If I can tear you away from that March Madness thing for just a few minutes–or more–I thought a little baseball discussion piece would be fun.

This one is inspired by an article written by Craig Calcaterra on Hardball Talk, but my idea takes on a slightly different twist. That is, I want to discuss who is the greatest living former player for each major league team.

This is an exercise where Wins Above Replacement (WAR) comes in handy, because I’m not interested in determining who is the greatest living player who happened to play–even for just a season or two–for each team. Instead, I want to measure greatness by what each player contributed to the team in question.

But, I’m mentioning WAR here only to say that I used it as a starting point. From there, I also considered what each player means to their former team. So, in some sense, I’m considering who we might consider “the face of the franchise.” Or, put another way, who would be the team’s perfect candidate to throw out the first pitch at their home opener.

So, let’s get started, by running through the teams alphabetically. Of course, I’m looking to hear what the rest of the pine has to say. Let me know if you have other ideas.

Arizona Diamondbacks – Gotta go with Randy Johnson, and his four consecutive Cy Young Awards, here.

Atlanta Braves – There’s some serious competition, but it’s pretty hard to argue with Hank Aaron.

Baltimore Orioles – Uh…yeah, Cal Ripken.

Boston Red Sox – Thank goodness Carl Yastrzemski is still living. Otherwise, I might have to listen to some of you nominate Jim Rice for this distinction. So, while I’m at it, here are my top five living former Red Sox:

1. Carl Yastrzemski
2. Roger Clemens
3. Wade Boggs
4. Dwight Evans
5. Pedro Martinez

Chicago Cubs – They don’t call Ernie Banks Mr. Cub for nothing.

Chicago White Sox – Frank Thomas is a pretty easy choice here. Oh, what the heck…how about another top five list:

1. Frank Thomas
2. Billy Pierce
3. Minnie Minoso
4. Wilbur Wood
5. Robin Ventura

Cincinnati Reds – Wow! This is a tough one. I’ll take Johnny Bench, but I think this team warrants another mini-list:

1. Johnny Bench
2. Pete Rose
3. Joe Morgan
4. Frank Robinson
5. Barry Larkin

Cleveland Indians – This is a tough one, now that Bob Feller has passed away. Since there’s no one that really fits the bill of “face of the franchise,” I’m going to go with Kenny Lofton, believe it or not.

Colorado Rockies – Larry Walker is the only player truly worth considering.

Detroit Tigers – Another easy one, Al Kaline.

Florida Marlins – Help me out here. The options are pathetic. I guess for face of the franchise, maybe I should go with Jeff Conine.

Houston Astros – Jeff Bagwell, suspicions and all.

Kansas City Royals – This one’s a no-brainer, George Brett.

Los Angeles Angels – Another tough one. If you like traditional stats, it’s either Garret Anderson, Tim Salmon, Chuck Finley or Nolan Ryan. WAR likes Jim Fregosi, but it also likes Finley and Ryan. So, I’ll take the Hall of Famer, Nolan Ryan.

Los Angeles Dodgers – With Duke Snider’s recent passing, I guess the torch gets passed to Sandy Koufax.

Milwaukee Brewers – I’m a bigger Paul Molitor fan, but the edge goes to Robin Yount for having played his entire career with the team.

Minnesota Twins – This one’s up for debate, but I’m going with Rod Carew over Harmon Killebrew.

New York Mets – Tom Seaver, without a question.

New York Yankees – Part of the reasoning for adding the word former to the title was to not have to decide between Derek Jeter and Yogi Berra. Among retired Yankees, Yogi is the easy choice, but I think these guys warrant a top five as well:

1. Yogi Berra
2. Whitey Ford
3. Willie Randolph
4. Bernie Williams
5. Ron Guidry/Andy Pettitte

Oakland Athletics – Rickey Henderson, hands down.

Philadelphia Phillies – Michael Jack Schmidt over Steve Carlton.

Pittsburgh Pirates – Since Casey pointed out my error, that Willie Stargell is no longer with us, I’m going to have to go with Barry Bonds.

San Diego Padres – I don’t think you could really make a case for anyone other than Tony Gwynn.

San Francisco Giants – Say Hey, Willie Mays, over his godson.

Seattle Mariners – I’m tempted to say Edgar Martinez, but I’ll go with the less controversial choice, Ken Griffey Jr.

St. Louis Cardinals – Stan “The Man” Musial over Bob Gibson.

Tampa Bay Rays – Another reason I used the former description was because I was expecting the focus to be on retired players. But, when it comes to this team, there’s really no choice other than Carl Crawford. Let me know if you’ve got a better idea.

