Hitters:
1. Babe Ruth
2. Ted Williams
3.Barry Bonds
They're on a tier by themselves- and 4th place is a distant 4th. Now, I really don't particularly like Barry Bonds and his "better-living-through-chemistry" road-show. Still- his performance is manifest and measurable. He had Gehrig-like OPS numbers through 21 significant seasons. [Gehrig himself had 14 significant seasons.]
4. Mickey Mantle
5. Ty Cobb
6. Willie Mays
Here, I'll take Mantle's rate of performance over the quantity of performance from Cobb & Mays. Mantle's HR-rate is known- but perhaps not as known is that he had seasonal BAs over .300 more often than not, and a career On-Base-Percentage of .421.
7. Oscar Charleston- is there any reason to believe Charleston was not at least in the area-code of Willie Mays as an offensive force? I don't think so.
8. Honus Wagner... Honus Wagner's dominance over his NL peers in offense would be without parallel were it not for the fact that the young Ty Cobb was kind-of doing the same thing in the junior circuit.
9. Lou Gehrig. Lou Gehrig v. Stan Musial is an interesting comparison. Musial was known as a BA king, led the league seven times, and had a career BA of .331. Gehrig was not known as a BA king, led the league in BA just once, and had a career BA of .340. Musial was sneaky powerful, had 475 career HRs, and had an HR% of 4.33. Gehrig was shadow-of-Ruth powerful, had 493 career HRs, and had an HR% of 6.16.
The only thing Musial had over Gehrig was longevity- but then, most semi-sentient sports observers know why that happened.
10. Rogers Hornsby. Damn- I guess I have to. The interesting thing about Hornsby is that just about ALL of his value as a player is as a hitter- because the statistical record, such as can be ascertained, show that he was a complete suck as a fielder. [And 2B is a horrible place to have a suck fielder!] Even though there are at least two, maybe three or more 2Bs I'd rather have on my all-time team, PLUS the fact that his reputation is that of an epic jerk, we ARE rating players as hitters- and he belongs.
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Addendum- supplemental: upon a nearly a week of reflection, I found it interesting that I allowed myself quick consideration of Oscar Charleston-- but not Josh Gibson. Why? I guess it's because it's commonly acknowledged that Charleston is a better ballplayer- at least, that's the conclusion of most people who study the matter carefully.
Does that make him a better hitter, though? If you measure by rate, no. There's more to the evaluation than rate, however.
Josh Gibson has greater name recognition than anyone occupying the unfortunate side of Segregated Ball, with the possible exception of Satchel Paige. We'll set aside the Ruth comparisons for now. It's enough to make the Charleston comparison- which is at least apples-to-apples. Gibson had better ratios in everything that matters- BA/SLG/OBP. But that's NOT the end of the assessment. Gibson was wrapped up as a Ballplayer at age 34, whereas Charleston soldiered along as a full-timer for another 4+ years. Thus, Gibson was spared a greater portion of the decline phase of a batter's career. What happens if we remove post age-34 years from Charleston, though? The BA & OBP percentages shift to nose Charleston ahead... but the (admittedly more important) SLG & OPS stats still favor Gibson... but the gap narrows considerably. What has to be calculated is that whether the +6% (to the nearest whole number) difference in through-age-34 OPS in favor of Gibson is worth the sacrifice of the 4+ years where Charleston "only" has a collective line of- BA=.318, OBP=.441, SLG=.529 & OPS=.970.
I'm all right keeping Charleston where he is. Gibson deserves some consideration. Would I entertain him over Hornsby? Absolutely. Of course, I believe that Hornsby is a career tool-sack... but I shouldn't make the decision on emotion. Then how 'bout if I contrast Gibson to the more likeable and more inarguably heroic figure of Lou Gehrig? I think Gibson holds up quite well in that comparison, too. So- bye bye, Rajah...