by Jay Nolan

Created on: January 27, 2007   Last Updated: April 27, 2007

The greatest baseball players of all time have been broken down into two categories. Individual statistics and value to a team. I want to mesh these two fields and come up with players that are equally valuable both as individuals and as a member of a team.

My all time players have to be able to multi-task. One can not just be a one dimensional player and make this team. The title of this article says greatest baseball players.

Babe Ruth is easy. I chose him not because of his prolific home run hitting. But because he was also a great pitcher. For the first six years of his career he was a starting pitcher. He was 94-46 with a .671 winning percentage. He had 107 complete games, which is one less than Greg Maddux and 11 less than Roger Clemens. He also tossed 17 shutouts and had almost 500 strikeouts.

Babe won two world series championships with the Boston Red Sox in 1916 and 1918. As a pitcher he had three wins, 2 complete games, 1 shut out, and a 0.87 ERA.

Ruth was traded to the Yankees and we know the rest. He hit more home-runs than some teams, he hit the ball farther than anyone had ever seen. Babe had broken every home-run record there was. The Bambino also drove in runs and hit for average. He changed the game. Give him back the five years he was only a pitcher and his hitting statistics would have been unreachable. Babe Ruth was a main component in the first Yankee dynasty.

I also consider Lou Gehrig to be one of the greatest. He was an RBI machine even batting behind Ruth. And he hit for average. Lou played every game and his teams won championships.

Joe Morgan played second base for one of the greatest teams ever assembled. The Big Red Machine of the 1970s. The Reds won the world series in 1975 and 1976. Joe was a two time NL MVP and perennial all star. He also has a bunch of gold gloves to hang on his wall. Joe had the tri-fecta. Winning, defensive greatness and offensive prowess. No one had the whole package at second base like Joe Morgan did.

Honus Wagner is the best shortstop to ever play the game. He had two shovel like hands that scooped up anything hit his way. Honus was an 8 time NL batting champ with over 3400 career hits and a .327 lifetime batting average. On a pair of bow legs he stole over 700 bases and led the NL 5 times in this category. The Flying Dutchmen also knocked in over 1700 RBIs and led the Pirates to two world series, winning the 1909 series against Ty Cobb in the well publicized bout.

Mike Schmidt is the greatest third basemen ever

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