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Is Joba experimenting, or does he just stink?  I guess we’ll know after his next start. Rivera says he belongs in the bullpen as the 8^th inning guy.  Maybe Joe should listen to Mo.

Len and I heard an interview with Curtis Granderson the other day.  The guy is smooth and impressive.  Assuming he does as well on the field, he will be a great addition to this team. He speaks like a Yankee.

Maybe I don’t know all the facts about Canadian Dr. Galea, but given his link to Balco, why would any ball player go to him for anything?  What does this truly tell you about A-Rod?  Galea says he only gave A-Rod anti-inflammatory drugs.  Why would he need to go to Canada for anti-inflammatory drugs?  Oh, I forgot that the Canadian healthcare system is vastly superior to that in the US.  What a joke. He is still cheating.  There can be no doubt.

I’m going to miss David Cone in the broadcast booth. A very smart guy on and off the field. Rumor has it that he may be replaced by Tino, unless O’Neill does more games.  O’Neill would be more entertaining. It would be refreshing, though, if they put in a guy who has the stones to speak his mind.

How happy are the Steinbrenners with Mark Newman after his DUI arrest? It didn’t take them long to kick Swindel to the curb and he was a son-in-law.

Damon said that, on advice from A-Rod, he called Hal in January and told hem he wanted to come back to the Yankees.  The call was 6 weeks too late.

The just deceased Willie was part of the 1963 Dodgers team that destroyed the Yanks in the Series 4-0. Koufax and Drysdale in their prime were way too much for a Yankee team that was showing its age.  Those were the years Maury Wills and Davis   manufactured runs with their legs, and the pitching staff didn’t need much help.

(Trivia – what long time Yankee was traded to the Dodgers before the 1963 season and so picked up another WS ring that year  - but said he still considered himself a Yankee so he never wore it!)

I am listening to my first Yankees pre-season game and within 15 minutes of turning on the radio I can’t stand Waldman and Sterling.  Mistakes, exaggerations, over statements and reactions.  It’s a pre season game and you can sense from Sterling a sense of urgency about the game.

We deserve better.

Two days into spring training games, Nick Johnson is injured.  Fantastic!

They call me...Mr. Glass

I know that Russ limited himself to players whose careers are complete, but I would be remiss to not bring up Albert Pujols.  He is 29 years old, has played only 9 seasons and yet…..

• Rookie of the Year 2001
• 3 MVPs (2005, 2008, 2009)
• MVP runner up 3 times (2002, 2003, 2006)
• MVP top 5 8 time (out of 9 seasons)
• 1 Gold Glove
• Highest career Batting Average (.334) among active players
• Among active players (1st in BA, SLG, OPS, OPS+, 2nd in OPB)
• Career (already 4th in career SLG and OPS, 7th in career OPS+)
• Through age 29, most similar to Jimmie Foxx, Hank Aaron, Lou Gherig, Ken Griffey, Frank Robinson and Mickey Mantle in that order)
• For his first 6 years he was most similar to Joe Dimaggio

I know his resume is incomplete, but if he stays healthy, we are looking at one of the greatest hitters of all time.

Very well constructed and researched.  I applaud your inclusion of early guys like Cobb and Hornsby, any list without them would be bogus. It makes me cringe to see that recent poll  “Who is the greatest US President” and #1 is Reagan;  heck I loved Ronnie but people who answered that should be waterboarded with history textbooks.

You mention Ted Williams lost time to the military in 2 wars (he was really mad that they dragged him back for Korea). Those lost years were outside his control. I’m thinking Shoeless Joe Jackson had a shot at breaking onto list if he hadn’t gotten caught up in the Black Sox scandal and lost his career. We will never know.

No catchers on the list. Wear and tear cuts into their longevity and productivity. Because of that, maybe the greatest catcher of all time deserves a #11 and an asterisk.  Johnny Bench, Berra?

So my post yesterday got me thinking… who are the 10 greatest players of all time? 

Players whose careers are finished – so no A-Rod or Ken Griffey Jr., I’m not sure they would be on the list but let’s count them out.  No Barry Bonds, either, because I cannot attribute what amount of his achievements are to steroids are what portion is just talent which would launch him into the top ten of all time.  The same goes for A-Rod.  No pitchers either, that would really confuse things.

Ok, so doing this off the top of my head might be a mistake, but Jimmie Foxx came off the list and was replaced by Stan Musial (sorry Stan).  I would think people might place some of these guys in a slightly different order.  But I think (without pitchers) these are the ten guys. 

1) Babe Ruth.  Never a discusion or a doubt.  He’s the Bambino, enough said.  That doesn’t even include the fact that he could have been one of the greatest pitchers.

2) Ty Cobb.  96 stolen bases one year.  11 batting titles, etc, an excellent defender as well.  Some baseball enthusiasts who depise the HR might even put him at the top of the list.  But Ruth changed the game, and Cobb played it to perfection at the time he played. 

3) Lou Gehrig 8 seasons of top five MVP, 3 seasons of 170 RBIs or more.  He was an RBI machine in every sense of the word.  He had seasons which were just as impressed after Ruth had left the Yankees too.

4 tie) Joe DiMaggio.  Most people cite his 1941 season where he hit in 56 straight games.  I like his 1937 season where he hit .346, 46 HRs, 167 RBIs, scored 151 runs and only struck out 37 times!  I am also equally impressed with his 1948 season, late in his career where he drove in 155 runs and hit .320 with 39 HRs and struck out only 30 times.  ONe of the more famous statistics of Joe D. was the fact that he hit 361 HRs and struck out 369 times for his career. 

