s not one of the options (Cap Anson of the Cubs and Hanley Ramirez of the Marlins are the other two).

The players on the Dodgers’ ballot can be separated into groups. Three players on the ballot were part of the “Boys of Summer” group from the 1950s: Duke Snider, Jackie Robinson, and Roy Campanella, all three of whom were part of the Brooklyn Dodger teams that went to the World Series five times in eight years from 1949 to 1956. After losing in their first eight attempts to win the World Series going back to the turn of the century, the Dodgers finally won it all in 1955, a year that saw Roy Campanella win his third NL MVP award in five years. Duke Snider finished second to Campy in the NL MVP balloting that year despite leading the league in runs and RBI and posting a better on-base percentage and slugging percentage than Campanella. Jackie Robinson was not the All-Star he had been in the previous six seasons as injuries limited him to 105 games, but he still had a .378 OBP. In the nine years that Snider, Campanella, and Robinson played together from 1948 to 1956, Campy and Snider were All-Stars seven times and Robinson was an All-Star six times.

Sandy Koufax was on the 1955 World Series championship team, but he was not yet SANDY KOUFAX, so he doesn’t really belong with the “Boys of Summer” group (in 1955, he pitched just 41-2/3 innings and walked six batters per nine innings). Koufax teamed up with Don Drysdale to lead the Dodgers of the early-1960s. Don Drysdale had been the Dodgers’ top starting pitcher in the late-1950s before ceding the title to Koufax in the 60s. The pair went to the World Series four times from 1959 to 1966, winning three titles. Drysdale was an eight-time All-Star and the 1962 NL Cy Young winner. Koufax was named to six All-Star teams and won three NL Cy Young awards, including the 1963 season in which he was the NL Cy Young winner and the NL MVP. Over the last four seasons of his career, Koufax was 97-27 with a 1.86 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, and an average of 8.6 WAR per season.

Steve Garvey was the face of the Dodgers in the 1970s. He teamed with Davey Lopes, Bill Russell, and Ron Cey to form a Dodgers infield that played together from 1973 to 1981. Together, they appeared in the World Series four times from 1974 to 1981, winning twice. Garvey was an All-Star for the Dodgers from 1974 to 1981 and won the NL MVP in 1974. The 1981 season was the last time these four players were together and they won the World Series with the help of 20-year-old rookie Fernando Valuenzuela. Fernandomania exploded in Los Angeles in 1981 as the young pitcher led the league in games started, complete games, shutouts, innings, and strikeouts en route to winning the NL Cy Young Award. In his first six full seasons with the Dodgers, which includes the strike-shortened 1981 season, Fernando averaged 5.4 WAR per season. He also averaged over 250 innings per season during this stretch, which could be why he was worth only 9.2 WAR over the remaining 10 seasons of his career.

The only active player on the Dodgers’ ballot is the amazing Clayton Kershaw. Kershaw has won the NL Cy Young Award three times in the last four seasons and was second in the season in which he didn’t win. He was also the NL MVP last year. During this four-year stretch, Kershaw had a 2.11 ERA and 0.95 WHIP and averaged 6.9 WAR per season.

Notable snubs: Don Sutton, the all-time leader in FanGraphs WAR for the Dodgers, must feel snubbed to not see his name on the Franchise Four ballot. He was a teammate of Steve Garvey from 1969 to 1980 and out-WAR’d him 52.1 to 33.2 during those years. If not Sutton, perhaps Pee Wee Reese would have been a better choice than Garvey, as he was also a big part of the “Boys of Summer” Dodgers.

My Franchise Four: Duke Snider, Sandy Koufax, Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella

San Diego Padres (1969-2015) 

(1) Tony Gwynn, 65.0 WAR (1982-2001)

(2) Jake Peavy, 29.3 WAR (2002-2009)

(3) Dave Winfield, 29.1 WAR (1973-1980)

(4) Randy Jones, 25.4 WAR (1973-1980)

(5) Trevor Hoffman, 25.3 WAR (1993-2008)

(6) Andy Benes, 20.8 WAR

(7) Chase Headley, 20.4 WAR

(8) Adrian Gonzalez, 19.2 WAR (2006-2010)

(9) Gene Tenace, 18.8 WAR

(10) Brian Giles, 18.4 WAR

(17) Nate Colbert, 16.6 WAR (1969-1974)

(208) Steve Garvey, 1.5 WAR (1983-1987)

On the ballot: Among the 30 franchise leaders in WAR, the 35.7 WAR gap between Tony Gwynn at #1 and Jake Peavy at #2 is the sixth largest. Gwynn played for the Padres for 20 seasons, was an All-Star for 16 consecutive years, won eight batting titles, five Gold Gloves, and had over 3000 hits with a .338 lifetime batting average. He was also a member of the only two teams in Padres history to make the World Series (1984 and 1998). You can’t think of the Padres without thinking of Tony Gwynn.

Joining Gwynn as a signature Padres player is Trevor Hoffman, who saved 552 games for the team in 16 seasons. Hoffman’s 601 career saves are second only to Mariano Rivera on the all-time list.

Jake Peavy was the Padres’ top starting pitcher from 2004 to 2008 when he averaged 4.9 WAR per season. He was the NL Cy Young winner in 2007 with a 19-6 record, 2.54 ERA, and 240 strikeouts in 223 1/3 innings.

Dave Winfield and Randy Jones both played for the Padres from 1973 to 1980, a stretch during which the team regularly finished in the bottom half of the NL West standings. Winfield played more years with the Yankees than he did with the Padres and is likely more well known as a Yankee by the average fan. Jones won the 1976 NL Cy Young Award with a 22 win season for the Padres. He had 25 complete games and threw 315 1/3 innings that year.

Adrian Gonzalez started his career with the Texas Rangers but came into his own with San Diego in 2006. From 2007 to 2010, he had four straight years of 30 or more homers and was an All-Star three times. Like Adrian Gonzalez, Nate Colbert had a short but productive career with the Padres. He had two 38-homer seasons with the team in the early 1970s.

Then there’s Steve Garvey. I don’t know who decided to put Steve Garvey on the ballot for the Padres. He ranks 208^th all-time in WAR for the Padres and hit .275/.309/.409 in his five years with the team. His best season was worth 1.5 WAR. You have to give him some serious bonus points for being a member of the 1984 team that went to the World Series to think he deserves a spot on the Padres Franchise Four.

Notable snubs: It’s not hard to find a more deserving player for the ballot than Steve Garvey, so take your pick: Gene Tenace (4.7 WAR per season with the Padres), Ken Caminiti (won the NL MVP Award in 1996) or Benito Santiago (1987 NL Rookie of the Year, four-time All-Star with the team) would have been better choices.

My Franchise Four: Tony Gwynn, Trevor Hoffman, Jake Peavy, Adrian Gonzalez

San Francisco Giants (1883-2015) 

(1) Willie Mays, 148.0 WAR (1951, 1952, 1954-1972)

(2) Barry Bonds, 116.0 WAR (1993-2007)

(3) Mel Ott, 111.0 WAR (1926-1947)

(4) Christy Mathewson, 90.0 WAR (1900-1916)

(5) Willie McCovey, 61.4 WAR (1959-1973, 1977-1980)

(6) Juan Marichal, 60.6 WAR (1960-1973)

(7) Bill Terry, 57.0 WAR

(8) Carl Hubbell, 56.5 WAR

(9) Roger Conner, 54.4 WAR

(10) Larry Doyle, 47.1 WAR

(30) Orlando Cepeda, 29.1 WAR (1958-1966)

(48) Buster Posey, 23.9 WAR (2009-2015)

On the ballot: Willie Mays is among a select group of players who are automatic picks for a spot on his team’s Franchise Four. Is there anything he didn’t do as a Giant? He was the Rookie of the Year, a two-time MVP, a 20-time All-Star, 12-time Gold Glove winner, led the league in homers four times, steals four times, hitting once, on-base percentage twice, and slugging five times. And the numbers don’t do him justice. He was an amazing player to watch, whether making an amazing catch in the deepest parts of the Polo Grounds or flying around the bases for a stand-up triple. He was baseball poetry.

Barry Bonds had 116 WAR in 15 seasons with the Giants, an average of 7.7 WAR per season. He had five seasons with 10 or more WAR, including back-to-back seasons in 2001 and 2002 when he had 12.5 and 12.7 WAR. From 2001 to 2004, he turned the major leagues into his own personal video game, hitting .349/.559/.809 with 209 homers in 1642 at-bats (one HR every 7.9 at-bats).

Mel Ott was a Giants’ lifer, spending 22 years with the team and hitting 511 home runs. He went to the All-Star game for 11 straight years from 1934 to 1944.

Christy Mathewson and Juan Marichal are the only pitchers among the eight players on the ballot for the Giants. Mathewson was part of four Giants’ teams that went to the World Series from 1905 to 1913 and he led the league in wins four times and ERA five times during that stretch. He pitched three complete game shutouts in the 1905 World Series against the Philadelphia Athletics. Juan Marichal pitched for the Giants from 1960 to 1973 and was teammates with Willie McCovey and Orlando Cepeda, who join him on the ballot. All three were members of the 1962 team that lost the World Series in seven games to the New York Yankees. Marichal and Cepeda were All-Stars during that season, while McCovey was still trying to crack a loaded Giants’ lineup.

The only active player on the ballot for the Giants is Buster Posey. All he’s done in his career is helped the Giants to three World Series titles in his first six years in the big leagues, along with a Rookie of the Year Award in 2010 and an NL MVP Award in 2012.

Notable snubs: A couple of famous (and valuable) Giants players who could have arguments for a spot on the ballot are Bill Terry and Carl Hubbell, who were teammates in the late 1920s and early 193s.

My Franchise Four: Willie Mays, Barry Bonds, Mel Ott, Christy Mathewson

Major League Baseball has a campaign asking fans to vote for the four “most impactful” players in their team’s history, with the winners being announced at the 2015 All-Star Game in Cincinnati. A panel of experts created an eight-man ballot for each team. This panel consists of MLB’s Official Historian John Thorn and representatives from MLB’s official statistician (the Elias Sports Bureau), MLB.com, MLB Network, and the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

“Most impactful” is open to interpretation, which makes this an interesting exercise. It isn’t “best” or “most famous” or “most popular”, but “most impactful.” I decided to look at the eight players on the ballot for each franchise and where they rank in FanGraphs WAR during their time with that franchise.

For each franchise, I’ve listed their top 10 in FanGraphs WAR along with any players who are on the ballot who are below the top 10. The players in BOLD are those who are on the ballot and the years listed are the years in which they played for that team.

