In your opnion who are the top 5 all around MLB players of all time excluding pitchers?
Top 5....
1. Willie Mays
2. Ted Williams
3. Ken Griffey Jr.
4. Pete Rose
5. George Brett
1. Mays
2-5 in no order... Rose, Aaron, Mantle, Bonds (even before steroids dude was really good) mentions to Griffey Jr.
Im glad Ken Griffey Jr is making peoples lists. His accomplishments are even more impressive considering all the ped info that has come out in recent years.
If he only hadn't gotten injured so much.... man what could have been
Belfry0304 Wrote:If he only hadn't gotten injured so much.... man what could have been
I really believe he could have been one of the top 2-3 players ever, if it hadn't been for the injuries. Prettiest swing I ever saw.
No certain order, Griffey jr, Aaron, Ruth, Mays, Rose!!
Junior,mays,Ruth,Gehrig,jeter
Even Griffey Jr. admitted it. He never worked out when he was young. Didnt think he needed to. And it ended up being his down fall. Not working out lead to injuries!
If not for that. You are looking at the best player of all time. He would have broke 755 HR's. No question about it!!!!
:Thumbs:
Curveball 24 Wrote:Top 5....
[B]1. Willie Mays
2. Ted Williams
3. Ken Griffey Jr.
4. Pete Rose
5. George Brett[/B]
I like your top 4 Curveball and Westside this is a tall order on your end. I would drop George Brett and add Walter Johnson. Way before our time, however, considered the greatest pitcher of all time.
I'm hesitant as a Jr. fan to include him because of his injury bug...but as stated earlier, one of the purest swings ever and I'm a Cincinnati kid so I'll surrender to my homer roots
nicker:
A good follow up question would be top 5 by position? Ponder that for awhile and lets all visit that one in the next week or so. Have a good weekend folks
:Thumbs:
1. Willie Mays
2. Babe Ruth
3. Ty Cobb
4. Ted Williams
5. Walter Johnson
I believe that Pete Rose deserves to be in the HOF, but I don't believe that he was one of the top 5 players of his era, much less of all time. Bench, Clemente, Mays, Frank Robinson, and Aaron were all better than Rose, IMO. If you include pitchers, then I would probably add Nolan Ryan and Bob Gibson to the list of Rose's contemporaries who were better than him.
My non-pitchers list-
1. Willie Mays 660 hr's, over 1900 rbi's..played in 24 AS games.
2. Ted Williams lifetime .344 hitter, (Did not play '43, '44 or '45 due to military service), last man to bat over .400
3. Joe DiMaggio- .325 avg, 361 hr's 1500+ rbi's and 2300 hits. Only played 13 full seasons and was an All Star every season he played (also lost three seasons to WWII service)..
4. Babe Ruth 714 hr's, over 1900 rbi's AND had two 20 win seasons and 94 wins as a pitcher.
5. Ty Cobb .366 avg, 4191 hits, 117 hr's, over 1900 rbi's..
Very hard not to put Stan Musial on this list somewhere though..
TidesHoss32 Wrote:My non-pitchers list-
1. Willie Mays 660 hr's, over 1900 rbi's..played in 24 AS games.
2. Ted Williams lifetime .344 hitter, (Did not play '43, '44 or '45 due to military service), last man to bat over .400
3. Joe DiMaggio- .325 avg, 361 hr's 1500+ rbi's and 2300 hits. Only played 13 full seasons and was an All Star every season he played (also lost three seasons to WWII service)..
4. Babe Ruth 714 hr's, over 1900 rbi's AND had two 20 win seasons and 94 wins as a pitcher.
5. Ty Cobb .366 avg, 4191 hits, 117 hr's, over 1900 rbi's..
Very hard not to put Stan Musial on this list somewhere though..
Another amazing thing about Joe DiMaggio as a hitter is that he had only a few more career strikeouts than he did home runs, incredible!
1. Babe Ruth
2. Willie Mays
3. Ted Williams
4. Hank Aaron
5. Mickey Mantle
I would have some of the greats from this era but with the PED's in play, hard for me to rank them ahead of anyone as using PED's gives one an unfair advantage. And I would have loved to have seen what Mickey Mantle might have done if he would have took better care of himself and not had some of the injuries that he had and Williams if he hadn't missed a few years in his prime to military service. And let's not forget about Babe Ruth being a full time pitcher for 4 or 5 years, even if he had only averaged 20 home runs a year in those years that would have put him at over 800 easily. We forget about the incredible things a lot of these guys from the past did.
Any list that doesn't include Ruth needs to be voided....Easily the best of all time.