Who is the greatest active major league hitter?

Similar questions: greatest active major league hitter.

Clean or not, the answer is Barry Bonds On Base Percentage Plus Slugging (OPS) is considered the best all-around means of determining a batter's worth, as it factors in both ability to reach base as well as the ability to hit for power. Barry Bonds is the current leader at 1.0533. Babe Ruth is the all-time leader at 1.1636.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-base_plus_slugging .

Bonds and Griffey Jr. if you use home runs as a criteria While I'm really not sure the number of home runs you hit is all that meaningful in the grand scheme of things, Barry Bonds ranks second with 734. Ken Griffey Jr. is 10th with 563. Here's a very interesting exceprt from a book about just the topic and the difficulty of determining the true greats, past or present.

You might enjoy it, so I'll put the link at the bottom so you can read the chapter available on the web site. Best tter" DefinedWhat does the phrase "best hitter" mean? Tting is composed of many things.

For example, Tony Gwynn is excellent at getting hits but relatively few of his hits are home runs. On the other hand, Mark McGwire is only average in getting hits but they go a country mile when he does connect! So which one is the "better" hitter?

There are many different baseball statistics. Batting average and slugging average both combine singles, doubles, triples, home runs, and outs into single measures. Batting average is computed by totaling the different kinds of hits and dividing by the number of at bats, while slugging average totals the number of bases that you reach on the hits before being divided by the total number of at bats.

However, both of them ignore factors like the walk average, number of RBIs and less well-measured things like hit-and-run or clutch hitting ability. There are other ballplayer abilities as well, such as run scoring, base stealing, and fielding. Bill James, with his Runs Created formulae, and John Thorn and Pete Palmer, with their Total Player Rating, have combined batting, fielding, and stealing data into a single rating.

Both composite statistics are useful and interesting. The statistics of Bill James and Thorn and Palmer seem to be searching for the best players. Statistics that combine various hitting events, which may include weighting of the values of singles, doubles, triples, and home runs (and possibly walks, strikeouts, or other batting events) are searching for the best batters.

The search in this book is for the best hitters, that is, the players with the best chance to get a hit in a given at bat. Thus, we will use the preeminent baseball statistic, the batting average. However, we will adjust this average for each year in baseball history based on the ease with which hits could be attained and the player's home ballpark.

This leads to batting averages that are relative to the league batting averages. Consequently, the talent pool of the league must also be considered. Also, at bats late in the careers of the longest playing stars will not be included, since batting ability clearly wanes then.

Because these adjustments are needed to level the playing field, standard batting average lists do not properly order the top hitters. Minimum Requirements of Qualifying PlayersIn order to determine the 100 greatest hitters of all time there must be a minimum playing time. I have chosen 4000 at bats as the minimum.

One could choose 4000 plate appearances, which includes both at bats and walks and a few other minor events, so as not to penalize individuals who walked frequently. However, since the focus here is on the ability to hit, not the ability to get on base, a minimum of at bats is used. A player who plays full-time will get 400-600 at bats per year, so 4000 at bats represents 7 to 10 years of full-time play.

This minimum--4000 at bats--is close to those used by the three major contemporary baseball encyclopedias. The Baseball Encyclopedia uses the same definition. The Sports Encyclopedia: Baseball also requires a 10-year career.

Total Baseball requires appearances in 1000 games. Thus, Total Baseball's top 100 list includes 5 players who have fewer than 4000 at bats, including Bob Fothergill, who had a mere 3265. The others are John McGraw, Mike Donlin, Dale Mitchell, and Taffy Wright.It is particularly regrettable that John McGraw is left out.

This outstanding, turn-of-the-century third baseman is in the Hall of Fame as the manager who skippered many successful New York Giant teams. He was a very good hitter and one of the best players of his day at drawing a walk. Had he not been so good at walking, he would easily have gotten the extra 76 at bats to qualify.

He will be included when on base average is considered later in the book. I also require that the player be retired or have at least 8000 at bats, if he is still active.(This additional requirement will be explained further in the chapter on late career declines.) Thus 10 active players (as of spring 1998) are included: Harold Baines, Wade Boggs, Joe Carter, Chili Davis, Gary Gaetti, Tony Gwynn, Rickey Henderson, Paul Molitor, Tim Raines, and Cal Ripken Jr.Through 1995, 8259 players have played major league baseball, excluding the Negro Leagues. However, only 836 players--who will be called qualifying players--qualify for consideration, by having had at least 4000 at bats and being retired or having had at least 8000 at bats, if still active.

Thus, the top 100 hitters are members of an elite group--comprising only 1.2% of all major league batters and 12% of qualifying players. Unfortunately, records from the Negro Leagues are incomplete although they are now being compiled and included in baseball encyclopedias. As a result, they are not ranked in this book.

http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i6550.htmlhttp://baseballguru.com/articles/analysismikehoban01.htmlOffers up other ideas for determinging the best, again looking at past and present players Sources: en.wikipedia.Org/wiki/Top_500_home_run_hitters_of_all_time .

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" "What is your "Second Favorite" Major League Baseball team?

List of the longest home runs in major league baseball history.

Has a Baseball pitcher ever pitched both right and left handed in a Major League or College Baseball game.

How long is the average major league baseball game.

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