Baseball's Greatest Living Player...who is it?

[SteveMitchell]

Mays over Aaron by a nose (or more) and I have long shared the writer's opinion of Sandy Koufax. Koufax was phenomenal for the last 5 of his 12 seasons. However, in his first 7 years, he broke below 3.50 ERA only once: 1955 when he was 3.02 in 4 decisions. After 1961 he was brilliant; the brilliance was just too brief to rank as Greatest Living. For that title, I guess I'd go with Maddux among pitchers. (Randy might have gotten the nod had he given more than half-hearted efforts in his final games at Seattle (9-10 won-lost record on 4.33 ERA before posting a spiffy 10-1 mark and 1.28 ERA at Houston) in 1998.

Originally Posted by Jobu

For hitters, and probably overall, I say Mays over Aaron by a nose.

For pitchers I say Maddux and Randy Johnson need to be in the conversation. Many of you will get mad at this, but I don't think Koufax is in the conversation for best living player. He was absolutely incredible for 5 years and decent for the rest of his career. 5 years does not make one the best living player and we can't count what would have happened if not for the shoulder issues at the end.