Anyone who has known me or followed me for a while knows that I love to rank things, especially sports teams and athletes. While I have not included baseball on my blog much in the past, mostly because of the difficulty in predicting the outcome of games, I am still a fan of the game, and I have spent numerous hours over the past year analyzing the numbers from every player in every season to create a ranking of the top baseball players of all time.
There are several potential problems to consider when trying to rank baseball players. One of the biggest ones is the steroid scandal that tarnished the image of many great players in recent years. It is particularly difficult to deal with this because there are some players who probably would have been great enough to make this list anyway, and to not include them would be an inaccurate portrayal of the history of baseball. Unfortunately, it is impossible to tell how much impact the cheating had, and when it occurred, so rather than arbitrarily removing players or statistics, I decided to mark the six questionable players with an asterisk on this list, and have included an extra 6 players at the bottom to make up for the spots they may have unfairly taken.
Another issue is that pitchers and batters have two very different jobs on the field, so it is difficult to compare them and determine which is better than the other. To overcome this, I broke down statistics by plate appearance (for batters) or batters faced (for pitchers) and used the same statistics for each, just in reverse. Each batter was rated on hits, home runs, RBI's, runs scored, walks, etc. per plate appearance and compared against the average for all batters in the league for that season, then received a rating for how far above the average they were across all categories in that season, with players below average being thrown out, and for pitchers they were rated on how far below those averages they were.
Players were awarded points based on how far above average they were in each season, and a cumulative total was compiled covering the player's entire career. Playoff stats were also included, counting at 10% of regular season stats, since a single player's influence on getting a team to the playoffs is much smaller in baseball than in other sports, but when a player had a completely dominant postseason, it often ended up boosting the player's standing significantly due to the smaller number of players in the postseason.
Also, due to the fact that baseball has been around for nearly twice as long as the NBA or NFL, and the fact that there are many more players on a baseball roster than there are basketball players or NFL quarterbacks, the level needed to reach this list was incredibly high, meaning that there are only 4 players currently on MLB rosters that have reached the top 106, two batters and two pitchers, so there will be a lot of looking back on historical players in this countdown. Hopefully you will enjoy reading and learning about these players over the course of the summers as much as I have enjoyed putting this all together. Watch for the first entry in the countdown sometime in the next couple of days.
Rankings
106. Dizzy Dean - P - STL - 1930's
105. David Cone - P - NYY - 1990's
104. Jim Palmer - P - BAL - 1970's
103. Rusty Staub - RF - NYM - 1970's
102. Mickey Cochrane - C - PHA - 1930's
101. Lance Berkman - 1B - HOU - 2000's
100. Todd Helton - 1B - COL - 2000's
99. Frankie Frisch - 2B - NYG - 1920's
98. Dan Brouthers - 1B - BUF - 1880's
97. Charlie Keller - LF - NYY - 1940's
