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Baseball From A-Z

Monday, January 14, 2013



MLB Network did a countdown of the best baseball player ever for each letter of the alphabet.

And I can't resist.  So, what you see here would be my list, plus the runner-up for each letter.  Where MLB chose someone different, I placed that in parenthesis.


A-Aaron, not hard, runner up is Pete Alexander
B-Bonds, even easier, runner up is Johnny Bench
C-Cobb, tough, the Rocket would be a fair selection
D-DiMaggio, Ed Delahanty's the runner-up.
E-Edmonds (MLB picked Eckersley, but he wouldn't be my runner-up, that would be Buck Ewing)
F-Foxx ( MLB picked Feller, that's a bad pick, but he'd be my runner-up )
G-Gehrig (Lefty Grove's my runner-up)
H-Hornsby (Rickey would also be defensible)
I-   Monte Irvin (MLB picked Raul Ibanez, which is an...interesting selection; it's a mediocre lot, my runner-up might be Brandon Inge)
J-Walter Johnson (easy pick, Randy is next)
K-Kaline (MLB took Koufax, which is error, Killebrew would be my runner-up) 
L-Lajoie (easy pick, Larkin's my runner-up)
M-Mays (easy pick despite how great Musial was)
N-Nichols (I missed this pick, I assume they picked Phil Niekro, that's reasonable and he'd be my runner-up)
O-Ott (There isn't an O anywhere near Mel Ott; Jim O'Rourke is my runner-up)
P-Pujols(MLB took Satchel Paige, which is unsupportable. Gaylord Perry's my runner-up)
Q-Jack Quinn(MLB took Quisenberry, 'cause they don't know who Jack Quinn was)
R-Ruth (Frank Robinson's the runner-up)
S-Schmidt (just ahead of Seaver)
T-Frank Thomas (easy, Thome's next)
U-Utley (by a little bit over George Uhle)
V-Vaughan(MLB took Omar Vizquel?  Can we take a moment?  In 7700 PA Vaughan had 70 WAR by B-Ref; Vizquel in 12000 PA had 40.I must have misunderstood the purpose of this list)
W-Wagner(MLB took Ted Williams, which I get)
X-(MLB took David Ortiz. Dopey)
Y-Young (obviously)
Z- Ryan Zimmerman(MLB took Zito, and that's reasonable and maybe even the better pick, but won't be in two years)

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