Let’s rank top 10-15 T206 Players

[rats60]

Originally Posted by Rhotchkiss

As far as who was regarded as the best players of the era, during the era, I think we need look more further than the cards themselves. Presumably, they printed the most examples of the best players. Here are players with 3 or more different t206 poses:

Hal Chase has 5 different T206s
Cobb, McGraw, and Tinker have 4 different T206s
A number of folks have 3 different T206s (HOFers listed first):
Mathewson
Lajoie
Young
Jennings
Bender
Evers
Chance
Willis
Brown
Marquard
Ames
Camnitz
Donlin
Larry Doyle
Lake (switched teams but diff pose)
Meyers (misspelled name but diff pose)
Mullin (misspelled name but diff pose)
Overall
Schlei
Seymour
Wiltse

Of course Wagner and Plank are exceptions. Then, Speaker, Young, and Johnson are very young/rookies. Duffy, McGinnity, Kelley, J Collins are very old and/or coaching only.

But those listed above are the players with 3 or more t206 poses, which one could surmise were the biggest stars of the day.

This would a list of who is most popular. Chase has 5 cards, but he wouldn't make a list of best players. I used the years 1908-10 and the best players during that period were
1 Mathewson
2 Walsh
3 Cobb
4 Wagner
5 Lajoie
6 Brown
7 Collins
8 Johnson
9 Tinker
10 Joss

Just missing are Young who would make it if it was 08-09 and Speaker who would make it if it was 09-10.

[TheBig6]

1.Cobb
2Johnson
3.Wagner
4.Mathewson
5.Speaker
6.Collins
7. Lajoie
8. Brown
9. Plank
10.Young / Keeler
I put Brown ahead of plank due to post season records.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by TheBig6

1.Cobb
2Johnson
3.Wagner
4.Mathewson
5.Speaker
6.Collins
7. Lajoie
8. Brown
9. Plank
10.Young / Keeler
I put Brown ahead of plank due to post season records.

Plank and Brown over Cy Young?

[TheBig6]

I thought it was dead ball layers, my bad

[TheBig6]

Originally Posted by G1911

Plank and Brown over Cy Young?

I just figured with half of Cy’s wins were in the 19th century. My opinion Plank and Brown were better in deadball era.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by TheBig6

I just figured with half of Cy’s wins were in the 19th century. My opinion Plank and Brown were better in deadball era.

I figured there was just some extra criteria being added that would make this reasonable. But then I’ve read some spicy takes on here…

Brown is fairly underrated in my book.

[Bridwell]

The NY players are over-represented with multiple poses. That doesn't tell me much about how great they were.

[Kutcher55]

What is the argument for putting Wagner above Cobb exactly?

[rats60]

Originally Posted by G1911

I figured there was just some extra criteria being added that would make this reasonable. But then I’ve read some spicy takes on here…

Brown is fairly underrated in my book.

Brown was only good for about 5 years, but not as good as Matty or Walsh during that period. He was good in the Cubs 2 WS wins, but pretty bad in their 2 WS losses. He was overshadowed by Tinker-Evers-Chance on his own team when he should have been seen as the star. That leads to Brown being a little underrated.

[Rhotchkiss]

Attached are career stats for each of (in order):

Ed Walsh
Eddie Plank
Mordecai Brown
Christy Mathewson