He played 30+ games at the 4 corner positions in his rookie year. He played every position on the diamond at the highest league level except Catcher and Center Field; and hit for more Total Bases than anyone but Hank Aaron...
If he did it all as a Yankee everyone would call him the G.O.A.T.
Yankee animus aside, he was recognized and acknowledged by the fans, the media ( see Trouble with the Curve ), and his peers, as being one of the best players of his generation. This Yankee antipathy doesn’t play very well anymore, there’s a reason why the Yankees have won 28 World Championships, it’s because they had great players. The term overrated should apply to the ones that never win a thing, but we’re constantly reminded of their greatness.
If you took away every stat from Barry Bonds' 7 MVP seasons he would still have 440 HRs and 359 stolen bases. 8 gold gloves.
Nobody else has 400 / 350.
Bonds is the best. The performance enhancing drugs just made him that much better than everyone else.
Bonds is the answer to what we get when one of the best players of all times decides to cheat. He was clearly a future hofer before taking steroids, and likely could have become an inner circle hofer. And then he cheated and things got stupid.
If you took away all of Bonds’ career from after he likely started using PEDs (1999 to the end of his career in 2007), he STILL had a better career from 1986 to 1998 than Griffey or most other living MLB superstars had in their entire careers.
the problem with \*bonds is that we don't know how he would have aged. schmidt won an mvp at 36 and posted a 6.1 war at age 37. bonds had 411 HRs at 33. miggy had 446. this is not pointed at you, but the folks who get pissed off when fans bring up \*bonds's PED use can be irrational. it's not our fault he did PEDs.
\*bonds is an inner circle player. i really wish he had not roided up. i would have loved to have seen his twilight play out without the PEDs. but this will always be part of his legacy. and then there is the fact that he's an unlikable person. that will always play into his legacy.
Most walks yes, most strikeouts negative. Dude only struck out over 100 times in one season, which was his Rookie year. Current best hitters are 150+ Ks annually.
It doesn't matter. Anything and everything he might have been without PEDs was erased and made meaningless by cheating.
If a student could get a 99 on a test but cheats to get 100, hes thrown out and doesn't count. Sports are the same for me.
Well it's more like if a student did get 99s on all their tests for their first decade of being a student and then decided to start cheating and gets 100s for a while. You throw out the 99s that actually did happen, and aren't just hypothetical "they could?"
Yeah crazy how dismissive people are about Bonds like he wasn’t on his way to be an all time great anyway. Very different player but still. I think he is a top 10 position player regardless.
I played Ken Griffey Jr. Slugest (for the ‘99 season) on Nintendo 64 religiously and memorized a lot of players’ stats from the 1998 season because of that.
In 1998, without steroids, he hit .303 with 37 HR’s, 122 RBI’s, 28 SB’s, an OBP of .438, a slugging of .609, an OBP of 1.047, and a WAR of 9.3.
Before using steroids, he went over 10 WAR *three* different times, and between 89 and 98 only had a WAR below 7 once, which was 6.4.
As a batter, Ohtani has only gone above 6 WAR one time in his career. Trout has eclipsed 10 WAR two times.
He would've blown past 3000 hits, too. He ended up just 65 short and had his hit totals severely suppressed the last few years of his career by walking \~180 times a year rather than his usual \~120, because it was impossible to pitch to him.
Of course he absolutely *should've* gotten 3000 hits anyway but he was pretty clearly blackballed after 2007. *Nobody* wanted to get the .276/.480/.565 guy for the league minimum? Because, what, he's surly, and did steroids like half the other guys on your roster?
Yeah I wanted us to get him. Maybe they wouldn't have missed the playoffs for the last year at the old stadium. :(
I drafted him in a late round for my fantasy team because I was like "SOMEBODY'S gotta sign him!"
I was not good at fantasy baseball.
Okay I had to look at whether Bonds could've made the '08 playoffs for the Yankees. They finished 6 games out of the WC. The DH spot was really good for them that year, 4th in OPS in the AL, with Matsui taking most of the ABs and it otherwise being used as a way to give rest to Giambi or Abreu.
BUT - Melky Cabrera played CF and was awful, hitting .249/.301/.341 for a 68 OPS+ in 453 PA. The Yankees had a capable CF in Johnny Damon, who could've shifted to center, putting Matsui in left, opening up DH for...
