Greatest Player Since 1970?

Yappi

Yappi

Go Buckeyes
For players that played at least 75% of their career after 1970, who is the greatest player during this era?

The reason for this question is that I find it easy to recognize all-time greats in most other sports during my lifetime. Baseball is the one sport that eludes me for naming an all-time great. When I think of all-time greats, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, and Willie Mays are the first to come to mind.
 
 
Now for the wrench, seems that players from before 1970 that were great didn't have baggage weighing them down. Here are several players that I feel had great careers but something stops them from being elevated to that top tier:

Barry Bonds - steroids
Roger Clemens - steroids
Alex Rodriguez - steroids
Rickey Henderson - personality (one of my favorite players but no one else seems to like him)
Pete Rose - gambling

Maybe it is the media. Maybe it is unforgiving fans. Maybe one of these days, one of these players will become an MLB immortal with their transgressions forgiven. IMO, Barry Bonds is one of the top 5 players of all time but has a tough time with the fans accepting that.
 
Ken Griffey Jr. Sweet swing with power and an amazing defensive player in his early years.

Manny Ramirez. Best hitter of my lifetime.

Dave Winfield. A true five tool player. Could do it all.

George Brett and Mike Schmidt. Dissimilar hitters, both great in their own way. Two of the greatest third basemen ever.

Johnny Bench. The greatest catcher of all time, IMO.

Most gifted all around player? Dave Parker. Nothing he couldn’t do great, but he let drugs take away what should have been prime years of his career.
 
cjb5656 said:
Ken Griffey Jr. Sweet swing with power and an amazing defensive player in his early years.

Manny Ramirez. Best hitter of my lifetime.

Dave Winfield. A true five tool player. Could do it all.

George Brett and Mike Schmidt. Dissimilar hitters, both great in their own way. Two of the greatest third basemen ever.

Johnny Bench. The greatest catcher of all time, IMO.

Most gifted all around player? Dave Parker. Nothing he couldn’t do great, but he let drugs take away what should have been prime years of his career.
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That is a good list. But what about pitchers? Nolan Ryan and Greg Maddux are mine, along with Bench and Griffey. Adding in the steroid guys, I would say Bonds and Clemens for sure.
 
I gotta say it’s Bonds, warts and all. His at-bats were cut-in worthy for awhile. As for pitchers, I like Wolves’s answers of Ryan and Maddux.

Will be interesting to see how the career of Ohtani progresses.
 
AEW Champion said:
I gotta say it’s Bonds, warts and all. His at-bats were cut-in worthy for awhile. As for pitchers, I like Wolves’s answers of Ryan and Maddux.

Will be interesting to see how the career of Ohtani progresses.
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I just left out Bonds because he had already been mentioned. Actually, the pre-Steroid Bonds was an awesome talent. More of a dynamic base runner and defender. Still a great hitter. Just not as many homers.
 
Bench played of his career in the 60's, so I'd have to say, subtracting all the guys on roids, gotta be Ken Griffey Jr. Really not sure there is even a debate on this. I think you could include Albert Pujoles on that list somewhere. Jeter, although not outstanding numbers, a big time winner.
 
Griffey was a great player in the 90s, but his 2000s stint with the Reds was filled with injuries, laziness, losing and disappointment. A bad stain on an otherwise great career.
 
14Red said:
Bench played of his career in the 60's, so I'd have to say, subtracting all the guys on roids, gotta be Ken Griffey Jr. Really not sure there is even a debate on this. I think you could include Albert Pujoles on that list somewhere. Jeter, although not outstanding numbers, a big time winner.
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Sure Bench had a cup of coffee in 1967 and played two full seasons in 1968 and 1969. But he played until 1983. That does not disqualify him from this discussion. Yappi clearly posted at the start of the thread "75% of career after 1970". 14 of his 16 full seasons qualify (87.5%) were after 1970.
 
wolves82 said:
Sure Bench had a cup of coffee in 1967 and played two full seasons in 1968 and 1969. But he played until 1983. That does not disqualify him from this discussion. Yappi clearly posted at the start of the thread "75% of career after 1970". 14 of his 16 full seasons qualify (87.5%) were after 1970.
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Certainly Bench is in the conversation, I just knew his career started mid to late 60's. Bench has proven to be such a unicorn because simply put, there's not been as good of catcher since. Today hitting catchers aren't even left at catcher, they generally get moved to another position. But Bench was so good defensively, you couldn't move him. And that was a time when they didn't rest guys. Between '68 and '75, he played no less than 142 games, but most seasons it was 150 or more and predominately at catcher.
 
