Barry Bonds
Lou Gehrig
Rogers Hornsby
Babe Ruth
Ted Williams

Tough to leave Musial and Mantle out.

Hank Aaron
Babe Ruth
Ted Williams
Willie Mays
Barry Bonds

1. Ruth
2. Bonds
3. Williams

These top 3 are a given (with Ruth a given at the top). You could put Bonds and Williams in either order for me. I went Bonds for peak awesomeness but Williams clearly has an argument and you could give him a bonus for non-use of PED and more difficult strike-zone and make up for Bond's non-diluted league.

The next two were harder. In the end I went Gehrig and Hornsby

4. Gehrig
5. Hornsby

Mantle is probably next up for me. I eliminated Wagner and Cobb for era specific reasons. Also eliminated Mays and Aaron as I find them to have been more accumulators due to hanging on (in comparison to the others on this list). I came close to including Pujols. Musial has a good case.

Btw what is the nonsense where Bonds has 5 votes and Ruth 4?

Is that your order?

I am almost positive that he just went down the list, tying the people he voted for in order, nothing to do with whom he thinks is the best.

B-G-H-R-W

Alphabetical

Meaning what specifically? Mays was a 6.5 win player at age 40, so it's not like he was a drag on his teams (Giants won the division that year, and Mays led the team in WAR, though Bobby Bonds was a close second). I won't check Aaron now but I figure the same is likely true (and the Braves won their division in 1969 when Aaron was getting up there in years). If you mean "down somewhat from their peaks" obviously that's the case but if they're still performing at an all-star level I don't think you can really hold the fact that they didn't fall apart as quickly as Ruth, Hornsby etc against them.

My ranking of the list, with my votes starred:

Ruth*
Bonds*
Williams*
-----
Mays*
Mantle*
Gehrig
-----
Cobb
Aaron
Pujols
Musial
Hornsby
-----
Foxx
Speaker
Wagner
-----
dan what the fuck 19th century faggot brouthers

No respect for the pioneers. If Brouthers was around today he would beat you to a pulp for that comment.

ruth
williams
bonds
gehrig

have to think about #5 for a bit

Ruth
Bonds
Williams
Mantle
Mayz

http://baseballsgreatesthitters.com/Ret ... ctive.html
an arcane formula is used though

First of, they never tell you what this big formula is, and secondly, any metric that uses batting average as a big part of it is useless.

What I mean is that their OWAR totals are elevated by the length of their careers. If you look at OPS+ (which I do think is the better measure for this list) Mays and Aaron are way down the list. I'm interested as to why you dumped Hornsby so far down (and behind Cobb of all people).

And Aaron played 7 years after 1969 a 7.1 OWAR year (well last was only a half season). In the next 7 seasons he had one 7.3 Campaign in 1971 but had only 2 others above 4. His last 3 years 2, .1, .4. Mays had two partial years at the end of his career where his OWar was 2.2 and 0 (granted both were short seasons for him). He also had random years of lesser effectiveness offensively (4.1 in 1967, 3.7 in 1969). To add to this Mays best OWAR year was 1965 at 9.7. This isn't even top 50. Giambi and A-Rod both have better top seasons (although Pujols does not). Aaron has one better season. Ruth has 9, Hornsby 5 (plus his 6th is tied with Mays best), Gehrig 5 (plus his 6th is tied with Mays best). Bonds 4, Williams 4, Mantle 4, Cobb 4, Wagner 2, Musial 1, Foxx 1, Speaker 1. Mays only has 2 total in the top 100. In OPS+ Mays only has one season in the top 150. Ruth 13, Bonds 9, Cobb 9, Williams 8, Hornsby 7, Gehrig 6, Mantle 5, Foxx 4, Pujols 3, Wagner 3, Speaker 2, Aaron 1, Musial 1

Now mind you I would still put Mays ahead of Cobb, Wagner, Speaker, Foxx, and Aaron (for era related and other reasons although the dominance of Cobb's numbers look pretty good). He'd be closer with Musial and Pujols and maybe ahead of both (appears I overvalued Musial). He can't possibly be ahead of Gehrig, Hornsby, or Mantle for me. Peak value is just too much higher for all of those guys.

Edit: Also note Giambi and Manny both have two OPS+ top 150 seasons (not that one additional season makes much of a difference).

Which probably explains red flag Johnny Damon in the top 200.

Hard to choose

Ruth
Williams
Cobb
Bonds
Musial
--------
Mantle
Mays
Gehrig
Aaron
Hornsby