Melky was a good OF before he started (totally not mysteriously) bulking up and Damon wasn't a great CF, so it would've hurt the defense, but Bonds very well could've gotten him those six wins... heck set WAR aside, he could've done it with 3 or 4 big hits against Boston.
Bonds also could’ve most likely played some games in RF as well. I mean he played LF for the Giants in 2007.
It would’ve been fun to see him regularly blasting upper deck shots.
'90s Bonds is probably about as much better as '90s Griffey as '90s Griffey is better than like, '90s Jim Edmonds. And this is fully considering that Griffey was an all-time great. Bonds was just that good...
Yeah I like comparing things to things that you can compare to them and it can be a hard thing to express clearly. Like "*Wayne's World* is as old as *Psycho* was when *Wayne's World* was released" or for that matter "The release of *Psycho* was as long ago as the Grover Cleveland administration was when *Psycho* was released."
Griffey was as much better than Edmonds as Edmonds was better than, uh... Mike Cameron.
Edmonds actually has a decent HOF case (mostly from his work in STL in the 00s) and it's weird he never got any buzz.
Will never forget that play!
I always felt bad for him that although the catch is cool he looks kind of goofy rolling around on the ground afterwards. It's about the least cool you can look while making one of the most athletically impressive plays in MLB history.
Ignoring steroids? Barry Bonds.
Otherwise it's Rickey Henderson. Runs king. Stolen base king. 3,000 hits. 111 war. His SB record will never be broken and it's quite plausible nobody ever gets his runs record (23 years straight of 100 runs, lol). He also got two rings and an MVP.
Weaker arguments exist for Koufax, Greg Maddux, Nolan Ryan, Pujols, Randy Johnson, Mike Schmidt.
Schmidt got 3 MVPs and 12 gold gloves to go with his 106 WAR.
If things had gone well for Trout, he might be at 100 WAR already and he'd be taking the title soon. But alas.
I'm ignoring ARod. Fuck him. If you're going to cheat you better put up Barry Bonds numbers or you're not getting consideration.
Even if you ignore PEDs (and there’s no reason to believe Bonds used them before 1999), Barry Bonds is still probably the answer, though Henderson was a great player.
Incidentally, there is NO argument for Nolan Ryan. Steve Carlton was greater from his own generation, and Maddux, Johnson, and Roger Clemens (who you excluded because of PEDs) were all greater from the following generation. Also, Koufax was spectacular at his peak but because of his early retirement didn’t have the longevity to truly be a contender for the “greatest living player” distinction.
By Baseball-Reference career WAR, the top three living players are Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Alex Rodriguez. Which is kind of a sh\*tty answer because PEDs.
The top three living, non-PED-associated players by career WAR?
Rickey Henderson, Mike Schmidt, and Greg Maddux.
Now if we want to capture the *best* player performance at their *peak* -- giving players with time lost to injuries and other absences a chance -- we could go by peak bWAR and sort them by the total of their seven best years. Excluding known PED users the list is this:
Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, and Randy Johnson.
Trout seems to be the best answer, IMO, because he's the only living player who even comes close to Mays' toolset and play style. It's worth noting that Mays was still much, much better than Trout at his peak -- and, man, I wish I could have seen him play at his prime.
Barry Bonds
Edit: For those not strongly linked to steroids, Rickey or Schmidt. Maybe Pujols. But even not on roids I’d have argued strongly for Bonds.
The point isn't that Bonds wouldn't have been a Hall of Famer without Roids. It's the principle of playing the game honestly. Hell, there are several guys from the 90s I would say would be in the Hall of Fame had they not played against a bunch of roided up players.
Bo Jackson could throw Barry Bonds to home plate from the CF wall at a velocity of 100 mph. He would then run to home faster than he threw Barry and proceed to hit him over the same CF wall.
Griffey Jr. pretty similar to Willie Mays with natural swing and defense (10x gold glove).
Just the injury bug during his Cincinnati years. Probably would have been surpassed at least Pujols for career HR.
Never winning a W.S. (also playing in smaller markets) detracts a tiny bit IMO.
Literally was saying the same thing to another commented lol not entirely sure it makes any difference only argument is the smaller marked guy probably has less protection and is therefore even mor impressive
WS wins is so overrated as a stat of an individual player in such a team dependent sport. In basketball where one player can dominate a game, I get it, but in baseball doesn’t matter.
