Quote:
Originally Posted by 100backstroke
What do you folks think about the depth of talent ? I kinda agree the top players would be top players in any era. However, I feel the bottom 25% of the players today are closer to the top than the bottom 25% of 100 years ago - basically the talent spread is much closer today than way back. That enables the top players way back players to put up better stats - both pitchers and hitters. Could be wrong, food for thought.
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The population base if far larger today than it was, especially pre- 1947/8
One of the guys who spoke to the club years ago had a couple interesting numbers. He asked how many players were playing when he was vs how many now. At the time he said organized baseball in the US, counting independent leagues had about 17,500 players. Just before WWII the number was supposedly closer to 175,000. Now I don't think those figures are entirely accurate, as they probably don't include international leagues that weren't scouted then, and some of that 175K was in town and industrial leagues which had extremely variable levels of play.
But his point was that unless you were a Ted Williams or DiMaggio or nearly that good, you had to be good, get along, etc, or they could replace you with a phone call.
How many teams today keep guys on the roster because "well, we're paying him X million a year, we'll keep putting him out there until he gets better or the contract is up."