Greatest of all time

[the 'stache]

I can't mix hitters and pitchers, because the game is so fundamentally different for them. How could you possibly say who is the better player of Walter Johnson or Willie Mays, when there is no statistical basis for doing so? It would be sheer opinion.

This is going to be very difficult.

Hitters:

Babe Ruth
Ted Williams
Ty Cobb
Lou Gehrig
Joe DiMaggio
Mickey Mantle
"Shoeless" Joe Jackson
Stan Musial
Willie Mays
Hank Aaron
Honus Wagner
Rogers Hornsby
Roberto Clemente
Johnny Bench
Barry Bonds
Rickey Henderson
Napolean Lajoie
Tris Speaker
Tony Gwynn


Pitchers:
Walter Johnson
Grover Cleveland Alexander
Sandy Koufax
Greg Maddux
Bob Feller
Bob Gibson
Cy Young
Tom Seaver
Roger Clemens
Lefty Grove

List is still evolving. It's impossible for me to limit my positional players to just ten. If I were to look at just the hitting aspect, maybe I could do it. But I can't ignore things like defense and base stealing.

If I am looking at the most complete positional player in history, it's a short list: Willie Mays is at the very top. Bonds is close behind (hard for me to compare because of the PED variable). DiMaggio wasn't a base stealer, but he did everything else very well. Hank Aaron is pretty high on that list. The others would be open to discussion. I think players like Clemente, Bench and Mike Schmidt are too often overlooked, or undervalued, when their complete game is looked at.

Most naturally gifted player? Mickey Mantle, without a doubt in my mind. With a myriad of injuries that would have crippled lesser athletes, what he accomplished as a baseball player was simply phenomenal. When I think of what a healthy Mantle would have done...with that power, that eye, and the legs he had before tearing up his knee for the first time... /shudder. A healthy Mantle could have put up numbers (at Yankee Stadium, no less) that would have never been approached.