Lots of great players. I'm sticking with Bench. He was head and shoulders above everyone else at his position for most of a decade, defensively and offensively.

Bonds, Griffey, A-Rod and others were great and had better numbers than Bench. But can you say definitively that one was head and shoulders above everyone else at their position for that long? I don't think so.
 
Some not mentioned that I would throw into the conversation: Mike Schmidt; Randy Johnson; Pedro Martinez; Tony Gwynn; Mariano Rivera; Cal Ripken.

Joe Morgan, Carl Yastremski and Frank Robinson were all just a little too early to qualify.
 
AEW Champion said:
Griffey was a great player in the 90s, but his 2000s stint with the Reds was filled with injuries, laziness, losing and disappointment. A bad stain on an otherwise great career.
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Laziness? No serious person thinks Junior was ever lazy. Maybe a few stereotypical weird Cincinnatians that never forgive anybody for not being Pete Rose.

Junior got hurt because of how hard he played, where he had played, and he worked hard to get back every time.
 
MickeyMantle said:
Laziness? No serious person thinks Junior was ever lazy. Maybe a few stereotypical weird Cincinnatians that never forgive anybody for not being Pete Rose.

Junior got hurt because of how hard he played, where he had played, and he worked hard to get back every time.
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Griffey definitely put on some noticeable pounds during his Reds tenure, which might well have contributed to his injury problems. Whether a pro athlete being out of shape is a symptom of laziness is in the eye of the beholder.
 
Bench was a ridiculous defensive catcher, far and away the best in history. And oh yeah, he could hit really well. To me, he is clearly at the top of my list. Ichiro and Jeter for their all around play and Griffey for sheer talent. I don’t give the steroid dudes a thought and it was so obvious they were juiced
 
RazorRamon said:
Bench was a ridiculous defensive catcher, far and away the best in history. And oh yeah, he could hit really well. To me, he is clearly at the top of my list. Ichiro and Jeter for their all around play and Griffey for sheer talent. I don’t give the steroid dudes a thought and it was so obvious they were juiced
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It's unfortunate too, because the pre-juiced versions of players like Barry Bonds and Manny Ramirez were awesome players easily on their way to the HOF without 'roids.
 
cjb5656 said:
Ken Griffey Jr. Sweet swing with power and an amazing defensive player in his early years.

Manny Ramirez. Best hitter of my lifetime.

Dave Winfield. A true five tool player. Could do it all.

George Brett and Mike Schmidt. Dissimilar hitters, both great in their own way. Two of the greatest third basemen ever.

Johnny Bench. The greatest catcher of all time, IMO.

Most gifted all around player? Dave Parker. Nothing he couldn’t do great, but he let drugs take away what should have been prime years of his career.
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Got autographed baseballs by Jr, Bench, and Parker (and Tony Perez!). Great list, cjb
 
clarkgriswold said:
Some not mentioned that I would throw into the conversation: Mike Schmidt; Randy Johnson; Pedro Martinez; Tony Gwynn; Mariano Rivera; Cal Ripken.

Joe Morgan, Carl Yastremski and Frank Robinson were all just a little too early to qualify.
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I'm glad you mentioned Pedro Martinez. He is often forgotten in these type discussions. His statistics and accomplishments stack up to any of the great pitchers of the era.
 
Tony Gwinn deserves mention. Also Rod Carew, even though three of his seasons were prior to 1970.
 
