{"id":8041,"date":"2015-05-10T08:17:42","date_gmt":"2015-05-10T14:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/?p=8041"},"modified":"2015-05-02T13:13:31","modified_gmt":"2015-05-02T19:13:31","slug":"franchise-four-nl-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/2015\/05\/franchise-four-nl-west\/","title":{"rendered":"Franchise Four – NL West"},"content":{"rendered":"

Major League Baseball is asking its fans to vote for the four\u00a0most impactful players who best represent the history of each franchise. \u00a0The winners will be announced in July at the All Star Game in Cincinnati. \u00a0Today, I will give my Franchise Four picks for the National League West.<\/p>\n

\"F4Dbacks\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Diamondbacks have only been around since 1998, so there isn’t a ton of history to choose from. \u00a06 of the 8 nominees played on their 2001 World Championship team. \u00a0My selections would be Randy Johnson, Luis Gonzalez, Matt Williams, and Steve Finley.<\/p>\n

\"F4Rockies\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Rockies franchise dates all the way back to 1993, so they are in a similar boat as the Diamondbacks, but without the championship to boost their roster. \u00a0Not surprisingly, no pitchers made their list of 8 nominees. \u00a0I would go with Todd Helton, Larry Walker, Dante Bichette, and Troy Tulowitzki.<\/p>\n

\"F4Dodgers\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Now here’s a franchise with history, dating back to Brooklyn and the late 1800s. \u00a0There are two obvious picks right off the bat, with Sandy Koufax and Jackie Robinson. \u00a0Clayton Kershaw may eventually end up earning a spot on this list, but I’m not willing to put him there yet. \u00a0For the last 2 slots, I’m going with Duke Snider and Don Drysdale.<\/p>\n

\"F4Padres\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Padres franchise burst on to the scene in 1969 and have had the occasional success, making and losing the World Series twice. \u00a0In that time, they have 2 obvious choices with Tony Gwynn and Trevor Hoffman. \u00a0The next two are slightly more difficult, as they’ve had numerous players who are better known for their successes elsewhere. \u00a0That said, I will choose Dave Winfield and Jake Peavy to finish off their four.<\/p>\n

\"F4Giants\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Like the Dodgers, the Giants franchise also dates back to the late 1880s and New York. \u00a0They are also the first team that I’ve examined where my initial glance leaves me with more choices than available spots to put them. \u00a0With all due respect to Juan Marichal, Buster Posey, and Orlando Cepeda, they will not be able to compete with the remaining 5. \u00a0I don’t see how you pick between Christy Mathewson, Barry Bonds, Willie Mays, Mel Ott, and Willie McCovey. Basically, it comes down to Ott and McCovey for the last spot, and I’m going to choose Ott.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Major League Baseball is asking its fans to vote for the four\u00a0most impactful players who best represent the history of each franchise. \u00a0The winners will be announced in July at the All Star Game in Cincinnati. \u00a0Today, I will give my Franchise Four picks for the National League West. The Diamondbacks have only been around […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[5041,395,5586,5588,154,5580,5584,122,116,5563,5583,5578,256,5582,145,5585,1547,4164,5130,5590,2244,5587,231,61,257,4654,912,5579,3691,4161,5581,5589,5591],"class_list":["post-8041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball","tag-all-star-game","tag-barry-bonds","tag-buster-posey","tag-christy-mathewson","tag-clayton-kershaw","tag-dante-bichette","tag-dave-winfield","tag-diamondbacks","tag-dodgers","tag-don-drysdale","tag-duke-snider","tag-franchise-four","tag-giants","tag-jackie-robinson","tag-jake-peavy","tag-juan-marichal","tag-larry-walker","tag-luis-gonzalez","tag-matt-williams","tag-mel-ott","tag-mlb","tag-orlando-cepeda","tag-padres","tag-randy-johnson","tag-rockies","tag-sandy-koufax","tag-steve-finley","tag-todd-helton","tag-tony-gwynn","tag-trevor-hoffman","tag-troy-tulowitzki","tag-willie-mays","tag-willie-mccovey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8041"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8063,"href":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8041\/revisions\/8063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}