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Eastern Seaboard Prejudice Network's panel of supposed "experts" recently created lists of the 10 best ever @ each position, without separating by league, or establishing a minimum number of career seasons played. While this might be due to those who lost prime years, to serving in the Armed Forces, I think that a minimum of 10 seasons should have been used, as well as separation by league, since divisional interleague play wasn't implemented until '97, half-season until '02, and full-season until '13.
I suspect that the writers did this, not only so a few players who played mostly in the Negro Leagues could be included,
but especially so that they could list a certain active CFer @ number 6...cough...Trout...cough... They also included a certain active "1B" @ number 10 in Big PEDi, who has played the position in <300 games within his entire career. In a lame attempt to disguise this biased farce, they added "3B" Edgar Martinez @ number 9, this despite his ALSO having spent that majority of his career as DH. Doing this meant that 3 other more deserving players were omitted, like perhaps the Tigers' George Kell @ 3B.
Tigers who made these "all time MLB greats" list include Miggy Cabrera 1B @ #5, Hank Greenberg 1B @ #6, Mickey Cochrane 2B @ #9, Alan Trammell SS @ #10, Ty Cobb CF @ # 3, and Pudge Rodriguez C @ #6. Apparently no Tigers RHP or LHP were good enough to make their Top 10.
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/page...yersalltime/all-mlbrank-greatest-players-ever
It was interesting reading some of the comments below each list, esp from those who claimed that the superstars of yore and the "dead-ball" era wouldn't be able to hack it vs more modern and integrated competition. While that might be somewhat true, there is also the fact that modern-era MLB players have had more creature comforts, better training facilities, vastly improved injury rehab, medicine, surgical repair and restoration, and much higher salaries, which means that they don't have to work another FT job in the offseason.
Today's SPs rarely pitch 9 or more innings, the players don't travel via passenger train from state to state, sleep in un-air conditioned hotels, use gloves and mitts that are smaller, and almost flat as pancakes with tiny webbing, or bat barehanded.
I suspect that the writers did this, not only so a few players who played mostly in the Negro Leagues could be included,
but especially so that they could list a certain active CFer @ number 6...cough...Trout...cough... They also included a certain active "1B" @ number 10 in Big PEDi, who has played the position in <300 games within his entire career. In a lame attempt to disguise this biased farce, they added "3B" Edgar Martinez @ number 9, this despite his ALSO having spent that majority of his career as DH. Doing this meant that 3 other more deserving players were omitted, like perhaps the Tigers' George Kell @ 3B.
Tigers who made these "all time MLB greats" list include Miggy Cabrera 1B @ #5, Hank Greenberg 1B @ #6, Mickey Cochrane 2B @ #9, Alan Trammell SS @ #10, Ty Cobb CF @ # 3, and Pudge Rodriguez C @ #6. Apparently no Tigers RHP or LHP were good enough to make their Top 10.
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/page...yersalltime/all-mlbrank-greatest-players-ever
It was interesting reading some of the comments below each list, esp from those who claimed that the superstars of yore and the "dead-ball" era wouldn't be able to hack it vs more modern and integrated competition. While that might be somewhat true, there is also the fact that modern-era MLB players have had more creature comforts, better training facilities, vastly improved injury rehab, medicine, surgical repair and restoration, and much higher salaries, which means that they don't have to work another FT job in the offseason.
Today's SPs rarely pitch 9 or more innings, the players don't travel via passenger train from state to state, sleep in un-air conditioned hotels, use gloves and mitts that are smaller, and almost flat as pancakes with tiny webbing, or bat barehanded.
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