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Greatest HR hitter? (1 Viewer)

bryhamm

bryhamm

Footballguy
This can be measured in many ways, but Aaron being the all-time HR record holder had more to do with his longevity than his ability.

Looking at the players that are in the top 100 of alltime HRs (as of the beginning of the year), here are the top 5 players ranked in order based on games per HR:

Player         G        AB         HR       G/HRM McGwire    1,874     6,187      583       3.2 B Ruth       2,503     8,399      714       3.5 A Rodriguez  1,605     6,246      433       3.7 S Sosa       2,240     8,401      588       3.8 B Bonds      2,741     9,168      708       3.9
FYI, Aaron is ranked #18 with a 4.4 G/HR rate; Pujols (not in the top 100 all-time) is running at a 3.8 G/HR rate, which would rank him #4 overall. His rate this year is 1.9 G/HR.

Another way of looking at this is AB/HR. Using the same top 100, here are the top 5 palyers ranked in order:

Player         G        AB         HR       AB/HRM McGwire    1,874     6,187      583       10.6 B Ruth       2,503     8,399      714       11.8 B Bonds      2,741     9,168      708       12.9 J Thome      1,752     5,962      437       13.6 R Kiner      1,472     5,205      369       14.1
FYI, Aaron is ranked #28 with a 16.4 AB/HR rate; Pujols (not in the top 100 all-time) is running at a 14.1 AB/HR rate, which would rank him #5 overall. His rate this year is 6.6 AB/HR.

Aaron's numbers are:

G: 3,298

AB: 12,364

HR: 755

Anyways, just some info to chew on.

 
This is kinda like saying the guy who wound up married to the only girl he ever dated has a helluva slugging percentage.

 
The Babe is the greatest home run hitter of all time, he usually homered more than entire teams. You have to compare era to era, and he was absolutely dominant.

Yes I realize he played before the color barrier was broken, but still, those weren't chumps he was hitting against.

 
Bonds and Ruth have so many more walks than the others though. Bonds has 1000 more walks than McGuire being walked at a rate of 20 percent of total plate apperances to McGuires 17 percent. That 3 percent is alot when you are talking over eleven thousand plate appearances. My point is that Bonds would have hit more homers per 100 AB at his peak than anyone on this list but Ruth if teams wouldn't have completely avoided him. Being the alltime leader in walks and IBB is a pretty impressive statistic.

 
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Bonds and Ruth have so many more walks than the others though.  Bonds has 1000 more walks than McGuire being walked at a rate of 20 percent of total plate apperances to McGuires 17 percent.  That 3 percent is alot when you are talking over eleven thousand plate appearances.  My point is that Bonds would have hit more homers per 100 AB at his peak than anyone on this list but Ruth if teams wouldn't have completely avoided him.  Being the alltime leader in walks and IBB is a pretty impressive statistic.

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:no: Walks do not count in your AB. His AB/HR ratio would not have changed. But his G/HR ratio probably would have.
 
Bonds and Ruth have so many more walks than the others though.  Bonds has 1000 more walks than McGuire being walked at a rate of 20 percent of total plate apperances to McGuires 17 percent.  That 3 percent is alot when you are talking over eleven thousand plate appearances.  My point is that Bonds would have hit more homers per 100 AB at his peak than anyone on this list but Ruth if teams wouldn't have completely avoided him.  Being the alltime leader in walks and IBB is a pretty impressive statistic.

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:no: Walks do not count in your AB. His AB/HR ratio would not have changed. But his G/HR ratio probably would have.
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I DO KNOW that walks do not count but you have to account for walks in the big picture if you want to use only stats to determine the greatest HR hitter of all time. Bonds has around 11500 plate appearances (9200 AB)

Mcguire had 7500 (6200 AB)

Bonds walks 20 percent of the time

McGuire walks 17 percent of the time

Aaron walked only ten percent of the time

So McGuire, Aaron and just about everyone else not named Ruth got to see more pitches per 100 plate appearances. When you are talking all time HR hitter all the factors have to be considered. The real stats are AB and HRs but determining the best while leaving out many tangible factors like I've presented here, is not the most efficient way. That's why Bonds has always been chasing Ruth. Ruth is the greatest HR hitter of all time. Aaron just hit more homers due to 4000 more at bats than Ruth, and seeing a lot more pitches per 100 plate appearances as well.

