Like many sports, baseball has had players with personalities that transcend the game and legacies that are both revered and complicated. When you discuss the standing of these players within the game, they are often either propped up or dragged down due to the complicated nature of being a star within a sport. In baseball, players who took steroids have their legacies stricken with asterisks by many and other people chose to look past it because of how Major League Baseball handled the issue. In a sport like basketball, all time great players are often judged on their championship success while, in baseball, that is a far more complicated question. This part of the list aims to objectively identify the overall careers of some players with flawless character and legacies and others who don’t carry the same standard.
First, let's refresh numbers 80-71.
80. SANDY KOUFAX
79. CARL HUBBELL
78. FERGIE JENKINS
77. AL SIMMONS
76. DUKE SNIDER
75. PAUL GOLDSCHMIDT
74. MIKE PIAZZA
73. JOHNNY MIZE
72. BARRY LARKIN
71. HANK GREENBERG
70. DAVE WINFIELD
Hall of Fame: YES
Positional Rank: 15
ESPN’s Rank: 56
JAWS RF Rank: 20
Perhaps the best athlete to ever play Major League Baseball, Winfield was drafted to professional leagues in baseball, basketball (NBA and ABA) and football. Winfield stood at 6’6” and never played in a minor league game, joining the Padres only days after being drafted by them. From 1977 to 1988, Winfield made 12 straight All Star teams and was a model of consistency. Over that stretch, Winfield was top 5 in runs, hits, home runs, and RBI’s. After spending his first 16 years with the Padres and Yankees, Winfield played for 4 more teams over the final 6 years of his career, where he would surpass the 3000 hit mark and win his only World Series with the Blue Jays in ‘92.
69. VLADIMIR GUERRERO
Hall of Fame: YES
Positional Rank: 14
ESPN’s Rank: 77
JAWS RF Rank: 22
A .318 career hitter, Guerrero hit .300 or better in 12 consecutive seasons between 1997 and 2008. One of the most complete hitters in MLB history, Guerrero never struck out more than 95 times in any single season while also hitting 449 career home runs. Guerrero had a number of great seasons in Montreal, including 2002, where he fell just a home run short of joining the 40-40 club. He spent the first half of his career competing with Barry Bonds and co. for the NL MVP and when he joined the Angels in ‘04, he wasted no time by capturing the AL MVP after his first year in Anaheim.
68. BERT BLYLEVEN
Hall of Fame: YES
Positional Rank: 23
ESPN’s Rank: N/A
JAWS SP Rank: 15
In my opinion, Bert Blyleven not being on ESPN’s list is a big miss, but the lack of recognition is somewhat understandable. I think it’s fair to say that Blyleven may be one of the most under appreciated pitchers in MLB history. It took Blyleven 14 years on the Hall of Fame ballot to be inducted. He was only selected to 2 All Star teams and never finished higher than 3rd in the Cy Young voting. However, during his 22 year career, Blyleven accumulated a whopping 94.5 career WAR and 3701 strikeouts, which is good for 5th all time. Blyleven’s94.5 WAR ranks 13th all time by a starting pitcher, a few wins ahead of pitchers like Steve Carlton, Gaylord Perry and Bob Gibson. With one the best right handed curveballs of all time, Blyleven deserves the recognition as an all time great pitcher.
67. RYNE SANDBERG
Hall of Fame: YES
Positional Rank: T-7
ESPN’s Rank: 91
JAWS 2B Rank: 11
From a player who was under appreciated in his time to a player who garnered just about every accolade throughout his Major League career. Ryne Sandberg is widely considered one of the inner circle greatest second baseman of all time. During his 16 year career, Sandberg won the 1984 NL MVP, was a 10 time All Star, 9 time Gold Glove winner and a 7 time Silver Slugger. Sandberg is one of only five full time second baseman to have a season with 40+ home runs in the live ball era. Sandberg was inducted into the hall of fame in 2005.
66. PETE ROSE
Hall of Fame: NO
Positional Rank: 6
ESPN’s Rank: 34
JAWS LF Rank: 5
I will continue to state that I don’t think this list is perfect. This is the best effort that I’ve had so far at coming up with an objective ranking system for an all time list. Pete Rose is one of those players that, on a more subjective list of mine, would likely rank higher. Baseball’s all time hit king, Rose has played in the most games, taken the most plate appearances and at bats, and has the most player wins in MLB history. An MVP, a 17 time All Star and a 3 time World Series winner, Rose is one of the greatest players of his generation. Rose led the league in hits 7 times en route to 3 batting titles. Unfortunately, as most people know, Rose has been banned from baseball due to his involvement in gambling when he was a player and he will likely never get to see himself inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame, which is truly a shame because there are few players who played the game as hard as Charlie Hustle. Rose is likely harmed on this list by the fact that his production waned in a big way towards the end of his career, negatively effecting his rate stats, but the list has spoken and Pete Rose is the 66th best player in MLB history.