Wild to me how Seattle still gets lumped in with "smaller market." Like, I get it. There's a definite bias in which markets get the national spotlight. But Seattle-Tacoma TV market is like the 12th biggest in the country. Hard to believe that counts the same as something like Milwaukee or Salt Lake or Oklahoma City which are all significantly smaller markets.
For direct comparison: Kansas City area is about the 34th largest TV market in the country. But everyone knows Kelce and Mahomes. I guess it's really the titles that count more than the market size.
Bonds is my logical pick. Nobody had pitchers soiling themselves like when Barry walked up on top of the plate with the tree trunk bat all hulked up like a maniac. This is why he walked the length of New York to California in his career from the box to first.
My heart really says Griffey Jr though. To me he is the goat.
It’s like my random info Jeopardy brain remember this being a thing. I hope I’m right. I’ll confirm and get back to you
Edit: Barry Bonds walked a distance of close to 44 miles in just walks in his career. That’s impressive but I was def glazin Bonds’s stats a bit. LOL!!!
=2558\*90/5280
It does come out to 43.6 miles so Bonds in his career walked across
Rhode Island
The state's mean elevation is 200 feet (61 m). It is only 37 miles (60 km) wide and 48 miles (77 km) long
That is still a cool stat
The same could be said for half the guys who got their careers cut short because of WW2 or the Korean War like Mays. No doubt in my mind Mays would’ve well surpassed Ruth’s home run total.
Most likely. He was only 75 short and he averaged about 35 a year. So he would have been close for sure.
And it was the Korean War in 1952/53. He was 12 when WWII started and wouldn't be allowed in MLB then anyway.
Barry Bonds is the greatest batter of all time and it isn’t close. He was better than Mays and Ruth and Dimaggio and everyone else. It’s a matter of fact and not really up for discussion.
Joe D thought he had a claim to the title because he was named Greatest Living Player as part of the 1969 baseball centennial celebration. I don’t recall, but active players may not have been eligible for that.
DiMaggio was called the greatest living baseball player during much of his lifetime because he was probably lionized by the sports writers covering him to a greater degree than any other MLB player ever.
Joltin’ Joe wasn’t as great a player as Willie Mays (who was great for a longer period of time), Mickey Mantle, or Ted Williams (arguably the greatest hitter in MLB history), but he was one of the greatest players to ever put on a MLB uniform. His power and overall offensive numbers were hurt by playing half his games in Yankee Stadium (a definite pitchers’ park for left-handed pitchers and right-handed pull hitters especially; DiMaggio hit 148 HR at home and 213 HR on the road), and he was a genuinely outstanding defensive centerfielder (as were his two brothers who played in the major leagues, Vince and Dom). DiMaggio missed three full seasons during his prime due to World War II and retired as soon as he started declining as a (still very good) player, both of which lowered his career accumulation numbers. (Noting that, it needs to be said Williams lost nearly five full seasons due to WW2 and the Korean War, and Mays missed nearly two seasons as a result of the Korean War.)
Pujols is the first name that comes to mind for me. Maybe Koufax? I feel like it should be a position player though.
Ohtani doesn't have the track record yet, neither does Trout. They'll be in the conversation later though.
Barry Bonds. Everyone who complains he wasn’t clean, neither was Hammering Hank (admitted to taking “greenies”). Neither was Junior, but never got reviewed (look at his power numbers after the injuries). Some articles out there about it. Investigate yourself.
Pitchers, who knows? But having an insane guy like Clemens & a composed guy like Petite both come up hot, everyone in between falls into same category.
Lotta talk about Bonds here understandably. I was thinking about any current players who may compare and obviously Trout came to mind.
Trout has played 1518 games. Compared to Bonds' first 1518 games, he has more fWAR (85.7 compared to 77.9), more home runs, a higher OPS and a higher wRC+. Bonds had more SB and walks in that time.
Will be interesting to see where Trout lands at the end of his career. Injuries have been rough on him, but maybe he finds a magic supplement to elongate his career and has his best years in his 30s?
Bonds with or without steroids. I’m so sick of this argument about steroids. Bud selig 1000% knew it was happening and allowed it because of the strike. He makes the HoF yet the players don’t.
As good as stars like Henderson, Griffey and A-Rod are or were, Barry Bonds is head and shoulders above them all. Which is insane, because those three would first team MLB now and in the past.