 
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AB/HR should be all you look at. Don't know why Games/HR would matter.

So Ruth is the best non-juiced HR hitter.

 
Ozzie Smith? No seriously, it has to be Ruth. Sosa, McGwire and Bonds should all have astericks <sp?> next to their HR totals. Aaron was a consistent home run hitter but never hit 50 in a season. So he is pretty remarkable. But I'd have to say I'm with Ruth on this one. Oh and how has Griffey Jr's time in Cincy screwed up his stats. I know the hype was that he could have challenged the HR record when he was a Mariner.

 
The first guy that jumped out at me without looking at all the stats is Ralph Kiner.

He wasn't around long, but put up a ton of homers in a relatively short stretch.

 
Updated top 5 players ranked in order based on games per HR:

Player G AB HR G/HRM McGwire 1,874 6,187 583 3.2 B Ruth 2,503 8,399 714 3.5 A Rodriguez 1,904 7,350 518 3.7 S Sosa 2,354 8,813 609 3.9 J Gonzalez 1,689 6,556 434 3.9Pujols (not in the top 100 all-time) dropped a bit with his poor (by his standards) 2007 and is now at a 3.9 G/HR rate.Updated top 5 palyers based on AB per HR:

Code: 
Player		 G		AB		 HR	   AB/HRM McGwire	1,874	 6,187	  583	   10.6 B Ruth	   2,503	 8,399	  714	   11.8 B Bonds	  2,986	 9,847	  762	   12.9 J Thome	  2,011	 6,841	  507	   13.5 R Kiner	  1,472	 5,205	  369	   14.1
Pujols (not in the top 100 all-time) "dropped" to a 14.4 AB/HR rate.
 
Love him or hate him, ARod is eventually going to be the correct answer. I am ambivalent toward him - but there is no denying his ability.

Still, Babe Ruth has to be the correct answer.

 
As noted, it's Ruth and there is no real question for those who are baseball history buffs.

If we want to talk about the post war era and discount those that we know cheated (Im talking to you Bonds and BigMac), you might have to go with Ralph Kiner, whom you could argue is the greatest HR hitter EVER not named Ruth. Some tidbits:

14.1 Career ABs/HR - outside of Roid guys, only Ruth is ahead of him.

7 STRAIGHT years leading the league in HRs

5 STRAIGHT 40+ HR years (that would be like 5 straight 50+ HR years at the least, during the height of the roid era).

You could argue Harmon Killebrew I suppose, but 7 straight years leading the league in a stat is pretty damn impressive.

 
It's Ruth, and there's no other discussion. To reiterate the point, he drank, he ate hot dogs, and he outhomered entire teams.

His performance enhancing drug was a soft pretzel.

 
bryhamm said:
That's why I put the "?" in the title ... because it can be debated.
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No. It really can't. Not with two intelligent people in the discussion.
 
Corporation said:
The Babe is the greatest home run hitter of all time, he usually homered more than entire teams. You have to compare era to era, and he was absolutely dominant.Yes I realize he played before the color barrier was broken, but still, those weren't chumps he was hitting against.
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This is the most correct answer.Not that it matters , but he was also an excellent pitcher. Even though his pitching stats were inflated as he was the only pitcher of his era not to have to pitch to himself.
 
Keys Myaths said:
It's Ruth, and there's no other discussion. To reiterate the point, he drank, he ate hot dogs, and he outhomered entire teams.

His performance enhancing drug was a soft pretzel.
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He was superhuman, check out this article about him. All while swinging a 54 ounce bat. :goodposting: The secret of Babe Ruth's ability to hit is clearly revealed in these tests, His eye, his ear, his brain, his nerves all function more rapidly than do those of the average person. Further the coordination between eye, ear, brain, and muscle is much nearer perfection than that of the normal healthy man.