Boston Red Sox (1901-2015)

(1) Ted Williams, 130.4 WAR (1939-1942, 1946-1960)

(2) Carl Yastrzemski, 94.8 WAR (1961-1983)

(3) Roger Clemens, 76.5 WAR

(4) Wade Boggs, 70.8 WAR

(5) Dwight Evans, 64.3 WAR (1972-1990)

(6) Cy Young, 54.8 WAR (1901-1908)

(7) Tris Speaker, 54.4 WAR

(8) Bobby Doerr, 53.3 WAR

(9) Pedro Martinez, 52.6 WAR (1998-2004)

(10) Jim Rice, 50.8 WAR (1974-1989)

(11) David Ortiz, 41.3 WAR (2003-2015)

(16) Carlton Fisk, 38.3 WAR (1969, 1971-1980)

On the ballot: It’s pretty amazing to think about Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzesmki manning left field for the Red Sox from 1939 to 1980, other than the few years Williams missed time because of his service to the military. For nearly 40 years, two all-time great players held down that spot in front of the Green Monster. Williams, of course, is one of the greatest hitters in baseball history who is 10^th all-time in FanGraphs WAR. He hit .344/.482/.634 in his 19-year career and led the league in on-base percentage 12 times. He won two AL MVP Awards and arguably should have won more (he finished second the year he hit .406). Carl Yastrzemski was also very good during his 23-year career with the Sox. He had over 3400 hits, was an All-Star 18 times, won seven Gold Gloves, and was the AL MVP and Triple Crown winner in 1967. You can’t have a Red Sox Franchise Four without Teddy Ballgame and Yaz.

It’s interesting that Dwight Evans made the eight-man ballot despite getting little support in three years on the Hall of Fame ballot. He deserved better in the voting for the Hall of Fame. Evans is 14^th all-time among right fielders in WAR, ahead of Hall of Famers Tony Gwynn, Dave Winfield, and Andre Dawson. It’s nice to see him on the ballot here.

Cy Young only pitched for the Red Sox for eight years but had 54.8 WAR during that time thanks in part to an average of 341 innings pitched per season. Those were different times. It makes for an interesting comparison with Pedro Martinez, who pitched for the Red Sox for seven years and had 52.6 WAR despite averaging just 198 innings per season. Pedro won his first Cy Young in his last season with the Montreal Expos in 1997. He joined the Red Sox in 1998 and won back-to-back Cy Young Awards in 1999 and 2000. Over these two seasons, Martinez was at his absolute best, going 41-10 with a 1.90 ERA and 0.83 WHIP. FanGraphs has him worth 11.7 and 9.5 WAR for those two seasons. Pedro was also part of the 2004 Red Sox team that won their first World Series since 1918.

Jim Rice was a Red Sox slugger in the 1970s and 1980s and David Ortiz is a Red Sox slugger currently and they have been worth similar value in their years with the team. Rice averaged 3.2 WAR per season during his 16 years with the Red Sox. Ortiz has averaged 3.4 WAR per season in the first 12 full seasons of his Red Sox career. Ortiz has the added narrative of three World Series championships, including a World Series MVP award in 2013, while Rice was part of two Red Sox teams that went to the World Series but lost both times (1975 and 1986). Carlton Fisk was a teammate of Rice in that 1975 series and is famous for his game-winning home run in the bottom of the 12^th inning of Game Six. He actual played more years with the Chicago White Sox than the Boston Red Sox.

Notable snubs: Roger Clemens pitched more years and had more WAR for the Red Sox than Cy Young or Pedro Martinez, yet is conspicuously absent from the eight-man ballot. Wade Boggs had over 2000 hits and a .338/.428/.462 batting line with the Red Sox. Clemens and Boggs are third and fourth all-time in WAR for the Red Sox, which is better than six of the eight players who are on the ballot.

My Franchise Four: Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Pedro Martinez, David Ortiz

New York Yankees (1901-2015)

(1)Babe Ruth, 149.9 WAR (1920-1934)

(2) Lou Gehrig, 116.3 WAR (1923-1939)

(3) Mickey Mantle, 112.3 WAR (1951-1968)

(4) Joe DiMaggio, 83. WAR 1 (1936-1942, 1946-1951)

(5) Derek Jeter, 71.6 WAR (1995-2014)

(6) Yogi Berra, 63.8 WAR (1946-1963)

(7) Andy Pettitte, 58.0 WAR

(8) Bill Dickey, 56.1 WAR

(9) Whitey Ford, 54.9 WAR (1950, 1953-1967)

(10) Willie Randolph, 51.4 WAR

25) Mariano Rivera, 39.8 WAR (1995-2013)

On the ballot: The Yankees have such an abundance of good candidates for their Franchise Four that it will be difficult for voters to figure out who to include and who gets left out. It’s hard to imagine a Yankees Franchise Four without Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, or Joe DiMaggio, but the current generation of Yankees fans will likely want a spot for Derek Jeter and, perhaps, Mariano Rivera.

Then you have Yogi Berra, a Hall of Fame catcher who won 10 World Series rings as a player and two more as a coach with the Yankees in the 1970s (and one as a coach with the 1969 Mets). Whitey Ford played with Berra for many years and was on 11 World Series teams, won six titles, and was World Series MVP in 1961. His career World Series ERA is 2.71.

Based on FanGraphs WAR, Babe Ruth is the greatest player in baseball history. In the context of his time what he did on the field was simply unreal. He led the league in on-base percentage 10 times, home runs 12 times, and slugging percentage 13 times. The Yankees went to the World Series seven times in his 15 years with the team, winning four world championships as Ruth hit .326/.470/.744 in World Series play.

Lou Gehrig batted right behind Ruth for many of those years and hit .340/.447/.632 in his career while leading the league in home runs three times and RBI five times. Like Ruth, Gehrig was very good in World Series play, hitting .361/.483/.731 in 34 World Series games.

Other than three years spent in the military during World War II, Joe DiMaggio was the Yankees’ centerfielder from 1936 to 1951. Mickey Mantle continued the run of great center field play for the Yankees into the 1960s. Both DiMaggio and Mantle were three-time AL MVPs and they have 16 World Series rings between them.

Derek Jeter won five World Series titles in a 20-year career that included 14 All-Star games, a Rookie of the Year Award, and over 3400 career hits.

Mariano Rivera is only 25^th in WAR for the Yankees but he’s the best closer in baseball history, won five World Series rings with the Yankees, and has a 0.70 ERA in 141 career post-season innings. There are just too many good players to choose from on the Yankees.

Notable snubs: None, really. One could argue that Mariano Rivera’s place so far down the list of career WAR for the Yankees makes him less worthy than Bill Dickey or Andy Pettitte, but he was a major part of five World Series championships and almost unhittable in high leverage situations in postseason play.

My Franchise Four: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio

Baltimore Orioles (1901-2015) 

(1) Cal Ripken, Jr., 92.5 WAR (1981-2001)

(2) Brooks Robinson, 80.2 WAR (1955-1977)

(3) Jim Palmer, 59.1 WAR (1965-1967, 1969-1984)

(4) Eddie Murray, 56.7 WAR (1977-1988, 1996)

(5) George Sisler, 49.8 WAR

(6) Mike Mussina, 47.8 WAR

(7) Bobby Wallace, 41.7 WAR

(8) Boog Powell, 40.1 WAR (1961-1974)

(9) Ken Williams, 38.6 WAR

(10) Harlond Clift, 37.4 WAR

(11) Paul Blair, 36.4 WAR (1964-1976)

(13) Dave McNally, 34.0 WAR (1962-1974)

(15) Frank Robinson, 33.4 WAR (1966-1971)

On the ballot: The eight players on the Orioles Franchise Four ballot are divided between the players on the very good Baltimore teams of the late 1960s and early 1970s—Brooks Robinson, Jim Palmer, Boog Powell, Paul Blair, Dave McNally, and Frank Robinson—and two players who were part of the good Orioles teams in the early 1980s—Cal Ripken, Jr., and Eddie Murray.

Brooks Robinson and Paul Blair were defensive standouts for the Orioles teams that went to the World Series four times in six years from 1966 to 1971 (winning two championships). Robinson won Gold Gloves in 16 consecutive seasons from 1960 to 1974. Paul Blair won seven consecutive Gold Gloves and eight in nine seasons from 1967 to 1975.

Jim Palmer and Dave McNally were starting pitchers on those great Orioles teams, including the 1971 team that had four 20-game winners. Palmer led the league in innings pitched four times and ERA twice and won three AL Cy Young Awards in four years from 1973 to 1976.

Boog Powell and Frank Robinson brought the lumber for the O’s in those years. Powell was the AL MVP in the 1970 season when the O’s won the World Series and was second in MVP voting in 1969. Over those two years he hit .300/.398/.554 and averaged 36 homers and 118 RBI. Frank Robinson was the AL MVP in the Orioles’ 1966 championship year when he hit .316/.410/.637 with 49 homers and 122 RBI. At the end of his playing career, Robinson became the first African American to manage in major league baseball. He managed for four different MLB teams, including the Baltimore Orioles from 1988 to 1991.

Eddie Murray and Cal Ripken, Jr. were key contributors to the good Baltimore Orioles teams of the early 1980s. Eddie Murray was part of the Orioles team that lost the 1979 World Series to the “We R Fam-a-lee” Pittsburgh Pirates in seven games. The O’s finished second in 1980. Cal Ripken, Jr. came up in 1981 and the team finished second in the AL East in his first two seasons with the team, then made the playoffs and the World Series in 1983, beating the Phillies in five games. Ripken played 21 years with the Orioles, was an All-Star 19 times, an MVP twice, and won the 1982 AL Rookie of the Year Award.

Notable snubs: Mike Mussina should be one of the starting pitchers on the fictional “Bobby Grich All-Underappreciated team.” He’s 16^th all-time in WAR for pitchers, ahead of numerous Hall of Famers, yet has received just 20.3% and 24.6% of the vote in his first two years on the ballot. And, true to form, he is not one of the eight players on the ballot for the Orioles Franchise Four despite having more career WAR as an Oriole than four of the players who made the ballot.

My Franchise Four: Cal Ripken, Jr., Brooks Robinson, Jim Palmer, Eddie Murray

Toronto Blue Jays (1977-2015)

(1) Roy Halladay, 49.1 WAR (1998-2009)

(2) Dave Stieb, 44.0 WAR (1979-1992, 1998)

(3) Tony Fernandez, 35.1 WAR (1983-90, 1993, 1998-99, 2001)

(4) Carlos Delgado, 34.7 WAR (1993-2004)

(5) Jose Bautista, 29.7 WAR (2008-2015)

(6) Jesse Barfield, 29.6 WAR

(7) Jim Clancy, 28.7 WAR

(8) Jimmy Key, 28.2 WAR

(9) Vernon Wells, 24.6 WAR

(10)Lloyd Moseby, 24.6 WAR

(15) Roberto Alomar, 20.4 WAR (1991-1995)

(16) George Bell, 20.2 WAR (1981, 1983-1990)

(49) Joe Carter, 7.4 WAR (1991-1997)

On the ballot: After joining the American League as an expansion club in 1977, it took until 1985 for the Blue Jays to make the playoffs for the first time. Dave Stieb was the best pitcher on the Blue Jays during the 1980s. At his best he averaged 4.6 WAR per season from 1980 to 1985. As good as Stieb was in the 80s, Roy Halladay was that guy in the 2000s, although the Jays never made the playoffs during Halladay’s time with the team. Halladay was a six-time All-Star for the Blue Jays and won the AL Cy Young award in 2003.

Tony Fernandez had four different stints with the Blue Jays and hit well in three different American League Championship Series and the 1993 World Series. He was a teammate of George Bell from 1983 to 1990. Bell’s best year was his AL MVP season of 1987 when he hit .308/.352/.605 with 47 dingers and 134 ribbies (worth 5.3 WAR).

Carlos Delgado had two regular season plate-appearances on the Blue Jays’ 1993 championship team and did not play in the post-season. He didn’t do much at the big league level in 1994 or 1995 but broke out in 1996 with a 25-homer, 92-RBI season and was at his best in 2000 when he had 7.4 WAR, hitting .344/.470/.664.

