Well, as long as we're looking at teams that bolted New York for California ... who's the greatest Giant?
Barry Bonds | 31 (26.50%) |
Larry Doyle | 0 (0.00%) |
Carl Hubbell | 3 (2.56%) |
Juan Marichal | 0 (0.00%) |
Christy Mathewson | 4 (3.42%) |
Willie Mays | 78 (66.67%) |
Willie McCovey | 1 (0.85%) |
Johnny Mize | 0 (0.00%) |
Bill Terry | 0 (0.00%) |
Other (who?) | 0 (0.00%) |
Wow, look at the list of players who don't even make the list of nine finalists in the poll ... Frankie Frisch? Travis Jackson? George Van Haltren? Roger Connor? Freddie Lindstrom? Roger Bresnahan? Ross Youngs? Orlando Cepeda? (Sorry, O.C., there re already three first basemen on the list -- so much for Will Clark!) ...
Bobby Bonds was great, but no Barry ... Jeff Kent and Matt Williams both protected Barry ... Old-time pitchers like Joe McGinnity, Tim Keefe and Mickey Welch succumb to Mathewson and Hubbell ... Gaylord Perry was no Juan Marichal -- and don't anybody try to squeeze Tim Lincecum in there (yet!) ... No closers on the list, though there have been plenty of "pretty good" ones like Robb Nen, Rod Beck, Gary Lavelle and Greg Minton ... Dang. Is this collection of players actually better than the one put forth by the Yankees???
I voted Mays.
Bonds, just considering what happened on the field, was the better player with a higher peak but Mays did play all of his good years as a Giant.
I had to vote Bonds as he was/is just too darn good. He has been top 3 in OPS in all but 2 seasons as a Giant (the year he was injured and the following season when he was 'just' 6th). In OPS+ the story is the same, except without the 6th place finish in '06. 4 times top 10 for stolen bases. Pre 98 or full career he is just too amazing.
Mays is almost as amazing, but I just have to go with Bonds.
I was thinking this made an excellent contrast with the Dodgers when I first saw the list. The top of the list beats out anything offered by the Dodgers, with Bonds and Mays making the short list for greatest positional players ever, and Mathewson's career numbers are right up there for the pitchers, although his inability to have a "decent" year (5 years with ERA+ 87 or lower, 12 years 123 or higher) hurt his career numbers in the end.
John, I rarely disagree with you on a point like this, but I voted Mays ... I do think a case can be made that Bonds is better than his godfather was offensively, but defensively, as good a LF as Bonds was (not is, not any more), Willie was arguably the best CF ever to play the game.
I think you can make a good case that Mays, not Ruth, was the greatest position player ever in the history of the entire sport. It's Ruth's pesky dominant pitching career that makes that a problematic argument.