American League Central
Chicago White Sox
Frank Thomas
His
first seven full seasons are absolutely amazing. He averaged 34 doubles, 36 home runs, 118
RBI, 119 walks, and .330/.452/.604. Oh
yeah, and the rest of his career (when healthy) wasn't that bad either. War Eagle.
Eddie Collins
Perhaps
the most underrated second baseman of all time, his 13 years on the Athletics
and 12 years on the White Sox are equally great. He was one of the few players on the
"Black Sox" not part of the scandal.
He's all over the franchise leaderboards.
Luke Appling
Surprisingly
(to me) the franchise leader in WAR. I
guess it helps that he played 20 years, but also he was quite good. He finished with 2749 hits, pretty good for
an era when shortstop was not exactly an offensive position.
Red Faber
This
last spot is pretty difficult because there are three pitchers who are pretty
much equal, but Faber just beats them out.
He and Ted Lyons are especially close, but Faber's teams were more
successful so that pushes him just over.
Other notables:
As
I said Ted Lyons is close, as well as Ed Walsh.
You can also throw in Wilbur Wood and maybe Mark Buehrle, though he's
clearly not as good as the others (all Hall of Famers). Offensively there's Nellie Fox, Robin
Ventura, Paul Konerko, Carlton Fisk, and Shoeless Joe Jackson all in the
wings. On my initial list I had Ozzie
Guillen, because he was a decent player but mostly because of the World Series
win in 2005. But, he was a jerk, so no.
Cleveland Indians
Bob Feller
Another
great player who missed three+ prime years (ages 23-25) due to World War II. It's amazing to hear how he came up as a 17
year old, blew people away, and then returned home to finish high school. Also, he has one of the all-time leg kicks.
Nap Lajoie
He
was so good, and so popular, that from 1903-1914 the team was called the
Cleveland Naps. Can you imagine today
the Houston Joses? Anyway, his numbers
are pretty staggering, you should look them up.
Lou Boudreau
The
best player on the last World Series winning team, 1948. His numbers aren't overly impressive compared
to today, outside of his doubles, but oh yeah, he also was the team
manager. In fact, he took over manager
at the age of 24 (!) in only his third full season (!!!) in the Majors. Somehow he was one of the few players that remained
during the War (arthritis in the ankles apparently).
Tris Speaker
The
all time leader in doubles had most of them in Cleveland. Speaker is right near the top of almost every
franchise leaderboard. Somehow he is
rarely mentioned when speaking of the best center fielders in history.
Other notables:
I
very nearly chose Larry Doby as a good player whose significance also came as
the first black player in American League history. On the more modern side, there's either Kenny
Lofton or Jim Thome (franchise leader in home runs). Pitchers of note include Stan Coveleski,
Addie Joss, Sudden Sam McDowell, Bob Lemon, and Early Wynn. Special shout-out to Willis Hudlin, seventh
in franchise wins and fourth in games started, who married into our family.
Detroit Tigers
Ty Cobb
Yes,
he was not a great person. He was,
however, easily the best player in franchise history, and there have been some
good ones. Outside of home runs and
slugging percentage (though he's third there) he basically leads stat
category. Cobb was phenomenal.
Al Kaline
The
real "Mr. Tiger," Kaline is the franchise home run leader and near
the top in most everything else. He even
got his World Series win, in 1968, though it wasn't his best season. I feel he's underappreciated today, but in
his day he was beloved.
Justin Verlander
There's
a shocking lack of great pitchers in franchise history, but Verlander stands
out. He really represents two things:
the rebirth of a dying franchise and the rare workhorse dominant starter
today. While it's too bad he couldn't
win his World Series in Detroit, I'm certainly happy he came to Houston to
finish the deed.
Charlie Gehringer
He
was nicknamed "The Mechanical Man" because he just went out and did
his job every day. Apparently his job
included smacking 574 doubles and .320/.404/.480 over 16 full seasons.
Other notables:
How
about the greatest double play combination in history, Lou Whitaker and Alan
Trammell? There's always Hall of Famers
Harry Heilmann, Sam Crawford, and Hank Greenberg. More recently there's Triple Crown winner
Miguel Cabrera. Other pitchers, like
Mickey Lolich, Dizzy Trout, and Tommy Bridges, were good, not great. Hal Newhouser is the pitching WAR leader, and
is famous for back-to-back MVPs in 1944 and 1945, but let's be honest, he
wasn't exactly pitching against the greatest competition. When the boys came back his numbers quickly
fell. I can't forget the great Sparky
Anderson.
Kansas City Royals
George Brett
Brett
is another one of those guys who dominates the franchise leaderboard. He's so much better than the rest that he had
nearly twice the WAR (88.4 to 44.6) of the next highest position player.
Bret Saberhagen
Two
Cy Young awards cements your place on as the best franchise pitcher. He doesn't really lead any franchise stats,
but he is consistently near the top.
Willie Wilson
He
was another big part of the franchise's heyday, and is high up on many of the
leaderboards. He was a great example of
how teams in the 80s utilized the turf surfaces to make the most of speed. His 162 average over his career includes 11
triples and 50 stolen bases.
Salvador Perez
I
figured there should be someone on here to represent the recent success,
back-to-back World Series appearances with one win and another bad luck
loss. Who better than the on-the-field
general. His offense is very good for a
catcher, but his real value comes in how he commands the game defensively. Hopefully he will stick around longer to make
this pick even more certain.
Other notables:
There
are a lot of good, but not necessarily great, players that could have made the
last few slots. There's Amos Otis, Frank
White (speaking of knowing the turf, he played second base in shallow right
field because the ball got there so quickly and he could cover more ground),
Hal McRae, Alex Gordon, and Carlos Beltran in the position players. Other pitchers of note are Kevin Appier (WAR
leader), Mark Gubicza, and closers Dan Quisenberry (one of the great submarine
pitchers) and Jeff Montgomery. You could
also make a case for managers Ned Yost and Dick Howser.
Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins
Walter Johnson
Oh,
I don't know, he's only the greatest pitcher in history. Second all time with 417 wins, on a team that
rarely amounted to much. All time leader
with 110 shutouts. All time leader with
3509 strikeouts until some guy named Ryan.
Not much to see here.
Kirby Puckett
What
happened at the end of his career, and then after his career, is
unfortunate. That being said, when he
played he was Minnesota baseball. He was
key in their two World Series wins. He
was remarkably a "5-tool" player in an unconventional body.
Rod Carew
The
franchise leader in position player WAR was a hitting machine in his 12 seasons
in Minnesota. From 1973 to 1977 he
averaged well over 200 hits a season, spiking with 239 in 1977, his MVP
season. He didn't have a lot of power,
but he had a fair amount of doubles and he rarely struck out. Unfortunately I have to admit I tend to
forget him, I didn't have him on my initial "top of my head" list.
Harmon Killebrew
He's
the only one on this list to play in both cities. "Killer" did just that to
baseballs, and he not surprisingly leads the franchise in Home Runs, Total
Bases, and Slugging.
Other notables:
There's
some really good names who didn't make the top 4. Sam Rice is the franchise leader in many
categories. Joe Mauer is the best of the
recent bunch. There's also some love for
Goose Goslin and Tony Oliva. On the
pitching side, you can't forget Bert Blyleven, Johan Santana, Jim Kaat, and
Frank Viola. Too bad there's no room for
managers Tom Kelly and Ron Gardenhire, both of whom knew to focus on the small
things with a small market club.
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