The only two players on the Blue Jays’ eight-man ballot who were on both of the Blue Jays world championship teams are Roberto Alomar and Joe Carter. Alomar was the MVP of the ALCS in 1992 and Joe Carter hit his famous game-winning home run off Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams that won the 1993 World Series. Despite his World Series heroics, Carter is 49^th in career WAR for the Blue Jays and was worth negative WAR in his last three years with the team.

The one active player on the Blue Jays’ ballot is Jose Bautista, who joined the Blue Jays in 2008 and broke out big time in 2010 with a 54-homer season, then followed that up with a 43-homer season in 2011, leading the league both years. As good as he’s been in his seven-plus years with the team, last year was the first time they finished higher than third in their division since he’s been a Blue Jay.

Notable snubs: Well, Joe Carter has his signature moment with the Blue Jays, but his body of work with the team is unimpressive. He has less WAR as a Blue Jay than Roy Howell, Ricky Romero, and one of the Alex Gonzalezes, among many others (does it matter which Alex Gonzalez? No). Perhaps Jon Olerud would have been a better choice for the ballot than Carter. Olerud was part of the two Blue Jays World Series teams and led the league in hitting and on-base percentage with a .363/.473/.599 line in 1993.

My Franchise Four: Roy Halladay, Dave Stieb, Tony Fernandez, Roberto Alomar

Tampa Bay Rays (1909-2015) 

(1) Evan Longoria, 39.2 WAR (2008-2015)

(2) Carl Crawford, 36.7 WAR (2002-2010)

(3) Ben Zobrist, 35.0 WAR (2006-2014)

(4) James Shields, 24.0 WAR (2006-2012)

(5) David Price, 23.8 WAR (2008-2014)

(6) B.J. “Melvin” Upton, 22.3 WAR (2004, 2006-2012)

(7) Scott Kazmir, 15.5 WAR (2004-2009)

(8) Carlos Pena, 14.1 WAR (2007-20010, 2012)

On the ballot: All but one of these players is still active in the major leagues but only Evan Longoria is still with the Rays. He’s an easy pick for the Tampa Bay Rays Franchise Four with 5 or more WAR in five of his first seven full seasons with the team. In the years before Evan Longoria arrived, Carl Crawford was the Rays’ best player. He played nine full seasons in Tampa and had five seasons with 4.5 or more WAR, including a very good 7.7 WAR season in 2010.

Ben Zobrist ranks just below Crawford on the Rays leaderboard. It took Zobrist a few years to get going. He was on the 2008 team that lost the World Series to the Philadelphia Phillies but was not yet a full-time player. He broke out in a big way in 2009, amassing 8.6 WAR as he hit .297/.405/.543 and played great defense at multiple positions. He continued to be one of the team’s best players until his trade to the Athletics last offseason.

James Shields was the Rays’ #1 starter on their 2008 World Series team and David Price was a rookie on that squad who pitched very well in the postseason. They are very close in career WAR in their time with the Rays but Shields accumulated his 24.0 WAR in 1454.7 innings, while Price had 23.8 WAR in 1143.7 innings. Price also had more All-Star appearances and won a Cy Young in 2012.

With his most-recent two seasons being so incredibly bad, it’s easy to forget that B.J. Upton was an above-average player for six years with the Rays from 2007 to 2012.

Scott Kazmir and Carlos Pena are a good deal behind the other six players on the ballot in WAR, but they each had their moments with the Rays. Kazmir was a two-time All-Star and Carlos Pena led the league in home runs in 2009.

Notable snub: None. The eight players on the ballot for the Tampa Bay Rays Franchise Four are the top eight players in career WAR for the team. The next-highest WAR total belongs to Julio Lugo and no one wants Julio Lugo on the ballot except maybe his mother, but definitely not his ex-wife.

My Franchise Four: Evan Longoria, Carl Crawford, Ben Zobrist, David Price

Major League Baseball has a campaign asking fans to vote for the four “most impactful” players in their team’s history, with the winners being announced at the 2015 All-Star Game in Cincinnati. A panel of experts created an eight-man ballot for each team. This panel consists of MLB’s Official Historian John Thorn and representatives from MLB’s official statistician (the Elias Sports Bureau), MLB.com, MLB Network, and the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

“Most impactful” is open to interpretation, which makes this an interesting exercise. It isn’t “best” or “most famous” or “most popular”, but “most impactful.” I decided to look at the eight players on the ballot for each franchise and where they rank in FanGraphs WAR during their time with that franchise.

For each franchise, I’ve listed their top 10 in FanGraphs WAR along with any players who are on the ballot who are below the top 10. The players in BOLD are those who are on the ballot and the years listed are the years in which they played for that team.

Cleveland Indians (1901-2015)

(1) Nap Lajoie 74.9 WAR (1902-1914)

(2) Tris Speaker 72.6 WAR (1916-1926)

(3) Lou Boudreau 63.1 WAR (1938-1950)

(4) Bob Feller 62.6 WAR (1936-1941, 1945-1956)

(5) Earl Averill 47.7 WAR (1929-1939)

(6) Mel Harder 47.6 WAR

(7) Jim Thome 46.3 WAR (1991-2002, 2011)

(8) Sam McDowell 45.6 WAR

(9) Larry Doby 45.0 WAR (1947-1955, 1958)

(10) Stan Coveleski 43.7 WAR

(31) Omar Vizquel 27.6 WAR (1994-2004)

On the ballot: All but two players on the ballot for Cleveland had their careers end before 1960. This is a ballot for an older generation and no one goes back farther than Nap Lajoie, whose time with the Indians ended more than 100 years ago. From 1902 to 1914, he led the league in hitting four times and finished with a .339 career average with the team. In fact, he was so good the team was known as the Cleveland Naps from 1903 to 1914.

Tris Speaker started his career with the Boston Red Sox, then joined the Indians in 1916 at the age of 28 and immediately led the AL in hitting with a .386 batting average. He also led the league in on-base percentage (.470) and slugging percentage (.502). He was well known for his defensive abilities in addition to his strong bat and averaged 6.6 WAR per season with the Indians.

Lou Boudreau was the player-manager and MVP of the 1948 Indians, the last Cleveland team to win a World Series. Bob Feller was also on that 1948 squad. Feller pitched 62 innings as a 17-year-old with the 1936 Cleveland Indians. From 1938 to 1941, Feller was a four-time All-Star and averaged 23 wins and 309 innings per season. He then missed three-and-a-half seasons to military service, which very likely prevented him from winning 300 games in his career (he had 266). He was back in the Indians’ rotation full-time in 1946 and pitched 371 1/3 innings with 348 strikeouts and a 2.18 ERA. He was worth 10 WAR that season. Feller was visible after his playing career ended and much-loved in Cleveland with frequent appearances at memorabilia conventions.

Earl Averill played for the Indians from 1929 to 1939. The team never finished higher than third during his tenure, but he was an All-Star for six straight years in his 11 years with the team.

I’ve always felt Larry Doby should be honored right along with Jackie Robinson on April 15th each year. Jackie Robinson was the first African-American to play in the modern major leagues when he debuted with the Dodgers on April 15, 1947, but it gets forgotten that Larry Doby debuted with the Indians less than three months later and dealt with the same racist attitudes and actions that Jackie Robinson did. Doby was just a part-time player his first year with the Indians but soon became a perennial All-star with the team.

Jim Thome and Omar Vizquel are the only two players on the ballot who played for the team in the last 50 years. They were on the very good Cleveland teams of the mid 1990s that made the playoffs five straight years and six times in seven years, including two losing World Series appearances.

Notable ballot snub: Kenny Lofton is 11^th on the all-time WAR list for the Indians and was an under-appreciated part of those good Cleveland teams in the mid-1990s (except for 1997, when he was with Atlanta). He’s 20 spots higher than Omar Vizquel with almost 16 more WAR than Vizquel had with the team, but did not get a spot on the eight-man ballot.

My Franchise Four: Nap Lajoie, Lou Boudreau, Bob Feller, Jim Thome

Kansas City Royals (1969-2015)

(1) George Brett 84.6 WAR (1973-1993)

(2) Amos Otis 42.0 WAR (1970-1983)

(3) Kevin Appier 41.8 WAR

(4) Mark Gubicza 40.1 WAR

(5) Bret Saberhagen 38.5 WAR (1984-1991)

(6) Willie Wilson 35.2 WAR (1976-1990)

(7) Dennis Leonard 34.5 WAR

(8) Paul Splittorff 33.2 WAR

(9) Frank White 31.1 WAR (1973-1990)

(10) Hal McRae 27.6 WAR (1973-1987)

(11) Alex Gordon 27.0 WAR (2007-2015)

(25) Dan Quisenberry 14.4 WAR (1979-1988)

On the ballot: Some players should be automatic Franchise Four players for the team they played with. One of those players is George Brett with the Kansas City Royals. He played 21 years with the team, has almost twice the WAR of the next-highest player, and was with the team during the most successful years of the franchise, including seven of the eight years in team history that the Royals made the post-season. The gap between Brett and Amos Otis is the fourth highest for any top two players on their team’s all-time WAR leaderboard. Brett was a 13-time All-Star for the Royals and won the AL MVP Award in 1980 when he hit .390/.454/.664. He had over 3000 hits and 1500 RBI in his career. His postseason numbers are even more impressive than his regular season numbers: .337/.397/.627. Brett is as automatic as can be for a Franchise Four candidate.

Willie Wilson, Frank White, and Hal McRae were teammates of Brett during all seven years the team made the playoffs from 1976 to 1985, while Amos Otis was there for the first five of those post-season years. Wilson was the leadoff hitter who hit .294/.331/.387 with an average of 51 steals over the ten years of his prime from 1979 to 1988. Frank White won six consecutive Gold Gloves from 1977 to 1982. Hal McRae was a two-time All-Star who hit .293/.356/.458 with the Royals in his career. Amos Otis provided strong defense in center field, was a five-time All-Star, and won three Gold Gloves.

The two pitchers on the ballot are Dan Quisenberry and Bret Saberhagen. Quisenberry came aboard in 1979 and led the AL in saves five times in six years in the early 1980s and finished in the top five in AL Cy Young voting five times. He was known for his submarine pitching and quirky sayings (“I found a deliver in my flaw”) and was one of the most popular players on the team in the early 1980s. Bret Saberhagen showed up in 1984, then was the AL Cy Young winner on the 1985 World Series Champion Kansas City Royals. He won two games against the Cardinals and was named World Series MVP.

Alex Gordon is the only current player on the ballot. He has nearly the same WAR as Hal McRae in their respective time with the Royals but he doesn’t have the multiple playoff series that so many of the guys on the ballot have.

Notable snubs: There isn’t necessarily a snub here because all of the players on the ballot have either quality play or a good narrative behind their selection, or both, but Kevin Appier and Mark Gubicza provided more value to the Royals than six of the players who made the ballot.

