Major League Baseball is asking its fans to vote for the four most impactful players who best represent the history of each franchise.  The winners will be announced in July at the All Star Game in Cincinnati.  Today, I will give my Franchise Four picks for the American League East.

At first glance, my picks for the Orioles were easy.  Upon further review, though, I find myself with 5 players for only 4 slots.  Cal Ripken Jr., Frank Robinson, and Jim Palmer take my first 3 slots.  The last one comes down to Brooks Robinson and Eddie Murray.  While Murray was by far the better offensive weapon, Robinson was quite possibly the best defensive third baseman of all time.  I’m going to stick with my initial gut feeling and go with Robinson.

Plenty of Hall of Famers to choose from for the Red Sox, as 6 of the 8 have been elected to Cooperstown.  The first two slots have to go to Cy Young and Ted Williams, both of whom would be in the conversation for a league wide contest.  The final two slots would have to go to Carl Yastrzemski and newly elected Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez.  Conspicuous by his absence is Roger Clemens.

Speaking of the Hall of Fame, 6 of the 8 players on the Yankees list are in the Hall and the other 2 will be once they become eligible.  It would almost be a shame to leave any of these off the list, but making these decisions is why I get paid the big bucks.  So, I will go with Yogi Berra, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and Babe Ruth.On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, the Rays have only been in existence since 1998 and only have been competitive since 2008.  The choices will have to be Evan Longoria, David Price, Carl Crawford, and…. I don’t know, how about James Shields.

Rounding out the East, we have the Blue Jays, who joined the league as an expansion team in 1977.  This might have been the easiest choices, as I picked all 4 without even looking at the list of nominees.  My choices are Roberto Alomar, Joe Carter, Dave Stieb, and Roy Halladay.