Who is the greatest baseball player of all time?

[G1911]

That an issue is one of opinion, rather than of a strict true or false dichotomy, does not make that issue not worth discussing. Especially if it’s just a little fun for fans, though many very serious issues are also matters of opinion. Everyone knows there is not a strictly true definitive answer, because the question is one of weighting many factors in an arbitrary way.


For the top 3
Position Players:
Ruth
Mays
Cobb (can swap with Mays, picking between them I find very difficult)

I would probably put Williams somewhere around 5-10. If we ignored anything but hitting, he is ~2/3/4 with Cobb and Bonds (who I understand both writing off and counting very highly).

Pitchers are easier. I think the top 3 is a preference between balancing longevity and peak performance, but whichever way I lean at a particular time the top 3 are the same, just in a different order.
1. Cy Young
2. Walter Johnson
3. Lefty Grove