We?ve done one for the NFL and NBA, so now it is time for RealGM to find out which player in Major League Baseball you would most want to build a franchise around. Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts and Chris Bosh of the Toronto Raptors won their sports and the competition (defeating Reggie Bush and Kobe Bryant respectively) will be just as tough for the 32 nominated players of the MLB. The rules are simple: Each day, RealGM will highlight a different match-up on our main page. There you will be able to read an analysis of the day?s pairing of players and you will then decide who you would rather build around by voting in the poll on the left side of the page. The winning players will then proceed to the second round of 16 players. The winner of this contest will need five victories in order to be crowned. Choosing one player from each team was extremely difficult for some franchises (Yankees, Twins, Mets, Red Sox), while it took a bit of searching for some others (Royals). Like the All-Star game, for better or for worse, we have representation from all thirty teams. Out of the original thirty players selected, we knew there were some glaring omissions and decided to add two Wildcard selections, which will be decided upon by you. We tended to lean towards everyday players instead of pitchers, but quite a few (11) were too good to pass up. Position Breakdown C: 0 1B: IV 2B: 0 3B: IV SS: III CF: III LF: IV RF: I No punches were pulled with our first match-up, dropping Daisuke Matsuzaka of the Boston Red Sox against Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees. Other classic rivalries are highlighted in the first round, including Matt Cain of the Giants versus Chad Billingly of the Dodgers, Vladimir Guerrero of the Angels vs. Rich Hardon of the A?s, David Wright of the Mets vs. Ryan Howard of the Phllies and Alfonso Soriano of the Cubs vs. Albert Pujols of the Cardinals. The Schedule of the First Round AL January 1: Daisuke Matsuzaka, BOS vs. Alex Rodriguez, NYY January 2: Vernon Wells, TOR vs. Miguel Tejada, BAL January 3: Carl Crawford, TB vs. Grady Sizemore, CLE January 4: Paul Konerko, CWS vs. Johan Santana, MIN January 5: Justin Verlander, DET vs. Luke Hochevar, KC January 8: Vladimir Guerrero, LAA vs. Rich Harden, OAK January 9: Felix Hernandez. SEA vs. Michael Young, TEX NL January 10: Andruw Jones, ATL vs. Miguel Cabrera, FLA January 11: David Wright, NYM vs. Ryan Howard, PHI January 12: Ryan Zimmerman, WSH vs. Jason Bay, PIT January 15: Alfonso Soriano, CHC vs. Albert Pujols, STL January 16: Adam Dunn, CIN vs. Ben Sheets, MIL January 17: Roy Oswalt, HOU vs. Jake Peavy, SD January 18: Stephen Drew, ARI vs. Matt Holliday, COL January 19: Matt Cain, SF vs. Chad Billingsly, LAD Wildcard Match-up: January 22: AL Voted Play-In vs. NL Voted Play-In (Voting held New Year's Weekend, Winner in Bold) AL Nominees Derek Jeter, NYY Joe Mauer, MIN Justin Morneau, MIN Roy Halladay, TOR Ichiro Suzuki, SEA David Ortiz, BOS Mark Teixeira, TEX NL Nominees Jose Reyes, NYM Carlos Beltran, NYM Chase Utley, PHI Derrek Lee, CHC Carlos Zambrano, CHC Brandon Webb, ARI Barry Zito, SF