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Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Greatest Living Players?

The four greatest living players as determined by a panel of experts (or was it a fan vote?): Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax, and Johnny Bench. Agree? I sure don’t.

Is Bench even the greatest living catcher? What about Yogi? While Bench had the howitzer arm, the statistics show Berra as the better overall hitter. In 38 more games Bench only bettered Yogi in home runs (31 more) and doubles (60 more) - yet Berra's slugging percentage still edged Bench's. Bench struck out three times more than Yogi. Derek Jeter's career was better than both Bench and Berra. Ichiro, only 81 hits behind Pete Rose’s all-time record, deserves consideration as well.

YR..games..runs.....hits....2B....3B....HR....RBI......BB......SO
17...2158...1091...2048...381...24...389...1376...0981...1278...JB
18...2120...1175...2150...321...49...358...1430...0704...0414...YB
20...2747...1923...3465...544...66...260...1311...1082...1840...DJ
15…2292…1323...2897...336…87...113…0729…0581…0971…IS MLB
24…3243…1981...4175…547..110..231…1258…0965…1304...IS total

AVG..OBP..SLG...OPS...AS.MVP
267...342...476...874...14...2...JB...ROY
285...348...482...830...15...3...YB
310...377...440...817...14...0...DJ...ROY
316…359…409…768…13…4…IS...ROY

Koufax had a great five year run, but was Greg Maddux's overall body of work not far better? Sandy had a low ERA, but compared to his contemporaries did Maddux not separate himself more? Greg also had more wins, strikeouts, gold gloves, and sacrifice bunts, and fewer walks. In fact, divide Maddux's wins in half and they're still more than Koufax.

PL..YR....W.....L......%.....ERA..games..INN...BB......K
S...12...165...087...655...2.76...397...2324...817...2396
G...23...355..227...610...3.16...744...5008...999...3371

PL.WHIP...H9...HR9..BB9...K9...K/BB..CY.AS..HOF%
S...1.106...6.8...0.8...3.2...9.3...2.93...3...6...86.9
G..1.143...8.5...0.6...1.8...6.1...3.37...4...8...97.2

And I am not the only one who thinks Koufax could be over-rated: http://itsaboutthemoney.net/archives/2015/07/15/sandy-koufax-is-criminally-overrated/

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