who do you consider the greatest baseball player of your generation

[Misfit]

Re: who do you consider the greatest baseball player of your generation

Pitcher: Pedro (for peak performance, if we're looking at longevity then probably Maddux)

Position Player: It's hard not to pick Pujols, but I'm going to go with someone from my childhood and say Rickey Henderson.

[DTX3]

Re: who do you consider the greatest baseball player of your generation

Griffey and Pujols

This.

[Blzer]

Re: who do you consider the greatest baseball player of your generation

MVPs and Gold Gloves really don't mean that much.

Eh, they don't mean much if you say something like "Player A led the league in OPS and he was MVP" mostly because Player A would more than likely get the MVP because of those numbers. But in all, they work in a comparative sense, as in how often Player A actually tended to dominate their role in the league. So the MVP and Gold Glove awards show that he was consistently dominant above his competitors.

[steelcurtain311]

Re: who do you consider the greatest baseball player of your generation

I don't give a flying crap about Barry Bonds SB numbers or Gold Gloves or MVP's, considering a good amount of the MVP's were tainted. And Gold Gloves are the most meaningless award I've ever seen in any sport, I think Greg Maddux is still going to win one for the pitcher position this season lol. I watched Barry as an outfielder from the start, I never thought he was that good. He never had a good arm, and he wasn't exactly great at breaking to the ball. He made a lot of nice catches though, which is a big reason why guys win gold gloves.

He's got the SB numbers that Albert doesn't have, okay. But Albert IS a good baserunner, despite his size and speed, which is another very impressive aspect of his game. He's got like 11 steals this year, not bad for a big man. His bat and glove are so good that they make up for his speed to begin with.

Bonds has the better eye probably, but Albert's is not far off. Neither K'd much at all, both walked, both killed it over .300 every year. Albert has more power before Bonds got his hands on the Clear. I know how people don't take RBI stats seriously, but I don't think I've ever seen a guy hit so well with on base before Albert. No matter what the situation, how many outs, what inning it is, when there's men on, Albert delivers. You could take a lot of top RBI guys and throw them in Albert's spot in that St Louis lineup the past few years, and I doubt any of them put up 100 RBI's. That lineup was trash aside from Albert, and before Holliday came over.

Albert's the best player I've ever seen.

[RandyMoss84]

Re: who do you consider the greatest baseball player of your generation

I don't give a flying crap about Barry Bonds SB numbers or Gold Gloves or MVP's

stopped reading here....

He's got 7 MVPs!!! the next closest has less than half that! he's had more consecutive (4) than the next highest person has total

if that doesnt show the greatest of a generation than i dont know what does....

maybe the single season HR record??
maybe the all-time HR record??
maybe the sole member of the 500-500 club??
maybe the all-time BB and IBB records??
14 time all star???


come on people...

[DTX3]

Re: who do you consider the greatest baseball player of your generation

The question wasn't "Who do you consider the greatest baseball player of your generation who was on steroids?" F.Y.I.

[TheLetterZ]

Re: who do you consider the greatest baseball player of your generation

Look, if you don't want to call Barry Bonds the greatest player of this generation because of steroids, that's fine. But choosing another player for any reason other than steroids is a stretch.

[Mr. Franchise]

Re: who do you consider the greatest baseball player of your generation

A-Rod

[Gibbz]

Re: who do you consider the greatest baseball player of your generation

Pitcher: Pedro Martinez

Position Player: Toss-up between Bonds and Pujols.

[Brandon13]

Re: who do you consider the greatest baseball player of your generation

Bonds followed by Pujols.

[Knight165]

Re: who do you consider the greatest baseball player of your generation

Look, if you don't want to call Barry Bonds the greatest player of this generation because of steroids, that's fine. But choosing another player for any reason other than steroids is a stretch.

I'm not sure how you can come to that conclusion.
For the first 7 full seasons of his career he was a .275 hitter averaging about 25 homers per season.
He then begins a 15 year stretch where he averages 40 per and hits .312.
How are we supposed to compare him to other players(and this is really for the guys saying greatest of all time) when the taint is there?
Blech...it's palpable.

Let's say we continued his stretch from the early part of his career.....he'd still have an impressive 550+ homers...hitting say .280. Excellent numbers for sure....in line with Mike Schmidt...heck even the Mick....but greatest ever?...not even close.
To say the 'roids didn't make a difference in this is burying your(not you in particular) head in the sand.

To be fair....I don't know what you are considering "this generation"...so maybe I shouldn't have directed this squarely at you.

M.K.
Knight165

[Mr. Franchise]

Re: who do you consider the greatest baseball player of your generation

"loosey goosey era"

50 years from now they won't care about steroids, it will be a part of the medical trade and wont even be considered part of the record books. it will read "1st Barry Bonds - 762"

50 years from now it will read

"1st Albert Pujols"
"2nd Alex Rodriguez"
"3rd Prince Fielder"
"4th Barry Bonds"

[TheLetterZ]

Re: who do you consider the greatest baseball player of your generation

I'm saying that if you take his career at face value and completely ignore steroids, there's almost no argument that he's the greatest player of this generation (which I'd consider the last twenty years).

There's really no point in debating the statistics of the situation. Arguing stolen bases and Gold Gloves is just silly. Based on what he did on the field, he clearly had the best career.

You either say, "He took steroids, therefore I refuse to say he's the greatest player of this generation," or you say, "I don't care about whether or not he took steroids. He had the best career of anyone and is the greatest player of this generation." I don't see how there's a middle ground.

[Knight165]

Re: who do you consider the greatest baseball player of your generation

I'm saying that if you take his career at face value and completely ignore steroids, there's almost no argument that he's the greatest player of this generation (which I'd consider the last twenty years).

There's really no point in debating the statistics of the situation. Arguing stolen bases and Gold Gloves is just silly. Based on what he did on the field, he clearly had the best career.

You either say, "He took steroids, therefore I refuse to say he's the greatest player of this generation," or you say, "I don't care about whether or not he took steroids. He had the best career of anyone and is the greatest player of this generation." I don't see how there's a middle ground.

Which is what my point is actually.
There is a middle ground.
I can't ignore that he was a great player as much as I can't ignore the fact that he cheated with PED's.
I pointed out that if we followed his first seven years(wanna take ten?...take ten) he MIGHT have hit 550-762 HR's. Yep, I'm fully willing to say he might have hit all 762 of his homers without steroids...but we never will truly know, will we.
Hence....the stinky taint.(IMO)

Would 550 .280 have been the greatest of the last 20 years? We won't know that either, will we?

M.K.
Knight165

[TheLetterZ]

Re: who do you consider the greatest baseball player of your generation

Fair enough, but that's just guesswork. We can only go by what we do know.