Best Players of your era

**RedsFan75** · 06-16-2005, 10:16 AM

Re: Best Players of your era

Wow.... Where do I begin... I consider my "era" to be around 1968 to the present.

to pick one player.... SO Many!!!!!!
so here goes...
Best Position Player: Johnny Bench. - Bench virtually changed the position. Hit for power, defensive, great arm... total package at catcher. It was years before anyone caught up with him at the position, that being Pudge Rodriguez.

Pitcher: Bob Gibson. Of all the pitchers available, why Gibson... He truely changed the game. Gibson is the reason the mound got lowered. Gibson with his lifetime 2.91 era. Gibson had an era in 1968 of 1.12 with 22 wins and 304 innings pitched while only allowing 198 hits, the lowest ERA figure since 1914. The next year they lowered the mound and he still ended up with a 2.18 ERA. Over 17 seasons with the Cardinals, Bob Gibson won 20 games five times. He was an ex-Harlem Globetrotter. National League Cy Young Award winner and Most Valuable Player in 1968. Gibson posted World Series records of seven consecutive wins and 17 strikeouts in a game, and was named World Series MVP in 1964 and 1967

**Dice** · 06-16-2005, 10:19 AM

Re: Best Players of your era

My era is 87-Present.

Best Position Player: Barry Bonds - I hate the guy but give credit where credit is due there was no dominating player than this guy. I believe that he was better in his Pirate/early Giant years because he was a complete 5-tool player. Now he's just a roided-up slugger and just is a TOOL.

Best Pitcher: Greg Maddux - He doen't have a 95+ mph fastball, a wicked curve or a devestating changeup BUT he still won over 300 games. He's not a hurler but a PITCHER. He never relied on his STUFF to carry him(like most picther do now) but used his brain to out think hitters. Clemens comes a close second because in his early years Clemens relied on his STUFF too much. But these last couple of years he finally took the PITCHING approach. If Clemens would have starting being a PITCHER in his early years he would have out-distanced hiself from Maddux by a mile.

Best Team: 1998 New York Yankees - No one defined the word team in baseball unlike this team. No one in the lineup really stood out as the 'Feared hitter' you had to walk. They just had solid gamers. The pitching staff was the same. You didn't have that one pitcher who hitters would be baffled by. The just had solid gamers. But if you had to pick a strength on this team it would have been the bullpen. Just absolutley LIGHTS OUT! Speed,Pitching,Hitting,Defense. They had it all. The only thing they didn't have was a feared superstar. That's because you feared this TEAM more than you feared one player.

Best Manager: Joe Torre - If you look at his track record with the Yankees how can you argue? YES, he manages the Yankees who get the best available players on the market. But there have been times where other teams had the best TALENT but never won the ring(2001 Mariners). And this is the reason why I picked him because I would have picked LaRussa but he tends to over manage in the playoffs. Torre let's his players PLAY during the post season and that's why Torre has 4 rings and LaRussa only has 1 during this era.

**deeman11747** · 06-16-2005, 10:32 AM

Re: Best Players of your era

Best hitter: Bonds.... just no one can hit like this guy... you almost expect a HR every time hes up... although he as a ********

Pitcher: Clemens.... this guy is unbeliavably hard working... a great comptetitor... an intimadator.. but hes an overall good guy and knows how to pitch big.

Team: 1998 Yankees... best season of my life

Manager: Torre... he's not the best in game manager... but off the field he has to be the best... he is there to resolve all problems and keep every one in line and keep the chemistry together. I don't blame him for our failure this season at all.

**elicoleman** · 06-16-2005, 10:45 AM

Re: Best Players of your era

Best Batter Seen Live - Ken Griffey Jr., Reds (multiple games)
If not for those injuries, would he have 600 homers? 650 by now? People forget just how great this guy was back when he was a Mariner.

Best Pitcher Seen Live - Randy Johnson, D-Backs and Yankees
I've seen him pitch twice in my life, just this past Saturday vs the Cardinals and back in 2001 when he was with the Diamondbacks vs the Reds at Cinergy Field. He's probably one of a handful of pitchers to throw 17 K's and still lose a game, which he lost 2-0 thanks to a Dessens two hit shutout. He is an absolute beast on the mound and his speed and control is just mind boggling. Its an honor to get to say that I've seen a Hall of Fame pitcher pitch before.

