This list was discussed a bit in the "Who Are Your Inner Circle Hall of Famers?" thread but the full list wasn't posted. My initial surprise was seeing how high Pedro Martinez was ranked. He's kind of like the new Koufax in that he gets a lot of credit for his peak performance.
The thing Martinez has going for him is that more of the voters saw him pitch (to have seen Koufax we're talking about people at least in their early 60s) and he benefits from modern stats, which give him a lot of credit for pitching in a hitter's era and (at least when he was with the Red Sox) in a hitter's park. Whereas now people (some people) downplay Koufax because he pitched in a pitcher's era and park.
Of course it is impossible to have a list that everyone agrees on, but I would rank the next six pitchers (Maddux, Clemens, Young, Seaver, Randy Johnson, Mathewson) ahead of him as well Grove (54th!) and Alexander (57th!), which still makes him the tenth best pitcher (also being behind Walter Johnson who is on the list at 9) which is nothing to sneeze at. I am not sure how to weigh peak vs. career but all these guys had both great peaks and long careers.
There's an endless amount to discuss here but I will just add these observations:
Not sure how Lajoie is ranked 48th and Eddie Collins 82nd. Putting Lajoie where he is shows awareness of earlier players so I am unclear why Collins was ranked that low.
I am not a Bryce Harper hater but I disagree with having him on the list at all while leaving off Crawford, Waner, and Heilmann (as well as many other players I would choose over Harper, but I was focusing on right fielders).
All that being said, there isn't a list of 100 players any one of us could come up with that anyone else would agree with 100%. And I think this pays tribute to the history of the game while recognizing that some current or recent players are pretty good as well.
To me the list skews a little too modern but I would imagine my list (and possibly the list of others on this site) would skew a little older.
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Last edited by molenick; 02-07-2022 at 08:59 PM.
Reason: Because I always think of stuff after I post something!
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02-07-2022, 08:39 PM
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