MLB Top 50 List

My interest in sports goes back a long way. I remember being 10 years old putting together lists of the best players from each sport. Back then, it never crossed my mind to catalog those lists. In the summer after my sophomore year in college, I decided I wanted to put together a list of the best players in MLB history organized by first, second, and third team. I wrote out by hand every statistic of every player that I took into consideration. The process was long and pointless as most of my endeavors are. I came up with my teams and felt pretty good about the whole thing. In fact, I still have those lists. My current knowledge of baseball history is probably double what it was during my sophomore year. I have a better understanding of how to interpret stats compared to the league average which is a crucial factor to consider when comparing players.

As a result, I once again embarked on a quest to put together a list of the best players in MLB history. Per usual, this list is based purely on subjectivity but I would like to mention a few things on how I came to my conclusions. First, I did the best I could to compare statistics to league averages and not simply on the raw stats. Second, my criterion was simply a combination of brilliance over time. This is not a list of the single best four-year stretch of all-time. If it were, the results would differ greatly. My goal was to identify the top 50 careers based on a variety of factors. Third, not only did I not penalize a player for missing time due to service in the armed forces, I rewarded the player for the time missed. For instance, Ted Williams missed five years in his prime serving in two wars. Each time he returned to the sport, he dominated. I made educated guesses on missed seasons to get an idea of what that player would have accomplished had he not missed that time.


1) Babe Ruth
2) Ted Williams
3) Ty Cobb
4) Willie Mays
5) Barry Bonds *
6) Roger Clemens
7) Walter Johnson
8) Lou Gehrig
9) Lefty Grove
10) Stan Musial
11) Joe DiMaggio
12) Christy Mathewson
13) Rogers Hornsby
14) Cy Young
15) Jimmie Foxx
16) Mickey Mantle
17) Tris Speaker
18) Randy Johnson
19) Honus Wagner
20) Pete Alexander
21) Albert Pujols
22) Hank Aaron
23) Mel Ott
24) Hank Greenberg
25) Greg Maddux
26) Warren Spahn
27) Tom Seaver
28) Frank Robinson
29) Bob Feller
30) Joe Jackson
31) Pedro Martinez
32) Ed Walsh
33) Mordecai Brown
34) Manny Ramirez
35) Nap Lajoie
36) Mike Schmidt
37) Jim Palmer
38) Alex Rodriguez
39) Vladimir Guerrero
40) Ken Griffey Jr.
41) Eddie Collins
42) Carl Yastrzemski
43) Yogi Berra
44) Johnny Bench
45) Eddie Plank
46) Steve Carlton
47) Bob Gibson
48) Frank Thomas
49) Joe Morgan
50) Mariano Rivera



Instead of listing the next ten or twenty players on the list which would essentially create a Top 60 or 70 list, I would like to identify the players that I had the hardest time keeping off. There were about 50 players that received serious consideration that didn't end up making the list. These are in no particular order; Eddie Mathews, Jackie Robinson, Al Simmons, Nolan Ryan, Charlie Gehringer, Ernie Banks, Derek Jeter, Sandy Koufax, Whitey Ford, Addie Joss, Mark McGwire* and Nolan Ryan.

One player that I considered early that didn't make the list is someone who I think will be in the top 50 of all-time by the time he retires. That person is Andruw Jones. His power/defense combination puts him on pace to be one of the best all-around players to every play the game.