Who is the greatest right handed hitter of all time?
 

I remember a similar thread recently about left handed pitchers, and I thought I’d reverse the question.

Lefties dominate the all time greatest hitters list (Ruth, Cobb, Gehrig, Williams, Musial, Bonds, etc.), but who do you think is the greatest right handed hitter? Rogers Hornsby comes immediately to mind, but Mays and Aaron have strong claims to the title. Anyone else you think belongs in the mix?

Hank Aaron is the greatest but Albert Pujols was pretty amazing.

Mays has to be up there.

Probably Hornsby or Aaron. Mays is right there, Wagner is high up there.

Aaron..

Jimmie Foxx was a beast, er, he is The Beast.

Was just going to post Foxx.

Baseball is all about fandom, so my heart screams Dave Kingman!!!!!!!!!!

In my opinion, Mays was the best RH hitter of his era. Hornsby, Trout, Wagner are also among the best.

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I'll go with the Say Hey Kid!
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Hornsby
Aaron
Mays
Wagner
Pujols

I'm not 100% sure if he was the greatest right handed hitter of all time; however, Rogers Hornsby averaged over .400 for a five-year stretch.

That's borderline unbelievable.

If you mean just as a hitter, I will say Hornsby. If you mean as an overall player, I will say Mays.

Rajah was the greatest right-handed hitter and it’s not even “that” debatable. He has the second highest lifetime batting average; three .400 seasons; two Triple Crowns; seven batting titles; two MVPs; and a partridge in a pear tree.

Every other mentioned player is just vying for second place.

Konnnnng

Some would say Josh Gibson should be considered. I’d go Aaron.

Guess it's all based on what the definition of 'hitter' is in this context. I would take the number of runs produced in a player's career and divide it by the number of games they played in their career to arrive at an average runs produced per game stat. An imperfect formulation, but runs win games, so it makes sense. Of course, there'd still be a helluva lot of screaming about what exactly constitutes a 'run produced' (does knocking in a run and scoring a run both count?), along with everyone who will once again only base their opinions on the theoretical stat of WAR.

I agree with a bunch of you...

Mr. Reality 68 up there has five listed:

Hornsby
Aaron
Mays
Wagner
Pujols

I lean towards it being among those guys. And they're all close.

Close on their heels would be Al Simmons, Ed Delahanty and Pete Browning; but those 3 are behind that top 5.

I REALLY like Bill James' first Historical Baseball Abstract. In my estimation, that is one fine book. I like the two pages he gives to Ed Reulbach. However, one eye opening moment for me was reading his perception of what a fine, great, superlative baseball player Willie Mays was. I saw him play. But I think that a baseball fan would need to have been born about 1930 or earlier, then live about 85 years, to fully appreciate just what a player Willie was. And that's coming from me, a Stan Musial fan.

Hank or Willie

Lots of advanced stats to consider but if you just go old school and look at Batting Average. How often a player gets on base by Hitting the baseball. Rajah is clearly the Best Right handed Hitter in the History of Baseball. And that was the Question asked " Who was the best Right handed hitter in baseball. Hornsby.
That is a very different question as to who is the greatest right handed baseball player. And luckily for us Mike Trout is making a mark for himself in that debate. And Aaron Mays Foxx Pujols all have a case.
Jmho

No love for DiMaggio?

As the greatest ever? No.

I can't believe even with the guys who are listing top 5's that Jimmie Foxx is getting almost no love.

Pujols, sigh. As an Angels fan I looked at the daily box scores, ugh. And I would see Pujols down there in the Batters Box and think, "so this is Pujols" and roll my eyes. Ok, he did great things in STL, but the Angels years - OMG!

+1

This^

Aaron

I wouldn't call him the best ever but Miguel Cabrera deserves to be mentioned ahead of guys like Pete Browning. 500 homers, 3000 hits, .300 average, and a Triple Crown. Know how many right-handed hitters have done that? One. Miggy.

That’s exactly what i meant when I asked the question. Rogers was a terrible fielder.