Great discussion and surprised I haven't seen this thread until now. Always hard to limit it to 5 players in a 50 + year period. But a couple of names to also throw out are Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw. Especially in an era whete pitch count and limited inning are the thing
When it's all said and done Mike Trouts numbers may rival a few names mentioned earlier.
I know there's a lot of Reds fans on here, but I wouldn't be surprised to hear Cardinal fans prop up Yadier Molina to challege Bench's top spot
Mike Piazza was a great hitter, but nowhere near the defensive catcher as Bench and Yadi
I
 
Glad I saw this thread. For me Johnny Bench, George Brett, Mike Schmidt and Tony Gwynn come to mind. For Pitchers, Seaver and Palmer. I always thought Nolan Ryan and Cal Ripken were somewhat overrated. If not for injuries, Eric Davis and Don Mattingly would be at the top of this list.
 
My Top 5:
1. Bonds
2. Rose
3. Griffey
4. Schimdt
5. Bench/Morgan

Eric Davis would definitely be on the list if it wasn't for injuries.

Top 5 pitchers: Closers:
1. Nolan Ryan 1. Rivera
2. Roger Clemens 2. Hoffman
3. Randy Johnson 3. Eckersley
4.Greg Maddux 4. Suter
5. Steve Carlton 5. Fingers
 
cjb5656 said:
Most gifted all around player? Dave Parker. Nothing he couldn’t do great, but he let drugs take away what should have been prime years of his career.
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I'm not a big collectables person, but I will be in Pittsburgh this weekend for a couple games and the Saturday game is a giveaway of Dave "Cobra" Parker bobbleheads. He had it all...could hit for average, power...could steal bases against anyone...had an all-time great cannon of an arm in RF. Just a big, tall, supremely gifted athlete and we will always wonder what might have been had he not wasted prime years hooked on coke.
 
cjb5656 said:
I'm not a big collectables person, but I will be in Pittsburgh this weekend for a couple games and the Saturday game is a giveaway of Dave "Cobra" Parker bobbleheads. He had it all...could hit for average, power...could steal bases against anyone...had an all-time great cannon of an arm in RF. Just a big, tall, supremely gifted athlete and we will always wonder what might have been had he not wasted prime years hooked on coke.
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Parker was amazing. I still think he did enough for the Hall of Fame
 
cjb5656 said:
I'm not a big collectables person, but I will be in Pittsburgh this weekend for a couple games and the Saturday game is a giveaway of Dave "Cobra" Parker bobbleheads. He had it all...could hit for average, power...could steal bases against anyone...had an all-time great cannon of an arm in RF. Just a big, tall, supremely gifted athlete and we will always wonder what might have been had he not wasted prime years hooked on coke.
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I remember that play as if it were yesterday. Something was wrong with our color TV, so I got out the old portable black and white for the All Star game.
Yeah, Parker had his bouts with drugs and injuries. But the Pirates fans did him absolutely no favors. They would take the batteries out of their radios and throw them at Dave. I was at a game where a smoke bomb landed somewhere between Omar Moreno and Parker
I was looking up stats the other day and forgot just how productive he was for Oakland during their late 80s World Series run.
 
nupanther said:
I remember that play as if it were yesterday. Something was wrong with our color TV, so I got out the old portable black and white for the All Star game.
Yeah, Parker had his bouts with drugs and injuries. But the Pirates fans did him absolutely no favors. They would take the batteries out of their radios and throw them at Dave. I was at a game where a smoke bomb landed somewhere between Omar Moreno and Parker
I was looking up stats the other day and forgot just how productive he was for Oakland during their late 80s World Series run.
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If I remember correctly while with Pittsburgh Mr. Parker said something to the effect that the fans don't appreciate how hard the players have it and how hard they have to work, they are there sometimes 6 or 7 hours a day. That went over very well in a blue collar city that at the time was in the midst of the down sizing steel industry, very high unemployment and with wages a very small fraction of what he was making. I don't condone them throwing things at him but he did bring a lot of that on himself with tone deaf remarks like that.
 
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