The Greatest Living MLB Players For Each LCS Team

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Four teams sit at the brink of the World Series and in the case of every team but the Houston Astros, it's been a long time since they've last been to the Fall Classic. Ideally for the World Series, you bring out your biggest guns to throw out the first pitch. Here are the greatest living players for each LCS team by WAR. I'll also include my picks as well and remember, whoever comes out of the American League will get home-field advantage because the Yankees and Astros have better regular season records than either the Braves or Phillies.

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Houston Astros

1. Jeff Bagwell

2. Craig Biggio

3. Jose Cruz

4. Cesar Cedeno

My Picks: Bagwell, Biggio, Lance Berkman, Carlos Correa

The Astros were in the World Series last year and to three of the last five. Biggio and Bagwell each threw out first pitches at last years World Series but I think you have to use those guys each year you can. A "Rally Nun" threw out the first pitch at the other Houston World Series. I guess they had been using nuns to throw out the first pitch in must win games earlier that year including the ALCS. 

I hate gimmicky shit like that. It's the World Series so feed me some legends. I think Berkman is a guy that is not a Hall of Famer but was a truly great Astro and deserves the nod. If it goes to a Game 7, give free agent Carlos Correa the ball. He's been to three Houston World Series and I think is a special option that hasn't been used before by them.

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New York Yankees

1. Derek Jeter

2. Mariano Rivera

3. Willie Randolph

4. Alex Rodriguez

My Picks: Jeter, Rivera, Brett Gardner, Bobby Richardson

The last time the Yankees were in the World Series was back in 2009 but if you talk to any Yankee fans at the office, you'd think it was the year 2000 and they make it every year. Let's all hope and pray the Astros can win this series but if this dreadful organization wins the American League, they do have some great options. Jeter and Rivera are easy picks and this is would be the first Yankee World Series since they retired. You really could go all Core Four guys but I like having Gardner be involved especially knowing this story about how shitty Aaron Boone treated Gardner.

My last pick would be Bobby Richardson. He's 87 and I have no idea if he's physically in any condition to go to a game but if he is, he'd be a great choice. He is one of very few living players from the 1962 Yankees which is the last Yankee team to win the Game 7 of a World Series. He also made the final out of that game by catching a line drive off Willie McCovey's bat.

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Philadelphia Phillies

1. Mike Schmidt

2. Steve Carlton

3. Chase Utley

My Picks: Schmidt, Carlton, Cole Hamels

Only three home games for the NL team so this gets a little tougher. Assuming they are both healthy enough and willing to do it, Schmidt and Carlton are chalk. The third game is a harder call. I'd go with Cole Hamels who is the last Phillie to win World Series MVP.  I don't typically love when a team has multiple guys throw out the pitch but having Utley, Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins would pretty cool too.

San Diego Padres

1. Dave Winfield

2. Jake Peavy

3. Trevor Hoffman

My Picks: Hoffman, Sterling Hitchcock, Steve Garvey

The Padres have had such little success as a franchise, this makes this tough. It's even harder when the franchise icon Tony Gwynn is gone. Gwynn means more to the Padres than any one player means to any other team in baseball. You can make a case for Cal Ripken Jr. but you still have Brooks Robinson and Jim Palmer. George Brett absolutely is the Royals but they have a couple titles including one without Brett. The Padres don't have other legends or team success. 

Hoffman is a clear pick for the first game and after that I went with the guys who won NLCS MVP in the past. Sterling Hitchcock did not have a great career but he was superhuman in the 1998 playoffs going 3-0 with a 1.23 ERA in four starts. 

Steve Garvey was a very good player who was constantly mentioned as future HOFer when I was a little kid and he was still an active player. Unfortunately for Garvey, the further you got away from his career the less special he seemed. He had a pretty terrible batting eye, never hit 30 home runs in a season or got all that close to 3000 hits. He also had a number of scandals involving having kids with a few different women in the 1980's and he became tabloid fodder for some time. This was shocking news at the time because Garvey always came off as a boy scout. For all of Garvey's issues, he still had a nice career and has his number retired by the Padres. He was also great in the 1984 NLCS batting .400.

I'm not seriously considering Winfield or Peavy. Winfield to me is more of a Yankee than a Padre and when it comes to post-season success, he's a Blue Jay and still not a Padre. Peavy did win two World Series…but never as a Padre. It's tough to include him in that spot.

The Padres are the only one of these teams that has never won a World Series. I really hope they can get there again and win this time. San Diego needs to add to that living legend list especially if they are the only team in town now.