My Franchise Four: George Brett, Amos Otis, Bret Saberhagen, Willie Wilson

Detroit Tigers (1901-2015)

(1) Ty Cobb 143.4 WAR (1905-1926)

(2) Al Kaline  88.9 WAR (1953-1974)

(3) Charlie Gehringer 78.6 WAR (1924-1942)

(4) Lou Whitaker 68.1 WAR

(5) Harry Heilmann 64.4 WAR

(6)Alan Trammel 63.7 WAR (1977-1996)

(7) Mickey Lolich 62.0 WAR

(8) Hal Newhouser 60.4 WAR

(9) Sam Crawford 60.1 WAR (1903-1917)

(10) Hank Greenberg 57.9 WAR (1930, 1933-1941, 1945-1947)

(16) Justin Verlander 43.5 WAR (2005-2014)

(18) Miguel Cabrera 39.9 WAR (2008-2015)

 On the ballot: There are some players who are “no-doubters” when it comes to this Franchise Four exercise. George Brett is one for the Royals. For the Tigers, I believe there are three—Ty Cobb, Al Kaline, and Charlie Gehringer. Not only do all three players sit atop the Tigers’ WAR leaderboard, they all have long career with the team. Al Kaline and Charlie Gehringer played their entire careers in Detroit, while Cobb played his final two seasons with the Philadelphia Athletics, but is deeply associated with the Tigers in the early part of the 20^th century.

Ty Cobb is ranked fourth all-time in FanGraphs WAR, with 149.3, just 0.6 behind Willie Mays. He led the league in hitting 12 times in 13 years from 1907 to 1919 and had a .377 batting average during this stretch. He also led the league in on-base percentage seven times and slugging percentage eight times. He had three years with more than 10 WAR, with 1917 being his best, at 11.5 WAR, when he hit .383/.444/.570 (200 wRC+). The 54.5 WAR gap between Cobb and Al Kaline is the largest gap between any top-ranked player over the second-best player of any franchise in baseball.

In his 20-year career with the Tigers, Al Kaline only reached the postseason twice, but this included the 1968 season when the Tigers won their first World Series in 23 years. Even though he had only played 102 games during the 1968 regular season, Kaline played all seven games of the 1968 World Series and hit .379/.400/.655. At his best, Kaline was an All-Star every year from 1955 to 1967 and won 10 Gold Gloves for his defense in right field.

Charlie Gehringer spent 19 years with the Tigers and saw postseason action three times, including a World Series title in 1935. In his prime, Gehringer rarely missed a game and hit for a high average with a good on-base percentage while playing strong defense at second base. His career batting line is .320/.404/.480.

Beyond those three it becomes difficult to pick a fourth for the Tigers. Alan Trammel is another Tiger player who never left Detroit, and he won a World Series title in 1984. Hank Greenberg played all but one of his 13 seasons in the big leagues with the Tigers and was part of the 1935 World Series titlists. Sam Crawford was a big part of three straight World Series teams for the Tigers from 1907 to 1909.

The contemporary Tigers on the ballot, Justin Verlander and Miguel Cabrera, are pretty far down the list of WAR leaders for this franchise but will add to their totals in the years to come. Current voters might be tempted to vote for one or both of them, but they don’t really compare with the players above them on the Tigers’ ballot just yet.

Notable snub: Like Bobby Grich, Lou Whitaker is criminally underrated. He ranks just below Grich on the all-time WAR leaderboard for second basemen and, like Grich, was “one-and-done” in Hall of Fame balloting (2.9% in 2001). He’s fourth all-time among Tigers’ players in WAR, yet is not on the ballot, while his longtime double-play partner, Alan Trammel, is on the ballot.

My Franchise Four: Ty Cobb, Al Kaline, Charlie Gehringer, Alan Trammell

Minnesota Twins (1901-2015)

(1) Walter Johnson 117.9 WAR (1907-1927)

(2) Harmon Killebrew 66.3 WAR (1954-1974)

(3) Rod Carew 56.9 WAR (1967-1978)

(4) Bert Blyleven 55.8 WAR (1970-1976, 1985-1988)

(5) Jim Kaat 53.3 WAR (1959-1973)

(6) Sam Rice 50.3 WAR

(7) Camilo Pascual 48.1 WAR

(8) Joe Judge 45.6 WAR

(9) Kirby Puckett 44.9 WAR (1984-1995)

(10) Joe Mauer 44.8 WAR (2004-2015)

(11) Goose Goslin 42.2 WAR

(12) Tony Oliva 40.7 WAR (1962-1976)

On the ballot: It’s definitely strange to see Walter Johnson on top of the Twins’ WAR leaderboard because he, of course, played for the Washington Senators long before the team moved to Minnesota before the 1961 season. Because he never wore a Twins jersey, it will be interesting to see if the voting fans consider him a Franchise Four player. Johnson is fourth in career FanGraphs WAR, just behind Greg Maddux and ahead of Randy Johnson.

Harmon Killebrew was a Washington Senator for the first seven years of his career but then played another fourteen years as a Twin before one final year with the Royals. Killebrew led the American League in home runs five times as a Twin, including three years in a row when he hit 48, 45, and 49 bombs from 1962 to 1964.

Rod Carew led the AL in hitting seven times as a member of the Twins, including a stretch where he led the league in hitting six times in seven years. He also led the league in on-base percentage four times in five years.

Bert Blyleven had two stints with the Twins during his playing career and is third in wins all-time for the franchise. He’s also been an announcer for the team since 1996 (“Circle me, Bert!”) and was recently elected to the Hall of Fame. A teammate of Blyleven for four years in the early 1970s, Jim Kaat won the second-most games in Twins’ history. He played 15 of his 25 years with the team.

Kirby Puckett was a roly-poly fan favorite in the Metrodome through the last half of the 1980s and first half of the 90s. He was an All-Star in each of the last 10 years of his career and helped the Twins win two World Series Championships before glaucoma caused him to lose vision in his right eye, which ended his career. He hit .314/.379/.515 (123 wRC+) in his final year with the team.

Joe Mauer has played the first 12 years of his career with the Twins and is signed through 2018. He has three batting titles and an MVP award.

Finally, Tony Oliva was a Twins’ All-Star from 1964 to 1971 and led the league in hits five times.

Notable snubs: None.

My Franchise Four: Walter Johnson, Harmon Killebrew, Bert Blyleven, Kirby Puckett

Chicago White Sox (1901-2015)

(1) Luke Appling 72.7 WAR (1930-1943, 1945-1950)

(2) Frank Thomas 68.1 WAR (1990-2005)

(3) Eddie Collins 64.6 WAR (1915-1926)

(4) Red Faber 54.7 WAR

(5) Ted Lyons 54.6 WAR

(6) Billy Pierce 51.0 WAR

(7) Ed Walsh 49.2 WAR

(8) Nellie Fox 43.8 WAR (1950-1963)

(9) Minnie Minoso 41.8 WAR (1951-1957, 1960-1961, 1964, 1976, 1980)

(10) Mark Buehrle 40.1 WAR

(17) Luis Aparicio 32.0 WAR (1956-1962, 1968-1970)

(26) Harold Baines 24.5 WAR (1980-1989, 1996-1997, 2000-2001)

(28) Paul Konerko 23.6 WAR (1999-2014)

On the ballot: Luke Appling is the White Sox franchise leader in WAR, was named by the BBWAA as the greatest player in the history of the White Sox in 1970, hit .388/.474/.508 in 1936 and, to top it all off, hit a home run off Warren Spahn in the 1982 Old-Timer’s Game at the age of 75. Put that man on the White Sox Franchise Four, stat!

Frank Thomas had eight seasons with five or more WAR as a member of the White Sox and hit .307/.427/.568 with the team in his career. He led the league in on-base percentage four times in seven years from 1991 to 1997 and won back-to-back AL MVP Awards in 1993 and 1994.

Eddie Collins played the first half of his career with the Philadelphia Athletics and the second half of his career with the Chicago White Sox. As a member of the White Sox, Collins won the 1917 World Series and was a member of the 1919 World Series team that lost to the Cincinnati Reds in the “Black Sox” scandal that saw eight teammates, including Shoeless Joe Jackson, banned from baseball for life by the commissioner. Collins, of course, was not part of the “eight men out.”

Nellie Fox, Minnie Minoso, and Luis Aparacio were White Sox teammates in the 1950s and early 1960s. Fox was a 12-time All-Star and won the 1959 AL MVP award when the White Sox made the World Series. Like Fox, Luis Aparacio was another big part of the 1959 World Series team known as the “Go-Go Sox” because of their propensity to steal bases. Aparacio led the AL that year with 56 steals. Minnie Minoso was a four-time All-Star in nine seasons with the Sox. After his playing career ended he lived in Chicago for many years and represented the franchise as “Mr. White Sox” well into this century.

Harold Baines was a White Sox icon in the 1980s. In the middle of the 1989 season, the White Sox made a much-derided trade with the Rangers that saw Baines leave the team. This would become known as the “white flag” trade. In a bizarre twist, the White Sox retired Baines’ #3 about a month later, which is rare for an active player. Baines would go on to play another twelve seasons and would have his number unretired in two different stints with the team later in his career.

Paul Konerko is pretty far down on the White Sox WAR leaderboard but was part of the last White Sox team to win the World Series back in 2005 and was the MVP of the ALCS that year.

Notable snub: Among contemporary players, I would argue Mark Buehrle is a more deserving candidate for the ballot than Paul Konerko. Buehrle has 40.1 WAR as a White Sox player compared to 23.6 for Konerko and both were on the 2005 World Series championship team. Buehrle also has one of the two perfect games thrown by a White Sox pitcher.

My Franchise Four: Luke Appling, Frank Thomas, Nellie Fox, Minnie Minoso

Major League Baseball has a campaign asking fans to vote for the four “most impactful” players in their team’s history, with the winners being announced at the 2015 All-Star Game in Cincinnati. A panel of experts created an eight-man ballot for each team. This panel consists of MLB’s Official Historian John Thorn and representatives from MLB’s official statistician (the Elias Sports Bureau), MLB.com, MLB Network, and the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

“Most impactful” is open to interpretation, which makes this an interesting exercise. It isn’t “best” or “most famous” or “most popular”, but “most impactful.” I decided to look at the eight players on the ballot for each franchise and where they rank in FanGraphs WAR during their time with that franchise.

For each franchise, I’ve listed their top 10 in FanGraphs WAR along with any players who are on the ballot who are below the top 10. The players in BOLD are those who are on the ballot and the years listed are the years in which they played for that team.

Los Angeles Angels (1961-2015)

(1) Nolan Ryan, 47.7 WAR (1972-1979)

(2) Chuck Finley, 44.7 WAR (1986-1999)

(3) Jim Fregosi, 42.6 WAR (1961-1971)

(4) Brian Downing, 36.5 WAR (1978-1990)

(5) Bobby Grich, 35.6 WAR

(6) Tim Salmon, 35.5 WAR (1992-2004, 2006)

(7) Mike Witt, 33.4 WAR

(8) Frank Tanana, 33.2 WAR

(9) Jered Weaver, 32.5 WAR

(10) Mike Trout, 30.3 WAR (2011-2015)

(13) Garret Anderson, 26.2 WAR (1994-2008)

(19) Vladimir Guerrero, 20.2 WAR (2004-2009)

On the ballot: Nolan Ryan played 27 years in the major leagues and eight of those years were with the Angels, during which he averaged almost six WAR per season and over 300 strikeouts per season. He was an All-Star five times with the Angels and is their team leader in career WAR. Ryan is also on the ballot for the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers, for whom he ranks 8^th and 17^th in WAR, respectively. He seems like a no-doubter for the Angels.

