Not claiming any knowledge of plans for any of the candidates listed here -- I just skimmed the MLB leaderboards and unscientifically chose guys who I thought would be most surprising, then eliminated Roy Halladay because he'd get 98.8 percent of the vote from this crowd.

Not to take away anything from the poll, but I think it might be better done if it were more closely comparing apples to apples.

Annika Sorenstam is the greatest female golfer of all time and is retiring close to her peak.

Morneau, Peavy, Pujols, Webb, and Wright are all under 30 and have many peak (or at least one?) years or near peak years remaining.

The only truly comparably guys would be Jeter and Ramirez - they've got nothing left in the world to prove, but are still well above average ball players (although maybe not so for Jeter, definitely so for Manram).

This poll really should only have guys like that in it. Still really productive players that were among the best at what they did when they were younger, if we are going to compare it to Annika's retirement (which shocked me, by the way - she still has what it takes to be if not the best, the 2nd best female golfer in the world behind Ochoa - it sounds like she is just tired of practicing so much). Just my 2 cents.

That's a fair comment, zep, and you are right on point about Sorenstam. But the one that threw me and led to the question was really Henin ... she's only 25. I don't really follow either golf or tennis all that closely, but figured to be hearing her name for another decade, at least.

So I think the question, unscientific as it is, covers both bases.

It already happened - Julio Franco!

Seriously, Alex Rodriguez.

I agree with zeppelinkm,

And the same goes for Henin ... the ages of female tennis players throw people off, but she started her pro career about 9 years ago.  Yes, she's still only 25, but that's only by weeks and is also getting towards mid-to-late career for a female tennis player.

I would think A-Rod, Ortiz, Ichiro, and Chipper Jones would be more similar comparisons to the retired female stars.  They're all guys still at the top of the game, but have had a reasonable lengthy career nonetheless.

And of that group A-Rod would surprise me the most.

I voted other. My pick is Clayton Kershaw.

I would have to vote for David Eckstein.  That guy has grit!

Since the question doesn't actually ask us to compare Sorenstam/Henin to a ballplayer we'd be surprised to see retire, there's no reason to limit ourselves to established veteran stars with nothing left to prove.  In that light, I'm gonna go with Evan Longoria.

Other Vote:
A-Rod.
On account of the records he must break.

Other : the baseball retirement that would surprise me most is Boog Powell.  I thought that guy had retired already!

Jesse Litsch.

Reading the question, one name jumped to the top of my head. I looked throught the names on the list 3 times to make sure I didn't miss who came to my mind.

Other: A-Rod

 

Barry Bonds.

Which great young player hasn't signed that big deal yet? Geez, most of the really good ones have.  Melky Cabrera, Jacoby Ellsbury, Casey Kotchman, Daric Barton and a whole stack of others haven't.

Vernon Wells.  Could you imagine someone walking away from all that dough, especially because he doesn't already have the cash like Arod.