I assume we are leaving Juicers out of the discussion? And we're limiting it to position players? There are exactly three who fit those criteria with >100 WAR: Rickey Henderson leads with 111.1. Mike Schmidt is second with 106.9. Albert Pujols is third with 101.4. Looking at just those three, JAWS has it Henderson 84.3, Schmidt 82.8, Pujols 81.6. WAR7 is Pujols 61.7, Schmidt 58.8, Henderson 57.6. I'm still going with Rickey. Schmidt was also a Gold Glove defender at third base, but Rickey's speed/power combination plus his durability make him, to my mind, the greatest living non-cheater position player.

mikemarinelli54

Jun 24

Replying to

Thanks for posting the JAWS and WAR7 numbers. Wouldn’t want to live on the difference!

Yeah, no juicers. I used the 5 tools to determine the “best all around player” therefore no pitchers.

Pujols is not a HoF’er yet. Neither is Trout. Will be interesting to re-evaluate when they are.

This exercise is a beauty pageant of sorts. The beauty of each player is in the eye of the beholder.

Some of the main stats/consideration used are HR, SB, OPS, OPS+, total WAR, dWAR,

total bases, and in no small measure 162 game averages and league leaders.

Comparing Rickey and Schmidt totals and (162/average) and [league leader]

MS RH

HR 548 (37) [8] 297 (16) [0]

SB …

Edited

mikemarinelli54

Jun 23

Did a Baseball Reference comparison for Henderson, Bench, Griffey and Schmidt. The numbers say Mike Schmidt. I agree as the best “all around” player.

Rickey has them all on speed, Griffey hit more HR and Bench was a helluva defender. But Schmidt was top notch in all categories. His 162 game WAR average was 7.2. The others were between 5.2-5.8. Just one stat, but very telling.

His OPS and OPS+ is tops. Griffey is close. They both blow the others away.

He and Griffey both hold 10 Gold Gloves but dWAR gives a huge advantage to Mike. Bench also had 10. dWAR slightly favored Johnny but only 1.5 to 1.2 per 162 games. They both are vastly superior to the…

Edited

Robert Malchman

Jun 24

Replying to

The problem with OPS is that a point of OBP is worth a lot more than a point of SLG. Rickey Henderson (.401) blows away Schmidt (.380) and Griffey (.370). It's certainly a legit argument that Schmidt's power and defense puts him ahead of Henderson (and, IIRC, Schmidt played in a less run-rich environment so an RC during his career was more valuable than during Henderson's). I still come down on Rickey's side, though.

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