When he takes the mound for the first time in the Bronx, he'll become the first Yankee ever to wear that number -- also the only single-digit number in franchise history that's not yet retired. All that excitement over zero got me wondering: Who's the best player to ever wear a single bagel on his uniform? Turns out the career leader in Wins Above Replacement for players who wore No. He collected 2, hits and 1, runs batted in over his year career, good for 57th and th on the all-time lists.
In his best season, as a year-old playing for the Expos, he led the National League in batting average, hits, doubles, RBI and total bases. He's a long shot to ever make the Hall of Fame, but the same could have been said for Harold Baines, who just got in -- and Oliver was a better player than Baines. The thing about baseball and numbers, though, is that it's hard to stop.
Once you crown a winner for No. Arguably the greatest defensive player of all time at any position, Smith won 13 Gold Gloves and generated more than 37 Wins Above Replacement with his glove alone. Plus, there was this:. Sixth all time in hits 3, , 11th all time in runs scored 1, , 12th in times on base 4, , plus five rings in an era where dynasties are harder to come by than they've ever been.
As a pitcher, Ruth went , won an ERA title, led the league once in shutouts, complete games, games started and fewest hits allowed per nine innings, and posted a career ERA 22 percent better than league average on a park-adjusted basis. Mel Ott launched homers, drove in 1, runs and was the best hitter in the league five times by advanced metrics. And he still can't get the nod here, because of the Iron Horse.
In some ways, Gehrig's consecutive games streak, and playing alongside Ruth, might've slightly overshadowed the beastly hitter he was. This was the toughest call for any number. Here are just a few of the luminaries who didn't win for best No. The first 11 years of Pujols' career make up one of the most prolific stretches for any hitter in major-league history.
His decline as an Angel doesn't diminish his overall body of work, which is legendary. A time All-Star, Musial might've been the greatest metronome in baseball history.
How else to explain compiling the exact same number of hits at home and away 1,? Sure, he walloped regular-season home runs, and hit an incomprehensible 18 long balls in 65 career World Series games, en route to winning seven rings. Give him Hank Aaron's on-field health and far more off-field restraint, and The Mick might've ended up owning a whole bunch of all-time records.
But Morgan ranks right there with Rogers Hornsby and Eddie Collins in the battle for greatest second baseman of all time. If you took boxing's pound-for-pound rankings and made them an inch-by-inch baseball battle, the 5-foot-7 Morgan, winner of two MVP awards, maker of 10 All-Star Games and catalyst for the Big Red Machine dynasty, would be awfully tough to beat. One of my favorite baseball debates of all time is also one you rarely hear mentioned: greatest left-handed pitcher of all time.
It's an absolutely fascinating debate, though. Warren Spahn won more games than any other lefty. Sandy Koufax was Sandy Koufax , whose mythical six-year peak and World Series heroics to this day still make old-timers cast aside all objective analysis and declare their man the greatest, period. I'll list MVP awards as worthy accolades here and there in this column, but with the caveat that it's an imperfect evaluation tool.
Granting that Wins Above Replacement hadn't been invented yet back in , the bottom line is that Larkin was the sixth-best player in the National League by that metric, and that if voters weren't so averse to picking pitchers as MVP, Greg Maddux would've won that year in a walk.
At any rate, Larkin was one of the finest all-around shortstops of all time with or without that MVP award, and he's a worthy pick by an eyelash here over Edgar Martinez. Some of the greatest players of all time wore multiple numbers over the course of their career. A-Rod was one of the best of that bunch, sporting No. On-field accomplishments considered only, which is how the lamentable Hit King tops Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks. The criminally underrated center fielder was one of the most complete players of his generation, pairing an excellent batting eye with prodigious switch-hitter power and Gold Glove defense in center field to become a force well into his late 30s.
Both Beltran and No. I would vote for Beltran and strongly consider Edmonds, but the voters might not end up giving the nod to either. His retirement didn't go as smoothly, as the great left-hander was mercilessly pelted with pretzels. Dizzy Dean is the Hall of Famer of this bunch, but he earned that honor thanks in large part to his clinching Game 7 shutout in the World Series and his outsized personality.
Helton still offers the better body of work, posting a career. Damon set an example for Jacoby Ellsbury after him, starring for the Red Sox before defecting to the Yankees. Before his championship runs with both clubs, Damon formed one-third of one of the best outfields of the past several decades, teaming with Beltran and Jermaine Dye in Kansas City and making you wish those Royals teams had even half-decent supporting casts.
Snubbing both Tony Gwynn and Bob Feller is pretty rough. Doing all that while manning two demanding up-the-middle positions at short and in center field bolsters his case even further. The 24th- and 25th-best players of all time by Wins Above Replacement separated by a whisker. You try picking between the only player ever to win MVP in both leagues and the greatest third baseman of all time. The Rocket didn't even wear No. But Clemens' numbers with the Red Sox and Blue Jays alone would make him an inner-circle Hall of Famer, if voters didn't choose to cherry-pick which performance-enhancing drugs from the pre-Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program era were ickier.
Considering the pushover competition that pitchers like Cy Young and Walter Johnson faced in the days before integration or even organized farm systems, Clemens is my pick for greatest pitcher of all time. Kershaw's Koufaxian peak over Jim Palmer's longevity. That, and an excuse to tell the Clayton Kershaw Inception story. If No. Then there's Mays, who wore No. Forget about it!
This one is headed for New Jersey! I love Jon Miller. And I love Barry Bonds. Considering he hit. Of the four greatest players ever to wear No. I'll take Rolen by a hair, if only to highlight what a strong Hall of Fame case he has, one that's currently being ignored. Phenomenal, massively underrated player. Pitched on some hellaciously lousy teams, but still Uncle Charlie'd his way to 3, strikeouts, 60 shutouts and, overcoming his frequently abysmal run support, more shutouts than anyone in half a century.
Baseball is a game of reactions -- pitcher controls the ball, everyone else reacts to what happens next. For that reason, it's rare for a baseball player to have a signature move, the way, say, James Harden with the ball in his hands has perfected the stepback 3-pointer.
But Beltre definitely had a signature move: the charging , bare-hand grab , followed by a rocket-armed, often off-balance throw to first to get the runner just in time. And while another No. Not at all a homer pick , Raines reached base more times than Tony Gwynn, Lou Brock, Roberto Clemente, Mike Schmidt, Roberto Alomar, Eddie Mathews, Brooks Robinson and Harmon Killebrew, is one of just five players ever to steal bases, and owns the highest success rate for any base-stealer with anywhere near as many attempts.
One of the greatest seasons of all time that doesn't get enough attention was mentioned earlier -- Maddux's '95 campaign. That year, Mad Dog flashed one of the lowest single-season ERAs ever recorded by a starting pitcher, 1. Except unlike Bob Gibson and others who toiled at such depths, Maddux pulled off his unreal season at the height of the PED era, in the process earning his fourth straight Cy Young honor. Apologies again to Sandy Koufax and his otherwordly peak, but Carlton was a master of longevity, pitching 24 years in the big leagues.
He wasn't a mere compiler by any stretch, though. Lefty bagged five strikeout crowns and four Cy Youngs, the last one at the ripe old age of For once, an easy call. Murray amassed 3, hits and home runs back when both those numbers were immutable entry points into the Hall of Fame. The Ryan Express, all-time strikeout king, author of seven no-hitters, hawker of Advil, pitching iconoclast. Green Bay Packers Yang, the man who overcame a two-shot deficit in to beat Tiger Woods at the PGA Championship, has been disqualified from this Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray remains out indefinitely after undergoing surgery on his left knee, the team announced Wednesday.
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