Frank Robinson should be on a list like this.

The Mick?
 

Not sure how people want to consider this, but Mantle was a much better right-handed hitter than lefty - he hit .330 for his career righty. So can we include right-handed Mantle on the list?

Mantle also was never the same from the left handed side of the plate after Red Schoendist landed on his right shoulder in the World Series.

As for the question, I'd probably say Hornsby or Foxx. I think depending on how the rest of his career shapes up, however, we might be able to say Mike Trout.

Dead Ball Era - Honus Wagner
Pre-integration Live Ball Era - Rogers Hornsby
Modern Era - Willie Mays

Good choices, I might go with Aaron over Mays.

One guy no one has mentioned Manny Ramirez. He certainly has his negatives but man could he hit

Rickey Henderson was right handed too. I don't know everyone's definition of hitter but if I'm fielding a team I'm probably gonna look twice at a guy who leads of all baseball in runs.

Who was a better hitter between Mays vs Aaron ?

For me it is Aaron as he leads in all the counting stats.

Hits
Aaron 3771
Mays 3293

HR
Aaron 755
Mays 660

Batting Average
Aaron .305
Mays.301

Runs
Aaron 2174
Mays 2068

RBI
Aaron 2297
Mays 1909

Total Bases
Aaron 6856
Mays 6080

Best
 

Packs beat me to Rickey H by about 40 minutes. I do NOT think he belongs
with the current consensus Top 5, but he's a sneaky great call.

Trent King

It's Foxx for sure. If we are doing counting stats it's Aaron, but Foxx beats him per PA.

Agree on both.

It is true that Aaron had better overall numbers towards the end of his career vs. Mays, but Mays also lost nearly two years to military service. It’s frightening to think of Mays’ hypothetical career totals….

Love it....my buddy's college roommate!

I'll throw the Big Hurt into the discussion...his peak stretch is right there with everyone else including Pujols. And his size and plate discipline were unmatched by many of the others listed. If he would have taken the juice for his injuries like others of the time he could have extended a couple more decent years maybe...but I am glad he didn't!

Aaron played his career in hitters parks. From 1966-1974, the easiest hitters park in MLB. Mays played most of his career (1958 on) in pitchers parks.

It’s Joe Dimaggio. Throw whatever stats you want at the situation. He was the best. If any of us started a team, he’d be the first picked.

al kaline...probably not in the to 5 though

I really do think there is a case for DiMaggio over Mays and Aaron. Sure, short career and not even 500 homers, but there are very few players better than him. His overall slugging, OPS and OPS+ figures are very close to Mays and Aaron. I do realize Mays and Aaron's longevity are pretty much unsurpassed except for each other. But what a player DiMaggio was behind the raw numbers.

I think OPS+ does a pretty good job of measuring relative performance, at least over the last 100 years. The top right handers in the modern era, by OPS+, are:

1.Trout
2.Hornsby
3.Suttles
T4.Foxx
T4.Judge

The next five, ignoring juicers, are:

6.Greenberg
T7.Allen
T7.Thomas
T9.Aaron
T9.Dimaggio
T9.Mays

Trout and Judge will probably drop some as they get towards the end of their careers, but still they are in select company surrounding Hornsby and Foxx. Dick Allen had an amazing career in the era of cavernous parks and high mounds. Frank Thomas's achievements get overlooked because he played in the Selig/Reinsdorf PED-approved years.

Interesting that all three have the same OPS+. According to OPS+ the winner is Mike Trout, but keep in mind he is still in his prime and his OPS+ could go down. Also the 1960s were a low scoring era. The 30's were higher. I believe one year the NL averaged over 300. For that reason I would go with Aaron. He did it much longer, almost twice as many plate appearances as DiMaggio.