The number two player in career WAR for the Angels is Chuck Finley. While Ryan’s 47.7 WAR for the Angels came in just eight years with the team, it took Finley 14 years to accumulate 44.7 WAR, an average of 3.2 WAR per season. Finley’s best year was in 1993 when he was worth 5 WAR. Along with Ryan and Finley, Jim Fregosi is the only other Angels player with more than 40 WAR with the team, but his career was so long ago that he may not resonate with the voting fans like more recent players such as Tim Salmon, or Garret Anderson, who were teammates on the Angels in the late 1990s and early 2000s. They were both part of the Angels’ 2002 World Series championship team.

Brian Downing is the ultimate hipster—he was down with OBP before it became popular. He was also one of the first players to seriously embrace weight training and one of very few players who wore glasses while playing in the major leagues. He even had those tinted lenses that only the coolest dudes can pull off.

Even though he’s just in his fifth year in the big leagues, Mike Trout should get strong consideration for a spot on the Angels Franchise Four. In his three full seasons he averaged 9.6 WAR per season and had a good case to be AL MVP all three years (he won it last year and finished second the previous two years). He’s signed through 2020 and could replace Nolan Ryan at the top of the Angels’ WAR leaderboard within two or three years.

Finally, Vladimir Guerrero is the least-deserving player on the ballot based on career WAR with the Angels, as he only played six seasons with the team and had his three best seasons with the Expos earlier in his career. In his favor, he did win the 2004 AL MVP Award with the Angels and was a four-time All-Star with the team.

Notable snubs: Poor Bobby Grich. He got no love from Hall of Fame voters (just 2.6% of the vote in his only year on the ballot in 1992) despite being eighth all-time in WAR among second baseman (ahead of Hall of Famers Craig Biggio, Roberto Alomar, Ryne Sandberg, and others). Here, once again, he gets no love in this Franchise Four activity, not even a place on the ballot. Troy Glaus is pretty far down on the Angels’ all-time WAR list (18^th place, with 20.7 WAR), but I associate him more strongly with the Angels than I do Vladimir Guerrero.

My Franchise Four: Nolan Ryan, Mike Trout, Tim Salmon, Brian Downing

Houston Astros (1962-2015)

(1) Jeff Bagwell, 80.2 WAR (1991-2005)

(2) Craig Biggio, 65.8 WAR (1988-2007)

(3) Lance Berkman, 51.5 WAR (1999-2010)

(4) Jose Cruz, 47.8 WAR (1975-1987)

(5) Cesar Cedeno, 46.6 WAR

(6) Roy Oswalt, 46.3 WAR

(7) Jimmy Wynn, 38.7 WAR (1963-1973)

(8) Nolan Ryan, 36.4 WAR (1980-1988)

(9) J.R. Richard, 32.2 WAR (1971-1980)

(10) Larry Dierker, 31.8 WAR

(16) Mike Scott, 26.1 WAR (1983-1991) 

On the ballot: Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio are easy picks here and it’s hard to think of the two “Killer Bs” without the third “B”, Lance Berkman.

Bagwell played his entire 15 year career with the Astros and finished with 449 career homers and a .297/.408/.540 batting line. He was the 1991 NL Rookie of the Year and the NL MVP for the strike-shortened 1994 season in which he had 104 runs scored, 39 homers, and 116 RBI in just 110 games. He hit .368 that year and had a chance at 50 homers and 150 RBI if not for the labor dispute.

Craig Biggio was also an Astros’ lifer. He had a tremendous 1997 season worth 9.3 WAR when he hit .309/.415/.501 with good defense at second base. He had over 3000 hits in his career and led the league in getting hit by pitches five times.

Lance Berkman played the first 12 years of his career in Houston, then played for three other teams at the end of his career. His best days were with the Astros, though. He had six seasons with 6 or more WAR, including a 7.7 WAR season in 2008 when he hit .312/.420/.567 with 29 homers, 114 runs, 106 RBI, and 18 steals.

For a generation of fans in Houston, Jose Cruz WAS the Houston Astros. I don’t think you can have a Franchise Four without Jose Cruz on the Astros. His signature high front leg lift and those colorful uniforms of the 1970s just can’t be forgotten.

A player from the early years in Houston, “They Toy Cannon” Jimmy Winn, was able to hit for great power in the old Astrodome, a very tough park for hitters. He also posted very good on-base percentages when getting on base wasn’t as valued as it is today. He had six seasons with more than 100 walks.

Nolan Ryan spent more years with the Astros than he did with any other team during his long career and was on three Astros playoff teams in the 1980s. His 1987 season was very bizarre. He led the league in ERA at 2.76 and strikeouts with 270 but had a win-loss record of 8-16.

Sadly, J.R. Richard’s career was cut short when he suffered a stroke before a game in 1980. Richard was 30 years old at the time and was coming off a 1979 season during which he struck out 313 batters and finished third in the NL Cy Young voting. When he suffered the stroke in 1980, he was 10-4 with 1.90 ERA. He never again pitched in the major leagues.

The lowest ranking guy on the ballot is Mike Scott, who was the NL Cy Young winner in 1986, then was 2-0 with 2 complete games and a 0.50 ERA against the New York Mets in the NLCS. He was very good that year (8.6 WAR) and good again in 1987 (5.3 WAR), but his overall body of work with the Astros doesn’t compare to the others on the ballot.

Notable snubs: As good as Mike Scott was in 1986, his career contributions to the Houston Astros don’t stand up to what Roy Oswalt did during his career and I’m surprised that Oswalt didn’t make the ballot. Also, Cesar Cedeno was an All-Star four times in a five-year stretch for the Astros from 1972 to 1976.

My Franchise Four: Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Jose Cruz, Lance Berkman

Oakland Athletics (1901-2015)

(1) Rickey Henderson, 68.6 WAR (1979-1984, 1989-1995, 1998)

(2) Jimmie Foxx, 64.6 WAR (1925-1935)

(3) Eddie Plank, 57.8 WAR

(4) Eddie Collins, 55.9 WAR

(5) Lefty Grove, 54.3 WAR (1925-1933)

(6) Al Simmons, 51.6 WAR (1924-1932, 1940-1941, 1944)

(7) Sal Bando, 47.5 WAR

(8) Reggie Jackson, 45.2 WAR (1967-1975, 1987)

(9) Mark McGwire, 44.4 WAR

(10) Bob Johnson, 44.3 WAR

(26) Catfish Hunter, 27.2 WAR (1965-1974)

(45) Dennis Eckersley, 19.5 WAR (1987-1995)

(57) Rollie Fingers, 15.8 WAR (1968-1976)

On the ballot: The players on the ballot for the Athletics go as far back as Al Simmons to as recent as Rickey Henderson and Dennis Eckersley. Henderson last played for the A’s in 1998, so there’s a lack of very recent players for Athletics’ fans to choose from. This makes for a difficult ballot. Also, all eight players on the ballot had success with other teams along with their stints with the A’s.

I think Rickey Henderson is obvious. He’s the greatest leadoff hitter of all-time and had his most famous seasons with the A’s, like in 1982 when he stole a single-season record 130 bases. Henderson played 14 seasons for Oakland and led the league in steals eight times while with the team. He was also very good at getting on base and hit for surprising power for a leadoff hitter. He came up with the A’s at the young age of 20 in 1979 and played a little more than a half season, then averaged 6.6 WAR per season over the next five years. After spending 4 ½ seasons with the Yankees, Henderson rejoined the A’s in 1989 and had his best season in 1990 when he hit .325/.439/.577 with 119 runs, 28 homers, and 65 steals, good for 10.2 WAR. In his career, Henderson had over 3000 career hits, 2000 career walks, and a .401 lifetime on-base percentage.

Jimmie Foxx and Lefty Grove were both very good with the Athletics but also had good years with the Red Sox. They were teammates on the great A’s teams from 1929 to 1931 that went to three straight World Series and won two of them. Al Simmons was also part of those great A’s teams and had his best years with the Philadelphia Athletics but also played eight years with other teams.

Reggie Jackson was the “straw that stirs the drink” with the New York Yankees, after being part of three straight championship teams in Oakland in the early 1970s. He played more than twice as many games with the A’s as he did with the Yankees but it was his time in New York that earned him the nickname “Mr. October.” Still, it shouldn’t be forgotten that Reggie had five seasons with the A’s that were worth 5.7 or more WAR.

Catfish Hunter was also well-known for his play with the Yankees after being one of the first big free agent signings before the 1975 season, but he was much more successful (and healthy) with the A’s.

The two Athletics’ relievers on the ballot, Dennis Eckersley and Rollie Fingers, both had strong seasons with other teams. Eckersley pitched more years in Oakland but many more innings with the Red Sox because he was a starter early in his career and became a closer with the A’s. In 1992, Eck won the AL Cy Young Award and was the AL MVP. Over the three years from 1989 to 1991, Eckersley amazingly struck out 215 batters and walked just 16 in 207 innings (13.4 K/BB).

Notable snubs: Eddie Collins is fourth on the A’s all-time WAR leaderboard and third on the White Sox’ list. He made the White Sox ballot, but not the A’s. Collins played in four World Series for the A’s and they won three of them. Another old-timer, Eddie Plank, was also part of those four World Series squads and ranks third all-time in WAR for the franchise but is also absent from the ballot.

My Franchise Four: Rickey Henderson, Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Grove, Reggie Jackson

Seattle Mariners (1977-2015) 

(1) Ken Griffey, Jr., 67.6 WAR (1989-1999, 2009-2010)

(2) Edgar Martinez, 65.5 WAR (1987-2004)

(3) Ichiro!, 54.9 WAR (2001-2012)

(4) Felix Hernandez, 47.9 WAR (2005-2015)

(5) Randy Johnson, 45.5 WAR (1989-1998)

(6) Alex Rodriguez, 35.0 WAR

(7) Jamie Moyer, 30.2 WAR (1996-2006)

(8) Mike Moore, 23.5 WAR

(9) Jay Buhner, 22.4 WAR (1988-2001)

(10) Erik Hanson, 22.0 WAR

(11) Alvin Davis, 21.2 WAR (1984-1991)

On the ballot: You can’t argue with any of the eight players on the ballot for the Mariners. The top five should definitely be on the ballot and Jamie Moyer and Jay Buhner were on the first three teams in Mariners history to make the playoffs. Alvin Davis, even though he’s 11^th on the Mariners’ all-time WAR list, was “Mr. Mariner” in the 1980s. Those were bleak years and he was the one bright spot on the team at the time, even winning the Rookie of the Year award in 1984.

Ken Griffey, Jr. is automatic and I believe Edgar Martinez is also an easy pick for the Mariners Franchise Four. Griffeyput Seattle baseball on the map. Before he joined the Mariners, the team might as well have been in Siberia. Griffey started with the Mariners as a 19-year-old in 1989, then began a stretch of 10 straight season as an American League All-Star, along with 10 straight Gold Gloves and the 1997 AL MVP Award. He led the AL in home runs in each of his final three seasons with the team and averaged 52 homers and 142 RBI per year in his final four years with the M’s.