4 – tie) Willie Mays.  One of the greatest all around players.  It is difficult to put him ahead of DiMaggio.  If you wanted to flip the two of them, you could.  Consider that Mays career high in RBIs is 141 and he struck out almost twice as frequently as DiMaggio but still not bad for a power hitter.  Mays defenders would say that DiMaggio played in better lineups for most of his career.   I think the ballparks are a wash, death valley in Yankee Stadium for Joe D. and Candlestick (for most of his career) for Willie.  It’s so close. 

6) Ted Williams.  The greatest hitter of all time?  Perhaps that’s Ruth.  But, consider the fact that he lost time to WWII and Korea and not only is he a great American, but his productivity probably would have surpassed Gehrig.  The only thing that holds him back is that defense hardly interested him at all.

7) Hank Aaron.  Longevity and consistency.  Consistently around 40 HRs over his long career.  Again, this gets back to what you like – consistency over a long time, or the high ceiling player. 

8) Stan Musial.  If he had a little more power, he would be higher.  7 batting titles, about 10 times in the top 5 for MVP voting.  Truly the dominant player of the National League in the 40s and 50s.

9) Honus Wagner.  The greatest shortstop of all time.  A run producer and baserunner like nobody has seen. 

10) Rogers Hornsby.  Two triple crowns in 1922 and 1925 have to get you into the top ten.

Others that are real close…. Frank Robinson… who I put at #10 but I went with Hornsby because of the two triple crowns and then there’s Hank Greenberg and of course Mantle who all should be included in the top 15. 

Some might say this is a Yankee heavy list, but objectively speaking, they have won 27 titles and how did they get that many?  Because they were lucky enough to have some of the greatest players.  Among the 3 Yankees on this list, there are 14 world series wins. 

I should probably do a top ten pitcher’s list (which will be even more difficult).  Let’s see…. Johnson, Matheson, Koufax, Alexander, Grove, ……

I will stick in my two cents.  Although having never seen any of them play.  I have only reviewed the stats and read books (granted I never read a detailed biography on Mays, I will make sure I read this one). 

To me, it is difficult to evaluate Mantle and compare him effectively to Mays.  Injuries.  Mays has him beat overall because he played longer.  But, even if you evaluate their first 13 years (after which Mantle trails off) it is still difficult to evaluate because Mickey was hurt alot.  Having said that, injuries are a legitimate way of holding you back (Mattingly for example).  So, for a career, you must say that Mays is the better ballplayer.  In my own personal evaluation of the greatest ballplayers of all time – Mays is in the top ten.  I’m not sure how exactly it shakes out (one day I will settle on a definite order).  But suffice it to say, Mays is probably in the top five…. hmmmmm…..  

Anyway, I rank Mantle probably lower, definitely in the top 15 all time which is not too shabby. 

That’s not the end of the discussion however.  When I look at individual seasons I also conclude the following.  Mantle had a higher ceiling than Mays.  Put another way, if Mantle played at his highest capability, I believe that would be greater than Mays.  Mantle’s high ceiling year of 1956 is in all likelihood, a better individual season than anything Mays put up.  Mantle had that high of an ability.  It was almost Ruthian, if you will.  The problem is, of course, Mays had more “great” years than Mantle, but I’m not sure that Mays ever approached what I would characterize a Ruthian like season. 

Back to the list.  Hmmm…. let’s say no pitchers.  Ruth, Cobb, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Williams, Mays, Aaron, Wagner, Foxx, Hornsby and it gets difficult after that.

Mantle vs. Mays

Francesca had a show yesterday on Willie Mays, which featured the author of a new book on Willie’s life.  It was very interesting.  Francesca said that he was a big Mantle fan (because he was a Yankees and not a Giant fan), but he also said that Mays was a better all around ballplayer.

I take issue with that.  Of course, either Mantle or Mays would be by far the best player in the game today.  They were that good, no great.  But you can’t just look at stats to judge player’s greatness and I think that is what Francesca and other fans do when they make this comparison.

You have to ignore that last four years of Mickey’s playing career since he was a shell of the player he was during his first 14 years in the game.  Longevity gives Mays the big edge in overall stats and he deserves credit for always keeping himself in shape and having the benefit of good genes along with good sense when it came to his career.  He also was a flashier player.  His running style was exciting and his defensive play in centerfield was marvelous.  On this point I spoke to many fans who saw DiMaggio play in his prime as well as Mays and Mantle.  All said (including my Dad who was a great Yankees and DiMaggio fan) that DiMaggio was the better center fielder.  I know that does not sit well with current fans, but very few fans today saw DiMaggio play and, therefore, most of them can’t believe that anyone was better than Mays.

Mantle was every bit an effective a center fielder as Mays, without the flash.  He had greater speed than Mays and this helped him patrol the vast outfield of Yankee Stadium when the left field gap was 457.  Mays stole more bases but Mantle was faster down the line and he was told not to steal bases because of his fragile legs.  His stolen base percentage was one of the highest of all time.

Mays hit 302 lifetime vs. 298 for Mantle, which is a push.  Mays had more home runs because he played for 24 years, vs. Mantle’s 18 years, and only 14 good ones.  But that still does not tell the entire story.

When Mantle stepped to the plate everything stopped in the ballpark.  You were not going to the food stand (they didn’t have food courts then) when he was on deck.  He hit the most majestic, long home runs since the Babe, some of the longest on record long before the taint of steroids.

It’s unfair to compare Mantle’s post season stats (all World Series games) vs. Mays since Mays’ post season play is limited.  Nevertheless, in 20 Worlds Series games Mays hit no home runs, had six RBIs and batted around 250.

I saw both play, though, due to my age, I do not remember the first eight years of their respective careers.  In those years Mantle owned New York and, in fact, I have read where he was the best player of the 1950’s.

Give me Mays and Mantle and I win every year.  But I do not believe that Mays was the better all around ball player.