96. Bill Dickey - C - NYY - 1930's
95. Billy Hamilton - CF - PHI - 1890's
94. Ken Griffey Jr. - CF - SEA - 1990's
93. Wade Boggs - 3B - BOS - 1980's
92. Billy Williams - LF - CHC - 1960's
91. Rube Waddell - P - PHA - 1900's
90. Justin Verlander - P - DET - 2010's
89. Sam Crawford - RF - DET - 1900's
88. Vladimir Guerrero - RF - ANA - 2000's
87.* Rafael Palmeiro - 1B - TEX - 1990's
86. Clayton Kershaw - P - LAD - 2010's
85. Enos Slaughter - RF - STL - 1940's
84. Chief Bender - P - PHA - 1910's
83. Lefty Gomez - P - NYY - 1930's
82. Eddie Murray - 1B - BAL - 1980's
81. Duke Snider - CF - BRO - 1950's
80. Ed Walsh - P - CHW - 1900's
79. Bob Feller - P - CLE - 1940's
78. Amos Rusie - P - NYG - 1890's
77. Roberto Alomar - 2B - TOR - 1990's
76. Allie Reynolds - P - NYY - 1950's
75. Tim Raines - LF - MON - 1980's
74. Derek Jeter - SS - NYY - 2000's
73. Tony Gwynn - RF - SDP - 1990's
72. Goose Goslin - LF - WSH - 1920's
71. Eddie Plank - P - PHA - 1910's
70. Home Run Baker - 3B - PHA - 1910's
69. Cap Anson - 1B - CHC - 1880's
68. Hank Greenberg - 1B - DET - 1930's
67. Frank Thomas - DH - CHW - 1990's
66. Lou Brock - LF - STL - 1960's
65. Nap Lajoie - 2B - CLE - 1900's
64. Dazzy Vance - P - BRO - 1920's
63. Mike Mussina - P - BAL - 1990's
62. Johnny Mize - 1B - STL - 1940's
61. Kid Nichols - P - BSN - 1890's
60. Miguel Cabrera - 1B - DET - 2010's
59. Don Sutton - P - LAD - 1970's
58. Warren Spahn - P - MLN - 1950's
57. Rogers Hornsby - 2B - STL - 1920's
56. Tim Keefe - P - NYG - 1880's
55. Paul Molitor - DH - MIL - 1990's
54. Bernie Williams - CF - NYY - 1990's
53. Bert Blyleven - P - MIN - 1970's
52.* Pete Rose - 1B - CIN - 1970's
51. Carlos Beltran - CF - NYM - 2000's
50. Al Kaline - RF - DET - 1960's
49. Gary Sheffield - RF - FLA - 1990's
48. Charlie Gehringer - 2B - DET - 1930's
47. Red Ruffing - P - NYY - 1930's
46. Greg Maddux - P - ATL - 1990's
45. David Ortiz - DH - BOS - 2000's
44. Al Simmons - LF - PHA - 1930's
43. George Brett - 3B - KCR - 1980's
42.* Alex Rodriguez - SS - NYY - 2000's
41.* Manny Ramirez - LF - BOS - 2000's
40. Mariano Rivera - P - NYY - 2000's
39. Mel Ott - RF - NYG - 1930's
38. Steve Carlton - P - PHI - 1970's
37. Joe Morgan - 2B - CIN - 1970's
36. Tom Seaver - P - NYM - 1970's
35. Carl Hubbell - P - NYG - 1930's
34. Chipper Jones - 3B - ATL - 2000's
33. Jimmie Foxx - 1B - PHA - 1930's
32. Lefty Grove - P - PHA - 1930's
31. Grover Cleveland Alexander - P - PHI - 1910's
30. Frank Robinson - RF - CIN - 1960's
29. Honus Wagner - SS - PIT - 1900's
28. Carl Yastrzemski - LF - BOS - 1960's
27. Joe DiMaggio - CF - NYY - 1940's
26. Cy Young - P - BOS - 1900's
25. Tris Speaker - CF - CLE - 1910's
24. Curt Schilling - P - PHI - 2000's
23. Willie Mays - CF - SFG - 1960's
22. Whitey Ford - P - NYY - 1960's
21. Christy Mathewson - P - NYG - 1900's
20. Rickey Henderson - LF - OAK - 1980's
19. Pedro Martinez - P - BOS - 1990's
18. Sandy Koufax - P - LAD - 1960's
17. John Smoltz - P - ATL - 1990's
16. Ted Williams - LF - BOS - 1940's
15. Yogi Berra - C - NYY - 1950's
14. Mickey Mantle - CF - NYY - 1950's
13. Stan Musial - 1B - STL - 1940's
12. Eddie Collins - 2B - PHA - 1910's
11. Albert Pujols - 1B - STL - 2000's
10.* Roger Clemens - P - BOS - 1990's
9. Hank Aaron - RF - MLN - 1960's
8. Walter Johnson - P - WSH - 1910's
7. Ty Cobb - CF - DET - 1910's
6. Randy Johnson - P - ARI - 1990's
5. Nolan Ryan - P - CAL - 1980's
4. Bob Gibson - P - STL - 1960's
3.* Barry Bonds - LF - SFG - 2000's
2. Lou Gehrig - 1B - NYY - 1930's
1. Babe Ruth - RF - NYY - 1920's
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