A catcher, a secondbaseman, a centerfielder and a leftfielder all in one.............Craig Biggio, do I win?
Stan Musial is also very worth consideration as perhaps the most underrated player in the history of MLB.
This guy Alan Schwartz went with Mike Schmidt-- based on a combination of On-base Percentage and Slugging Average (plus Schmidt's fielding prowess). His main point was that Batting Average is a poor measurement because it doesn't account for extra-base hits, walks, etc. His second choice was Alex Rodriguez-- a close second who is a very productive hitter and an excellent defensive player as well. Were Rodriguez retired (like Schmidt is), he might have won out.
Whenever we played old Triple Play Baseball on Nintendo, mike schmidt would absolutely kill us. Thus we began to call him Mike ****..
Give me Walter Johnson, Bob Gibson or Roger Clemens. Cy Young is overrated, he has about 120 wins against either minor-league competition, or from when the mound was at like 50 feet from home.
Without looking... I'd go with an incredible ace pitcher like Randy Johnson. My second choice would be an outstanding defensive center fielder who isn't too much of a liability with the bat (ie: Andruw Jones). Top defensive center fielders save a great deal of runs.
Well if you're going that way, you might as well spring for Willie Mays. Best bat and glove combination ever.
Babe Ruth... and then.... Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Rogers Hornsby, Ty Cobb. Christy Mathewson, "Smokin" Joe Wood, Whitey Ford, Bob Feller, Dizzy Dean, Tom Seaver, Bob Gibson, Walter Johnson.
Yeah, I'm not really too familiar with historical baseball stats before the '90s. I'm sure there have been much better defensive center fielders than Jones. Mays sounds good.
Actually - when Jones plays hard, there aren't. He has some mental lapses, but when he's on, he's probably the second best defensive center fielder ever.
Even though I'm from the hometown of Hammerin' Hank, Satchel Paige, Willie "Stretch" McCovey and Ozzie Smith (he later moved west), I've got to go with Warren Spahn, the Braves' great. This is from the Rob Neyer piece on ESPN.com: link ----------W-L Innings ERA ERA+ Spahn 363-245 5,244 3.09 118 He might not have been the overpowering guy that some were, but he did it game in and game out for 17 years. If that isn't the work of a franchise cornerstone, I don't know what is. And as for you guys starting a franchise with....heaven forbid.... a position player, you've got to be kidding me. Pitching and defense can be relied upon more often than offense, which waxes and wanes no matter who is in the batter's box.
