The Top Talent Of This Era In Baseball And Sports In General Is Incredible

[mweb]

There are many negatives of this era(started career within the last 25 years), and one of them(steroids) may have something to do with all the elite talent in sports, but we are lucky to see many all time greats.

Baseball:

Bonds: Top 3 player of all time.
AROD: Good chance of joining or surpassing Bonds in that top 3.
Clemens: Arguably a top 3 pitcher ever.
Maddux: Top 10 pitcher.
Johnson: Maybe top 10, at least close.
Pedro: Probably the most dominant peak ever.
Piazza: Arguably the best hitting catcher in MLB history.
Griffey: One of the bst CF's ever.
Ripken: One of the best SS's ever, and the streak.
Gwynn: One of the best contact hitters ever.
McGwire: One of the best hr hitters ever.
Sosa: Ditto.
Thomas: Among the most productive hitters ever.
Pujols: Has a good chance to be among the all time greats.

After that, there's plenty of others who are having HOF caliber careers and many who look like they'll be upper echeon HOF'ers.

Guys like Glavine, Smoltz, Mussina, Rivera, Hoffman, IROD, Manny, Belle, Juan Gonzalez, Luis Gonzalez, Biggio, Bagwell, Thome, Vlad, Chipper, Sheffield, Alomar, Helton, Delgado, Jeter, Kent, Posada, Tejada, and Andruw Jones are many of the guys who are putting up(put up) HOF caliber careers.

Then there's younger guys like MCab, Wright, Reyes, Howard, Utley, Ramirez, Sizemore, Santana, Peavy, Webb, Oswalt, etc that look like they could have amazing careers.

Maybe Drungo or someone else can provide more insight into this, but I have to think this is the timeframe has had more HOF caliber players than any other, and the same for upper echelon guys.

[mweb]

Other sports:

Golf: Tiger has a good chance of going down as the greatest golfer ever.
Tennis: Same for Federer with tennis.

Basketball:

MJ: Maybe the best player ever.
Shaq: Top 5 center ever, maybe top 3.
Malone: Maybe the best PF ever, unless this guy is...
Duncan: Often plays center as well.
Garnett: Maybe the best player without a ring, unless this guy is...
Barkley: One of the top PF's ever.
Stocton: Greatest assist man ever.
Kobe: Closest we've seen to MJ
LeBron: Has ability to be best ever.
Wade: Also could be all time great.
Hakeem: Maybe a top 5 center.
Robinson: Maybe a top 5 center.
Thomas: Maybe a top 5 PG

Feel free to add whoever I'm forgetting.

Football:

Elway, Marino, Manning, Brady: Among greatest QB's ever.
Sanders, Smith, Faulk, LT, Martin, Bettis, Dickerson: Among greatest RB's ever.
Rice: Best WR ever.
Harrison, Brown, Carter, Moss, Owens, Holt: Among top WR's ever.

Then there's all time great defensive players such as White, LT, Smith, Lewis, and Sanders among others. Plenty of great O-lineman as well.

[DrungoHazewood]

There are many negatives of this era(stared career within the last 25 years), and one of them(steroids) may have something to do with all the elite talent in sports, but we are lucky to see many all time greats.

Baseball:

Bonds: Top 3 player of all time.
AROD: Good chance of joining or surpassing Bonds in that top 3.
Clemens: Arguably a top 3 pitcher ever.
Maddux: Top 10 pitcher.
Johnson: Maybe top 10, at least close.
Pedro: Probably the most dominant peak ever.
Piazza: Arguably the best hitting catcher in MLB history.
Griffey: One of the bst CF's ever.
Ripken: One of the best SS's ever, and the streak.
Gwynn: One of the best contact hitters ever.
McGwire: One of the best hr hitters ever.
Sosa: Ditto.
Thomas: Among the most productive hitters ever.
Pujols: Has a good chance to be among the all time greats.

After that, there's plenty of others who are having HOF caliber careers and many who look like they'll be upper echeon HOF'ers.

Guys like Glavine, Smoltz, Mussina, Rivera, Hoffman, IROD, Manny, Belle, Juan Gonzalez, Luis Gonzalez, Biggio, Bagwell, Thome, Vlad, Chipper, Sheffield, Alomar, Helton, Delgado, Jeter, Kent, Posada, Tejada, and Andruw Jones are many of the guys who are putting up(put up) HOF caliber careers.

Then there's younger guys like MCab, Wright, Reyes, Howard, Utley, Ramirez, Sizemore, Santana, Peavy, Webb, Oswalt, etc that look like they could have amazing careers.

Maybe Drungo or someone else can provide more insight into this, but I have to think this is the timeframe has had more HOF caliber players than any other, and the same for upper echelon guys.


There's no doubt that the caliber of baseball is as high today as it's ever been. Almost all studies into the slope of history shows that it creeps steadily upward with only small, temporary dips in the average due to things like wars and expansions.

This makes logical sense because of the ever-expanding talent pool, better training, better scouting, and better technology. And the fact that sports with objective measurements of performance have their records constantly bettered (such as track and field) - the same advances effect baseball, too.

One of my favorite little bits of trivia is that an average girls' high school swim meet today will see someone post a time that would have won the men's Olympic title in the 1920s or 1930s.

From another perspective, an average MLB season from the past has something like 30, 35 Hall of Famers active. I forget the exact percentage, but it's close to 10% of all major league at bats are from eventual Hall of Famers. This is partly because they're often the ones with long careers in the middle of good lineups, but you should expect about 30 currently active players to eventually be in the Hall if they don't dramatically change the entry standards.