Best player in team history

[Tavish]

Who is the best for each team? Try to avoid picking player who only played a couple of years with a team and give much more weight to what they did while they were with that team. Bolded players are probably the most debateable. Also I didn't list any of the defunct teams.


Arizona - Luis Gonzalez
Atlanta - Hank Aaron
Baltimore - Cal Ripken Jr
Boston - Ted Williams
Chi Sox - Frank Thomas
Chi Cubs - Ernie Banks
Cincinnati -Frank Robinson
Cleveland - Tris Speaker
Colorado - Todd Helton
Detroit - Ty Cobb
Florida - Gary Sheffield
Houston - Craig Biggio
Kansas City - George Brett
Anaheim - Tim Salmon
LA Dodgers - Sandy Koufax
Minnesota - Walter Johnson
Milwaukee - Robin Yount
NY Yankees - Babe Ruth
NY Mets - Tom Seaver
Oakland - Lefty Grove
Philadelphia - Mike Schmidt *
Pittsburgh - Honus Wagner
St Louis - Stan Musial
San Diego - Tony Gywnn
San Francisco - Willie Mays *
Seattle - Ken Griffey Jr. *
Tampa Bay - Fred McGriff
Texas - Rafael Palmeiro
Toronto - Carlos Delgado
Washington - Vladimir Guerrero


* players that have changed from original list

[bronxxbomber]

Seems fine to me except I think Griffey was the man for Seattle.

[Cleveland Steamers]

Id have to agree with Griffey in Seattle. I would have to say that Bagwell is right there with Biggio. Biggio may have outlasted him, but to say that Biggio has put up better career numbers is odd.

[Tavish]

Seems fine to me except I think Griffey was the man for Seattle.

You're probably right, for some reason I thought the years spent in Seattle was much closer but Griffey put up more than 3000 PAs in his time there.

[Ben_Sheets]

I'm going to suggest that you switch Grover Alexander with Mike Schmidt. Schmidt is recognized as the greatest third baseman of all time, and he played his whole career in Philadelphia.

[Another Blown Save]

I'd put
Pete Rose over Robinson
Mike Lowell over Sheffield
Jimmie Foxx over Grove
Mike Schmidt over Alexander
Willie Mays over Bonds
Gary Carter over Guerrero

[stevethumb]

i thought about bagwell over biggio too but i like what biggio has done for the organization by coming up as a catcher then moving to 2nd then to the OF

[Tavish]

Pete Rose over Robinson

Rose just doesn't seem to fit the mold of best player though. I would think there is a stronger argument for Bench or Morgan over Robinson. In the 15+ seasons Rose was in Cincinnati he was the best player on the team probably 2 seasons.

Mike Lowell over Sheffield

Another that I went with quality over quantity. Not quite as big of a gap between Lowell and Sheffield as there is between Rose and the other great Reds in terms of games played. A little over 3 seasons more played with the team didn't seem like enough to overcome how much better Sheffield was.

Jimmie Foxx over Grove

This is one that I had a real rough time with. Both are all-time greats and both ended up playing the last half of their careers in Boston. Foxx is one of the top 3 1B ever, Grove is arguably the greatest pitcher ever. In the end I went with Grove because the list was a little lean on pitchers. If there is a real compelling argument to change it or there is a big consensus I'll don't see a big reason it shouldn't be Foxx.

Mike Schmidt over Alexander

Changed

Willie Mays over Bonds

Easily the hardest choice I had to make. Both top 10 All-Time players and both arguably the best players to ever play their respective positions. Bonds is the better player (IMO) but I'll change it b/c Willie should get the nod for having 4000+ more PAs than Bonds as a Giant. Changed

Gary Carter over Guerrero

Interesting, I expected more of an argument for Dawson or Raines. I would put Carter v. Vlad in the same category as Sheffield v. Lowell. Carter played a little more than 3 seasons more as an Expo than Vlad did, but Vlad was a much better player even considering Carter's position.

[WharfRat]

I think there's a really good case for Randy Johnson over Luis Gonzalez in Arizona, especially if you want to stick with quality over quantity. Gonzo had a run where he was among the best OFs in the league for five years. However, you could make a compelling case that RJ was the single best pitcher in the league in 5 out of 6 years in the desert (he was hurt in the other year, of course). Randy Johnson lead the NL in ERA+ for four straight years, and came in second his final year. Gonzo was a tremendous player for five years, but RJ was Koufax.

[Tavish]

I think there's a really good case for Randy Johnson over Luis Gonzalez in Arizona, especially if you want to stick with quality over quantity. Gonzo had a run where he was among the best OFs in the league for five years. However, you could make a compelling case that RJ was the single best pitcher in the league in 5 out of 6 years in the desert (he was hurt in the other year, of course). Randy Johnson lead the NL in ERA+ for four straight years, and came in second his final year. Gonzo was a tremendous player for five years, but RJ was Koufax.

Very true, it was hard for me to go against Gonzo for the D-Backs player simply because he leads the team All-Time in
BA
SLG *
OBP *
OPS *
G *
AB
R
H *
TB *
Dbl *
HR *
RBI *
BB *
OPS+ *
RC *
XBH *
Times on Base *
HBP
IBB *
AB per HR *

Those with the * are ones he also holds the single season team record.

But RJ does have some pretty impressive credentials as well.

ERA *
Wins *
W/L% *
H/9 *
K/9 *
IP *
Ks *
GS *
CG *
SO *
ERA+ *
And 4 straight Cy Young Awards.