2012 Quarry Unlimited - NL Team Leaders

My favorite subset of the 1986 set is the team leaders subset which featured the "Dean of the Team" which was the player that had been with the team for the longest current continuous period.  Sure it would have been easy to put the focus on the batting leaders or the pitching leaders, but I love that they focused on seniority which is just as valid especially in the clubhouse.  I was wondering in today's modern game of free agency if there would be the amount of veteran leaders as in 1986.  The answer was of course no, but there were still surprisingly many especially in the National League.  You won't be surprised by some of these guys as they are some of the greatest players of this generation, but some will be VERY surprising as the "dean" of their team.  I am going to break this into two post, starting with the NL today.  In order to even this out, I am going to go ahead and move the Astros to their new AL home.  Let's take a look at the "dean" of each of the teams as of the final day of the 2012 season.

NL EAST LEADERS

Atlanta Braves - Chipper Jones - Continuous Service since September 11, 1993

Miami Marlins - Josh Johnson - Continuous Service since September 10, 2005

New York Mets - David Wright - Continuous Service since July 21, 2004

Washington Nationals - Ryan Zimmerman - Continuous Service since September 1, 2005

Philadelphia Phillies - Jimmy Rollins - Continuous Service since September 17, 2000

NL CENTRAL LEADERS

Milwaukee Brewers - Rickie Weeks - Continuous Service since September 15, 2003

St. Louis Cardinals - Chris Carpenter - Continuous Service since June 3, 2004

Chicago Cubs - Carlos Marmol - Continuous Service since April 9, 2004

Pittsburgh Pirates - Jeff Karstens - Continuous Service since August 1, 2008

Cincinnati Reds - Bronson Arroyo - Continuous Service since April 5, 2006

NL WEST LEADERS

Arizona Diamondbacks - Chris Young - Continuous Service since August 18, 2006

Los Angeles Dodgers - Andre Ethier - Continuous Service since May 2, 2006

San Francisco Giants - Matt Cain - Continuous Service since August 29, 2005

San Diego Padres - Chase Headley - Continuous Service since June 15, 2007

Colorado Rockies - Todd Helton - Continuous Service since August 2, 1997

It is sort of amusing that two of these players, Chipper Jones (retired) and Chris Young (traded) are no longer their team's "dean," but they were on the last day of the season.  One other note about this group is that I got one additional reason to dislike the Dodgers.  I had downloaded a ton of pics in order to work on this set while I was without Internet service and I had already researched who would be on which team.  Thanks to James Loney getting sent away in the late season mega-deal with the Red Sox, I had to redo the Dodgers card.  But that's okay.

Least surprising "deans" in the NL

1. Todd Helton 

2. Chipper Jones

3. David Wright

Most surprising "deans" in the NL

1. Jeff Karstens (who?)

2. Carlos Marmol (I would have guessed Soriano)

3. Bronson Arroyo (I still think of him in Boston sometimes)

Thanx for reading.