Who is the greatest living baseball player?

[Moose Milligan]

It was Willie Mays and that was not up for debate.

Now that he's passed on, the answer isn't so clear.

Posnanski wrote about it today in his newsletter.  

Quote

Here is some hard truth: These are the highest-ranking living ballplayers in The Baseball 100:

No. 3: Barry Bonds
No. 13: Roger Clemens
No. 16: Alex Rodriguez
No. 20: Mike Schmidt
No. 23: Albert Pujols

It tells you a lot that four of those five players listed are not in the Hall of Fame yet—though, obviously, Pujols will go in first-ballot and maybe unanimously. If I were doing The Baseball 100 again—as a dozen or so people ask me every day!—I very well might put Pujols ahead of Schmidt and A-Rod. But, generally speaking, this still feels right to me.

I have absolutely no doubt at all that Barry Bonds is the greatest living ballplayer, lowercase. No doubt. Bonds could do everything, just like Mays, just like DiMaggio. And toward the end of his career, when he bulked up, he became the most dangerous and awesome hitter this game has ever seen. If we were still looking at greatest living ballplayer the way they did in the 1940s and ’50s, when Ty Cobb was the acknowledged one, yes, absolutely, that’s Barry Bonds.

But Greatest Living Ballplayer? No. I wouldn’t give Bonds that title. I’m not saying that specifically because of the steroid business or any of the other negative stuff that surrounded Bonds. I’m saying that because whatever you want to say about DiMaggio’s ego and insistence on being recognized as the GLB, he absolutely imbued the title with royalty.

 

I don't believe him when he says it's due to Bonds and his PED issues...but that aside, Bonds was prickly and not liked through a lot of his career, PEDs or not.

Quote

No, it’s about so much more than baseball performance, The GLB is the legendary player that other legendary players swoon over. The GLB is the superstar parents and grandparents point to as baseball’s platonic ideal. The GLB represents so much more than himself—he represents 150-plus years of baseball, from Ned Williamson to Honus Wagner to Ty Cobb to Joe DiMaggio to Willie Mays.

All due respect, that’s just not Barry Bonds. He’s not even in the Hall of Fame… and from what I can tell, none of the all-time great players want him there.

Ditto Roger Clemens. Ditto Alex Rodriguez.

Quote

The first was Sandy Koufax. In my view, Koufax is baseball’s singular legend right now. He is the player whose very name inspires emotions, tears, smiles, nostalgia, even if you were too young to see him pitch, as I was. Sandy Koufax, unquestionably, is the player who brings out the little kid in other players. He would carry “Greatest Living Ballplayer” with grace.

But… Sandy Koufax was a pitcher. There are two problems with that. One, the title “Greatest Living Ballplayer” just seems to point to an every-day player. I’m not saying pitchers are not ballplayers. But there are plenty of hitters who would argue that way, and, anyway. I’m not sure pitchers are the first thing anyone thinks when seeing that word, “Ballplayer.” If you saw a movie titled, “Ballplayer,” would you think it was about a pitcher?

Two, I wouldn’t say that Koufax is the greatest living pitcher, lower case. That’s not a deal-breaker—I think there were greater ballplayers than DiMaggio when he was the GLB—but when you’re talking about Greg Maddux and Randy Johnson and Clemens and Pedro Martinez, not to mention Steve Carlton and Tom Glavine and Clayton Kershaw and Mariano Rivera and others, I’m just not sure that Koufax, for all his awesomeness, quite carries the day.

• So, I moved on to position players, and my second thought was Carl Yastrzemski. Yaz is the oldest first-ballot position player Hall of Famer.

Oldest position player Hall of Famers:

1. Yaz, 84

2. Rod Carew, 78

3. Reggie Jackson, 78

4. Johnny Bench, 76

5. Mike Schmidt, 74

 

Quote

The answer is Rickey.

Only… is it Rickey? I started to question myself. I mean, Rickey is… quirky. We love his quirkiness, but there’s a certain majesty to the GLB title, no? I kept going back and forth, and finally decided that “Greatest Leadoff Hitter” fits him better.

• And so, that led to my fifth choice. I lingered on a bunch of players—Albert Pujols is certainly worthy, Mike Schmidt, too, George Brett… I thought a lot about Cal Ripken Jr., I even thought some about Mike Trout and Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani—before I finally came down to my final answer.

