Posted By:
jay behrensIf anyone has read Bill James Historical Abstract, you will remember that he said, I agre with him, that the truly great players from early baseball would be great baseball players today.
The other thing to remember when comparing players to their contemperaries is that if you could put talent on a bell curve the far right end of the bell curve would both be int he same place on the graph but the curve for the early game would be fairly wide and low, while the curve for today's talent would be vary narrow and high. Cy Barger prolly couldn't get out of 'A' ball if he played today.
Personal rankings:
Greatest player ever: Ruth, great hitter and pitcher
Greatest hitter: Ted Williams, what would his numbers be like without the war years?
Greatest pitcher: Walter Johnson, how many wins would he have if he actually had a team playing for him?
Jay