**Stu** · 06-16-2005, 10:53 AM

Re: Best Players of your era

I'll add Best Team and Best Manger:

Best Team: 1998 Yankees, as much as I hate to admit it. Just an all around solid team that dominated the entire season.
Honorable mention: 2004 Red Sox, for obvious reasons. 1993 Toronto Blue Jays. They had an unbelievable collection of talent. Molitor, Alomar, Olerud, Carter, Ricky, Devon White. Their pitching staff wasn't dominant but were strong with Juan Guzman, Pat Hentgen, Dave Stewart, Duane Ward, etc. This team also provided my most memorable WS moment (outside of 2004) with Joe Carter's walk off homerun in Game 6.

Best Manager: Bobby Cox. Torre obviously deserves mention as well but Cox has won the division in every full season in my "era." (1990-present) He is also 2nd among active managers in wins, in the top 10 of all time, and has a higher career winning % than Torre and LaRussa.

**ehh** · 06-16-2005, 10:59 AM

Re: Best Players of your era

Originally posted by camulos

Best Manager: Bobby Cox. Torre obviously deserves mention as well but Cox has won the division in every full season in my "era." (1990-present) He is also 2nd among active managers in wins, in the top 10 of all time, and has a higher career winning % than Torre and LaRussa.

Honestly, the Braves should be worse goats than the Buffalo Bills. 15 straight division titles and ONE Wold Series championship? Are you kidding me?! And with THAT pitching staff?!

Winning 1 outta 15 w. their talent vs. Losing 4 straight Super Bowls, three of which the Bills had inferior talent anyway. Cox should not be considered that great of a manager IMO.

**Stu** · 06-16-2005, 11:01 AM

Re: Best Players of your era

Originally posted by elicoleman

He's probably one of a handful of pitchers to throw 17 K's and still lose a game, which he lost 2-0 thanks to a Dessens two hit shutout.

In 2000 Pedro struck out 17 Devil Rays but lost 1-0 thanks to Steve Trachsel and his 3 hit shutout.

**ehh** · 06-16-2005, 11:02 AM

Re: Best Players of your era

Best Position Player: I mean, how can I not say Barry Bonds right now? There still is no proof that he used 'roids (I'm a firm believer of innocent til proven guilty) but I obviously have serious doubt that he was clean. All those atsronomical offensive statistics. Plus 500 stolen bases? Granted his defense has gone downhill greatly over the past 5 years, he's still the best player I've ever seen.

Best Pitcher: Maybe it's because he burned the Yanks so many times, but Pedro Martinez. Just amazing what he could/can do.

Best Team: '98 Yankees, I don't think anyone on OS is old enough to have witnessed anything better. In fact there prolly aren't too many people alive on this planet who witnessed anything better.

**bravosfan** · 06-16-2005, 11:08 AM

Re: Best Players of your era

Best Hitter: Barry Bonds. He may be a prick, but he's also a helluva ballplayer - steroids or not.

Best Pitcher: Greg Maddux. Biased here, but this guy would just carve hitters up. It was a clinic. Take a look at his stats in 94-95. Sick.

Best Manager: Bobby Cox. Once again, biased. The guy just wins. He may not be the greatest tactician (though he's not bad), but he just has an amazing ability to bring a team together, and get the most out of his players.

Best team: 1998 Yankees. It wasn't the greatest collection of talent ever assembled, but they just had professional ballplayers at every position, guys who knew what it took to get the job done.

**RoyalBoyle78** · 06-16-2005, 11:13 AM

Re: Best Players of your era

well my favorite player all alltime and I think one of or the best players of my era, is no other then Rickey Henderson, I'm just so sick of people and baseball never talking about Rickey at all when it comes to baseball, He' is one of the best leadoff men to ever play the game, and all we here about is this stupid @$$ HR recored or strickout recored, what when is comes to recoreds people don't mention the recorded that most likley will never be broken ever, and that Rickey's stolen base recored, wich I believe is 1407, nobody will ever break that as long as I live. So I say "Long Live Rickey".

**VanCitySportsGuy** · 06-16-2005, 11:24 AM

Re: Best Players of your era

Originally posted by FootballForever

well my favorite player all alltime and I think one of or the best players of my era, is no other then Rickey Henderson, I'm just so sick of people and baseball never talking about Rickey at all when it comes to baseball, He' is one of the best leadoff men to ever play the game, and all we here about is this stupid @$$ HR recored or strickout recored, what when is comes to recoreds people don't mention the recorded that most likley will never be broken ever, and that Rickey's stolen base recored, wich I believe is 1407, nobody will ever break that as long as I live. So I say "Long Live Rickey".

