[AdamCalifornia]

I think that it's time to ask the following question.
Who's the greatest Slugger (Home Run Hitter) of all time?
Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, ....?
What do you think?

Who are your Top 10, or top 5, or Top 3 sluggers of all time?

Not only Home Runs (HRs) should be taken into account when trying to pick up
the greatest slugger. Two very important parameters are:
SLG (Slugging percentage) and BA (Batting average; hits divided by at-bats).
Of ocurse there are many other parameters to take into account!

I am convinced that the list contains Top 10, and perhaps more, Greatest Immortal Sluggers.

Baseball experts speak up!

Let's enjoy the poll and interesting discussions!

I have voted for Immortal and phenomenal 'The Bambino', ie. Babe Ruth.

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My second choice would be Immortal and phenomenal Hammering Hank, ie. Hank Aaron.

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Here comes Ted Williams: "The greatest hitter who ever lived"

See posts #2, #3 and #5 below.
Post #5 contains an interesting statistics comparison!

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I would never vote for baseball players who used UNdetectable (or not) steroids,
UNdetactable HGH (Human Growth Hormone), and other illegal
(UNdetectable or detectable) substances/drugs.
By UNdetectable we mean substances which cannot be detected using a standard
urine test which is (sometimes) administered the MLB.
Four players on this poll apparently used all or some of the above illegal enhancements:
Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro.

P.S.
Please keep coming back to this opening post
because I'll be adding some interesting stuff which
YOU will post or I'll find on my own.

 

[mr_baseball_08]

To me, home runs shouldn't be the only factor in a "great" hitter. I voted for Ted Williams myself, however it was a very close decision between him, Ruth, and Aaron. Williams averaged about 37 strikeouts per season, and never stuck out more the 64 times, which was his rookie year. Aaron and Ruth struck out on average a 60 times a season.

 

[saboteur1]

Williams. Best pure hitter of all time, easily. Too bad his homerun numbers get lost in the stuff about him being the last guy to hit .400... He did hit .344 and hit 521 homers.

Ruth is a close second, though. He single-handedly ended the dead-ball era.

 

[virometal]

Yeah Ruth's .342 career wasn't too shabby! "Slugging", Ruth finished .692 to Ted's .634. Of course, he was hitting into an ocean (see below).

Yankee stadium was cavernous during Ruth's era with a 487' center. How he reached 714 is amazing.

When one looks back at Ruth's era and peers, it is absolutely amazing what the guy did. Statistically, no-one has ever dominated their respective era like that guy.

I'll go with Babe, and I think it's not even close. We are talking about "slugging" right?

 

[nibiyabi]

If you bring every hitter who ever lived into a completely neutral park against an average 2007 defense and an average 2007 pitcher, you can easily compare men between eras with little error.

I'll organize the top-10 translated career EQAs, followed by translated AVG/OBP/SLG (tiebreaker will go OBP>SLG>AVG). I'm using EQA because it ignores position, though it doesn't give credit for longevity like VORP does, so it's not perfect, but as you can see from this list it's pretty damn good:

Code:

[left]01. Babe Ruth .369 (.321/.454/.745) 02. Ted Williams .365 (.331/.459/.684) 03. Barry Bonds .357 (.308/.455/.666) 04. Lou Gehrig .346 (.317/.423/.677) 05. Mickey Mantle .340 (.309/.423/.625) 06. Mark McGwire .338 (.277/.409/.660) 07. Edgar Martinez .332 (.325/.434/.564) 08. Mel Ott .330 (.291/.411/.609) 09. Willie Mays .330 (.312/.398/.626) 10. Ty Cobb .329 (.351/.420/.609) Notables: Albert Pujols .342 (.334/.424/.649) Jason Giambi .331 (.300/.426/.577) Travis Hafner .330 (.297/.414/.597) Ryan Howard .329 (.287/.400/.629)[/left]

I could be missing a couple of people, but I did check DiMaggio and Aaron and they just barely missed the list (I think they are #11 and #12, respectively), and A-Rod comes in just underneath both of them. Yogi Berra doesn't make it either, but that's where the unfairness of EQA comes in, giving him no credit for hitting like he did as a catcher (Mike Piazza is rated higher than Berra, but also misses the cut). But since you're solely asking about hitting ability, position shouldn't matter, so here you go.

