[MattyC]

Agreed on all subjective personal preference, and how one synthesizes and parses the numbers.

I like to look at league leading performance, and I gravitate to how The Mick led his league in OPS+ a whopping eight times. Aaron stood atop his peers in OPS+ three times.

In terms of MVP of their respective leagues, The Mick had three MVPs, with another three 2nd place finishes. Aaron won one MVP award, and never finished 2nd in another year, his best finishes coming 3rd after that one win.

Mantle also had 50 HR power, whereas despite playing healthy for many years, Aaron never did touch that rarefied benchmark.

I'm also a big on-base guy, and in terms of peak OBP performance, Aaron reached the lofty .400 mark three times, whereas Mantle hit the .400 OBP mark an incredible nine times, with a peak of a mind-boggling .512. And that's not counting a .399 year. Of Aaron's three years where he reached base at a 40% clip, his peak was .410. Mantle had years of .512, .486, .464, and .448. Basically Mantle's 10th best year of getting on base would have been Aaron's 4th best year.

One thing I have always admired about Mantle's game was that even at the very end, with a lowly .245 batting average, the man was getting on base at a .391 clip.

Somehow The Mick slugged .705 in '56, whereas Aaron's peak slugging year clocked in at .669. The Mick had two additional years at .687 and .665. So those four thousandths notwithstanding between .669 and .665, The Mick's 3rd best slugging year was roughly equal to the best Aaron ever put up.

End of the day, though,winding up with either player for a hypothetical team is an amazing thing to contemplate. One of the reasons I am in awe of Hank Aaron is his durability. And also the way he stood up to the very harsh spotlight of his run at Ruth's record. To do anything at such a great level for so long is no doubt as impressive as doing something better than anyone else for a shorter time period. As was said, it comes down to personal preference, and what entertains, what endears a player to each fan. It's always fascinating and enlightening to hear why a fan loves his favorite player.