The best 5 hitters.

[Erik]

I would like to start a thread on who's the best 5 hitters past or present time. I want to know why these hitters are the best. I would also like to see some clips to show why these 5 hitters are the best. I would also like to see what these 5 hitters all have in common or don't have in common that makes them the best. I trust that Steve E, Ohfor, Sandman, Swingbuster, Mark H, Ssarge, Tom, Hiddengem, and the whole crew will provide incredible information on this thread. Guys do your thing! Who are they?



EL,

[jbooth]

I would like to start a thread on who's the best 5 hitters past or present time. I want to know why these hitters are the best. I would also like to see some clips to show why these 5 hitters are the best. I would also like to see what these 5 hitters all have in common or don't have in common that makes them the best. I trust that Steve E, Ohfor, Sandman, Swingbuster, Mark H, Ssarge, Tom, Hiddengem, and the whole crew will provide incredible information on this thread. Guys do your thing! Who are they?



EL,

Babe Ruth
Ted Williams
Rogers Hornsby
Barry Bonds
Lou Gehrig

[fungo22]

Babe Ruth
Ted Williams
Rogers Hornsby
Barry Bonds
Lou Gehrig

... who's the best 5 hitters past or present time ... I would also like to see what these 5 hitters all have in common

1. Strong rotation from the middle
2. Efficient momentum transfer
3. Pants bloused just below the knee except for Bonds, who may have relied on "dietary supplements" instead.

[ssarge]

Not a bad list.

Any sentiment for Musial over Hornsby?

Musial:
.331,
3630 hits
475 HRs

Hornsby:
358,
2930 hits,
301 HRs?


With that change, one thing the top five hitters would have in common is that they all bat LH.

Regards,

Scott

[fungo22]

I thought about Stan the Man, but didn't have the numbers at hand to make a case. I also thought about the Mick when he was healthy and semi-hungover.

[Sonny]

Shouldn't Ty Cobb be in the mix?

.366
4,189 hits
.433 obp
.512 slg
Another lefty...
He didn't play long ball as much as the others, though.

Ty Cobb (357 strike-outs in 11,429 at bats!!) http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/ho.../cobb%5Fty.htm
Ted Williams
Babe Ruth
Stan Musial (696 strike-outs in 22 years. Are you kidding me?) http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/ho...usial_stan.htm
My pick for today's best: Barry Bonds
(Honorable mention for today's best: Todd Helton)

With Ruth and Bonds at bat, there is always hope that your team can win...especially if your a run down.
Williams, Musial, and Cobb (Those pesky batters that you can never seem to keep off of the bases)

**obviously at 39, I didn't get a chance to see them play, but thanks to my dad, many of his memories are mine.

I wasn't mentioned with the above group so I hope you don't mind my 2 or 3 cents worth.

Sonny

[bigdaddy]

The problem with these lists is that it's difficult to compare hitters from different periods.

You have to take into account...travel, relief pitching etc.

I like Bonds if he's going to face the same pitcher 5 times per game and see that pitcher 100's of times in his career while playing all day games and never traveling into different time zones or playing day games after night games.

Keith

[biocat777]

Hank Aaron!

You can't leave Hank Aaron off the list!

Steve (Biocat777)

[Sonny]

In comparison of the top five (at least for my list), I compiled the stats from the Baseball Almanac:

1. Ty Cobb: 24 yrs; .366 avg; .433 obp; .512 slg; 2,246 runs; 4,189 hits.
2. Babe Ruth: 22 yrs; .342 avg; .474 obp; .690 slg; 2,174 runs; 2,873 hits.
3. Stan Musial: 22 yrs; .331 avg; .471 obp; .559 slg; 1,949 runs; 3,630 hits.
4. Ted Williams: 19 yrs; .344 avg; .482 obp; .634 slg; 1,798 runs; 2654 hits
5. Barry Bonds: 20 yrs; .300 avg; .442 obp; .611 slg; 2,078 runs; 2,742 hits.

Biocatt,
Hammerin Hanks stats are very impressive as well:
23 yrs; .305 avg; .374 obp; .555 slg; 2,174 runs; 3,771 hits (I think he hit two or three homers too)

Another common factor: LONGEVITY.

Sonny

[Ohfor]

If you use "best at his peak" instead of "career numbers" Bonds leads this by a wide margin.

And, IMHO, best at his peak is what is important to we hitting instructor wannabes.

Career numbers indicate who figured it out the soonest. Not interested.

"Best at peak" tells us just how good they got. Very interested.

[jbooth]

Shouldn't Ty Cobb be in the mix?

.366
4,189 hits
.433 obp
.512 slg
Another lefty...
He didn't play long ball as much as the others, though.

If you are making a list of the best of ALL-TIME you have to find hitters who hit with both power and average. If you're looking for a one time all-star, or somebody to help your team right now, you can look for one or the other, but to pick THE BEST, he needs to have both, and a LOT of BOTH.

After you get a list of players with both power and average, then you narrow it down by looking at other individual items, like frequency of K's, BB's etc.

Cobb did hit a lot of triples, and certainly struck out very little, but I just can't put him in the top 5. Williams didn't K much and hit doubles and HR's and got walked a lot, just as Bonds and Ruth. Ruth hit twice as many triples as Bonds in less AB's and more HR's.

My pick for today's best: Barry Bonds
(Honorable mention for today's best: Todd Helton)

Yeah, I agree. I was surprised at Heltons career stats. I haven't followed him much, but he has impressive career stats.

With Ruth and Bonds at bat, there is always hope that your team can win...especially if your a run down.
Williams, Musial, and Cobb (Those pesky batters that you can never seem to keep off of the bases)

I think you have Williams in the wrong group. He belongs with Ruth and Bonds. Not with Musial and Cobb as a "pesky" hitter. He hit a HR every 14 AB's, that is close to Ruth at 11 and Bonds at 12.

[jbooth]

You can't leave Hank Aaron off the list!

Steve (Biocat777)

Sure, you can. He was a great hitter, but not in the top 5.

.305 lifetime. Hit over .330 only once.
Ruth and Williams hit over .350 7 and 5 times. He hit 755 HR's but he had way more AB's. He hit a HR every 16 AB's compared to 11, 12, 14 of the top 3 and his avg was way lower lifetime than Gehrig .340 who hit a HR every 16 AB's also. And Hornsby hit a HR ever 27 AB's, but hit .358 lifetime and hit over .350 9 times and over .400 3 times.

[Sonny]

Point well taken Jbooth,

I thought about the power numbers, but I just couldn't leave the second best hitter (number of hits) off of the list of best all time hitters. (I did leave off the career hits leader, Pete Rose) Why is that?

I agree with you also about Williams.

Sonny

[ssarge]

I think you have Williams in the wrong group. He belongs with Ruth and Bonds. Not with Musial and Cobb as a "pesky" hitter. He hit a HR every 14 AB's, that is close to Ruth at 11 and Bonds at 12.

Agree, for sure, about Williams.

I'm not pimping for Musial for any particular reason. But 475 HRs is NOT a "pesky" hitter. Combined w/ 3600 hits, it's an offensive machine.

Regards,

Scott

[ssarge]

Was Aaron's OBP really only .374? Extremely low delta between BA and OBP for am "all-time" power hitter.

Was this lack of respect from pitchers because he was never a 50 HR guy (but played a long time very consistently), or did he just swing at bad pitches?

Regards,

Scott