Mount Rushmore: AL CENTRAL

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.

Mount Rushmore: AL EAST

American League East

St. Louis Browns/Baltimore Orioles

Cal Ripken Jr.

            He's more than just the most games played in a row, he was a revolution at the shortstop position.  Thanks to him we have the likes of Rodriguez, Jeter, Garciaparra, and now Lindor and Correa.  He also happens to lead the franchise in many offensive categories including WAR, Runs, Hits, Total Bases, Doubles, and Home Runs.

Brooks Robinson

            Perhaps the greatest defensive third baseman of all time, he became nationally famous with his performance, and MVP, in the 1970 World Series.  A life-long Oriole, he's also near the top of most offensive categories.

Earl Weaver

            Certainly one of the most famous managers of all time, known mostly for his tirades on the field.  He managed for 17 years, reaching the World Series four times but winning only once.  He was ahead of his time, eschewing the popular, but poor, strategies of small ball.  It's also been said that Jim Palmer would have been nothing without his ability to coddle him.

George Sisler

            Speaking of Palmer...Sisler was easily the best player for the otherwise terrible Browns.  He's near the top of most offensive categories for the franchise, and leads in Triples.

Other notables:

            Jim Palmer has been the franchise's best pitcher, but given what I said with Weaver, I couldn't put him on the list.  Mike Mussina also had a great career with the Orioles.  You could also entertain guys like Eddie Murray, Ken Williams, and Frank Robinson (who simply didn't play long enough in Baltimore).

Boston Red Sox

Ted Williams

            In an otherwise difficult list, this one is a no-brainer.  Teddy Ballgame may be the greatest pure hitter in the history of the game.  He's one of the few guys who leads his franchise (outside of the recent expansion teams) in both Batting Average and Home Runs.  He's also, of course, the last man to hit over .400 in a season.  And, of course, he missed three seasons (ages 24-26) thanks to World War II and more than another season due to the Korean War.  Imagining his numbers without those years lost is remarkable.

Carl Yastrzemski

            Ok, here's another no-brainer for Boston.  He leads most of the longevity stats for the franchise, which makes sense since he played nearly 23 full seasons.  If you don't think of him second when you think of the Red Sox you're doing it wrong.

David Ortiz

            This is where it gets really tough.  Big Papi makes it because he was the face of the Red Sox when they finally broke the curse...and won two more times.  He's also high up on most of the power stats for the franchise, including second in Home Runs.

Cy Young

            The Red Sox were really good the first two decades of the 20th century, and Young was a big part of that (at least the first decade).  So, for the sake of sharing the love over the generations, he gets the fourth spot.  It certainly wouldn't be Harry Frazee who dismantled that dominant franchise and essentially made the Yankees.

Other notables:

            Some more pitchers to consider: Roger Clemens (leader in pitching WAR), Pedro Martinez, Lefty Grove, Smoky Joe Wood.  Other position players: Wade Boggs, Carlton Fisk, Tris Speaker, and my man Dwight Evans.  It's a pretty deep field in Fenway.

New York Yankees

Babe Ruth

            What can be said about him that hasn't been said?  He's the greatest player in history.  He revolutionized the game.  He's the Babe.

Lou Gehrig

            I know others have said it, and I've thought it many times, but can you imagine being a pitcher in the American League in the 20s and 30s?  If you somehow get past Ruth, the greatest player of all time, you still have to face Gehrig, the greatest first baseman of all time!  And how about the fact that he is the franchise leader in RBI...hitting after Ruth that long!

Mickey Mantle

            For reasons I don't want to get into, people, at least from that time, loved DiMaggio much more than Mantle.  But Mantle, in every way, was a much better player.  And, of course, many people have said this, but he could have been Ruth, but with a lot more speed, if his knees weren't shredded.  The best switch hitter of all time.  I love in the Ken Burns' Baseball when he admits that he tried to crush a home run every at bat.

Joe DiMaggio

            I really wanted to not have one of the most overrated players of all time on here (no, you cannot put him in the same conversation as Ted Williams), but he was good and he was beloved.  56 straight games was amazing.

Other notables:

            As much as I hate the Yankees, they have had way too much talent.  They're second and third Rushmores would probably be better than most franchises.  Want to see?  Rushmore #2: Yogi Berra (who very nearly replaced DiMaggio), Mariano Rivera, Joe McCarthy, Casey Stengel.  Rushmore #3: Whitey Ford, Joe Torre, Bill Dickey, Derek Jeter (ugh).  And there's still Don Mattingly, Tony Lazzeri, Thurman Munson, Andy Pettitte, Ron Guidry, Goose Gossage, Miller Huggins...

Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays

Evan Longoria

            Maybe Tampa doesn't have a lot going for them, but at least they had Longoria (up to now).  He's clearly the best franchise player, and there's really no competition.

Joe Maddon

            Again, they don't have a lot, but they did have the best manager in the game for nine seasons.  He's an interesting mixture of old school (platooning like Stengel) and new school (has really embraced advanced metrics/shifting).  And, unlike many managers, he seems like he'd be fun to play under.

David Price

            The best example of how the Rays actually have developed some good pitching, but have not been able to hold onto them long (almost six full seasons).  A well deserved Cy Young in 2012 and nearly one in 2010 show how good he can be.  Unfortunately he hasn't been quite that great since leaving Tampa.

Carl Crawford

            For a little be, he was the best the franchise had to offer.  It's hard to explain how he could be so good for nine years in Tampa, then next to nothing for Boston and Los Angeles.  It's too bad, because he was fun to watch (and a Houston native).

Other notables:

            It's almost comical to talk about the Rays after the Yankees, but a couple of other guys would be considered.  There's super-utility Ben Zobrist, the best example of Maddon-ball.  Kevin Kiermaier may make the list if he sticks around longer.  As much as I like Chris Archer, he's not there now and probably won't be on the Rays much longer.

Toronto Blue Jays

Dave Stieb

            The franchise leader in most important pitching stats, sometimes we forget how good he was.  He was consistantly good in the 80s for a not so decent team.

Carlos Delgado

            A sneaky great power hitter who came up as a catcher put found a home at first base.  He's certainly the best power hitter in franchise history (leads in Total Bases, Doubles, and Home Runs).

Roy Halladay

            He had some great seasons in the 2000s, beyond just his Cy Young in 2003.  He's basically just a step behind Stieb in most franchise stats.

Roberto Alomar

            There has to be someone on here from their World Series titles, so why not him?  Joe Carter maybe had the bigger moment, but he was nowhere near as good.  And, this was pre-spit Alomar.

Other notables:

            Would you have guessed that Tony Fernandez leads the franchise in position player WAR?  I sure didn't.  Jose Bautista had some monster years, and was a big part of the recent success, but I just couldn't sneak him on there.  John Olerud was another guy that was considered.  The somewhat "out there" pick would have been Tom Henke.