Rank Player (yrs, age) Adjusted OPS+ PA Bats
7 Mike Trout (12, 30) 176 6159 R
8 Rogers Hornsby+ (23) 175 9481 R
Mule Suttles+ (21) 172 3649 R
14 Pete Browning (13) 163 5315 R
Jimmie Foxx+ (20) 163 9677 R
Aaron Judge (7, 30) 163 3161 R
Mark McGwire (16) 163 7660 R
18 Dave Orr (8) 162 3411 R
19 Hank Greenberg+ (13) 159 6098 R
23 Dick Allen (15) 156 7315 R
Frank Thomas+ (19) 156 10075 R
25 Henry Aaron+ (23) 155 13941 R
Joe DiMaggio+ (13) 155 7672 R
Willie Mays+ (23) 155 12545 R

DiMaggio missed 3 ultra prime seasons. He was never going to get to 755 home runs but I think it was likely he was going to put up monster numbers for those seasons and probably would have finished with better OPS figures than we're looking at now. He missed his age 28 to 30 seasons, which are typically peak seasons for a player.

I'd have them in slightly different order, but damn hard to argue with these 5.

This is very true. To do what Mays did in Candlestick was absolutely insane.

I would go with the following 5 righties:

Foxx
Hornsby
Mays
Aaron
Delahanty

I would not put Pujols in the top 5. Pujols, for his career, started out as a monster. His dominance in his first 10 years was very similar to Trout's. (Both had 3 MVPs. Pujols finished in the top 5 10 times, Trout 9. Their OPS+ was very close.)

But in his years with the Angels, Pujols was not productive at all. In his 10 years with the Angels, he was basically Eric Hosmer. He hit only 222 homeruns, and slashed .256/.311/.447, with an OPS+ of 108. Eric Hosmer's career so far is 196 HRs, .277/.336/.428 and an OPS+ of 108.

Overall, Pujols' career OPS+ of 145 is tied for 51st all time, and just 19th among non-juicing, modern-era right handers. Putting him in the top 5 is a reach. Frank Thomas and Frank Robinson were feared hitters in their primes, and also were feared hitters well into their 30's. They are both deserving of the top 5 more than Pujols.

I think it's also important to discuss Peak Vs. Longevity/Consistency when it comes to this debate. Just food for thought.

Nailed it.

Living out here has taught me that the famous (and misappropriated) Mark Twain quote, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco," is a huge understatement. Even playing softball in these parts on a windswept 'summer' (Ha!!) day is a nightmare.

New quote proposal:
"In New York, they have the wind chill factor in winter. In San Francisco, they have it in summer!" (Take that, fake Mark Twain!!)

I think Dimaggio was a bit of a jerk from what books I’ve read. And I’d bet his anti-social whatever disorder helped him to basically have ice in his veins. 56 everyone… and then another 20…

And throw in 9 rings in what, 13 years in cavernous old school yankee stadium. 9 rings! We shower Jordan with his five rings, and rightfully so. Bro’s, I hear you all. Never struck out. Don’t ever forget how meaningful it is to put the ball in play. There’s a good argument that Joe D was the best player ever. Again, he was not a good person. Dude was a winner on par with basically no one…

Rings is about the worst measure of an individual baseball player ever.

My bad. It was a coincidence…

How many rings does DiMaggio get if he's the leader of the St. Louis Browns.

How many rings does Ted Williams get if he was a Yankee?

So maybe coincidence is a little strong, but not much.

He was a regular Mr. October, what with that [checks notes] .271 average and 0.8 home runs per year.

Based on what? He hit 21 homers the year before his military service and then 25 & 20 after.

Yep, that's pretty......... "regular".

He had a 147 OPS+ and then didn't play baseball for three years and had a 142 OPS+ upon his return. I’m also basing it on the fact that he won 2 MVPs before he left and another two seasons after he returned.

If you go by offensive WAR, it's Mays and Aaron.

For me it's a tough call between Aaron or Mays but I am leaning a bit towards Hammerin Hank since the post says best hitter and not best all around player.

Those two were great hitters for a long time.

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

But the three seasons surrounding his military service were not "monster" seasons. I'm not saying he'd have had bad seasons - just that the evidence suggests they would not have been "monster" seasons.

