The Best Players of the 20th Century

Title: BASEBALL’S BEST: The TRUE Hall of Famers
Author: Michael Hoban, Ph.D.
Formats: PDF (ebook) | Paperback
Pages: 223

As an example of how the NEWS HOF Monitor works, here are two lists which show the 25 position players and the 25 starting pitchers who have had the best careers during the 20^th century – based on their on-field performance (hitting, fielding and pitching).

All numbers include the 2007 season.

Bold = Hall of Famer

Italic = Active Player in 2007

CWS = Career Win Shares

CV = Core Value (sum of win shares for 10 best seasons)

NEWS = Career Value (Non-traditional Evaluative Win Shares)

= CV + .25(CWS – CV)

The only players on the list who are not in the Hall of Fame are Barry Bonds, Pete Rose, Rickey Henderson and Alex Rodriguez.

Take a close look at the names on the list. Most of them will draw very little argument from fans of the game – but a few of them might. Eddie Collins, Nap Lajoie and Sam Crawford (all of whom played early in the 20^th century) are probably not as well known as most others on the list. And the presence of Pete Rose and Rickey Henderson so high on the list may raise some eyebrows. Just keep in mind for the present that this list is about as objective a list as is possible using the numbers that the players put together during their careers. And it is based on a careful combination of a player’s core value (10 best seasons) balanced against career longevity.

Note the large gap in points (26) between Lou Gehrig at #13 and Joe Morgan at #14. This would seem to imply that there is a SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE between the top thirteen players on the list and the bottom twelve. I am inclined to say that this establishes that there have been only thirteen MEGASTARS among the position players of the 20^th century.

Barry Bonds passed Ty Cobb as the #2 position player of all time during the 2007 season. But it appears unlikely that he will be able to overtake the Babe as the greatest position player of all time. (I should note that Ruth’s CWS of 756 includes 102 win shares as a pitcher.)

Joe DiMaggio and Alex Rodriguez are the only players on the list with less than 400 career win shares. I think this indicates rather well the impact they each had on the game in a relatively short period of time.

Finally, note the relative balance in the group: twelve played primarily before 1950, and eleven played in the second half of the century while Ted Williams and Stan Musial essentially bridged the mid-century mark. And note that Musial and Williams at 435 and 434 NEWS respectively are in a virtual dead-heat.

Every one of these pitchers is in the Hall of Fame except the three active pitchers (Clemens, Maddux and Johnson) and the last two: Bert Blyleven and Wilbur Cooper.

I should point out that Cy Young (1890-1911) is not included on this list because he spent a little more than half of his career pitching in the 19^th century. His NEWS score would have been at the top of the list.

Once again, serious fans will recognize most of the pitchers on this list. But how many will be familiar with Eddie Plank, Joe McGinnity, Mordecai Brown, Vic Willis and Ed Walsh – even though they are all in the Hall of Fame? And what are Bert Blyleven and Wilbur Cooper, non-Hall of Famers, doing on this list? One of the real rewards in looking at the numbers objectively is that sometimes we do come up with a surprise or two. I should point out that Bert Blyleven is the only pitcher who has accumulated 300 career win shares (and has been eligible for election to the Hall) who is not in the Hall of Fame.

Finally, did you expect to find both Roger Clemens and Greg Maddux so high on this list? The fact that both are in the top ten did surprise me somewhat.

Note the balance in this list as well. Twelve of these pitchers played the bulk of their careers before 1950 and twelve toiled mainly in the second half of the century while Warren Spahn bridged the two halves of the century.