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 Central, save the White Sox.

With 6 of their 8 nominees debuting in the major leagues prior to 1950, the Indians representation is focused on their early successes, with the remaining 2 covering their renaissance in the 1990s.  The obvious choices are Nap Lajoie, for whom they owe their nickname, Tris Speaker, and Bob Feller.  For the final slot, I will go with the criminally overlooked Larry Doby, who gets none of the credit that Jackie Robinson gets despite facing the same challenges.

The Tigers nominees are more spread out across their long history, although their four selections are all fairly obvious.  With little thought, my picks here are Miguel Cabrera, Hank Greenberg, Ty Cobb, and Al Kaline.

The Royals joined the American League in 1969, and nearly all of their nominees come from their dominant teams of the late 70s and early 80s.  The one obvious choice is Hall of Fame third baseman George Brett.  After that, there is a drop-off in the talent level, but the next tier would give us Bret Saberhagen, Willie Wilson, and the late Dan Quisenberry.

The Minnesota Twins franchise dates back to 1901 and the original incarnation of the Washington Senators.  Only one of the potential selections, Walter Johnson, dates back to the Senators, but he takes the first slot.  Slugger Harmon Killebrew, who debuted with Washington and became the Twins’ first superstar, takes the second slot.  That leaves 3 Hall of Famers, Bert Blyleven, Rod Carew, and Kirby Puckett, for the final 2 selections.  I will give one spot to Puckett, who led the team to their 2 World Series championships.  The final spot goes to Rod Carew.