The vast differences...

No, not the vas deferens...sickos...

I'm talking about the vast differences that exist among the histories of the major league franchises - as exhibited in the Hometown Heroes promotion from MLB. The basic set up is a simple one: each team has five nominees for "most outstanding player in each club's history". You vote for one out of each five and go from there. Apparently there's going to be some sort of three-part series about the results (September 26, 27, and 29) on, of course, ESPN.

I noticed some amazing differences, however, among the fates of the various clubs.

Let's start with the four newest expansion teams: the Marlins, Diamondbacks, and the Rockies.

The Marlins (two WS crowns) have five good players but not a single great one:

• Josh Beckett (41-34 in five years)
• Luis Castillo (.293, 20 HR, 271 RBI, 281 SB in ten years)
• Jeff Conine (.288, 198 HR, 968 RBI, 791 R in fifteen years - only six of them with FLA)
• Rob Nen (45-42, 2.98 ERA, 314 SV in ten years - only 4.5 of them with FLA)
• Dontrelle Willis (46-27, 3.27 ERA in three years)

Heck, there's not even a single great year there. Willis had a couple of really good years, so did Nen. Castillo's the epitome of a light-hitting middle infielder with speed. There's certainly no greatness anywhere there. Not a single season that deserved discussion in the MVP voting.

The Diamondbacks (1 WS crown) have one hall of famer, one good player, one over-the-hill star, and two above average guys.

• Jay Bell (.265, 195 HR, 860 RBI, 1123 R in eighteen years - five of them with ARI)
• Luis Gonzalez (.285, 316 HR, 1251 RBI, 1219 R in sixteen seasons - seven with ARI - one MVP-ish fluke season, one of the all-time great fluke seasons)
• Randy Johnson (263-136, 3.11 ERA, 4372 K in eighteen seasons, six with ARI - four Cy Youngs with ARI, one runner-up finish Cy Young)
• Todd Stottlemeyer (138-121, 4.28 ERA in fourteen seasons - only three with ARI)
• Matt Williams (.268, 378 HR, 1218 RBI, 997 R in seventeen seasons - his last six with ARI)

At least there's an easy choice there. And how does Curt Schilling not get a mention? He had two great pitching seasons there. Sure, he only had three total years, but he got them a WS and two runner-up CY to his teammate. Travesty...Stottlemeyer and Bell don't deserve to carry his jock.

The Rockies (1 wild card) have a bunch of (shocking) hitters:

• Dante Bichette (.299, 274 HR, 1141 RBI, 934 R in fourteen seasons - seven with COL)
• Vinny Castilla (.278, 315 HR, 1078 RBI, 876 R in fifteen seasons - eight with COL - never any good outside of the rare air)
• Andres Galarraga (.288, 399 HR, 1425 RBI, 1195 R, 128 SB in nineteeen seasons - five with COL)
• Todd Helton (.337, 271 HR, 915 RBI, 924 R in nine all-COL seasons)
• Larry Walker (.313, 383 HR, 1311 RBI, 1355 R, 230 SB in seventeen seasons - 9.5 with COL)

All these guys have their offensive performances diminshed because of where they played - especially Castilla who never hit worth a crap outside of COL. Helton is the clear, I think, choice here as he's been the solid rock of the franchise nearly since its inception. Walker did, at least, win an MVP in COL which makes things closer, but I'm thinking that Helton is the choice.

The Devil Rays (no winning seasons):

• Wade Boggs (.328, 118 HR, 1014 RBI, 1513 R in eighteen seasons - two with TB
• Carl Crawford (.289, 33 HR, 220 RBI, 308 R, 169 SB in four all-TB seasons)
• Roberto Hernandez (64-65, 3.33 ERA, 324 SV in fifteen seasons - three with TB)
• Aubrey Huff (.288, 120 HR, 421 RBI, 374 R in six all-TB seasons)
• Fred McGriff (.284, 493 HR, 1550 RBI, 1349 R in nineteen seasons - 4.5 with TB)

One washed up hall-of-famer, one washed up near-hall-of-famer, one never-that-great reliever, one decent but not special talent (Huff), and one still-up-and-coming player in Crawford. Blech. No wonder they've never won anything.

Odd to see that the Marlins - with two WS titles - have the worst collection of top-five talent of the crew with ARI only coming up higher because of Randy Johnson's amazing five-year run.