Edgar Martinez got a late start to his Major League career because the Mariners foolishly kept him in AAA in 1988 and 1989 while Jim Presley manned third base in Seattle. Edgar hit .363/.467/.517 in 1988 and .345/.457/.522 in 1989 in the Pacific Coast League. Meanwhile, Jim Presley combined to hit .232/.278/.367 with the Mariners over those two seasons. Looking back, it was quite ridiculous. Edgar became a full-time player in 1990 and hit .321/.429/.537 over the next twelve years, which included batting titles in 1992 and 1995. That 1995 season was his best in the bigs. He hit .356/.479/.628 and was worth 7 WAR. He then hit .571/.667/1.000 in the five game American League Divisional Series against the Yankees, which ended with Edgar’s game-winning double in the bottom of the 11^th that scored two runs and put the Mariners in the ALCS. It’s perhaps the signature moment in the history of the Seattle Mariners.

Griffey and Edgar may be automatic picks but choosing two out of Ichiro, King Felix, and Randy Johnson will be difficult for Mariners’ fans. Ichiro joined the M’s in 2001 and was the AL Rookie of the Year and AL MVP on a team that won 116 games. This was after the Mariners had lost Ken Griffey, Jr., Alex Rodriguez, and Randy Johnson. Also, Ichiro was an All-Star during his first ten seasons with the team with a .331 average and 224 hits per season from 2001 to 2010.

Randy Johnson (“The Big Unit”) was integral to the first two playoff teams in Mariners’ history when he went 18-2 in 1995 and 20-4 in 1997. In that 1995 season, the Big Unit won the one-game playoff against the Angels to put the Mariners in the post-season, then won two games against the Yankees in the ALDS, including one in relief while pitching on one day’s rest. He has the post-season narrative to promote his case for the Mariners Franchise Four.

King Felix, of course, has been the face of the Mariners for the better part of the last decade and is signed through the 2019 season. He won the AL Cy Young Award in 2010 and was second last year. It will be interesting to see what the fans do here with five very good players competing for four spots.

Most likely, Jamie Moyer, Jay Buhner, and Alvin Davis will be left out in the cold, as they just don’t compare to the top five. They all had great moments with the Mariners and are well remembered by the fans.

Notable snubs: He doesn’t really compare to the top five on this list and Mariner fans have no love for him, but A-Rod had five seasons with five or more WAR with the Mariners early in his career, so he was worth more to the team than Moyer, Buhner, or Davis.

My Franchise Four: Ken Griffey, Jr., Edgar Martinez, Ichiro Suzuki, Randy Johnson

Texas Rangers (1961-2015)

(1) Ivan Rodriguez, 49.4 WAR (1991-2002, 2009)

(2) Rafael Palmeiro, 42.3 WAR (1989-1993, 1999-2003)

(3) Buddy Bell, 34.6 WAR

(4) Jim Sundberg, 31.4 WAR

(5) Juan Gonzalez, 30.2 WAR (1989-1999, 2002-2003)

(6) Toby Harrah, 29.5 WAR

(7) Ian Kinsler, 29.1 WAR

(8) Frank Howard, 27.9 WAR (1965-1972)

(9) Alex Rodriguez, 27.0 WAR

(10) KennyRogers, 25.6 WAR

(11) Michael Young, 24.4 WAR (2000-2012)

(13) Adrian Beltre, 22.4 WAR (2011-2015)

(14) Josh Hamilton, 22.2 WAR (2008-2012)

(17) Nolan Ryan, 21.1 WAR (1989-1993)

On the ballot: Ivan Rodriguez looks like an easy pick for the Rangers Franchise Four. He spent 12 years with the Rangers at the beginning of his career and averaged over 4.0 WAR per season, including five seasons with 5.0 or more WAR. He was the face of the Rangers throughout the 1990s. Not only was he a very good-hitting catcher, he was terrific behind the plate with a rifle for an arm. With the Rangers, he was a 10-time All-Star, 10-time Gold Glove winner, and won the 1999 AL MVP Award when he hit .332/.356/.558 with 35 homers and 113 RBI.

Rafael Palmeiro is second all-time in WAR for the Rangers, but his case will be difficult for the voters. Some will choose him as one of the Rangers Franchise Four based solely on his numbers during two stints with the team, while others will consider other factors and not give him a vote. In 10 years with the Rangers, Palmeiro hit .290/.378/.519 with an average of 32 homers and 104 RBI per season.

Whether they were deserved or not, Juan Gonzalez won two MVP awards with the team. His first came in the 1996 season. He hit 47 home runs and had 144 RBI that year, but FanGraphs has him worth just 3.5 WAR. He won the AL MVP Award again in 1998 when he led the AL with 50 homers and 157 RBI, but even that year he was worth just 4.9 WAR, which was much less than many other players, including Alex Rodriguez, who was worth 7.9 WAR.

When Frank Howard was on the team that would become the Texas Rangers they were called the Washington Nationals. I don’t think he’ll resonate with fans as a Franchise Four candidate of a team whose uniform he barely wore (35 games as a Ranger in 1972).

Other than Nolan Ryan, the other players on the eight-man ballot are more recent. Josh Hamilton is unlikely to get much traction from fans but Michael Young and Adrian Beltre could get significant support, as could Nolan Ryan thanks to his post-playing-career role as team president. Young played 13 years with the Rangers, while Ryan played just five years with the team and Beltre is in the midst of his fifth season with Texas.

Notable snubs: For a generation of Ranger’s fans in the early 1980s, Buddy Bell was the team’s best player and regular All-Star representative. He only played six-and-a-half seasons with the team but had more than 4 WAR in all six full seasons and had three seasons with greater than 6 WAR, in large part due to terrific defense at third base.

My Franchise Four: Ivan Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro, Michael Young, Nolan Ryan

They are TERRIBLE hitters. They are not comparable to even the worst real hitters.

Max Scherzer said he enjoys hitting, but after getting hurt doing it, he thinks the DH might not be the worst idea.

The designated hitter is always a touchy subject, even though the National League is, if not the only league anywhere in the world, amateur or professional, that continues to employ it, then one of the few leagues to do so.

Yet I am not fully in one camp or the other. However, bringing the DH to the NL would not be a disaster of gargantuan proportions, as many a diehard NL fan might tell you. In fact, in an era of dying offenses, perhaps getting the worst hitters out of the batter’s box is an acceptable idea.

In 5519 PA in 2014, pitchers hit .122/.153/.153, for a minus-19 wRC+. The absolute worst hitter with at least 100 PA was JB Shuck, with a .145/.168/.209 line for a wRC+ of 2, or 21 points higher than the average pitcher. 21 points of wRC+ was also the 2014 gap between Nelson Cruz and Yan Gomes, or pick any of a number of great offensive seasons from merely good ones. Except here you are starting at terrible and ending up at abysmally awful. I would have created a “wRC+ X was Y times higher than wRC+ Z” construct instead, but it’s hard to do that when dealing with MINUS-19 and a positive number.

Meanwhile, the 30 worst hitters with 100+ PA last year, who combined for 5544 PA, comparable to the number of pitcher PA, posted a triple slash of .184/.247/.261. Their median wRC+ was 44; the mean, 38. (Note: Not -19.)

Bill Bergen, the poster boy for awful hitters, had a career wRC+ of 22 — 41 points higher than your typical 2014 pitcher.

Pitchers are terrible at hitting because it’s barely part of their job as it stands. And then they get hurt, like Chien-Ming Wang (running the bases) or Max Scherzer, doing this part of their job that is nearly irrelevant to the rest of it. It’s like asking the janitor to file a TPS report, and then he gets a really nasty paper cut and can’t go back to work for some time. (Terrible analogy, I know.)

I know the arguments in favor of the National League system as well, but won’t rehash them here, for fear of convincing myself to completely accept the DH, and thus further upsetting any number of fans. For example, did you know (and other people have basically written this already) the pitcher’s turn in the order is actually a helpful hint, not a complicating factor, in deciding when to remove a pitcher from a game? Not pinch-hitting means that you are allowing someone who can’t hit to hit, in exchange for the least effective parts of his real job, the mid- to late innings. The gap between a fresh reliever and a starter multiple times through the order on the mound *and* the gap between even a pinch-hitter and the pitcher at the plate are almost always both going to be in favor of removing the pitcher.

See, that’s what I meant. I’ll cut my losses and avoid trying to devise another lame analogy to conclude with.

Advanced metrics in baseball have by and large proven useful for the evaluation of players and teams in the American pyramid of professional baseball, generally comprised of Major League Baseball franchises and their minor-league affiliates. This means that at least in the mainstream sabermetrics community, the vast majority of work in advanced analytics has taken place within the borders of the United States. It’s no secret, however, that MLB franchises have vast scouting networks all across the globe – baseball has always been a sport with tons of growth potential, and especially over the last half-century, MLB has imported talent from an incredible geographic range. Teams have long-running infrastructure for scouting, acquiring, and developing young players from other nations – a trend which is almost certainly guaranteed to continue in the future.

Major League teams with their own analytics departments no doubt have a wealth of resources for the evaluation of foreign talent, but for the average sabermetrician who does not have access to baseball academies in Latin and Central America or who can’t regularly view other professional leagues in countries like Korea, Japan or Taiwan, the requisite data are hard to come by. Baseball-Reference has a wealth of information on other leagues such as Nippon Professional Baseball, but only relatively traditional statistics are available, limiting the extent to which those who aren’t involved with professional organizations can observe and interpret those figures.

It’s easy to look up anyone’s batting average with RISP in NPB, but we’ve not yet arrived at a point where we (we being a fan of modest statistical background with access to free data on the internet) have been able to easily produce, say, a run expectancy table, or calculate a replacement level, for a non-MLB league without much more effort than should be necessary. At the very least, we can derive the most basic of metrics – here I’ve compiled a list of last year’s  Nippon Professional Baseball leaders and calculated FIP (min. 48 IP), which thankfully wasn’t at all difficult to do because the statistics necessary to calculate FIP are simple and easily available. It’s not as if it’s impossible to achieve the level of analytical proficiency with NPB that we have with MLB, it just hasn’t happened yet.

There’s logical explanations for this, but given the data available to us, it should only be a matter of time before sabermetrics begin to thrive outside of the United States for amateur statisticians and professional sports organizations alike. I would venture that there’s definitely a growing interest in international baseball from the American fan community; personally, I’m all for a sweeping movement in statistical analysis for international baseball leagues – not just to find the next Masahiro Tanaka or José Abreu, but with a real vested interest in other incarnations of America’s national pastime. We’re a long way from it, but it’s not out of the question to imagine an international baseball dynamic where fans follow the NPB with the the same fervor of an American soccer fan who might support a club in the English Premier League or the German Bundesliga. In that hypothetical scenario, sabermetric analysis is thriving, and most importantly, it’s thriving just as much outside the MLB as in it.

There are a lot of people who like baseball. Almost 74 million people attended an MLB game last year, and a 2006 Gallup poll estimated that 47% of Americans identify as a baseball fan. Almost every one of those fans can be more precisely described as a fan of a team rather than the sport itself. FanGraphs readers certainly lie on the less casual end of the spectrum, and that seems to lead to a broader appreciation of baseball in general, but that’s not the case for the vast majority of the baseball-loving populace. Even those who have grown into sport-wide interest didn’t start that way, and probably maintain a preference for one team over all others.

The fan-team relationship, in many ways, is at the heart of baseball. There are easier ways to generate numbers at random, but preference for one outcome over another is what provides a narrative. To be sure, there are lots of ways to enjoy the sport. There is significant pleasure to be had from detailed analysis, or moments of physical grace and power, and everyone is free to enjoy baseball in whatever way they see fit. Rooting, however, is what turns baseball from a hobby into a sport.

