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Posted By: Brian

The first place I look when comparing players of different time periods is OPS+. While certainly not perfect, I find it more meaningful in comparing players than counting stats, etc.

Without any commentary, here is the top 10 OPS+ players in the history of baseball with a minimum 3000 plate appearances (source: http://baseball-reference.com/leaders/OPSplus_career.shtml)

Rank Player (age) Adjusted OPS+ Bats
1. Babe Ruth+* 207 L
2. Ted Williams+* 190 L
3. Barry Bonds* (40) 184 L
4. Lou Gehrig+* 179 L
5. Rogers Hornsby+ 175 R
6. Mickey Mantle+# 172 B
7. Dan Brouthers+* 170 L
Joe Jackson* 170 L
9. Albert Pujols (25) 169 R
10.Ty Cobb+* 167 L



OPS+ tells us that after adjusting for park effects, Babe Ruth was 107% better than his peers in OPS. Ted Williams was 90% better than his peers in OPS -- and so on...