Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth
Notwithstanding our resident genius, one can't help but notice that nearly every list ranking baseball all-time greats that's ever been put together, including by statisticians, has Ruth and Cobb and Mays in the top 5 hitters/fielders and WALTER Johnson as the top pitcher. They must be lawyers who twist words too.
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And that’s why the appeal to authority never works - another authority can always be found and then the ‘logic’ an appeal to authority works on, that of unquestionable expertise, completely falls apart.
Just to make sure we hit 2,000 posts here, contextual best team, using the conventional definition of an all time team that has been in use for many decades:
RHP Walter Johnson (though I think Cy Young is right there due to his insane amount of effective innings)
LHP Lefty Grove
Relief Pitcher - Mariano, Hoyt Wilhelmina second but the gap here is big.
C - Berra, for his consistency but this is hard to pick. Bench is close,
1B - Gehrig, Pujols and Anson are close.
2B Collins, Joe Morgan is right there.
3B Schmidt, pretty wide margin I think.
SS Wagner, pretty wide margin I think.
LF Bonds or Williams, entirely dependent on steroid philosophy.
CF Mays, but it hurts to leave off Cobb.
RF Ruth, it’s not even close.
The best team if we ignore everyone before current times:
RHP: Clemens
LHP Johnson (I don’t see Kershaw passing him)
RP: Mariano
C: Ivan Rodriguez, but boy Piazza could hit and peak Posey and Mauer were fantastic
1B: Pujols, Thomas second
2B: Biggio, but there’s several close
3B: Chipper
SS: A-Rod
LF: Bonds
CF: Griffey, probably today. Will end up as Trout soon
RF: Gwynn? Walker? Ichiro? Would have to look up the numbers instead of using memory.