Over the past couple of years, there have been quite a few baseball legends passing away.
It did get me thinking of who we would now consider the ten greatest living baseball players.
It used to really mean something to be called that.
I’m sure you could ask 100 different baseball fans and get just as many different lists.
Here’s my Top 10 Greatest Living Baseball Players:
10.
Mike Trout
2011-present
Trout is the only active player on the list.
He’s also the only one to never win a playoff game.
His last decade of dominance overshadows all of that.
He has three MVP awards and has been the best player in baseball for ten years.
Very few (if any) other players over the last 100 years can make that claim.
Most great players have a rival.
For DiMaggio, it was Williams.
For Mays, it was Mickey Mantle and then Hank Aaron.
Mike Trout has stood alone as the absolute best.
Sandy Koufax
1955-66
Sandy Koufax made the Hall of Fame in 1972…and he’s still alive!
He’s been a Hall of Famer for FIFTY YEARS.
In 1966, he had to retire at the age of 30 due to arthritis in his elbow.
He left baseball while he was in a stretch of being the most dominant pitcher in all of baseball.
He also led the league in ERA in each of his last five seasons.
He was the biggest part of Dodger teams that won the World Series in 1963 and 1965.
He was the World Series MVP each of those years as well.
I’ve wondered how great his career stats would have looked if he never had to retire so young.
I look at his last four years with the Red Sox (1993-96).
So did the PED use start then?
So how do you evaluate him?
He was a great pitcher with the Red Sox before the PED’s so that has to be considered.
But I’d be lying if I said I was thrilled about having him on this list at all.
There is no one like him at all in today’s game.
He stole 130 bases in 1982.
He scored 146 runs in 1985.
Rickey is the all-time leader in Runs and Stolen Bases.
He’s second in walks (only behind Barry Bonds).
He played as long as he could until no team wanted him anymore.
He was always the most exciting player on the field.
Ken Griffey, Jr.
1989-2010
Maybe I have Griffey ranked too high.
His time with the Reds were extremely frustrating.
Griffey never came close and finished 125 homers away.
In fact, when he was done playing, it wasn’t even Aaron’s record anymore.
He was great in center field and still has the best swing I’ve ever seen.
For me, Griffey in that time was as perfect as it gets.
The question for me about Johnson is: was he better with the Mariners or Diamondbacks?
But even then, he spent more time in Seattle pitching ten seasons.
He made the right call.
But he was consistently average the last five seasons of his career.
I think this may have affected his legacy a tiny bit.
I feel like he doesn’t enough credit for how great he was from 1992-98.
The other thing that hurt Maddux was that his greatest seasons were the strike affected 1994-95.
It could just have been his personality.
He wasn’t flashy and charismatic like Pedro or intimidating and grumpy like Randy Johnson.
Barry Bonds
1986-2007
Unlike Clemens, we know exactly when Bonds starting using PED’s.
Other than Babe Ruth, no player was better at baseball than Barry Bonds from 2001-04.
But he was also cheating.
I’ll often hear “Everyone was doing it!”
but that’s not true.
Of course many players were but it wasn’t everyone.
It makes putting a list like this together really hard.
We know Bonds and Clemens were using PED’s but Sandy Koufax wasn’t.
I’ve left guys like Mike Schmidt, George Brett and Cal Ripken off the list.
I can safely say they weren’t either.
So how do you judge someone whose numbers were so insane because he was cheating?
Bonds is a special case because we know how great he was before he ever hooked up with BALCO.
He won three MVP’s and was along with Griffey, the most well-rounded hitter in the game.
Bonds without PED’s was better than Griffey at his peak.
So I put him third.
He got even better.
I don’t like it but he has to go somewhere.
But I don’t give a fuck.
It’s my list and I love Pedro.
His stretch of 1997-2003 was probably the greatest run a pitcher has ever had.
Sandy Koufax had more team success during his peak but it was also during the pitching heavy 1960’s.
You almost always saw something special every time out.
His 1999-2000 seasons were the absolute height for him (or any pitcher).
It’ll be tough for any pitcher to match what he did in those two seasons.
Can someone touch going 41-10 with a 1.90 ERA in two seasons again?
But will there be a time where hitters are ever that superior again?
I don’t know but if they are, good luck getting that ERA under 2.
Willie Mays
1951-52, 54-73
He’s not just the best living player.
He might be the best ever.
That picture above was from the 1954 World Series at the Polo Grounds.
Not only is that stadium long gone, the entire team moved to San Francisco 66 years ago.
Good luck even finding someone who even rooted for the New York Giants as a kid.
The veteran center fielder from that team is still alive!
It’s hard to put Mays' greatness in numbers.
Trout already has more MP awards than Mays ever won.
He only hit 50 or more homers twice in a season.
The thing with Mays is that he was exceptional for an entire generation.
He went to 24 All-Star games.
He was fantastic at everything.
He was one of the best center fielders ever.
He had 660 home runs.
He could hit for contact.
He was an extraordinary base stealer.
There was no part of Wille Mays' game that wasn’t as good as gets.
I don’t know if I agree about Shakespeare but she was right about Mays.
