best hitters of all time

[msgkings322]

Ruth was a 1st tier hitter - but I never saw him - I was just relating to players I actually watched play - Williams was ending his career but he was still a player to be dealt with. I saw Mays mature as a hitter and that was great to experience. Saw him as a rookie and watched him playout his career. Clemente would have been a great player I believe if the circumstances had been different. I grew up with the big three in NY. We had the on-going arguments about Willie, Mickey and the Duke. Been a Giant fan for close to 60 years now but I still wonder what Mantle's career would have been like if he had a good set of wheels. .

You are legit!

That's a good way to make these idle 'arguments' more interesting: best hitters you actually followed/were sentient enough to appreciate...and then best hitters you actually saw play in person.

Best I ever saw, in person: Bonds, Pujols, A-Rod, Bo Jackson (bc I saw him hit 3 HRs in the game I saw, and also he threw a no-bounce rocket from CF to the cather), Rickey, Thomas, Griffey

 

[goDAWGSsicem]

Greg Blue & Thomas Davis

 

[goDAWGSsicem]

LOL

 

[tzill]

Being the old bastard that I am - I have to go with Mays, Mantle, Aaron, Williams and one of my favorite all time hitter was Stan the Man Musial - that man could flat out hit

What about the Babe, Cobb, Speaker, and Hornsby?

 

[tzill]

"Wahoo Sam" Crawford, needs some kind of mention. Career Leader in Triples.

Right there with Manny, Carew, Poo-poo, and Joltin' Joe.

 

[calsnowskier]

"Wahoo Sam" Crawford, needs some kind of mention. Career Leader in Triples.

"Chances Accepted"??

 

[tzill]

"Chances Accepted"??

Defensive plays, I think.

 

[TheSaboteur]

Defensive plays, I think.

Definitely need to start using that next season. Did you see how Schierholtz accepted that chance?? Amazing!

 

[tzill]

Definitely need to start using that next season. Did you see how Schierholtz accepted that chance?? Amazing!

Or, "fucking Tejada hasn't accepted a difficult chance in years..."

 

[SF11704]

Or, "fucking Tejada hasn't accepted a difficult chance in years..."

yeah - this is what worries me about defensive stats in general. Tejada was a damn statue at SS and Cabera wasn't much better. Pretty difficult to give an error/difficult chance to someone that can't range anywhere near the ball.
In a few cases just being able to reach a ball and knock it down will stop a run from scoring. I'm just not sure how you ever show that in some form of a stat

 

[calsnowskier]

yeah - this is what worries me about defensive stats in general. Tejada was a damn statue at SS and Cabera wasn't much better. Pretty difficult to give an error/difficult chance to someone that can't range anywhere near the ball.
In a few cases just being able to reach a ball and knock it down will stop a run from scoring. I'm just not sure how you ever show that in some form of a stat

Unfortunately, you can't. It required advanced metrics in order to give ANY kind of accuracy to defensive ability, and move advance metrics are pretty seriously flawed in their own right. Defense, unfortunately, required the eyeball test, pure and simple.

 

[CarlWinslow]

its impossible to tell who the best hitter is because the league/umps corrupt strike zones just like the nba giving players callls/non calls

 

[tzill]

Unfortunately, you can't. It required advanced metrics in order to give ANY kind of accuracy to defensive ability, and move advance metrics are pretty seriously flawed in their own right. Defense, unfortunately, required the eyeball test, pure and simple.

There's a new stat coming out called ("DFX" if I remember right) which will track every ball hit and routes taken, etc. I'm sure it'll have its limitations, but most are heralding it as a tremendous improvement over UZR and DIPS

 

[Mays-Fan]

Somewhat odd that on a Giants board (unless I missed it), no one mentioned Willie McCovey.

In the pitching dominated late 60's, esp '68-'69, McCovey was the best hitter around.

I remember reading an article from the time that said his hitting in those years was comparatively so far ahead of the other players in that time that you had to go back to the Babe Ruth years to find such a disparity.

 

[calsnowskier]

Somewhat odd that on a Giants board (unless I missed it), no one mentioned Willie McCovey.

In the pitching dominated late 60's, esp '68-'69, McCovey was the best hitter around.

I remember reading an article from the time that said his hitting in those years was comparatively so far ahead of the other players in that time that you had to go back to the Babe Ruth years to find such a disparity.

Not surprising at all for a Giants board. McCovey has no argument for anything better than #3 in the history of the org, and even that position he needs to defend. Mel Ott was a pretty serious beast that would certainly deserve some consideration as #3.

 

[SF11704]

Best Starting Line Up of Players I have seen .....

LF - Barry Bonds
2B - Pete Rose
CF - Willie Mays
1B - Albert Pujols
RF - Roberto Clemente
SS - Alex Rodriguez
3B - Mike Schmidt
C - Johnny bench

P - Juan Marichal and Sandy Koufax

 

[CameronFrye]

Best Starting Line Up of Players I have seen .....

LF - Barry Bonds
2B - Pete Rose
CF - Willie Mays
1B - Albert Pujols
RF - Roberto Clemente
SS - Alex Rodriguez
3B - Mike Schmidt
C - Johnny bench

P - Juan Marichal and Sandy Koufax

C'mon now. Putting Rose at 2B is like putting Willie Mays at shortstop or 3B or Craig Biggio at catcher. Rose was a HORRIBLE 2B and was moved out of that position after his second year there because he was so bad defensively that he was killing the team.

If you can't call him the greatest hitter at 1B or 3B or LF, he doesn't deserve to be on the list.

 

[SF11704]

Yeah - I hear you - I actually had Ryne Sandberg penciled in but Rose's 4400 hits sort of blinded my judgement. Also had a tough time between Hank Aaron and Roberto Clemente. Probably kept Roberto there based on what I thought he would have been able to do. Also don't know anything about the AL side of the equation (other than ARod

 

[tzill]

Best Starting Line Up of Players I have seen .....

LF - Barry Bonds
2B - Pete Rose
CF - Willie Mays
1B - Albert Pujols
RF - Roberto Clemente
SS - Alex Rodriguez
3B - Mike Schmidt
C - Johnny bench

P - Juan Marichal and Sandy Koufax

This is a solid list, but for me:

C -- Johnny Bench
1B -- Hank Aaron
2B -- Joe Morgan
SS -- Alex Rodriguez
3B -- Mike Schmidt
LF -- Barry Bonds
CF -- Willie Mays
RF -- Ricky Henderson

RHSP -- Roger Clemens
LHSP -- Randy Johnson

Oh, and I'd bat them:

Ricky
Willie
Barry
Hank
Schmitty
ARod
Joe
Bench

 

[tzill]

Yeah - I hear you - I actually had Ryne Sandberg penciled in but Rose's 4400 hits sort of blinded my judgement. Also had a tough time between Hank Aaron and Roberto Clemente. Probably kept Roberto there based on what I thought he would have been able to do. Also don't know anything about the AL side of the equation (other than ARod

How the fuck can you overlook Morgan?!?