Who's The Greatest?

With Derek Jeter playing his last game, this is just a quick little discussion on who the greatest baseball player ever is and how to determine it.

 As Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter ends his illustrious career, people are calling him one of the best players of all time. Which poses the question: Who is the greatest baseball player of all time? 

 That's a tough question to answer, and one that is probably a matter of opinion more than anything. This is because baseball has so many different positions and statistics. There are so many types of baseball players. Should it be a prodigious power hitter who strikes out a lot? A high-contact hitter who hits over .300 but has little to no power? An amazing defender who isn't an outstanding hitter? Or a speed demon who doesn't do much beyond run? Or even a pitcher? 

 It should probably be an all-around great player. Looking at it statistically, the best stat to measure all-around greatness is Wins Above Replacement (WAR). If you're unfamiliar with WAR, it attempts to measure a players contributions to the team in all aspects of the game. Different people calculate WAR in different ways. According to FanGraphs, Babe Ruth is the all-time leader in WAR, but he was a minus defender and base runner. Baseball Reference also has Babe Ruth as the all-time WAR leader, but the gap is closer between him and number two Barry Bonds. 

 Bonds brings another question. Should we count players whose careers were tainted by PED use? Some people say they were still amazing players, but others say they should always have an asterisk next to their names. 

 If we are looking for someone who had a special blend of power, speed, and defense, that brings up names like Willie Mays, Ken Griffey Jr. and Jackie Robinson. They may not have been the absolute best at one category, but they were among the best in multiple areas. 

 Maybe you're a pitcher's guy. Pitcher's don't play every single day, but they do contribute greatly to their team's success. In fact, back in the day of Cy Young (who has a trophy named after him), pitchers did pitch almost every day. Statistically speaking, however, pitchers don't have WARs as high as position players.

 Many people will want to bring up championships, which is what brings Jeter into the conversation. But baseball is a team sport, and championships factor in how good the other players on the team are, how good the manager and coaches are, and how lucky they get. If there is a career utility player who just happens to play on many great teams, he may have tons of championship rings. That doesn't make him better than a multiple MVP winner who never had much talent around him. However, the World Series is the ultimate goal, and players who contribute to a championship team can say they were the best that particular season.

 It's possible that the greatest baseball player of all-time never played in Major League Baseball. The Negro League had many great players, and many of them never got to play in the Majors. Satchel Page didn't get to pitch in a Major League game until he was in his 50's. The legendary Josh Gibson, who was said to be the greatest power hitter of all time by those who saw him, never got to play in the Majors. There are also great Japanese players and players from other countries who never come to America.

 Maybe the greatest player of all time hasn't even reached the peak of his career. Mike Trout has been the best player in the Majors since he was called up, and if he continues his current pace, he will probably be the best player of all time. But he could plateau or get injured, or something else unforeseen could happen.

 In the end, It's really a matter of opinion who the greatest player of all time is. Maybe you saw somebody play in person and thought he was the greatest player you've ever seen.

 Maybe you just want to go by statistics, because numbers never lie. Maybe you agree that it should be an all-around player and the number if championships won doesn't matter that much. I don't care if you disagree with me.If you want to know my opinion, though, I think it's Jackie Robinson. He was great on and off the field, having the courage to break baseball's color barrier and the talent and blend of offense, speed, and defense to win many awards and make the Brooklyn Dodgers a perennial contender. But that doesn't mean my opinion won't change. My favorite baseball player ever is either Robinson or Ken Griffey Jr., and if Junior wouldn't have had injury problems late in his career, he might've been my pick for greatest of all time.

 So as the great Derek Jeter finishes his career and people are arguing over why he is or why he isn't one of the greatest player of all time, remember that everybody has different way of determining who the best baseball player ever is. That's how great of a sport baseball is. There is no clear-cut greatest.