When it comes to the current best player in baseball, I don’t think anyone will argue with Albert Pujols. After all, we’ve even created a designation to separate him from the rest of the league: Non-Pujols Division. So when someone claims that so and so is the best player in baseball, it usually comes with the NPD qualifier.
Still, the discussion of the best player in the game at any given time fuels many a bar discussion. It becomes even more relevant around this time of year, when we argue about who deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. If a player was the best in baseball for a few years running, he should probably be in the HOF, right?
True to his (long) form, Joe Posnanski examines the best players in baseball from 1970 through the present. He covers every single year, but the analysis goes beyond that. For each year, Joe looks at each player’s Win Shares over a five-year period. So for 1970, Joe looked at Win Shares for all players from 1970 through 1974. Then for 1971 he looked for the highest Win Share total from ’71 through ’75. It leads to some pretty interesting results.
The standout players on the list: Joe Morgan, Mike Schmidt, Barry Bonds, and Albert Pujols. Hall of Famers, all of them, without question. Wade Boggs held the title for three straight five-year periods (essentially 1984 through 1990), and Will Clark had it from 1987 through 1992. Making a single appearance on the list: Ken Singleton, from ’75 through ’79, bridging the gap between Morgan and Schmidt; Tim Raines, ’83 through ’87, bridging the gap between Schmidt and Boggs; Craig Biggio, ’95 through ’99; and Jeff Bagwell, ’96 through ’00. The last two messed up Barry Bonds’s continued dominance. Win Shares had Bonds as the best player in baseball from 1989 through the ’94-’98 period, and then again from the ’91-’01 period through ’00-’04. Pujols takes over from there.
Noticeably absent from the list: Alex Rodriguez. He was “close” or “in the discussion” for every period starting from ’96-’00. JoePos does address this, noting the fallibility of Win Shares:
For instance, Alex Rodriguez never quite made it as the best player — thank you Barry Bonds and Albert Pujols — but he was close seven times. I think you could make a pretty strong argument that A-Rod was, at times, the best player in baseball.
The whole thing is a fascinating read, so head on over there and at least skim it. I don’t blame you if you don’t read through it all — it’s a typical Posnanski behemoth.
When you’re done, return for tonight’s Open Thread.
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