65. EDDIE MATHEWS
Hall of Fame: YES
Positional Rank: 6
ESPN’s Rank: 64
JAWS 3B Rank: 2
Mathews is the only player in franchise history to play for the Braves when they were in Boston, Milwaukee, and Atlanta. By the end of his career, he had become the gold standard for all time great third basem*n. Of players who were considered third baseman by Baseball Reference JAWS, Mathews ranks 2nd in WAR and WAR7, and 1st in oWAR. With 512 long balls, only Mike Schmidt has more home runs as a third baseman. He was a 12 time All Star and notched two 2nd place NL MVP finishes in his career. Mathews made up one half of the greatest middle of the line-up power duo in MLB history with Hank Aaron. While playing together, they hit 863 home runs, which is a record for any pairing of teammates.
64. DEREK JETER
Hall of Fame: YES
Positional Rank: T-4
ESPN’s Rank: 28
JAWS SS Rank: 13
In the age of social media, Derek Jeter is constantly referred to online as one of the most overrated players in MLB history. I like to think that it really depends on where you think about Derek Jeter in terms of the history of the game. When viewed as one of the 5 greatest shortstops of all time and one of the 65 best players ever, like he is on this list, I think he’s very properly rated. When ESPN releases their absolute nonsense list and has him ranked 28th while Albert Pujols is ranked 30th and Cal Ripken Jr is ranked 66th, I’d probably agree that he’s overrated. With that being said, the reason for this discrepancy in overall rating is that Derek Jeter is perhaps the greatest winner in baseball in the Wild Card era. As the captain, and shortstop for the Yankees, Jeter is given a lot of credit for the Yankees dynasty in the late 90’s, as much of their winning coincided with his arrival in the big leagues. As a member of the Yankees, Jeter was apart of 5 championship teams. In his stellar 20 year career, Jeter climbed all the way up to 6th on the all time hits leaderboard. Advanced statistics have a complicated relationship with Jeter and this puts it at odds with his historical relevance category. Jeter never won an MVP like many of the other shortstops on this list, but he ranks 3rd in oWAR by shortstops. However, despite winning 5 Gold Gloves, out of the 500 shortstops on the Baseball Reference JAWS leaderboard, Jeter ranks 499th in dWAR. Whether you think Jeter is overrated or underrated, he is one of the most iconic players in baseball history, and is properly rated at 64 on the list.
63. ADRIAN BELTRE
Hall of Fame: YES
Positional Rank: 5
ESPN’s Rank: 97
JAWS 3B Rank: 4
MLB’s most recent induction into the Hall of Fame, Beltre had one of the most productive careers of any third baseman ever. Beltre ranks 3rd in WAR all time by third baseman on JAWS and is 2nd only to Brooks Robinson in dWAR. Beltre notched 3166 hits and 477 home runs during his career, making him 1 of only 12 players in MLB history to have 3000+ hits and 400+ home runs. Early in his career, Beltre had some good seasons including one monster 2nd place NL MVP finish with the Dodgers in 2004. After a disappointing tenure with Seattle and one year in Boston, Beltre found a home with the Rangers and spent the last 8 years of his career there where he would become a slam dunk first ballot Hall of Famer. Beltre notched an OPS+ north of 130 in 5 of his 8 seasons in Texas and finished top 10 in the AL MVP in four of those seasons.
62. PAUL WANER
Hall of Fame: YES
Positional Rank: 12
ESPN’s Rank: N/A
JAWS RF Rank: 11
Another player whose absence from ESPN’s list is understandable but nevertheless an oversight. Waner comes in at 20th on baseball’s all time hits list with 3152. Waner played from 1926 to 1945 but his prime was undoubtedly his first 12 seasons where he never had an OPS+ lower than 129. For reference, in 1926, Paul Waner and Lou Gehrig were both 23 years old and over the course of the next 12 seasons, Waner would have more hits, more doubles, and a better batting average than Gehrig. Waner won the NL MVP in 1927 and notched 3 batting titles. Waner’s 8 seasons of 200 hits is tied for 4th all time for those such seasons.
61. JIM PALMER
Hall of Fame: YES
Positional Rank: 22
ESPN’s Rank: 85
JAWS SP Rank: 43
Palmer is 1 of 11 pitchers in MLB history to have 3 or more Cy Young awards and also notched two 2nd place finishes during his 19 year career. Since the start of the Integration Era (1947), Palmer has the 5th lowest career ERA at 2.86. During that same period, Palmer is one of two pitchers to have 8 or more 20 win seasons. Palmer was the definition of an ace, helping lead the Orioles to 3 World Series during his 19 year career, all with Baltimore. In 1983, Palmer became the first pitcher to win a World Series game in three different decades. One of the greatest pitchers of the ‘70s, Palmer led the decade in wins and was 2nd in ERA, while being top 10 in just about every category. Unsurprisingly, Palmer was a first ballot Hall of Famer, inducted in 1990.
