| Nolan Ryan is questionable because he's not even the best pitcher of his generation, much less of all time.
Compare his stats to Tom Seaver. Seaver - ERA 2.86; WHIP 1.121; K/BB 2.62. Ryan - ERA 3.13, WHIP 1.247; K/BB 2.04. Seaver is better than Ryan at everything except pure stikeout count.
I'd also say Jackie Robinson is a pretty ridiculous inclusion. He was historically important, and a very good player, but not actually the best second baseman of all time. Compare him to Joe Morgan, unfairly left of this list:
Robinson - BA .275, OBP .382, SLG .412 OPS .794
Morgan - BA .271, OBP .392, SLG .427 OPS .819
So comparable, but with Morgan slightly better on the average stats. But Morgan is way ahead on all the counting stats -
Robinson - 947 runs, 1518 hits, 137 home runs, 734 RBIs, 197 stolen bases
Morgan - 1650 runs, 2517 hits, 268 home runs, 1133 RBIs, 689 stolen bases
If you limit Morgan to just the years he played when he was the ages Robinson was during his major league career (28-37), Morgan still comes out ahead. In those years, his line is -
BA .281, OBP .407, SLG .455, OPS .862, considerably superior to Robinson. His counting stats in those years are very comparable to Robinson's career counting stats:
929 runs, 1341 hits, 171 home runs, 692 RBIs, 444 stolen bases.
And then he managed to last three years longer than Robinson, putting up a .778 OPS in his 38-40 years and 153 stolen bases, almost as many as Robinson got in his whole career. Morgan's peak seasons were also superior to Robinson's peak seasons.
So, anyway, polling people about these things is a terrible way to do it. |
MLB Rookies of the Year (NL)
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