Some notes about the older teams:

• Many of them have five hall-of-famers as their nominees:
  • Baltimore - Murray, Palmer, Ripken (soon enough), Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson
  • Cleveland - Averill, Doby, Feller, Lajoie, Speaker
  • NY Yankees (suprise) - Berra, DiMaggio, Gehrig, Mantle, Ruth - easily the best group
  • Oakland - Eckersley, Grove, Henderson (soon enough), Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson
  • LA Dodgers - Campanella, Koufax, Reese, Jackie Robinson, Snider - the second-best collection of talent
  • Philadelphia - Ashburn, Carlton, Chuck Klein, Robin Roberts, Schmidt
  • Cincinnati - Bench, Morgan, Perez, Frank Robinson, Rose (shut up)
  • Pittsburgh - Clemente, Kinger, Mazeroski, Stargell, Honus Wagner
  • San Francisco - Bonds (soon enough), Marichal, Mays, McCovey, Ott (or maybe this is the second-best collection of talent)
• Rod Carew is the only guy to show up twice - for the Angels & Twins
• The Angels are sad enough to have Jim Abbott on their list (inspiring but not a great player). Nope, Frank Robinson does, too - for Cincy and Baltimore.
• How the frickin' heck does Greg Maddux not end up on the Atlanta Braves list? Sure, he's not gonna beat out Warren Spahn or Hank Aaron, but he's easily the equal of Chipper Jones, John Smoltz, and Phil Neikro. The latter three had more time with the team, but not better time.
• Tug McGraw over Dwight Gooden for the NYMets is also a crime.
• Randy Jones (100-123, 3.42 ERA in the 70's, 2 SV, two seasons with more than 13 wins, three winning seasons ever) might be the worst non-new expansion nominee for any team - San Diego in this case. But I'm not sure I can name a better choice (already have Brian Giles, Gqynn, Hoffman, Winfield). Peavy's too young. Caminiti had the steroid thing, only four years with SD, one MVP though. McGriff only had 2.5 years with SD. Sheffield had one outstanding year there but was traded halfway through his second year. Maybe it is Jones - blech.
• Wait, Brian Schneider (MTL/WAS) is probably worse than Jones - .256 (in the 2000's), 37 HR, 185 RBI, 143 R in six seasons. Caught stealing 6 of eight times attempted. Vlad Guerrero, Tim Raines, Andre Dawson, Steve Rogers, Pedro Martinez - all should be on ahead of him. In fact, the Montreal/Washington ballot is the most egregious with Gary Carter (deserved), Livan Hernandez (okay player but less than Guerrero, Raines, Dawson, and Martinez), Schneider (horrible choice), Rusty Staub (not a great player and only in MON for 3.5 years), and Vidro (see Livan's comment). What the heck is MLB trying to do in attempting to neuter the history of Les Expos de Montreal? They've treated that franchise worse than any since the mid-1900's.

My choices - by team:

• Baltimore - Ripken but close with Frank Robinson
• Boston - Ted Williams, the greatest hitter to ever live in a run-away with Clemens in second
• White Sox - Nellie Fox but with Frank Thomas probably ending him out by the end of his career
• Cleveland - Nap Lajoie but a tough call over Tris Speaker
• Detroit - Ty Cobb easily
• Kansas City - George Brett, again easily
• Cal/LA/Anheim Angels - Rod Carew but what a derth of greatness (Abbott, Baylor, Carew, Finley, Salmon)
• Minnesota - Harmon Killebrew (how does Kent Hrbek get a mention - Johann Santana owns the Hrbek spot in another year)
• NY Yankees - Ruth but not as easily as you might think over Gehrig and Mantle
• Oakland - Rickey Henderson more easily than most people would think
• Seattle - Ken Griffey, Jr.
• Tampa Bay - pass
• Texas - Ryan though he's very much overrated and Ivan Rodriguez might pass him in another year or two
• Toronto - Roberto Alomar
• Arizona - Randy Johnson in a runaway
• Atlanta - Aaron but with Spahn in solid second and Maddux (not on the ballot) third
• Chicago Cubs - Banks close over Sandberg
• Cincinnati - Bench close over Robinson & Morgan
• Colorado - Helton close over Walker
• Florida - Nen close over Castillo
• Houston - Bagwell edging Biggio and both blowing Ryan out of the water with Dierker being barely worthy of mention
• LA Dodgers - Snider barely over Jackie Robinson and Koufax
• Milwaukee - Robin Yount barely over Paul Molitor - there probably aren't two more closely-matched on the whole ballot
• NY Mets - Seaver close over Piazza
• Philladelphia - Schmidt
• Pittsburgh - Wagner in a runaway
• St. Louis - Musial with Pujols needing ten more years like this to challenge him
• San Diego - Gwynn with the gap between Hoffman and him closing
• San Francisco - Barry Bonds edging Willie Mays
• Washington/Montreal - Tim Raines who isn't even on the ballot - Gary Carter of the choices presented

Greatest players not to appear on any team's ballot (in no particular order):

• Walter Johnson - Washington Senators, defunct
• Christy Matthewson - NY Giants, defunct
• Greg Maddux - Braves, WTF?
• Rogers Hornsby - Cardinals, Cubs, Browns
• Jimmie Foxx - Boston, Phil/Oak A's
• Alex Rodriguez - Seattle, Texas, NYY (wouldn't make the latter cut but definitely makes the former two)
• Tim Raines - Montreal, NYY (see A-Rod)
• Pedro Martinez - Montreal, Bos (see A-Rod)

All stats curtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and as of the beginning of the 2006 season.