"one player to start a franchise"

who do you take?

Rickey!!!!!!!!!

i mean current players

yuni betancourt

Did Rickey ever retire?

was this too much of a naif question

sorry yall

i've been thinking about it but i think it makes more sense as a basketball question--baseball too complex

like age and salary and position and value and i don't know where my franchise is playing or in what league and i'm just like ahhhhhhhh

i think i would say zimmerman but i would be tempted to pick tulo

do they come with their current contract or are we picking regardless of $$$

because longoria's contract is so ridiculous that he'd have to be the pick even if zimmerman's a bit better

zim or longo makes sense to me; tulo seems like he gets hurt a lot

regardless of $$$

fangraphs just did a "trade values" thing that was wholly predicated on contract and it sort of ruins the argument because of tards like longo and braun signing well below market value

my shortlist would be something like

longoria
hanley
zimmerman
mauer
tulo

battery of Posey and Strasburg?

think you could make a good argument for posey

also wonder where heyward fits in

i'm not even sure if stras would be my first pick for a pitcher, because of his potential arm troubles

not sure if stras would make my top 3 for pitchers

Longoria (current contract not a consideration)

i'm trying to think of CFs who could be in this conversation but i don't think mccutchen or rasmus are quite on the same level as these other guys and there's not much else

yeah if there was a cfer i would take him.

JOSH MANTLE-HAMILTON

for cf i might say carl-gone but there's the coors factor

the bigger problem with car-go is that he doesn't walk

unless he hits .320 every year he'd be about league average at obp

oh i keep forgetting he's a CF since he was moved over for fowler for a while

rasmus' only real problem is that his power gets zapped against lefties

also he's not a great fielder?

true...last year was a progression in walks, he's gone back to hacking this year. i would think last year shows he may not be a total garret anderson clone for his entire career and maybe his youth and position would allow for a chance being taken, though i think he's not really this good and again, coors...

CF seems like the hardest position to find a guy who's good on both ends right now. everyone's either playing a light-hitting defensive guy or a good hitter with only passable defense

assuming he leaves tampa next year, you could say crawford

would he play center elsewhere? never understood why he was mostly an lfer

i assumed it's cuz bj upton is an amazing CF?

i guess it depends on where he signs, but i have to imagine that most teams would stick him in center

i think CF is probably the position that's most affected by the recent focus on evaluating defense, since outfielders don't really make errors. in the past there was nothing stopping teams from running out a guy who looked good and made some diving catches but was actually making a lot fewer plays than a good defender (see: bernie williams?)

whereas now guys who would have been playing CF their whole careers in the 1990s are being moved to corners earlier

oh yeah forgot about beej

i'm not crazy about crawford's offense or age for the thread-starting question

no, definitely not -- i was just talking more about the idea of a "complete" CF

for the thread question as it pertains to CF, think you could argue for days about mccutchen/rasmus/cargo

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/4866/picking-your-franchise-player

Is this a money no object kind of question? Cuz if not then Longoria.

Oh I see it's regardless of $$$s. I'd actually still say Pujols at this point. I think his 31-35 years'll still likely beat out any of these guys on WAR or whatever.

If you are taking pitchers only it's basically impossible since there is no guarantee that X's arm isn't going to fall off. I'd take Strasburg probably based on good results so far and the highest upside.

i still would take Albert Pujols above anyone. also like the battery of Posey and Strasburg that Dr Morbius took.