Franchise Players

Scott Boras says a lot of crazy things -- perhaps none quite as absurd as when he compared Oliver Perez to Sandy Koufax last winter -- when he's out stumping for a big contract for his clients. So, we shouldn't be overly surprised that Boras was willing to espouse platitudes about Matt Holliday to Jerry Crasnick, calling him a "franchise player" and comparing him to Mark Teixeira. In that comment, though, Boras claimed that there were "less than 30" franchise players, as he sought to put Holliday in that select company.

Setting aside that the phrase "franchise player" is vague and could mean different things to different people, I was curious to find out how many I thought there were in the game. So, let's take a look.

First off, there's the no argument tier. Regardless of what you think a franchise player is, pretty much everyone will agree that Albert Pujols, Joe Mauer, Chase Utley, Hanley Ramirez, Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, Grady Sizemore, Evan Longoria, David Wright, Roy Halladay, CC Sabathia, Tim Lincecum, Dan Haren, and Zack Greinke qualify. Those 14 just shouldn't really elicit much debate, I don't think. They're franchise players by pretty much any definition.

Beyond those guys, though, there are some players who I could imagine will invoke some dissent. They all have a wart of some kind, making them great but not perfect. This group includes Derek Jeter, Dustin Pedroia, Prince Fielder, Kevin Youkilis, Carlos Beltran, Ichiro Suzuki, Josh Beckett, Justin Verlander, Felix Hernandez, and Cliff Lee. I'd vote yes for all 11 of these guys, but there's a nit to pick with each that could lead one to disagree.

We're already up to 25 names that I'd be comfortable slapping the franchise player tag on. And there's still another group that I think you could make a case for -- the talented-with-a-sketchy-track-record crowd. These guys have shown franchise player abilities, but may not have sustained that ability over the last few years. This group would include Jose Reyes, Adrian Gonzalez, Troy Tulowitzki, Ryan Zimmerman, Matt Kemp, Ryan Braun, Justin Upton, Miguel Cabrera, Jon Lester, Javier Vazquez, Ubaldo Jimenez, Clayton Kershaw, and Johan Santana.

That's 13 more guys that I could see making a case for. We've already listed 38 names without mentioning Holliday. There's a lot of trimming to do to get down to Boras' "less than 30" estimate. I think I'd probably end up around 32 or 33.

This, obviously, is not particularly objective. Reasonable people can disagree on pretty much everyone in the last two groups, meaning that your number could probably be anywhere from 15 to 40 without being too controversial. But I did find the exercise interesting, and my final count was quite a bit higher than I thought it would be. I suspected I'd end up in the 20 range, but there's a really good crop of high end talent in the major leagues right now.

Oh, and as for Holliday, I think he fits in well with group two. I'd call him a franchise player too. This bit of propaganda from Boras is actually reasonable.

 

Comments

[JimR]

As you said, "franchise player" means different things to different people. But in what possible definition could there be any doubt about Derek Jeter being a franchise player? And I'm a Red Sox fan!

[mockley]

I agree - Jeter is more important to NY than A-Rod has been or ever will be.

[Dave Cameron - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks for the kind welcome, David.

I'll respond to the rest of the comments as a whole. Over the last 10 to 20 years, the tools used to analyze baseball players have come a long way. The traditional triple crown stats (BA/HR/RBI) have significant flaws, and simply do not do a very good job of evaluating the total value contributed.

Batting average omits walks and assumes that all hits are equal, since it treats a single and a home run equally. Runs batted in are even worse, since they are heavily dependent upon the quality of the players around them creating opportunities. Ryan Howard's RBI totals have certainly benefited from hitting behind Chase Utley, who is constantly on base for him to drive in.

At sites like FanGraphs.com (where I write on a daily basis), we have metrics that do a better job of evaluating players than the traditional numbers that you will see on TV. In the case of Howard specifically, he was the ninth most valuable first baseman in baseball last year. He's a good player, but he's no Chase Utley - the real star of the Phillies, and the main reason why Phliadelphia has been in the World Series two consecutive seasons.

I'd encourage you guys to check FanGraphs out - there's a lot of really interesting stuff that has come out about how to evaluate baseball players lately.

[jcwtts1]

Ok, a couple of things. First off, franchise players rarely switch teams. They may do it once, because a team simply can't afford to pay them, or in the case of CC they traded him once and then he went free agent. But how is Texiera a franchise player when he got traded twice? You don't keep trading franchise players. You don't. A franchise player is like the Larry Bird exception in basketball. You pay anything to keep them because they are more than good they are the core of a team. Mark Teixiera has to do what he did this year for at least two more years before he is a franchise anything. Matt Holiday, a franchise player who went to Oakland in a trade and couldn't hit is way out of a paper bag. Give me a break. Derek Jeter isn't a franchise player, Captain America? Insane list man. Weak, very very weak. And how the he c k is Ryan Howard not up there, how is Justin Morneau not? Ryan Howard, over the last three years is, number 1 in HR number one in RBI, has been clutch in the second half of all three seasons, is the reason we caught the Mets, doesn't get hurt and won a world series where chase played badly. Seriously how do you not have him in the top ten. He is basically the runner up for the MVP in two of the last three years.

[Defrost]

David Wright? Shouldn't the fact that he has gotten so spooked by his new ballpark that h can no longer hit for power be considered a wart?

[David Vines - Huffpost Blogger]

Grate stuff, Dave. Michael Schur (better known as Ken Tremendous in some circles) directed me to your site after I emailed him a question almost two years ago and I've been a daily reader since. It's great to have you here.

[nittany1bn]

ever heard of ryan howard? all he does is hit 40+ HR and 130+ RBI every year, he's the biggest run producer in baseball, a rookie of the year, an MVP and an LCS MVP and a ring, he's more accomplished than most of the guys on your list

[MO-Mike]

Sorry, I agree and am moving Ichiro from group 2 to group 1 without question. He doesn't do well in the HR and RBI categories, but as a leadoff hitter, I don't expect the HR and he can't get the RBI. At the plate he's Tony Gwynn, Kirby Puckett, George Brett good, and that's some very select company.

[flacon]

What do you see as Ichiro's flaw?

[TommyMcCarthy]

As aMariner's fan I'll take this one.

He can't actually FLY (yet)..even though he often appears to.

Otherwise, he's perfect.

Regards
tm