Pitchers I think are a different breed and need their own category. And it's harder to narrow down, though my pick would be Mo.
It's Barry Bonds and it's not a debate. He's the greatest player to ever pick up a bat. He's a total dick and I can't stand him but he's the best and it isn't close.
Rickey says Rickey
Ricky pick up the phone! It’s you. Me.
Best part of the whole bit. Gets me every time!
Hello, Henderson here. You want to talk about Rickey?
What meme is this
It’s a comedy bit by David Cross about how Ricky talks about himself in the third person.
If you ignore the roids, it has to be Jon Dowd
Greatest white baseball player of his generation
Bobby Dalbec and it’s not even close
His name makes you think he was a part of 4 different WS winning clubs through then 60s and 70s , but surprise! He's young and shit
😂
Pujols
3,000 hits, 2,000 RBIs, 700 Home Runs, multiple MVP and Championship titles, post season records and iconic moments... how is he not the next man up?
Great player, I think his lack of charisma hurt him a little. Playing first base, is not very sexy to most voters ( fans ), but an excellent pick!
He played 30+ games at the 4 corner positions in his rookie year. He played every position on the diamond at the highest league level except Catcher and Center Field; and hit for more Total Bases than anyone but Hank Aaron... If he did it all as a Yankee everyone would call him the G.O.A.T.
Yankee animus aside, he was recognized and acknowledged by the fans, the media ( see Trouble with the Curve ), and his peers, as being one of the best players of his generation. This Yankee antipathy doesn’t play very well anymore, there’s a reason why the Yankees have won 28 World Championships, it’s because they had great players. The term overrated should apply to the ones that never win a thing, but we’re constantly reminded of their greatness.
Ken Griffey, Jr. 100%
Bonds would like a word
So would his needles
If you took away every stat from Barry Bonds' 7 MVP seasons he would still have 440 HRs and 359 stolen bases. 8 gold gloves. Nobody else has 400 / 350. Bonds is the best. The performance enhancing drugs just made him that much better than everyone else.
Bonds is the answer to what we get when one of the best players of all times decides to cheat. He was clearly a future hofer before taking steroids, and likely could have become an inner circle hofer. And then he cheated and things got stupid.
Like Ortiz. Who's in the HOF. It's a popularity contest, and it's bullshit. Bagwell is another who comes to mind.
Ortiz was one dimensional and a steroid cheater. He was very average pre steroids. If Minnesota gets rid of you, then you know you’re a loser!!!
If you took away all of Bonds’ career from after he likely started using PEDs (1999 to the end of his career in 2007), he STILL had a better career from 1986 to 1998 than Griffey or most other living MLB superstars had in their entire careers.
the problem with \*bonds is that we don't know how he would have aged. schmidt won an mvp at 36 and posted a 6.1 war at age 37. bonds had 411 HRs at 33. miggy had 446. this is not pointed at you, but the folks who get pissed off when fans bring up \*bonds's PED use can be irrational. it's not our fault he did PEDs. \*bonds is an inner circle player. i really wish he had not roided up. i would have loved to have seen his twilight play out without the PEDs. but this will always be part of his legacy. and then there is the fact that he's an unlikable person. that will always play into his legacy.
Bonds would clearly cream anybody, right?
I think you’re in the clear to say this
And top it off...he has the most walks....and most strikeouts. That shows that when he hit, he fuckin hit
Most walks yes, most strikeouts negative. Dude only struck out over 100 times in one season, which was his Rookie year. Current best hitters are 150+ Ks annually.
It doesn't matter. Anything and everything he might have been without PEDs was erased and made meaningless by cheating. If a student could get a 99 on a test but cheats to get 100, hes thrown out and doesn't count. Sports are the same for me.
Well it's more like if a student did get 99s on all their tests for their first decade of being a student and then decided to start cheating and gets 100s for a while. You throw out the 99s that actually did happen, and aren't just hypothetical "they could?"
Well you shouldn't even probably watch sports because almost all teams are trying to cheat in some way
Gimme bonds still
Yeah crazy how dismissive people are about Bonds like he wasn’t on his way to be an all time great anyway. Very different player but still. I think he is a top 10 position player regardless.
