Steve Shockley's Blog, page 15

The 25 best 19th century baseball players

Baseball-Reference’s Career Leaders for Wins Above Replacement list is a great starting place for ranking the best baseball players in history.  While there are some things I would change about this method of determining players’ greatness, it is one of the best approximations of player strength out there.  Here’s a glance at the greatest 25 pre-1900 players based on Baseball-Reference’s career WAR analysis:

In order of career WAR, from highest to lowest:

Cy YoungKid NicholsCap AnsonTim KeefeGeorge DavisRoger ConnorJohn ClarksonDan BrouthersOld Hoss RadbournJim McCormickPud GalvinEd DelahantyAmos RusieTony MullaneMonte WardMickey WelchBilly HamiltonCharlie BuffintonJack GlasscockJake BeckleyTommy BondBob CaruthersJesse BurkettAl SpaldingJim Whitney

So if we could gather all 25 of...

SpaldingJimBurkettAlCaruthersJesseBondBobBeckleyTommyGlasscockJakeBuffintonJackHamiltonCharlieWelchBillyWardMickeyMullaneMonteRusieTonyDelahantyAmosGalvinEdMcCormickPudRadbournJimBrouthersOldClarksonDanConnorJohnDavisRogerKeefeGeorgeAnsonTimNicholsCapYoungKid