What are fans rooting for when they root for a team? Teams today are thoroughly modern organizations, exceedingly large and multifaceted and difficult to grasp entirely. Fans are like the proverbial blind people around an elephant, who comprehend only what they immediately perceive. For most, that’s the laundry, as Jerry Seinfeld famously described it. Everything about a team changes but their name, and sometimes even that changes, but fans remain loyal to the concept of the team, to the history and experiences and hopes they share with other fans. But the second-most enduring aspect of most teams is the owner, far surpassing almost every player, despite being virtually ignored by most fans. Owners are also the ones that benefit most when a team succeeds, and so rooting for a team is in many ways closer to rooting for its owner than rooting for its players.

There have been a few events in the news recently that have prompted thoughts on this topic from several people. The two major ones were Kris Bryant’s demotion by the Cubs, for reasons connected to his arbitration clock rather than his performance, and the comments made by Angels owner Arte Moreno about Josh Hamilton’s drug problem. These are both conflicts between people who are part of the same team, and from a team-oriented viewpoint, should have the same goals but clearly don’t. The question becomes who is “right”, from the viewpoint of the fan. Lots of people have written some excellent things about these conflicts, but my favorite is by Jason Wojciechowski, found here, writing about the paradigm we view these sorts of disagreements from. The whole piece is well worth a read, but the relevant part for this discussion is in the last paragraph:

“A notion of ethics or even morals is something I think we ought to promote in business rather than celebrating the pure concept of moneymaking… We’ve created a political-legal-social scheme that allows firms to exist (thrive!) because we’ve judged the firm a useful construct. Where we go from that starting point… is up to us…. I would like us not to say ‘baseball teams are businesses and so they should be applauded for demoting Kris Bryant’ as our starting point. That’s not our starting point. That’s a moral/ethical choice that has been made from an earlier starting point. Recognition that there are other choices is the first step to reform.”

I don’t think there can be much disagreement with Jason’s point, and I think it’s critical to this discussion. In every aspect of baseball, the viewpoint and goals are decisively pro-team, but that is a starting point. I think it’s time for fans to take a different, pro-player, view as our starting point.

This can be traced back to analytics and the rise of sabermetrics, which have blurred the line between fans and observers of baseball from the outside and professionals from the inside. Anyone who demonstrates their ability to find useful information for a team has the potential to be richly rewarded, and as a result, analytics has one motivating goal in almost every case: to make teams more money. Usually, this takes the form of identifying or measuring undervalued skills and assets, and capitalizing on those market inefficiencies. Under the prevailing framework of baseball analysis, a researcher who identified (for example) the key to Tommy John surgery would be entirely justified in keeping that information private and selling it to a team and making untold sums of money, rather than releasing it to the public and keeping the other 97% healthy as well.

Now, I am not suggesting that someone who made such a major breakthrough should not be rewarded for their work, medical or analytical. Modern baseball analysis is increasingly a business rather than a hobby, and the researcher who identifies the perfect defense-independent pitching metric should be rewarded for the likely massive amounts of work that went into that discovery. But teams are trying to save money for one reason only: to make their owners more money. Every team, from the Red Sox and Yankees to the A’s and Rays, has the ability to spend more and chooses not to. The only “spending limits” they encounter are owner-imposed, and exist for the purposes of profit.

We, meaning fans and hobbyists, are not professional baseball researchers or owners of teams, and as such, are not restricted or motivated by the profit motive. We should feel no such compulsion to orient our passion solely toward teams and their profits.

Despite that, the perspective of the fan tends to always be pro-team, and in many cases, that means it is anti-player. Mike Trout’s contract is “good” because the Angels don’t pay him a lot despite being very good, and Josh Hamilton’s contract is “bad” because the Angels do pay him a lot despite not being very good. Really, therefore, what we mean when we say a contract is good or bad is that it makes or loses an owner money. When the topic of contracts comes up, fans often view them solely as a question of what the team “should” do. This is an example (no offense, T-Sky, you were just the first I saw), where the author writes that “if I were a general manager… I would hand out a lot more contracts like the one the Cleveland Indians just gave Carlos Carrasco.” To be fair, the author also discusses why he feels these deals are good for the player later in the article, so the focus is not just on the team (owner) saving money, but the wording suggests that the player has no agency or control over his own future. While people might not consciously think this, the language used is important, and shows the subconscious assumptions of most fans: contracts are bequeathed by teams to deserving players, as determined by that same team. Now, this obviously isn’t the case in contract negotiations in reality, but it illustrates the viewpoint fans bring – team first, and frequently, team only.

Contract negotiations are not the only aspect of baseball in which this fan viewpoint reigns supreme – on the contrary, this is baked into everything we as fans do. It colors every aspect of the game. As another example, when each year’s Hall of Fame discussions are happening, players are often given accolades for spending their entire career with a single team. There might be valid and legitimate reasons for this – a rapport developed with the fans of that team really is cool, and worth giving someone a bump for – but truly, what is being rewarded is the decision not to test the free-agent market and take the highest contract possible, and instead to reward a team (and an owner) with performance at below-market rates.

Dustin Pedroia, for example, has played with the Red Sox for his entire career, and is currently signed through the 2021 season, after which he will be 38 and either finished or very close to finished playing baseball. He signed his current contract in 2013, but was already extended through 2014 and 2015. The net extension was for 2016 through 2021 (six years) and $89 million dollars, or about $15 million per year. In 2013, Dustin Pedroia had over 5 WAR. At that point in his career, he had averaged 4.7 WAR per 600 PAs. Two years prior, in 2011, he had almost 8 WAR. Had he made his services available to the highest bidder, he would have signed for so, so, so much more than $15 million per year. Instead, he signed with the Red Sox, saving them that large amount of money. Maybe that meant more money was spent on other players, but the Red Sox are one of baseball’s richest teams, and the limits to their spending have always been self-imposed. What that definitely meant was that more money went to the team and its owners.

The standard is to consider Pedroia’s career in a slightly better light because of that. (I don’t mean to point fingers, either – I absolutely am guilty of this.) He sold his services for less than they were worth to a team that could absolutely afford to pay full price, and he’s more likely to make the Hall of Fame because of it. That also means that, implicitly, we’re punishing players that choose to go to the market, and make as much money as they can, which is the last thing I want to do! But when it’s portrayed as rewarding “loyalty”, or whatever other word is used to describe giving money back to team owners, it’s hard not to. This is but one example of the subtle but pervasive pro-team culture that’s endemic in all of baseball fandom.

If this resonates at all with you, I’d encourage you to try to shift your focus as a fan, away from the team and toward the players. There are some trends in baseball that make this more of a legitimate option. Fantasy baseball allows fans to have “their” guys, regardless of what team they’re on. The drive to recognize prospects as early as possible allows fans to keep track of players long before they do anything that impacts a major league team, and hopefully root for them no matter what team they debut with. National media coverage and MLB.tv means you aren’t restricted by geography to what players you follow. Those are steps in the right direction.

If we as fans take a more individual focus, perhaps the conversation will change. Perhaps it will no longer be considered automatically “good” that Bryant has to wait an extra year to sign his first free agent contract, and is more likely to see his career ended by an injury before he ever gets paid, or “bad” that Josh Hamilton capitalized on his excellent performance through age 31. The good/bad labels come from the perspective of the people paying those players, but we as fans are not those people, and we should feel no obligation to take that as our starting point. Root for the players, not the teams.

There were a number of great moments for some of baseball’s biggest stars during the first week of the MLB season. Albert Pujols hit his 521^st career home run, which tied him for 18^th place on the career list with Hall of Famers Ted Williams, Willie McCovey, and Frank Thomas. Mark Buehrle won his 200^th career game and is now tied for 113^th on the all-time list with Chuck Finley, George Uhle, and Tim Wakefield (wow, Tim Wakefield won 200 games). Alex Rodriguez hit home run #655 and is just five away from the legendary Willie Mays.

But this isn’t about those guys. Those guys get plenty of notice. This is about the lesser-knowns, the guys you’ve never heard of or had forgotten about. These are my guys. They are the scrubs, the journeymen, the players who refuse to hang up their spikes . . . the grinders.