Dimaggio's MVP in 1947 is a joke and shouldn't be used to make a case for anything. Ted Williams CRUSHED him in everything that year, winning the Triple Crown.

There's a bartender in CenLa that swears it's Manny Ramirez.

I told my brother to ask Chatgpt who was better at 2nd base, Horsnby or Altuve, and it equivocated, talking about different eras. I told him to ask it to compare Hornsby and Jose Oquendo, and it begrudgingly admitted that Hornsby was better.

I would say Aaron, although I did not see him in his prime. I saw Kingman hit a homerun in the Astrodome that was unreal. I'd say Kingman or Madlock.

If you say so. He won the MVP, finished with a 147 OPS+ the next year and then joined the military. He comes back from the military to put up a 142 OPS and wins the MVP the following season.

His career OPS+ is exactly the same as Aaron and Mays so I do believe with three prime seasons he would have surpassed their OPS+.

Who was the all time best right handed base stealer?

Among right handed players, who was the all time best at hitting home runs?

Among right handed players, who was the all time best at getting on base?

Among all right handed players, who was the best at scoring runs?

Among all right handed players, who was the best at contributing Wins to his team above a replacement level player (WAR)?

Now... get all of that out of your head... And consider the question at hand, who was the best all time right handed hitter? Rogers Hornsby.

I think DiMaggio is sort of the Sandy Koufax of position players. The stats will never come close to supporting it, but there is a certain kind of romantic fan who will always insist he is the best there ever was, just because.

Derek Jeter!

Has anyone attempted to figure out how to properly weight hitting stats in the 20s and 30s when pitching was pretty bad v.s. the 50s and 60s when pitching was much better? I find it hard to compare Hornsby and Mays/Aaron because Hornsby faced so many bad pitchers who wouldn't have been in the league in the 50s and 60s.

Not the best but a great one for sure.:)

Watching his last game now. It is at the bottom of the 2nd inning.

It’s all so silly. Aaron, Mays, or Dimaggio. Throw in Rogers Hornsby if you want. There is no definitive answer. They were all great. Who on earth can dis those players? From a baseball career perspective that is. But I still hold with the guy who has nine rings. Nine. Not one, not three, 9! And he had everything to do with most of them. Go read Summer of ‘49. Again guy was a jerk, but might have been the best player ever…

OPS+ does a poor job of adjusting for home parks. Yankee Stadium was a completely different park for righties and lefties. Left handed hitters could hit cheap HRs into the short porch in right while who knows how many HRs DiMaggio lost hitting into the cavernous left center field of Yankee Stadium. Joe only hit 148 HRs at home vs 213 on the road.

Compare that to Jimmie Foxx, playing in hitters parks, who hit 299 at home and 235 on the road. On the road, DiMaggio hit a HR one in every 16.25 AB, Foxx one in every 18.08. They both hit .325, but Foxx's 30 point advantage in SLG is more than offset by their difference home parks. Joe was the better power hitter, even missing 3 prime years serving in WWII. I have DiMaggio as a slightly better hitter overall than Foxx.

I don't know if it does a good job or a poor job...but supposedly OPS+ does adjust for ballparks.

Joe also won three MVP awards. His second MVP two seasons before he left and his third MVP two seasons after he came back. You can't assume an MVP award, but if he had played those three extra seasons and won another, he'd be the only player other than Bonds with 4 or more MVPs.

Good classifications.

I would add one more era, a combo era; 2nd Live ball/Modern era 1990's-present. You can add Pujols, Cabrera, Trout, Frank Thomas etc to get their proper due as they played in a much different era than Mays too.

Originally Posted by rats60 View Post
Dead Ball Era - Honus Wagner
Pre-integration Live Ball Era - Rogers Hornsby
Modern Era - Willie Mays

I agree and really like that classification by era and would potentially have no problem with adding a 90's to Present

However, as a based purely on the Best Righty Hitter I am sticking with Hornsby above the rest