 
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bryhamm said:
This can be measured in many ways, but Aaron being the all-time HR record holder had more to do with his longevity than his ability.Looking at the players that are in the top 100 of alltime HRs (as of the beginning of the year), here are the top 5 players ranked in order based on games per HR:

Code: 
Player         G        AB         HR       G/HRM McGwire    1,874     6,187      583       3.2 B Ruth       2,503     8,399      714       3.5 A Rodriguez  1,605     6,246      433       3.7 S Sosa       2,240     8,401      588       3.8 B Bonds      2,741     9,168      708       3.9
FYI, Aaron is ranked #18 with a 4.4 G/HR rate; Pujols (not in the top 100 all-time) is running at a 3.8 G/HR rate, which would rank him #4 overall. His rate this year is 1.9 G/HR.Another way of looking at this is AB/HR. Using the same top 100, here are the top 5 palyers ranked in order:
Code: 
Player         G        AB         HR       AB/HRM McGwire    1,874     6,187      583       10.6 B Ruth       2,503     8,399      714       11.8 B Bonds      2,741     9,168      708       12.9 J Thome      1,752     5,962      437       13.6 R Kiner      1,472     5,205      369       14.1
FYI, Aaron is ranked #28 with a 16.4 AB/HR rate; Pujols (not in the top 100 all-time) is running at a 14.1 AB/HR rate, which would rank him #5 overall. His rate this year is 6.6 AB/HR.Aaron's numbers are:G: 3,298AB: 12,364HR: 755Anyways, just some info to chew on.
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I think when you look at greatest HR hitter, the answer is Ruth (for the era he pplayed in). McGwire would get my vote for number 2. I don't want to go down the juicing conversation road.
 
Liquid Tension said:
bryhamm said:
This can be measured in many ways, but Aaron being the all-time HR record holder had more to do with his longevity than his ability.

Looking at the players that are in the top 100 of alltime HRs (as of the beginning of the year), here are the top 5 players ranked in order based on games per HR:

Player         G        AB         HR       G/HRM McGwire    1,874     6,187      583       3.2 B Ruth       2,503     8,399      714       3.5 A Rodriguez  1,605     6,246      433       3.7 S Sosa       2,240     8,401      588       3.8 B Bonds      2,741     9,168      708       3.9FYI, Aaron is ranked #18 with a 4.4 G/HR rate; Pujols (not in the top 100 all-time) is running at a 3.8 G/HR rate, which would rank him #4 overall. His rate this year is 1.9 G/HR.Another way of looking at this is AB/HR. Using the same top 100, here are the top 5 palyers ranked in order:

Player         G        AB         HR       AB/HRM McGwire    1,874     6,187      583       10.6 B Ruth       2,503     8,399      714       11.8 B Bonds      2,741     9,168      708       12.9 J Thome      1,752     5,962      437       13.6 R Kiner      1,472     5,205      369       14.1FYI, Aaron is ranked #28 with a 16.4 AB/HR rate; Pujols (not in the top 100 all-time) is running at a 14.1 AB/HR rate, which would rank him #5 overall. His rate this year is 6.6 AB/HR.Aaron's numbers are:

G: 3,298

AB: 12,364

HR: 755

Anyways, just some info to chew on.
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I think when you look at greatest HR hitter, the answer is Ruth (for the era he pplayed in). McGwire would get my vote for number 2. I don't want to go down the juicing conversation road.
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I dont know how you can avoid it. Two reasons, take your choice:(1) Cheating. They gave themselves a clear advantage and BigMac above almost all others would not accept any responsibility for this. Because of his choices, HIS choices, he lost any benefit of the doubt.

(2) Era. Baseball has always been a game of "era's" - Sam Crawford was a great HR hitter... when 14 HRs would be a great total. Likewise, Ruths 50+ was IMMENSE compared to the era. So, even if BigMac was not a cowardly cheater, you are comparing him to guys who also hit 50+ HRs regularly during his career as compared to say Kiner who lead the league in HRs seven consecutive years.

 
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