Sunday, January 22, 2017

Revised List of 36: The Best Players I've Seen Play in Person

With the Hall of Fame results announced last week, it's time to once again update my list. The Hall of Fame results are usually less of an update than other awards. Chances are if they're good enough to be in the Hall of Fame, they're already on the list. But, last year Mike Piazza was able to make the jump. So there's always a chance.

It didn't happen this year, though.

I've never seen Tim Raines play live. So, he doesn't make the list. I have seen Ivan Rodriguez play, but he was already on the list. All that happened was changing his credentials from "MVP" to "HOF". No big deal there.

Jeff Bagwell brings up a dilemma I've been tossing around for a while. I never saw Bagwell play in an actual game. But, I did see him play in the 1999 All Star game. I haven't been including players i say play in that game in this list up til now. When I started, I went with the theory that I didn't see the "real" player if it was just an exhibition game. I'm starting to wonder about that decision. If I started adding them to the list, it would include a few more Hall of Famers that aren't on there now. I can't decide. What do you think?

For now, I'm leaving them off. So, I present the barely updated list of the 36 best players I've seen play in person.

1. Roberto Alomar (HOF)
2. Wade Boggs (HOF)
3. Barry Bonds (MVP)
4. Ryan Braun (ROY, MVP)
5. Miguel Cabrera (MVP, triple crown)
6. Jose Canseco (ROY, MVP)
7. Roger Clemens (MVP, CYA)
8. Josh Donaldson (MVP)
9. Dennis Eckersley (HOF)
10. Jason Giambi (MVP)
11. Tom Glavine (HOF)
12. Juan Gonzalez (MVP)
13. Ken Griffey Jr (All-Century Team)
14. Vladimir Guerrero (MVP)
15. Josh Hamilton (MVP)
16. Bryce Harper (ROY, MVP)
17. Rickey Henderson (HOF)
18. Matt Holliday (MVP)
19. Randy Johnson (HOF)
20. Chipper Jones (MVP)
21. Greg Maddux (HOF)
22. Pedro Martinez (HOF)
23. Andrew McCutchen (MVP)
24. Justin Morneau (MVP)
25. Dustin Pedroia (ROY, MVP)
26. Mike Piazza (HOF)
27. Kirby Puckett (HOF)
28. Albert Pujols (MVP)
29. Jim Rice (HOF)
30. Cal Ripken (HOF)
30. Alex Rodriguez (MVP)
31. Ivan Rodriguez (HOF)
32. John Smoltz (HOF)
33. Ichiro Suzuki (ROY, MVP)
34. Frank Thomas (HOF)
35. Mike Trout (MVP)
36. Mo Vaughn (MVP)

There's my list. Who’s on your list?

3 comments:

  1. How in the world is Pedro so low?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ha, because his last name starts with M. Whoops...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah. I'm that lazy. It was hard enough to trim it to 36...picking a number one, or thirteen would have driven me crazy. Although, you're correct, if they were in fact ranked 1-36, Pedro would be near the top.

      Delete

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