Who is the greatest player of the Pre-War Era?

[Huysmans]

Absolutely no surprise looking at the results....

Cobb and Ruth are king, best of the best, with no other comparable players in my opinion.

...it isn't even a contest.

[John1941]

Actually, I just voted for Josh Gibson, the only guy who can compare with the Babe in my opinion. I remain unconvinced that the Negro Leagues were equal to the major leagues, but even if you discount his 215 OPS+ a little, if you factor in that he was a catcher, that's more impressive than Ruth. Leaving aside pitching at least.

[nat]

"Ruth broke the HR record 4 times! and won only 1 MVP."

For a while there was a rule that a player could win the MVP award only once. I don't know if that was holding Ruth back, but it might have been.

[oldjudge]

Not only did Ruth change the game, but he saved baseball after the Black Sox scandal. I think Cobb was two and Wagner three. Unfortunately, we will never know how Gibson would have done in the majors but because he never played there I cannot consider him.

[Exhibitman]

I notice only one pitcher on the original list. In terms of pitchers I would list the top 5 as:

Johnson
Grove
Young
Mathewson
Alexander

[oldjudge]

Kid Nichols had a short career but certainly deserves to be on any list of pitching greats. He started at the same time as Cy Yound (1890) and had more wins than Young in that decade. I believe he ranks number one in WAR/year played.

[RCMcKenzie]

Agree on Nichols. He is very high on the all-time WAR stat. I don't know all the metrics that go in to it, but it seems to churn out the right names. Eddie Collins and Alex Rodriguez are also high on the list, the other names are the ones most would guess.