Comments on Baseball's Best 1,000 (Part 2)

I recently picked up the 2008 edition of Derek Gentile's fun book Baseball's Best 1,000: Rankings of the Skills, the Achievements, and the Performance of the Greatest Players of All Time. I've enjoyed reading this book, and I recently started a series of blog posts where I comment on his selections. The first post is here, and I recommend you read that one first.

Before I comment on players he ranks 51-100, I wanted to warn readers that there are some noticeable typos in the book. Generally I find the book to be well-written, and with few errors, but there are a few mistakes which are kinda funny if you think about them (well, for baseball fans at least):

• Gentile clearly updated his section on Roger Clemens mid-way through the 2007 season, as he notes Clemens had gotten his 350th win. But then he indicates his lifetime record to be 350-118. This is way off, as after the 2007 season ended his record was 354-184. Suffice to say that if someone really had 350 wins AND a .748 career winning percentage, they would be rated even higher than the 20th spot that Gentile gives Clemens. Such a pitcher would be the best of all time (ahead of Johnson), and might even be a top-3 overall player.
• Several pitchers have their CG totals listed as "SB" -- likely a typo as the CG is the last stat given for each pitcher, while SB is the last stat given for each hitter. This happens for at least John Clarkson (#131), and for Ed Walsh (#135), though the error is made worse for Walsh as the 315 number given is actually his GS not his CG.
• But the typo I actually found hilarious was Dave Winfield's career Stolen Base mark, which was indicated to be 1,686 instead fo 223. Turns out 1,686 was his career strikeouts. If he was really that great on the basepaths (a full 280 more than career leader Rickey Henderson), then Winfield would surely have been rated a top-20 player, and not find himself in 140th place -- which is way to low, by the way.

OK... now my next batch of comments. As a reminder... I am not commenting on players from the Negro Leagues who are in the Gentile's top 1,000 list (indicating them with an asterisk). And when I refer to other rankings, these are:

• TSN - 1998 book "The Sporting News Selects Baseball's Greatest 100 Players"
• James - 2001 book by Bill James "The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract

In starting where I left off, at number 51:

• 51. Arky Vaughn -- I like to give Arky his due, and James makes a strong case for him to rated as the #2 SS of all time, and even higher overall (39). No doubt, TSN snubbed him by not including him in their top 100 at all.
• 52. Bill Terry -- surely too high. While TSN generally agrees with Gentile, by rating Terry 59th, James completely disagrees by not including him the top 100 and only ranking him 26th amongst first-basemen. I have to agree more with James here, because while Terry's raw numbers look impressive, you have to consider the era in which he played (league batting average during his time was a lofty .289 and was over .300 in some seasons). So while I might not downgrade him as much as James does, I think 52nd is too high.
• 53. Cal Ripken
• 54. Whitey Ford -- Again, TSN agrees, ranking him 52nd. James keeps Ford off his top-100, and while I might get him in the top-100, I think 54 is too high.
• 55. Duke Snider
• 56. Steve Carlton
• 57. Buck Leonard *
• 58. Lou Brock -- Again, TSN agrees, ranking him 58th also. But I prefer James on this one too, as he doesn't include Brock in his top-100, presumably because of his lackluster fielding, low OBP and high strikeout rate. Oh, and did you know that Lou was only an all-star six times? Lower than I would have thought given his level of fame.
• 59. Bill Dickey -- Noticing a pattern at this point? TSN rates Dickey 57th, while James keeps him off his top-100. Interestingly, he doesn't downgrade fellow catching old-timer Mickey Cochrane, who Gentile ranks 62, TSN ranks 65, and James ranks 72. I'm not sure which I would rate higher.
• 60. Cap Anson
• 61. Cool Papa Bell *
• 62. Mickey Cochrane -- see comments above for Dickey.
• 63. Reggie Jackson
• 64. Roberto Clemente -- seems about right, though obviously I cringe at seeing him lower than Brock here. Surely TSN's ranking of him 20th is way too high! James has him 74th.
• 65. Hank Greenberg
• 66. Robin Yount
• 67. Tony Gwynn
• 68. Gabby Hartnett -- really? Before Piazza, Fisk, Carter as catchers? No way!
• 69. Harmon Killebrew
• 70. Bob Gibson -- I think he should be a bit higher. TSN has him at 31, and that might be too high. James says 46th.
• 71. Ryne Sandberg
• 72. Rod Carew
• 73. Joe Jackson -- hard to rate him because of his banishment. 73rd seems about right.
• 74. Mule Suttles *
• 75. Brooks Robinson
• 76. Home Run Baker
• 77. Ken Griffey Jr.
• 78. Willie McCovey
• 79. Ron Santo -- nice to see!
• 80. Dan Brouthers
• 81. Joe Cronin -- A bit high I think. Neither TSN nor James include Cronin in their top 100.
• 82. Wade Boggs -- This is fine placement relative to Carew and Gwynn I think, but surely he should be higher than Cronin!
• 83. Carl Hubbell
• 84. Al Simmons
• 85. Greg Maddux
• 86. Jim Palmer
• 87. Joe Williams *
• 88. Johnny Mize
• 89. Mike Piazza -- see Hartnett. And I would rate him close to Cochrane and Dickey.
• 90. Tim Raines -- very nice to see.
• 91. Dizzy Dean
• 92. Mark McGwire -- hard to rate him, given the clouds of suspicion.
• 93. Willie Stargell
• 94. Paul Waner
• 95. Willie Wells *
• 96. Al Kaline
• 97. Juan Marichal
• 98. Frankie Frisch
• 99. Sam Crawford
• 100. Mordecai Brown

Fun stuff!

In my third post in this series I won't list the players, I'll just comment on some I think are way too high or way to low from 101-1,000.