Of thse four baseball players, who is/was the most naturally gifted?

Most naturally gifted?

  • Ken Griffey Jr.

    Votes: 21 60.0%
  • Alex Rodriguez

    Votes: 2 5.7%
  • Josh Hamilton

    Votes: 9 25.7%
  • Bryce Harper

    Votes: 3 8.6%

  • Total voters
    35

recently

Cooling Off
I limited it to recent guys, because obviously we can go wayback in time and include people like Mickey Mantle, etc.

Vote and discuss.
 
 
A-Rod won't get many votes, but remember that he hit .358 -- and won a batting title -- with 36 homers, 123 RBI and 54 doubles (MLB best) in his first full season at 20 years old, and then went 40-40 at 22 years old.

That is impressive.
 
Since A-Rod juiced, he's gone. Bryce is just starting so he can't be included.

That leaves Jr and Hamilton. I'll take Jr.
 
A-Rod was naturally gifted and a HOF player without juice. His natural talents have to be taken into consideration here.
 
How can you trust the integrity of someone who's admitted to using PEDs?

I don't think he was juicing early in his career. He said he was from 2001-2003, and I believe him. At least he had the balls to admit it, as small as they may now be from the steroid use.
 
When healthy, out of that list...Griffey Jr. He was so smooth at everything. Made it all look effortless. The mosted gifted I ever saw would probably be Dave Parker. Could hit for power, average, could steal bases with anyone, excellent fielder with possibly the best outfield arm of all time. We'll never know what he could have been, because he liked cocaine too much.
 
If Hamilton wouldn't have been out of baseball for so long I feel like he would have been one of the greatest hitters of all time. So I went with him.
 
Plenty of guys have successfully combined the two.

I doubt anyone who made cocaine a priority in their life over their baseball career. When coke became more important to Parker than baseball, his skills diminished. He had a baseball career rivival after he quit being a slave to cocaine, but by then he could still hit...but was no longer the five-tool player he once was.
 
Griffey. Tremendous defensive player as well as at the plate.

I would find myself waiting for potential homerun balls to be hit to center just to see how KGJr would find a way to climb a wall and snag it.
 
Griffey
Hamilton
ARoid
Harper

I think Griffey should get the nod over Hamilton partly because he was gifted enough mentally to not become an addict and torpedo part of his career. I'm sure that's somewhat unfair, but it's partly how I decided.
 
Griffey





Hamilton
Arod
Harper

Harper didn't exactly light the world on fire in the minors but he is playing well in the majors. Only reason he is in the majors right now is because Johnson has had a boner for him for quite some time (Pun intended). Griffey would be in the conversation for greatest MLB player ever if he didn't spend months at a time on the DL. For as much as I hate Bonds, I'm surprised he wasn't a poll option...
 
Hamilton's arm is no doubt better than Griffey's was. And he hits to all fields better than Griffey did. I still gave the nod to Griff.
 
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