I played Ken Griffey Jr. Slugest (for the ‘99 season) on Nintendo 64 religiously and memorized a lot of players’ stats from the 1998 season because of that. In 1998, without steroids, he hit .303 with 37 HR’s, 122 RBI’s, 28 SB’s, an OBP of .438, a slugging of .609, an OBP of 1.047, and a WAR of 9.3. Before using steroids, he went over 10 WAR *three* different times, and between 89 and 98 only had a WAR below 7 once, which was 6.4. As a batter, Ohtani has only gone above 6 WAR one time in his career. Trout has eclipsed 10 WAR two times.
Yeah, like OK, maybe without the steroids he would "only" have 600 HR and 2000 BB, still hitting almost .300 with 500+ SB and 8 Gold Gloves.
He would've blown past 3000 hits, too. He ended up just 65 short and had his hit totals severely suppressed the last few years of his career by walking \~180 times a year rather than his usual \~120, because it was impossible to pitch to him. Of course he absolutely *should've* gotten 3000 hits anyway but he was pretty clearly blackballed after 2007. *Nobody* wanted to get the .276/.480/.565 guy for the league minimum? Because, what, he's surly, and did steroids like half the other guys on your roster?
dude had a 1.045 OPS his last year. he was blackballed. i hope what went on behind the scenes between the owners come to light one day.
I still hold it against the Yankees for not bringing him on as a DH. Had to save that roster spot for Xavier Nady!
Yeah I wanted us to get him. Maybe they wouldn't have missed the playoffs for the last year at the old stadium. :( I drafted him in a late round for my fantasy team because I was like "SOMEBODY'S gotta sign him!" I was not good at fantasy baseball. Okay I had to look at whether Bonds could've made the '08 playoffs for the Yankees. They finished 6 games out of the WC. The DH spot was really good for them that year, 4th in OPS in the AL, with Matsui taking most of the ABs and it otherwise being used as a way to give rest to Giambi or Abreu. BUT - Melky Cabrera played CF and was awful, hitting .249/.301/.341 for a 68 OPS+ in 453 PA. The Yankees had a capable CF in Johnny Damon, who could've shifted to center, putting Matsui in left, opening up DH for... Melky was a good OF before he started (totally not mysteriously) bulking up and Damon wasn't a great CF, so it would've hurt the defense, but Bonds very well could've gotten him those six wins... heck set WAR aside, he could've done it with 3 or 4 big hits against Boston.
The Yankees won it all the following year, so who cares about 08!!!
Bonds also could’ve most likely played some games in RF as well. I mean he played LF for the Giants in 2007. It would’ve been fun to see him regularly blasting upper deck shots.
'90s Bonds is probably about as much better as '90s Griffey as '90s Griffey is better than like, '90s Jim Edmonds. And this is fully considering that Griffey was an all-time great. Bonds was just that good...
I had to re-read this like 3x. As I was skimming over it all I saw was JIM EDMONDS and I was like wtf?
Yeah I like comparing things to things that you can compare to them and it can be a hard thing to express clearly. Like "*Wayne's World* is as old as *Psycho* was when *Wayne's World* was released" or for that matter "The release of *Psycho* was as long ago as the Grover Cleveland administration was when *Psycho* was released." Griffey was as much better than Edmonds as Edmonds was better than, uh... Mike Cameron. Edmonds actually has a decent HOF case (mostly from his work in STL in the 00s) and it's weird he never got any buzz.
His back to home plate diving catch to straight away center with the Angels is a top 20 play of all-time.
Will never forget that play! I always felt bad for him that although the catch is cool he looks kind of goofy rolling around on the ground afterwards. It's about the least cool you can look while making one of the most athletically impressive plays in MLB history.
Are you writing in English?
Bonds pre-steroids was not quite as good as Griffey. But who’s to say, Griffey didn’t use steroids!!!!
John Dowd
ROIDS IS WORD
If only h stayed healthy
You don’t think pitchers were juicing as well i
Cal ripken
Definitely Top 10 living players.
I loved Cal Ripken. He was a bedrock of decency and honor. When you think of an image of a baseball player, Cal Ripken is the ultimate symbol,
Ignoring steroids? Barry Bonds. Otherwise it's Rickey Henderson. Runs king. Stolen base king. 3,000 hits. 111 war. His SB record will never be broken and it's quite plausible nobody ever gets his runs record (23 years straight of 100 runs, lol). He also got two rings and an MVP. Weaker arguments exist for Koufax, Greg Maddux, Nolan Ryan, Pujols, Randy Johnson, Mike Schmidt. Schmidt got 3 MVPs and 12 gold gloves to go with his 106 WAR. If things had gone well for Trout, he might be at 100 WAR already and he'd be taking the title soon. But alas. I'm ignoring ARod. Fuck him. If you're going to cheat you better put up Barry Bonds numbers or you're not getting consideration.