EDIT1: Foxx out, Martinez in.

EDIT2: If anyone has any player suggestions, please post them here and I'll be sure to run the numbers and see how they fare (I've already run the numbers for everyone in the poll and everyone mentioned so far).

EDIT3: I've added some "notables", i.e., players who have EQAs high enough to be on the list, but careers that are a bit too short.

 

[AdamCalifornia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by saboteur1 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Williams. Best pure hitter of all time, easily. Too bad his homerun numbers get lost in the stuff about him being the last guy to hit .400... He did hit .344 and hit 521 homers. Ruth is a close second, though. He single-handedly ended the dead-ball era.

'There goes the greatest hitter who ever lived'


Yes, but we're talking about Home Run Hitters (aka Sluggers).

Joe Dimaggio was a tremendous hitter as well.
I've read in a book that Ted Williams and Joe Dimaggio would have today 800+ and 700+ HRs respectively!!!

Here's Ted Williams

Here's Joe Dimaggio.

 

[barqy]

ken griffy jr. b/c of sweet swing.

 

[AdamCalifornia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by barqy /img/forum/go_quote.gif ken griffy jr. b/c of sweet swing.

Few years ago Hank Aaron thought that Ken Griffey, Jr. would break his record and NOT Barry Bonds!

 

[barqy]

^ well who knows

after griffey broke his wrist with that catch..it went downhill (injury after injury)...

at least he's doing decent this year

ps: if a-rod keeps going the way he is and avoids injury, he'll be breaking bond's record...


edit: you guys ever notice bond's voice sounds kinda high? Never heard him spoke earlier in his career....makes me wonder :|

 

[nibiyabi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdamCalifornia /img/forum/go_quote.gif Few years ago Hank Aaron thought that Ken Griffey, Jr. would break his record and NOT Barry Bonds!

That's what everyone thought. If, between the 2000 World Series and 2001 opening day, you showed any knowledgeable baseball fan the career stats of Bonds and Griffey from 2001 onward with no names attached, no one in their right mind would have picked it correctly, not even an overly-optimistic Giants fan.

And, back on track, per the stats I showed, Ruth would be both the best slugger and best overall hitter of all time.

 

[VicAjax]

best pure hitter is definitely Ted Williams.

i voted for the Hammer as the best slugger because he's my hometown hero, though from an orthodox moneyball perspective, the nod probably goes to Ruth.

all juicers and other cheaters should be disqualified. and yes, i'm one of those of the opinion that Gaylord Perry should not be in Cooperstown, as much as i do enjoy his personality.

 

[nibiyabi]

I've never understood what "pure hitter" really means. If it means batting average, then Ty Cobb is undeniably the "purest hitter" of all time.

 

[nibiyabi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdamCalifornia /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've read in a book that Ted Williams and Joe Dimaggio would have today 800+ and 700+ HRs respectively!!!

BP has Williams at 752 and DiMaggio at 611. Ruth at 1070, for the curious.

 

[AdamCalifornia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nibiyabi /img/forum/go_quote.gif BP has Williams at 752 and DiMaggio at 611. Ruth at 1070, for the curious.

Please keep coming back to the opening post
because I'll be adding some interesting stuff which
YOU will post or I'll find on my own.

I've already added some stuff about Ted Williams (see the animation!).

 

[circularlogic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdamCalifornia /img/forum/go_quote.gif Please keep coming back to the opening post because I'll be adding some interesting stuff which YOU will post or I'll find on my own. I've already added some stuff about Ted Williams (see the animation!).

I don't see why you quoted nibiyabi's post right there. In fact, I don't see how that really follows at all.