I spent 6 months working out formulas to rate MLB baseball players. The formula is boring and complex and sometimes I break the rules and move a player in front of another player if I think the formula is wrong. I don’t really break the rules as I have rules limiting that. However, I am not here to talk about the ranking, I want to talk about the players.
I rated 1,000 major league players with this formula and gave them rankings based on their careers in Major League Baseball thru 2019. Actually, I rated over 1,500 players but I am going to give you my top 1,000 players. However, I am assuming many of my readers are baseball fans and have read reams about these players. One of the things I am going to try to do is to look at the players from a unique point of view, my life and my view on them. That is why it is called a biography. It won’t be a real biography as won’t be talking about really sad depressing stuff and how life mis-treated me. I will be telling stories from my life related to baseball. Many of the stories won’t be much about me as it will be about the players, I think. I don’t know for sure as I haven’t written them yet.
Anyway, here are my top 10 players I will be talking about starting soon:
1 Willie Mays
2 Babe Ruth
3 Hank Aaron
4 Barry Bonds
5 Honus Wagner
6 Ty Cobb
7 Mickey Mantle
8 Ted Williams
9 Stan Musial
10 Walter Johnson
Most people would have Baby Ruth first, but I buy the argument that there were more good athletes in baseball once the black players started to play so I moved Mays ahead of Ruth. Another point as I thought, as do many baseball experts, the quality of the game has improved, I took points away from players who played a long time ago, the further back they played the more points the player lost.
I also snuck Hank Aaron ahead of Barry Bonds. Both were great players for over 20 years. Hank Aaron was Mr. Consistency and Barry Bonds had some of the greatest seasons ever. However, there is strong evidence that Barry took steroids, which help him play better. I had a steroid penalty also. Barry still finished ahead of Hank. I decided to put Hank ahead of Barry as I decided I rather have him on my team for his career then Bonds.
I moved Walter Johnson up the list as I decided a pitcher needed to be in the top 10 and I have Johnson as the greatest pitcher of all time.