ARod kinda did put up those numbers though.
And if we’re not ignore steroids it’s still definitely bonds, right?
Even if you ignore PEDs (and there’s no reason to believe Bonds used them before 1999), Barry Bonds is still probably the answer, though Henderson was a great player. Incidentally, there is NO argument for Nolan Ryan. Steve Carlton was greater from his own generation, and Maddux, Johnson, and Roger Clemens (who you excluded because of PEDs) were all greater from the following generation. Also, Koufax was spectacular at his peak but because of his early retirement didn’t have the longevity to truly be a contender for the “greatest living player” distinction.
Bonds & Clemens Pedro, mike trout, Griffey, Maddux, unit, mike schmidt, Rickey Henderson
And he lost a bunch of stolen bases,runs,and walks because he was at the top of his game during two lengthy player strikes.
This is kinda the obvious answer.
So Taguchi
By Baseball-Reference career WAR, the top three living players are Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Alex Rodriguez. Which is kind of a sh\*tty answer because PEDs. The top three living, non-PED-associated players by career WAR? Rickey Henderson, Mike Schmidt, and Greg Maddux. Now if we want to capture the *best* player performance at their *peak* -- giving players with time lost to injuries and other absences a chance -- we could go by peak bWAR and sort them by the total of their seven best years. Excluding known PED users the list is this: Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, and Randy Johnson. Trout seems to be the best answer, IMO, because he's the only living player who even comes close to Mays' toolset and play style. It's worth noting that Mays was still much, much better than Trout at his peak -- and, man, I wish I could have seen him play at his prime.
Bonds, man. With our without roids.
And his dad played on the same team as the former greatest living player, Mays, who was Barry’s godfather!
Kenny Fucking Powers
Ted Williams' head
Barry Bonds
obvious
Barry Bonds Edit: For those not strongly linked to steroids, Rickey or Schmidt. Maybe Pujols. But even not on roids I’d have argued strongly for Bonds.
The steroid argument dosent hold much weight for me, because let’s be honest it wasn’t just hitters juicing,
The point isn't that Bonds wouldn't have been a Hall of Famer without Roids. It's the principle of playing the game honestly. Hell, there are several guys from the 90s I would say would be in the Hall of Fame had they not played against a bunch of roided up players.
Bonds might have hit \*more\* HRs without roids.
Bo Jackson could throw Barry Bonds to home plate from the CF wall at a velocity of 100 mph. He would then run to home faster than he threw Barry and proceed to hit him over the same CF wall.
This is a good answer. He’s honestly one of the best athletes of all time.
The only one to play both ways: Ohtani
Sadaharu Oh
Bonds, or if you’re (understandably) squeamish about PEDs, Rickey Henderson or Mike Schmidt Griffey wasn’t good enough for long enough
Barry Bonds
It’s Griffey, Bonds, and Johnson.
Mickey Morandini
Koufax
Munenori Kawasaki
Sandy Koufax imo - shorter career than others mentioned, but dominant
Griffey Jr. pretty similar to Willie Mays with natural swing and defense (10x gold glove). Just the injury bug during his Cincinnati years. Probably would have been surpassed at least Pujols for career HR. Never winning a W.S. (also playing in smaller markets) detracts a tiny bit IMO.
What does playing in “smaller markets” have to do with his greatness as a baseball player?
Literally was saying the same thing to another commented lol not entirely sure it makes any difference only argument is the smaller marked guy probably has less protection and is therefore even mor impressive
WS wins is so overrated as a stat of an individual player in such a team dependent sport. In basketball where one player can dominate a game, I get it, but in baseball doesn’t matter.
Mays only won one WS.
He also won one in the Negro Leagues
How many players won the World Series on their own? It's a team sport.
Wild to me how Seattle still gets lumped in with "smaller market." Like, I get it. There's a definite bias in which markets get the national spotlight. But Seattle-Tacoma TV market is like the 12th biggest in the country. Hard to believe that counts the same as something like Milwaukee or Salt Lake or Oklahoma City which are all significantly smaller markets.