There's a lot of people that say he should just retire. I give him credit because he must really love the sport. He's making peanuts in the IL.

**Vince** · 06-16-2005, 11:43 AM

Re: Best Players of your era

I'd say Bonds because no one has been able to match his eye for the baseball and ability to hit pitches that go to the inside quite like him in my era. I'm sorry, but steroids or not, an OBP in the .800's is frightning to say the least. The year where he hit .370 had to be one of the best season's ever for a baseball player. Not to mention he won a handful of GG's and was once a great left fielder.

For pitching, I'm struggling between Big Unit and Rocket Rog. Unit was the master of the 10-12-15 and 17 K outing. He's been so dominant over the years(excluding this year). The thing that might set him apart for me was in 2001 when he came out of the BP and was huge vs the Yanks.

**bravosfan** · 06-16-2005, 11:44 AM

Re: Best Players of your era

Originally posted by ehh

Honestly, the Braves should be worse goats than the Buffalo Bills. 15 straight division titles and ONE Wold Series championship? Are you kidding me?! And with THAT pitching staff?!

It's actually 13 straight division titles, but who's counting?

I know people will hold that against him. Obviously as a Braves fan I'm disappointed they didn't win more rings. They came as close as you can to winning without actually winning in '91. They won the 1st 2 games in 96... things could've been different.

But on the flip side, how many times have we heard over the last 8 or so years, "The Braves are done."? And the Braves keep on winning. Does Cox deserve no credit for that? The way they've dominated the NL for so many years, I don't think that's anything to be ashamed of.

Originally posted by ehh

Winning 1 outta 15 w. their talent vs. Losing 4 straight Super Bowls, three of which the Bills had inferior talent anyway. Cox should not be considered that great of a manager IMO.

And the Braves always had superior talent?

1991: Lost 1-0 to the Twins in the 10th inning of Game 7. Doesn't get any closer than that.

1992: Lost to the Blue Jays in 6. The Jays were just better.

1993: Lost to the Phillies in 6, probably should've beaten that team.

1995: Won the WS over an arguably superior Cleveland Indians team in 6 games.

1996: Lost to the Yankees in 6 games. This was the start of the Yankees dynastic run. I'm still bitter about this one, after winning the first 2 games at Yankee Stadium. But obviously the Yankees were a great team.

1997: Lost to the eventual world champion Florida Marlins in 6 games. That was a great team.

1998: Lost to the Padres in 6 games. Probably should've won that series, though the Padres were very good that year.

1999: Lost to the Yankees in 4 games. They overcame a ton of adversity that year just to make it to the World Series. I don't consider that year a failure at all. Major overachievement.

2000: Lost to the Cardinals in 3 games. Cardinals were better.

2001: Lost to the eventual world champion Arizona Diamondbacks in 5. D'Backs were just better.

2002: Lost to the Giants in 5 games. Giants went on to win the NL pennant and were on the verge of winning the World Series, I think they were better.

2003: Lost to the Cubs in 5 games: Cubs were on the verge of going to the World Series, until... well, you know the story.

2004: Lost to the Astros in 5 games. Astros were better.

**CWood2** · 06-16-2005, 12:05 PM

Re: Best Players of your era

Best Pitcher (Starter) - Pedro Martinez. If you compare his numbers in '99 and '00 to Sandy Koufax, there's no better pitcher in terms of sheer dominance. Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux, and Randy Johnson follow in that order.

Best Pitcher (Reliever) - Dennis Eckersly. Narrowely beats out Mariano Rivera because he's already in the Hall. There were a lot of guys who had great seasons, from Gagne to Thigpen, but these two stand out as dominant closers over many years which is hard to do.

Best Hitter (Power) - Barry Bonds. Despite the controversy, his MVP performances of late are staggering and among the greatest seasons of all time.

Best Hitter (Average) - Tony Gwynn. I realize Ichiro is pretty good too, but no one broke down hitting better than Gwynn besides Ted Williams. George Brett, Paul Molitor and Wade Boggs are honorable mention in my lifetime.

Best Defensive Outfielder - Andruw Jones. Sure, my favorite player...hasn't lived up to his billing at the plate. But in the field, he's the closest thing to Mays that's out there.

Best Defensive Infielder - Ozzie Smith. The Wizard, enough said. Vizquel was pretty good in his prime too, especially around the bag.

criteria: I had to see these guys play in their prime and in the middle of their all star runs. Born in '81 for reference.

Best Players of your era

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