Texas Rangers – All of a sudden, this exercise is more complicated than I realized. Among former players, I would definitely go with Ivan Rodriguez, but if being retired is a criterion, then I might have to pick Rafael Palmeiro. I wouldn’t invite him to throw out the first pitch at the home opener, though.

Toronto Blue Jays – I’m going to go with a player I consider to be very under-rated, Dave Stieb.

Washington Nationals – Of course, the Nationals’ history includes that of the Montreal Expos, so I’ll take Gary Carter over Tim Raines and Andre Dawson.

AP Photo/Jim Prisching

It’s not every day that perfection pays a visit to the sports world.

Before Thursday, only seventeen pitchers, in the history of Major League Baseball, retired all 27 batters faced  in a game.

Mark Buehrle made it 18. In so doing, the southpaw rubs elbows with some elite company.

Buehrle held Tampa Bay without any baserunners while striking out six.  The native of St. Charles, Missouri hurled 19 first-pitch strikes on the afternoon.

The lefty, who tossed a no-hitter on April 18, 2007, joins Sandy Koufax, Cy Young, Jim Bunning, Randy Johnson, and Addie Joss as the only hurlers to toss a Perfect Game and No-Hitter.

In the end, Buehrle took a little advice from Ringo Starr and ‘Got By With  A Little Help From His Friends.’

Who gets your POTW?

(AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Jonathan Sanchez earns my POTW.  The left-hander made the most of a spot start.

After Randy Johnson went on the shelf for a start, Sanchez made his first start since being sent to the bullpen four weeks ago. Sanchez responded in grand fashion tossing a no-hitter as the Giants downed the Padres 8-0.

Sanchez’s no-hitter was the first no-no by a Giant since John ‘The Count’ Montefusco turned the trick against the Braves, September 29 1976. The no-hitter also was the first in the Giants’ 10-year old home by the Bay. What is the name of that place now?

Who gets your POTW?

To fill the void, I considered borrowing from my own blog and posting about my recent trip to Turner Field in Atlanta, the 30th major league park I’ve visited in my lifetime. That total actually includes 10 stadiums that are no longer active, so I still have a ways to go to get to all of the current ones. But, as I was thinking about re-writing it a bit to make it more suitable for this site, I got another idea.

Yesterday, Randy Johnson became the 24th pitcher in major league history to notch his 300th win. A lot has been written and discussed about the near-extinction of the 300-game winner. Many think that Johnson may be the last of a dying breed, that the nature of today’s game is making it virtually impossible for a pitcher to accumulate this many victories. Could this be true? Will there ever be a 300-game winner again? One thing’s for sure…if it does happen, we’re going to have to wait quite some time until we see it again, especially considering we’ve just seen four guys get there in the past six years.

Following Johnson on the career victories list, among “active” pitchers—I use the term loosely because two of them haven’t thrown a pitch in the majors this season—are Jamie Moyer (250 wins/46 years old), Andy Pettitte (220/37), Pedro Martinez (214/37), John Smoltz (210/42), Tim Wakefield (184/42), Bartolo Colon (153/36) and Livan Hernandez (151/34). Barring a miracle, none of these players has even the slightest chance of reaching the milestone.

In my opinion, the three pitchers with the greatest chances of reaching 300 are Roy Halladay (140/32), CC Sabathia (122/28) and Johan Santana (116/30). Actually, Sabathia will turn 29 in July, so he’s really only one year younger than Santana and three younger than Halladay, both of whom had birthdays within the past few months.

Despite the fact that Sabathia is younger and has more wins, I consider Santana to be the leading candidate to be the game’s next 300-game winner. Since his first season as a full-time starter—2004—Santana has earned 86 wins in five seasons, an average of 17.2 per year. Sabathia has won 74 in the same time frame, although he has really begun to peak over the last three years.

Sabathia has been a regular starter since the age of 20. That’s more than eight full seasons, thus accounting for his current advantage. On the other hand, being under 30 and having just signed a long-term deal with a team that almost certainly will give him plenty of opportunity to be a consistent big-time winner is a factor that weighs in his favor.

After some injury troubles in his late 20s, Halladay has remained healthy for the past three full seasons. Still, if he wins 12 more games this year, then averages 18 over the next five years, this would put him at 242 at the age of 38. It would then take 4-5 more solid years after that to get to 300. So, I’m considering him the biggest long shot of the three.

If Santana wins 10 more this year, then averages 17 over the next six years, this leaves him at 228 at 36 years old. Even based on these more conservative estimates than those I used for Halladay, he would then be within striking distance if he puts together a couple more good years followed by a few solid ones. This still makes him a long shot, but not nearly the long shot that Halladay is.

Regardless, it’s going to be at least 10 or more years until someone even gets a whiff of the 300 mark. So, once again I’ll ask the question…will there ever be another 300-game winner? Who do you think has the best chance to do it?