• San Francisco Giants pitcher Matt Cain’s arm injury opened the door for Chris Heston to get the second start of his major league career. Heston is 27 and debuted with the Giants just last season, so he’s not really a prospect, if he ever was one. He played college baseball at Seminole Community College in Florida and was drafted in the 47^th round of the 2007 Major League Draft. He did not sign. When you’re drafted in the 47th round, it’s like the team is telling you, “Hey, we need someone to carry the bats from the clubhouse to the dugout for one of our minor league teams and you look like you might be able to handle that job.” Heston went back to school for another year, then was drafted in the 29th round by the Washington Nationals the following year. When you’re drafted in the 29th round, it’s like the team is telling you, “Hey, we need someone to take up space on one of our minor league rosters so the real prospects can have someone to play against.” Heston chose to go back to school, this time to East Carolina University, and ended up being drafted again, this time in the 12th round. He signed with the Giants and pitched in their minor league system for five years before getting into three games during last year’s Championship run. He pitched a grand total of 5 1/3 innings as part of the team that won the World Series so he has a ring on his finger. No matter what he does for the rest of his major league career, Chris Heston has a World Series ring. In his start on Wednesday, Heston pitched six scoreless innings for his first major league victory.
• A guy I hadn’t thought of in a few years, and didn’t know was still playing baseball, had a big hit on Wednesday. This player got off to a great start to his major league career, hitting .300/.336/.549 in 70 games in his rookie year of 2005 and was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the caption: “The Natural”. “The Natural” tanked the following year (.260/.293/.449) but rebounded for a 3.3 WAR season in 2007 (.293/.338/.444). Since 2008, he’s had one above average season, two seasons close to replacement level, and four seasons below replacement level. If you haven’t guessed by now, this player is Jeff Francoeur. Jeff Francoeur is a survivor. Just when you think you’ll never hear another thing about Jeff Francoeur, he shows up once again. After hitting .235/.287/.378 in 2012, you might have thought his career would be over. Then when he hit .204/.238/.298 in 2013, it wouldn’t have been a stretch to say a fork was sticking out of his back because surely he was done. And certainly after he had 2 hits in 24 at-bats last year, you would think it was time for him to ride off into the sunset. But he didn’t ride off into the sunset. He signed with baseball’s most pathetic team, the Philadelphia Phillies. On Wednesday, he came to the dish in a scoreless game in the bottom of the sixth and hit a 3-run jack to help the Phillies beat the Red Sox. The only possible conclusion is that Jeff Francoeur is a zombie.
• In Cincinnati, the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds played a closely fought ballgame that went to extra innings. The Pirates brought in Radhames Liz to pitch the bottom of the 11^th. Liz had been signed as an amateur free agent by the Orioles in 2003 and played three seasons with the O’s from 2007 to 2009 but had major control problems as he walked 6.2 batters per nine innings. He spent the 2009 season in the Padres’ minor league system then pitched in Korea for three years before returning to the states and signed a minor league contract with the Blue Jays before the 2014 season. He pitched at two levels in 2014, then signed a one-year deal with the Pirates. His appearance in the bottom of the 11^th inning on Wednesday was his first major league action since 2009. Unfortunately, it did not go well. He started off the inning by getting Brandon Phillips to pop out. He then plunked Zack Cozart. In 2014, Zack Cozart was the worst hitter in all of baseball who had enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title when he hit .221/.268/.300 (56 wRC+). The last person you’d ever want to hit with a pitch is Zack Cozart, but that’s just what Radhames Liz did. He regained his composure to strike out Matt Dominguez. Of course, Matt Dominguez was the second-worst hitter in all of baseball last year (63 wRC+). It’s kind of amazing that the two worst hitters in baseball last year were batting back-to-back in this situation, but life has those little amazing things happen every now and then. Still, there were two outs and a runner on first and Billy Hamilton was coming to the plate. Billy Hamilton, by the way, was the 13th-worst hitter in all of baseball last year out of the 146 hitters who qualified for the batting title (79 wRC+). Surely, Radhames Liz could get Billy Hamilton out and send this game to the 12th inning, right? No, not right. Not right at all. Radhames Liz walked Billy Hamilton. This is not a particularly easy thing to do because Billy Hamilton does not walk very often (5.7% of the time in his career). Walking Billy Hamilton meant there were now runners on first-and-second and Radhames Liz would have to face Joey Votto, the best hitter on the Reds. Joey Votto singled to right, Zack Cozart scored, and Radhames Liz had single-armedly lost the game for the Pittsburgh Pirates in his first major league action in six years.
• On Friday, Jerome Williams started for the Philadelphia Phillies against the Washington Nationals. Williams is on the seventh major league team of his career, including three just last season. His best year was his rookie year back in 2003 with the San Francisco Giants when he was worth 2.0 WAR. He hasn’t come close to that performance since. In 2008, he played for the Long Beach Armada of the independent Golden Baseball League (other GBL alums include Mark Prior, Jose Canseco, and Rickey Henderson). In 2010, he played for the Uni-President Lions of Taiwan in the Chinese Professional Baseball League. He was with the Los Angeles Angels from 2011 to 2013 and spent the 2014 season with the Astros, Rangers, and Phillies. In his nine major league seasons, he’s had an ERA under 4.00 just two times. He’s still kicking around, though, and pitched 6 innings while allowing just a single run on five hits in his first start this year.
• The Tampa Bay Rays are without three-fifths of their projected starting rotation, so they got creative on Friday and started Steven Geltz. Geltz signed with the Los Angeles Angels as an undrafted free agent in 2008 out of the University of Buffalo. It’s highly unlikely for an undrafted free agent to ever making the major leagues. In addition, Geltz is listed as 5’10”, 170 pounds and he’s a right-handed pitcher. Short, right-handed pitchers are a rare breed in major league baseball. Scouts are generally looking for size and projectability when scouting pitchers and this is even more true for right-handed pitchers. It’s easier to be short and slight if you’re a left-handed pitcher slinging breaking balls than if you’re a righty. Geltz doesn’t have a great fastball (averages around 92 mph) but he’s been quite good in 7 seasons in the minor leagues, with a career 3.38 ERA and 1.10 WHIP in 362 minor league innings, while striking out 12 batters per nine innings. He got a cup of coffee with the Angels in 2012 and a Mocha Grande with the Rays last year and has pitched in 15 major league games with a 2.84 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, and 13.5 K/9. All of his previous professional appearances have been as a reliever and he has never faced more than 10 batters in an outing before. So, there he was on the mound to start Friday night’s game against the Marlins. He went two innings, throwing 35 pitches, 25 for strikes, and allowed one run. Not bad. There’s a pretty good chance that this will be the only start of his major league career.

Finally, we have the journiest-journeyman of all the journeymen, Buddy Carlyle:

New York Mets’ reliever Buddy Carlyle was originally drafted by the Cincinnati Reds out of a Nebraska high school in the second round of the 1996 MLB Draft. Then this happened:

• 1996: Pitched for the Princeton Reds in the Appalachian League
• 1997: Pitched for the Charleston AlleyCats in the South Atlantic League
• April 8, 1998: Traded to the San Diego Padres for Marc Kroon.
• 1998: Pitched for the Chattanooga Lookouts and the Mobile BayBears in the Southern League
• 1999: Pitched for the Las Vegas Stars in the Pacific Coast League
• Made his major league debut on August 29, 1999 with the San Diego Padres.
• 2000: Pitched for the Las Vegas Stars and the San Diego Padres
• November 3, 2000: Contract was sold to the Hanshin Tigers of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball League.
• 2001 and 2002: Pitched for the Hanshin Tigers
• December 18, 2002: Signed as a free agent by the Kansas City Royals
• 2003: Pitched for the Wichita Wranglers of the Texas League and the Omaha Royals of the Pacific Coast League
• October 15, 2003: Granted free agency
• December 23, 2003: Signed as a free agent with the New York Yankees
• 2004: Pitched for the Trenton Thunder of the Eastern League and the Columbus Clippers of the International League
• October 14, 2004: Granted free agency
• November 18, 2004: Signed as a free agent by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
• 2005: Pitched for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Las Vegas 51s of the Pacific Coast League.
• December 15, 2005: Signed by the Florida Marlins.
• 2006: Pitched for the Albuquerque Isotopes of the Pacific Coast League
• May 18, 2006: Sold to the LG Twins of the Korean Baseball Association
• December 4, 2006: Invited to spring training by the Atlanta Braves
• 2007: Pitched for the Richmond Braves of the International League and the Atlanta Braves
• 2008: Pitched for the Richmond Braves and Atlanta Braves
• 2009: Pitched for the Atlanta Braves, the Rome Braves of the South Atlantic League, and Gwinnett Braves of the International League
• October 9, 2009: Granted free agency
• 2010: Returned to Japan to pitch for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of the Nippon Professional Baseball League.
• December 2, 2010: Signed a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training with the New York Yankees.
• 2011: Pitched for the New York Yankees, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees of the International League, and the Toros del Este of the Dominican Winter League
• January 30, 2012: Signed a minor league contract with the Atlanta Braves
• 2012: Pitched for the Gwinnett Braves of the International League
• November 3, 2012: Granted free agency
• December 11, 2012: Signed a minor league contract with the Toronto Blue Jays.
• 2013: Pitched for the Buffalo Bison of the International League
• November 5, 2013: Granted free agency
• February 18, 2014: Signed a minor league contract with the New York Mets
• 2014: Pitched for the Las Vegas 51s of the Pacific Coast League and the New York Mets
• November 4, 2014: Granted free agency
• January 5, 2015: Signed as a free agent with the New York Mets

By my count, this is Buddy Carlyle’s 20^th year in professional baseball but only the eighth year in which he pitched in the major leagues. He’s played on 26 teams for 14 different organizations in four different countries. He’s been a Red, an AlleyCat, a Lookout, a BayBear, a Star, a Padre, a Tiger, a Wrangler, a Royal, a Thunder, a Clipper, a Dodger, a 51, an Isotope, a Twin, a Brave, a Ham Fighter, a Yankee, a Toro, a Bison, and a Met.

Before last season, Carlyle had pitched 284.3 major league innings with a 5.13 ERA and 1.39 WHIP, while striking out 7.2 batters per nine and walking 3.4. Last year, at the age of 36, Carlyle found major league success by posting a 1.45 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, 8.1 K/9, and 1.5 BB/9.

On Opening Day this year, the Mets were holding a 3-1 lead heading into the ninth but their closer, Jenrry Mejia, was injured with a sore elbow. Jerry Blevins got the first out of the inning, then Buddy Carlyle came in to get Ryan Zimmerman and Wilson Ramos for his first major league save. He was immediately added to nearly 2,000 fantasy baseball teams on Yahoo by ever-watchful saves scavengers. More importantly, it was a great moment for a guy who just kept plugging away at it all these years. Hat tip, Buddy Carlyle.

Being a sports fan is hard. On average, a major league team’s chance to win the World Series in a given year is 3.3 percent. I promise the math works out. Some teams, particularly larger-market teams, may have a greater chance, but for fans of any team you are more likely to end the season sad than happy. However, in April there is hope for every team. This is an old baseball cliché, but it is also generally true!

If you look at FanGraphs’ playoff odds, every team has a chance to make it at least to the wild-card game. Even the Phillies! So the cliché is grounded in a bit of reality, as clichés usually are. On the other hand, two teams are listed as having 0.0 percent chance of winning the World Series. Those darn Phillies and the Atlanta Braves.

Let’s talk about those Braves and their chances at fortune. For purposes of this exercise, we are going to assume that the playoff odds are correct up until the playoffs actually occur. Maybe you think the Braves 3.2 percent chance of making the playoffs is pessimistic. After starting 3-0, it has jumped from 3.1 percent, so that’s something! Maybe you think that is too low (or too high), but that doesn’t matter, this exercise could be done using many bad teams. The Braves have a 3.2 percent chance of making the playoffs but a 0.0 percent chance of winning the World Series. This is very unlikely to be true.

I don’t have the statistical skills to delve into the projection models, but I believe there is a fundamental flaw that essentially double dips on poorly projected teams. The playoff odds beyond simply making the playoffs are calculated assuming each team is as good or as bad as projected. The problem with this method is that it doesn’t comport with reality. If the Braves (or the Phillies, Diamondbacks, Rockies, Brewers, Twins or Rangers) make the playoffs, it will be at least partially due to them being a much better team than the projections thought they were. Of course, the projections know that this is possible, hence the slim odds instead of no odds of making the playoffs.

For purposes of this chart, I’m going to make generous assumptions on the decimal points that we cannot see. These assumptions work against my conclusion and I believe my conclusion still holds. For percentages that are listed as 0.0, I’m going to assume 0.05. * For 0.1, I’m going to assume 0.15. And so on. These odds all come from FanGraphs projections as of Friday, April 10, 2015.

Below is a list of teams with less than a 10-percent chance of making the playoffs. Assuming they make the playoffs, based on these conservative assumptions, the odds of these teams winning the World Series are:

Team                         1 in…

Phillies                      24

Rangers                     16

Twins                         16

Diamondbacks         19

Braves                     64

White Sox                  18

Reds                            30

Brewers                      36

Rockies                       39

The three teams in the AL actually don’t look that bad. I’d say they are perhaps a little too pessimistic, but not drastically so. In the NL, the Braves are the worst example, but the Reds, Brewers, and Rockies are all clearly unrealistic considering what we know about the playoffs (that it is something, perhaps a big something, of a crapshoot). My guess is that this could be fixed by regressing the odds of each team heavily towards a typical playoff team to account for the fact that poorly projected teams that make the playoffs are likely way towards the top end of their possible outcomes. If the Braves make the playoffs, it will be largely because they are good, and probably also because they got a decent amount of luck. I’m not saying they’d be 8-1 (as a division winner) or 16-1 (as a wild card team), which is what their odds would be based on coin flips. But there is no way the Imaginary Good Braves would go into the playoffs as 64-1 longshots to win the World Series. You don’t need a calculator or anything other than common sense to know this. And remember, I used very conservative assumptions. It is likely that if I had access to more significant digits, some of these numbers would look much worse.

*The Phillies listed odds of making the NLCS are 0.0 percent. Based on this, I halved the odds for winning the NLCS and then halved them again for winning the World Series. Thus, I conservatively estimated that the FanGraphs odds for the Phillies winning the World Series are 0.0125 percent. Thanks again, Phillies, for making things harder.