50 greatest players: 10-1

#10: Greg Maddux
Score: 1105.1/1399.5/24.3/0/2528.8
The #2 pitcher on the list truly has it all: great longevity, better peak, a world series ring, 4 Cy Youngs, and is a member of virtually every number "club" pitchers have. All this despite throwing considerably softer than any of the other great pitchers of his generation. Maddux threw low 90s when he was posting ERAs below two and 19/20 win seasons left and right. The only real knock on him is his lack of postseason dominance, but that's nit picking because without his regular season success, there would be no playoffs. Maddux didn't even make TSN's top 50 back in 2005 somehow ranking behind Nolan Ryan, Bob Feller, Carl Hubbell Bob Gibson, and Steve Carlton among others. WTF??? Did he not strikeout enough guys? Maddux vs. Ryan isn't even remotely close. I would take any of about 7-8 Maddux seasons over any of Ryan's seasons. Maddux has more wins, fewer losses, better ERA, waaaay better ERA+, and a better WHIP. Maddux is also hurt be the fact that his two best seasons occurred in strike years which prevented him from having gaudy counting stats

#9: Stan Musial
Score: 1383.0/1096.5/120.4/12/2538.4
Stan the Man is often overlooked because he only had good but not great home run power. He doesn't have 500 homers and he was overshadowed by Ted Williams who played in almost the exact same years. Still Musial has plus power, great contact, and good discipline and deserves to be in the top 10.

#8: Rogers Hornsby
Score: 1320.0/1372.1/89.2/0/2684.5
The last man not named Ted Williams to hit .400, and the last right handed hitter to do it. Hornsby is probably the greatest right handed hitter of all time and certainly the best hitting middle infielder. He was the first national league player to hit with regular homerun power and served as the NL version of Babe Ruth during the 1920s.

#7: Willie Mays
Score: 1410.1/1182.7/156.6/0/2686.3
Mays is in the top 2-3 of almost every list, but he simply did not have as great a peak as the guys ahead of him. He would likely move up if his fielding were more quantifiable.

#6: Walter Johnson
Score: 1397.3/1321.9/19.0/0/2738.2
Without question the greatest pitcher ever. He is the only pitcher to rival the peaks of Pedro and Maddux and has the best all around career numbers. He managed to post ERA+s of over 240 at an era where the league average was below 3.00. Now that's impressive

#5: Barry Bonds
Score: 1235.3/1477.7/145.2/-20/2764.4
Yes the steroids certainly boosted him from about 10 to here, but you can't take away all the great years he put in during the 1990s, and his steroid years, when everyone was on steroids, are much much better than anyone else's were. His 2001-2004 seasons were absolutely ridiculous. I guess that's what happen when you take the most talented player in the league and load him up on PEDs. I wonder what Williams and Ruth could have done with that kind of help. Bonds is the highest ranking player who was not a member of the all century team. Had the vote been held 2 years later, he certainly would have been on it.

#4: Ty Cobb
Score: 1488.5/1297.8/85.2/0/2768.4
The best player of the dead ball era and still the all time leader in batting average was also a very good centerfielder in the days of enormous outfields. Some of his other records have been broken, but its going to be hard for anyone to top a lifetime .366 average.

#3: Babe Ruth
Score: 1428.0/1347.8/96.6/0/2774.7
No one is going to like this. Ruth is 1 on just about every list you see, but he played against vastly inferior competition to the two guys in front of him, and he played a less than premium defensive position. Still it was very very close between the top 6.

#2: Ted Williams
Score: 1419.8/1302.0/126.7/20/2785.3
The best damn hitter who ever lived. The last man to hit .400. The all time leader in OBP. And he missed 5 years due to wars, 3 of which where he might have topped his 1941 season of .406/.553/.735. He likely would have 3500 hits and 700 homers with 5 more seasons of being Ted Williams. His lifetime on base percentage of .482 ranks first all time and is better than the career high of any current player other than Frank Thomas or Barry Bonds. It has only been topped 8 times since WWII by someone other than Williams. It would be a stretch for anyone to ever break it.

#1: Mickey Mantle
Score: 1344.9/1403.5/130.0/0/2796.2
Somebody want to explain to me how he was 19th on TSN's list? I'm sorry, but there is absolutely no argument for having Dimaggio ahead of the Mick. He is one of only 7 players with 3 OPS+s over 200 and the only one to do it post color barrier while playing a premium defensive position. If I could choose any season to have on my team in would be Mantle in 1957. 16 all star games, 7 rings, 3 MVPs. Mantle may well have been the most talented player in history but his career was hurt by an early injury that took out much of his speed, and later due to too much booze. Mantle didn't have performance enhancing substances, he had performance hindering ones. He had to overcome his drugs.

Interesting notes on my list:

Number of players on the list by primary position:
P - 16, CF - 7, RF - 6, 2b - 5, 3b - 4, LF - 3, SS - 3, C - 3, 1B - 3.

Not surprisingly, the Yankees are the most represented team with 10 players: Mantle, Ruth, Clemens, DiMaggio, Gehrig, Randy Johnson, ARod, Berra, Rivera, and Boggs. The Red Sox are next with 9 with Ruth, Boggs, and Clemens represented on both. There are no representatives for the Rockies, Marlins, and Brewers although Milwaukee can lay claim to a number of Braves.

Pujols is the youngest player on the list at 28, while Cy Young is the oldest at 141. The oldest living member is Stan Musial at 88. 21 players on the list are deceased, most recently Warren Spahn in 2003.

Every player on the list that is eligible is in the Hall of Fame, but it will be interesting to see what happens to Bonds and Clemens. Pete Rose and Joe Jackson will likely never make the Hall.

There are 9 players on the list who have not officially retired from baseball, but Clemens and Bonds both did not play in 2008. The next HOF eligible player is Mike Piazza who retired after the 2007 season and will be on the ballot in 2013. He will likely be elected in his first year of eligibility.

Pete Rose and Roger Clemens had the longest careers at 24 seasons, while Sandy Koufax had the shortest at 12.

Mariano Rivera and Pedro Martinez are the only two non americans on the list although that will certainly change.

The players who enjoyed the best peak years were Pedro and Maddux for pitchers and Bonds and Mantle for hitters. While the best longevity was enjoyed by Cobb and Ruth for hitters and Johnson and Young for pitchers.

16 of the players won at least one gold glove, and award that began being awarded in the 1950s after a good portion of the players had retired. Maddux leads the way with 17 gold gloves, with Mays topping the position players with 12. Schmidt, Griffey, and Bench all have 10.

42 of the players on the list won at least 1 world series including all the pitchers. Berra has the most with 10, DiMaggio follows with 9, 7 each for Mantle and Ruth, and six for Gehrig. The most by a non Yankee is Eddie Collins with 4. Williams, Cobb and Bonds are the only players in the top 20 with no ring. A Rod, Griffey, Carew, and Lajoie are the only players not to play in a World Series, and Lajoie the lone player not to play in the postseason.