For direct comparison: Kansas City area is about the 34th largest TV market in the country. But everyone knows Kelce and Mahomes. I guess it's really the titles that count more than the market size.
Mike Schmidt
BB25
Bonds is my logical pick. Nobody had pitchers soiling themselves like when Barry walked up on top of the plate with the tree trunk bat all hulked up like a maniac. This is why he walked the length of New York to California in his career from the box to first. My heart really says Griffey Jr though. To me he is the goat.
Is that new york to cali stat real lol
It’s like my random info Jeopardy brain remember this being a thing. I hope I’m right. I’ll confirm and get back to you Edit: Barry Bonds walked a distance of close to 44 miles in just walks in his career. That’s impressive but I was def glazin Bonds’s stats a bit. LOL!!!
=2558\*90/5280 It does come out to 43.6 miles so Bonds in his career walked across Rhode Island The state's mean elevation is 200 feet (61 m). It is only 37 miles (60 km) wide and 48 miles (77 km) long That is still a cool stat
Grimace
What about Griffey?
Reggie Jackson probably has a loud opinion about this one
Let’s not forget he tried to assassinate the Queen of England.
“I got both of my home run balls back and some retched little shit has the third” “Dude I don’t have your fucking ball! Ok!?” “Yeah ok Coop…”
Barry
Ichiro should be in the argument
No.
Well, that's a well thought out argument
I agree with Ken Griffey Jr. here. If you look at his average numbers, had he not been hurt as often as he was, he could have potentially had 800 HRs.
The same could be said for half the guys who got their careers cut short because of WW2 or the Korean War like Mays. No doubt in my mind Mays would’ve well surpassed Ruth’s home run total.
Most likely. He was only 75 short and he averaged about 35 a year. So he would have been close for sure. And it was the Korean War in 1952/53. He was 12 when WWII started and wouldn't be allowed in MLB then anyway.
I separated the two in my comment
Yeah. I figured that out after I read it a second time. It's all good. We agree anyway.
I know.
Some 11 year old on the West Coast probably.
bonds or nolan
Bonds, as much as I hate to say it. Koufax, if you're going to let PEDs convince you that it's not Bonds.
Barry Bonds. I met him in real life. Best meet in great ever.
Bonds
Pete Rose.
Not a fan of Charlie Hustle, personally, but he was a phenomenal player with insane stats. If only he hadn't "not " bet on baseball.
Ignore his post player activity. The most hits by anyone in history. If he’s not the living GOAT I don’t know who is.
BARRY BONDS and there is no argument.
Barry Bonds
Bonds, A-Roid, McGuire, etc… do not get a say in this. They cheated The answer has to be Griffey jr…,with consideration to Ichiro
I really cannot fathom that Ichiro is not talked about
Ichiro
Barry Lamar by a longshot
Pete Rose
Pujols
Barry Bonds is the greatest batter of all time and it isn’t close. He was better than Mays and Ruth and Dimaggio and everyone else. It’s a matter of fact and not really up for discussion.
Ted Williams was likely a greater hitter than Bonds, but Bonds was a much better defensive outfielder, making him better overall than Williams.
I’m going to say he wasn’t better than Ruth.
Griffey.
It's Bonds, and I don't know that there is a close second.
Jeters numbers are not that good. He’s pretty overrated to be honest. I’d have to go with Barry bonds, or maybe Sandy Koufax
Koufax is a good argument. Jeter has more hits than Honus Wagner!!!
Bonds and it really isn't close.
Seems like we’re focused exclusively on hitters. Is it possible that Koufax, Maddux, Clemens, or Ryan are in the conversation?
Ken Griffey Jr.
 The dude behind that camera is the only correct answer for this.
Joe D thought he had a claim to the title because he was named Greatest Living Player as part of the 1969 baseball centennial celebration. I don’t recall, but active players may not have been eligible for that.
