Interesting Baseball Top 40 Stat

[John Cole]

Of the top 40 players all-time in OPS, 17 are current players. Of the remaing players, all are Hall of Famers except for two inelegible, Joe Jackson and Mark McGuire. (Only Charley Keller of the top 40 is missing from the Hall.)

Without looking, guess who tops the list of active players?

John

[andyfox]

Either Bonds or Thomas, I would think.

The current era is one dominated by offense, so it would figure that there are a fair number of active players on the all-time OPS list.

Keller was a great player, but somewhat unrecognized today, because, I imagine, of a realtively short career and the shadow of DiMaggio.

[John Cole]

Andy,

Sorry, got a bit too far down the list: it's Lefty O'Doul who's missing, and Albert Belle is also inelegible. Keller comes in at 43.

BTW, Manny Ramirez ranks ahead of Thomas, and right behind Bonds who is at #2 of active players.

[IrishHand]

I'm with the above poster - I'd have gone: Bonds, Thomas, Helton, Ramirez, Walker, Bagwell.

With what you said, I'm guessing that Helton's currently in #1. It's tougher for me to guess when their careers haven't been that long (since it sort of invalidates the "average" numbers from a career perspective).

[patrick dicaprio]

either bagwell or helton?

One thing to think about is that if you did a similar thing in teh 30's you would have had a list of 30's players. the era they play in must be taken into account. but the players of today are still the best ever, notwithstanding the above.

Pat

[Rick Nebiolo]

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[Glenn]

Here is a link to the career adjusted OPS leaders. The actual active OPS leader, Mr. Helton, is tied for 72 along with Bobby Abreu.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/OPS_career.shtml

[andyfox]

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