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Name your Top 5 Players with the Best Combo of Career Power and Career Batting Average...
mintonlypls
Posts: 2,338 ✭✭✭✭✭
My top five (5) would be in this order:
- Babe Ruth 714 HRs and batting average .342
- Ted Williams 521 HRs and batting average .344 (missed 5 seasons due to military service...definitely would have passed Mays in HRs)
- Hank Aaron 755 HRs and batting average .305
- Lou Gehrig 493 HRs and batting average .340 (missed 4 or 5 seasons due to ALS...he would have approached or slightly exceeded 600 HRs
- Willie Mays 660 HRs and a batting average .301
Let's here yours...
mint_only_pls
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I'd probably be pretty close at the top and have thought along similar lines recently evaluating players.
1) Ruth-Williams has the average edge but Ruth has a few more HRs
2) Williams
3) Gehrig
4) Foxx
5) Musial-lighter on the HRs than some but 475 is a lot and scores high on average
Agree with your list. Others in the discussion would be (1) Barry Bonds .296 and 762 HR, (2) Albert Pujols .296 and 703 HR, (3) Manny Ramirez .312 and 555 HR, (4) Frank Thomas .301 and 521 HR, and (5) Vladimir Guerrero .318 and 449 HR.
That said, only Bonds deserves consideration in the top 5 rather than Gehrig.
Aaron Judge is earning his way onto this list. The power is unquestioned, but his BA is coming up over the last 3-4 years. Miguel Cabrera should also be in consideration- only triple crown in decades.
Miguel Cabrera (.306, 511) should be in the discussion. Also in my opinion Aaron does not get enough credit for just being a pure hitter. His .305 is over 12000+ at bats (4000+ more than Ruth). And if you took away his 755 HRS, Aaron still has over 3000 hits, which is one of the most under appreciated stats I have ever heard.
Pujols. (.296, 703). I know his BA slipped a little in his later years but the 703 homers without steroids is hard to beat. At least I hope there was not any steroids.
A-Rod .295 and 696HR Bonds .298 762.
I like them (choices) all.
hard not to have stan the man not on the list,
over 3600 hits
331 average
475 hr;s
he may be number 1.
Joe DiMaggio needs to be mentioned.
Rogers Hornsby batted .358 lifetime, with a .577 SLG.
Pujols' SLG was. 544.
I have always been interested in this because my guy, Killebrew was a great slugger, but not a great hitter for average.
My list isn't going to be about how many HRs a guy hit. It's going to be about SLG and BA.
I'm also not going to get into adjusting for era, that becomes a quagmire.
6 players rose to the top of my list.
The top 3 seem easy;
Babe Ruth #1 all time SLG, #13 in BA.
Ted W. #2 in SLG, #10 in BA.
Gehrig #3 SLG, #19 BA.
The next 3 a little tougher;
Hornsby #3 BA, #15 SLG
Foxx #45 BA, #8 SLG
Musial #34 BA, #16 SLG
I want to put Musial above Foxx and Hornsby because the guy had more PA than anyone on the entire list at 12,721. Then I looked at Stan's numbers at the same PA's as Hornsby and Foxx's and decided not to. :-(
Ruth was the only other player on the list with over 10,000 PA.
Big surprise to me that Ted, who missed all those years in the military was 3rd in PA.
Joe DiMaggio gets honorable mention, but with only 7672 PA, has too short of a career.
It’s amazing what guys like Ruth did during a time when sports nutrition, training, and psychology were rudimentary compared to modern baseball. That said his fastball maxed around 80mph which is what you see at the high school level today.
Ruth’s bat speed was also nowhere near today’s elite hitters which eclipse 70mph.
It makes it hard for me to consider players from that age vs more recent history after money transcended that era of sports.
Bonds, who’s certain to be surpassed in the future, stands atop the pile at present.
After reading the thread…I have moved Gehrig to #3…ahead of Aaron. I still have Aaron at #4 …and questionable to have Mays in the top #5. I have replaced Mays at #5 with Roger Hornsby…after reading input on this thread.
Bonds is not worth discussing.
Mays is my all time Center Fielder and Aaron probably my 5th choice as an outfielder, after Ruth, Musial and Williams.
If you're limiting the criteria to just hitting for both Average and Power, neither Aaron or Mays make the list because of a lower BA.
Best combo of career average and power. I’m not sure but it seems like Barry Bonds would absolutely be in a top 5.
I would certainly include Mays in my
own top 5 but I would have Ruth outside the top 25 unless the ranking is contextual based on eras. If that was the consideration then Ruth, Gibson at 1A and 1B. After that it’s tricky. I would have Lajoie, Ott, Foxx rounding out my top 5 of that timeframe. I don’t think any of these guys are making the Pirates in 2025 though.
Talk about Bonds or don’t talk about Bonds the guy was impressive with a bat.
In case you don’t know Macho Man Randy Savage was one in the minor leagues for the Cardinals and later the White Sox and couldn’t make it to the show even with steroids for breakfast. So wonder drug it’s not.
The chariot once was the pinnacle of technology but I had a Chrysler LeBaron when I was a wee lad and it had horses to spare.
Bonds
Musial
I think Hank Greenberg would've been a great candidate if he wouldn't had lost 4 years during WWII.
Terry Bradshaw was AMAZING!!
Ohio State Buckeyes - National Champions
Mickey Mantle - .298 and 536 HR
(OBP .421, SLG .557)
Noteworthy? The Mick went from a .305 career hitter at the end of 1966 to .298 by the end of 1968. He said not having a .300 career average was probably the thing he was most disappointed by. When he retired, only two players had more HR in baseball history…
Curious about the rare, mysterious and beautiful 1951 Wheaties Premium Photos?
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/987963/1951-wheaties-premium-photos-set-registry#latest
Albert “Joey” Belle. Stupid offense.
Kiss me twice.....let's party.
There are a lot, some HOF's and many not in the HOF that I followed in the 80s,90s and 00's. Too many to name a Top 5. Now in todays game, its hard to not put Aaron Judge on the list with how he's hitting.
Although he spent all his 20s as a .270 .280 hitter. He only learned how to hit now that he is in his 30s and has gotten old as a baseball player. It took him getting to that age where most hitters are declining to erase that 40 hit tool that plagued him in the minors and become profoundly awesome at hitting. 🤔 Which I'm not sure has happened to anybody ever.
A lot of the talk about him is how he is becoming one of the greatest but most players age. The mid 30s and late 30s is often not a period where you beat Father Time and become or stay astronomically better than you were in your late 20s. The majority of players I have seen through history have slipped a bit in their mid to late 30s but noone seems to be factoring that into their projections. Seems to be an absolute requirement of being a Yankee with a big contract that goes to the late 30s or later.
Also most guys who strike out 175 to 200 times a year dont end up being great average hitters. Not sure how long that can last. The plummeting average that lasted a bit before the last week or so felt more normal for a guy who misses the ball that often.