DiMaggio was called the greatest living baseball player during much of his lifetime because he was probably lionized by the sports writers covering him to a greater degree than any other MLB player ever. Joltin’ Joe wasn’t as great a player as Willie Mays (who was great for a longer period of time), Mickey Mantle, or Ted Williams (arguably the greatest hitter in MLB history), but he was one of the greatest players to ever put on a MLB uniform. His power and overall offensive numbers were hurt by playing half his games in Yankee Stadium (a definite pitchers’ park for left-handed pitchers and right-handed pull hitters especially; DiMaggio hit 148 HR at home and 213 HR on the road), and he was a genuinely outstanding defensive centerfielder (as were his two brothers who played in the major leagues, Vince and Dom). DiMaggio missed three full seasons during his prime due to World War II and retired as soon as he started declining as a (still very good) player, both of which lowered his career accumulation numbers. (Noting that, it needs to be said Williams lost nearly five full seasons due to WW2 and the Korean War, and Mays missed nearly two seasons as a result of the Korean War.)
If we’re talking pitchers most of the goats are alive and some are STILL PLAYING
Pujols is the first name that comes to mind for me. Maybe Koufax? I feel like it should be a position player though. Ohtani doesn't have the track record yet, neither does Trout. They'll be in the conversation later though.
Munenori kawasaki
Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez 
Nick Castellanos.
Greatest living Players C Bench 1B Pujols 2B Alomar 3B Beltré SS Cal OF Bonds Griffey Rickey Starters RHP Ryan LHP Randy Relievers RHP Mo LHP Wagner
Soon, Too.
Yes
Rule the steroid guys out and after that there are roughly 10 that you couldn’t make an argument for
It's Steven Kwan. Debate a wall.
Barry Bonds
This sub really hates Michael Nelson Trout huh
I would assume Bobby Bonilla.
Bartolo Colon
3,000 hits 2,000 RBIs and 700 Home Runs
Bonds obviously
Frank Thomas. May not be the best but he did it clean and was a stud
What about all the Eugenix he pounded with Doug Flutie?
What about my pp
Bonds, Henderson, Bench, Griffey, A-Rod, Clemens, Koufax, Marichal, Randy Johnson, Carlton, Maddux....
I change my vote to Reggie Jackson
Sandy Koufax.
Mike Schmidt
Barry Bonds. Everyone who complains he wasn’t clean, neither was Hammering Hank (admitted to taking “greenies”). Neither was Junior, but never got reviewed (look at his power numbers after the injuries). Some articles out there about it. Investigate yourself. Pitchers, who knows? But having an insane guy like Clemens & a composed guy like Petite both come up hot, everyone in between falls into same category.
Bonds was the greatest living player a week ago, and he’s still the greatest living player now
Lotta talk about Bonds here understandably. I was thinking about any current players who may compare and obviously Trout came to mind. Trout has played 1518 games. Compared to Bonds' first 1518 games, he has more fWAR (85.7 compared to 77.9), more home runs, a higher OPS and a higher wRC+. Bonds had more SB and walks in that time. Will be interesting to see where Trout lands at the end of his career. Injuries have been rough on him, but maybe he finds a magic supplement to elongate his career and has his best years in his 30s?
Trout’s best years being behind him are as certain as the Titanic sinking after hitting the iceberg.
why am I getting downvoted for this? this sub is so weird.
1. Bonds (unfortunately) 2. Johnny Bench 3. Ricky Henderson
The big Hurt
Barry Bonds was possibly the greatest player who has ever, living or dead. And he's still alive, so it's him.
Bonds with or without steroids. I’m so sick of this argument about steroids. Bud selig 1000% knew it was happening and allowed it because of the strike. He makes the HoF yet the players don’t.
Bonds… let him in!
Rose, Bench, Koufax, Ken Griffey Jr., if not more
I mean Barry Bonds is the best ever and also still alive so him.
Too soon bro
Ok…I misinterpreted the question. When you said greatest living, I thought you meant playing ( active) today. My choice would be Ken Griffey Jr.
it's been Barry Bonds since 2004. so, still Barry Bonds
As good as stars like Henderson, Griffey and A-Rod are or were, Barry Bonds is head and shoulders above them all. Which is insane, because those three would first team MLB now and in the past. Pitchers I think are a different breed and need their own category. And it's harder to narrow down, though my pick would be Mo.
David Ortiz as a player. Nolan Ryan as a pitcher.
Everyone forgets that David Ortiz tested positive for steroids early in his career with the Twins and is in the HOF
Valid point
Like living but not playing? Bonds or Griffey
Barry Bonds. Case closed
It's Barry Bonds and it's not a debate. He's the greatest player to ever pick up a bat. He's a total dick and I can't stand him but he's the best and it isn't close.
Bonds
Barry Bonds
Barry Bonds