The Greatest Living Ballplayer—the player who pulled the sword out of the stone for me—is Ken Griffey Jr.

I mean, do I think, all in all, that Griffey was greater than the players listed above? No, I don’t. He was hurt a lot and wasn’t ever really a great player after age 30. But, when Junior was right, he was as great as anyone who ever played this game. And, like DiMaggio, like Mays (like others, too, Aaron, Musial, Clemente and so on), he inspired this feeling inside us fans, this wonder, this giddiness. He was magical that way.

And he carries himself as the GLB. Old Hall of Famers love him and the way he played. Incoming Hall of Famers idolize him. Griffey has started to be more comfortable in the public eye after years away. He’s doing commercials. He’s making appearances. He’s the best of baseball. He’s my Greatest Living Ballplayer.

 

He glosses over Ripken, who, I think has a bit of a case (Sorry, @Tony-OH) and I love that he doesn't mention Jeter.  I'm somewhat comfortable with Griffey Jr. but it doesn't feel right.

 

 

[emmett16]

Barry Bonds and it's not even particularly close.  He's better than #2 & #3 combined.  

[Frobby]

Now steroids is even screwing this up.  Great. 

[Frobby]

The greatest living ballplayer is Gunnar Henderson.   It’s just not recognized yet.  

[Sports Guy]

Clearly Bonds.

[Just Regular]

8 hours ago, Frobby said:

The greatest living ballplayer is Gunnar Henderson.   It’s just not recognized yet.  

Before scrolling down to this while reading Moose's opening post, I did wonder how many 12-win seasons would Gunnar have to stack?

The thread comparing Gunnar to Cal is aging well, and while Gunnar will be older by the time he reaches FA, in this moment Boras is probably dreaming about if Alex Rodriguez has come around again, and that ridiculous Bobby Witt snuff contract.

Scott still won't take him to a Dodgers Stadium World Series game until he meets the basic requirement of defeating the Dodgers some postseason, a box he can hopefully check in about four months.

[JimGinSP]

On 6/22/2024 at 12:19 AM, Frobby said:

The greatest living ballplayer is Gunnar Henderson.   It’s just not recognized yet.  

I’m not going to deny it, when watching the Mays tributes and they spoke of the kid from Alabama  who could do it all, my thoughts drifted to the Orioles young star.  I had to remind myself of how Griffey Jr. and now Trout faded after generating breathless excitement in the first portion of their careers.  It can be a cruel game.

[emmett16]

If you were to strip Barry Bonds of all 7 of his MVP seasons……

He would still have 440 HR & 359 SB….

Which no one else in the game has ever done.  

[Frobby]

38 minutes ago, emmett16 said:

If you were to strip Barry Bonds of all 7 of his MVP seasons……

He would still have 440 HR & 359 SB….

Which no one else in the game has ever done.  

I think if you are going to ignore PED issues, Bonds probably held the title of greatest living ball player long before Willie Mays died.   

[Aglets]

Think Ohtani or Trout should be in the conversation.

[emmett16]

42 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I think if you are going to ignore PED issues, Bonds probably held the title of greatest living ball player long before Willie Mays died.   

I don’t think you have to ignore PEDs.  I think you have to look at it under the context of:

1. PEDs have been part of baseball since the inception and continue to be a part of the game.  They are part of the fabric of the game whether we like it or not. Read any book about baseball from the 20s-70s and PED use was rampant. 

2. In his specific era, MLB looked the other way, almost encouraged the use, and almost all players were using PEDs (whether that be needle use or other products).  Even if they weren’t using a banned substance, they were using some type of PED.  

3. Players who admitted to usage (or even were very strongly assumed to be users) have never even come close to what he was able to do in every facet of the game. 

What he did showed the absolute pinnacle of baseball ability/achievement.  He was the most entertaining player to watch while he was at his peak. The fact that he dwarfed all other players, who were using, in every part of the game (defense, base running, contact ability, swing decision, power) showed his greatness.  He was almost 2x better than the league average player over his career and for a span of 4 years was 2.5X better than the league average player.  He was the greatest player ever and we will never see anything like it again.