Continuing with the baseball scoreboards best player for each team article series; this is the first part in which we take a look at the best players for each team in the American League.
1. Tampa Bay Rays (ED), Carl Crawford, 2002-2010: Recently the Rays have run themselves into a non-performing rut, but it didn’t stop this man from continuing his outstanding performances. He leads his team in all the important stats i.e. BA, SB, RBI, 3B, 2B, H and R. However, he is third HR but it doesn’t dampen his talent. He has won both the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger once, and is also a 4 time All-Star.
2. Toronto Blue Jays(ED, AL), Carlos Delgado, 1993-2004: He was the easiest choice as the best player ever for the Jays. The baseball scoreboards show that he is first in RBI, HR, 2B, R, and SLG; second in OBP; 3rd in H and 9th in BA. No, Blue Jays player has ever come close to the outstanding numbers as his.
3. Texas Rangers(WD), Ivan Rodriguez, 1991-2002: one of MLBs all time best catchers, his stats are one of the best in franchise history: 1st in 2B, 3rd in RBI, 4th in HR and R and 7th in BA. He has won the Gold Glove and the All-Star title 10 times a piece, as well as 6 Silver Sluggers. He was so good, that most often he single handedly shut down the opponents’ running game.
4. Baltimore Orioles(ED), Cal Ripken Jr., 1981-2001: he completed a streak of 2,632 consecutive games played! His career stats were: 1695 RBI, 431 HR, 603 2B, 3184 H, and 1647 R. He was a 19 time All-Star player, with 2 Gold Gloves, 8 Silver Sluggers, 2 MVPs in ’83 and 91 and an AL ROY in ’82.
5. Kansas City Royals (CD), George Brett, 1973-1993: if you saw or witnessed his outbreak at the Yankee Stadium for being called out for using pine tar on his bat, then you probably don’t like him very much. However, this list is based on the players’ talent and George Brett had ample of that! He was an extremely powerful and talented hitter. His stats with the Royals look like this: .305 BA, 1595 RBI, 317 HR, 137 3B, 665 2B, 3154 H and 1538 R. He augmented his performance in the Royals bullpen with 13 All-Star plays and an MVP in ’80.
6. Seattle Mariners (WD), Ken Griffey Jr., 1989-1999: the “Kid” as he was nicknamed, started his career with a bang! Sadly, as his career progressed so did the number of his injuries which shortened his career considerably. However, even then he dominated his era and became the franchise’s best player proven by the stats he had: .292 BA, .553 SLG, .374 OBP, 1216 RBI, 417 HR, 341 2B, 1843 H and 1113 R. Apart from this he had 10 All-Star appearances and 10 Gold Gloves to his name, plus the ’97 MVP.
For more information, go to:
mlb.com