Ok, we saw him finally exercise the postseason demons with a record-setting postseason performance. He holds several single-season records (HR, OBP, SLG, BB) and is rapidly approaching several career records. He has four MVP awarrds and is going to win a fifth. Is he the best ever?

He isn't my favorite, but he is probably the best power hitter. He is smart on the bases and smart in the field too. For me the best player has to be a defensive dynamo with some decent bat skills, but not necessarily a long ball hitter. Someone like willie mays, richie ashburn, cal ripkin jr, et al. I can't say who the best ever is/was but can say some of the possible bests. Throw pete rose, joe dimagio, mickey mantle, ted williams, and willie stargel in there for good measure, heck, put the whole hall of fame on the list.

He deserves to be considered the best ( I personally can't stand him) He hits for as good as power as anybody has... He can hit for percentage... his onbase percentage is the best... and he could run with the best of them his youth. And his fielding may not be as good as the best, but he's damn good.

He's the total package... and deserves to be considered as one of the best.

Ruth is the best.

Bonds hits a lot of homers in an era where a lot of guys hit homers.

Ruth hit a lot of homers when NOBODY hit homers.

Does that mean the pitchers are worse or that the batters are better?

You raise a valid point... are pitchers better than batters?

I think they have to be viewed differently.

The game has changed so much in the last 30-40 years that it makes what some pitchers have done recently - Pedro, Randy Johnson, Maddux, etc. - seem more remarkable by comparison.

One of the best seasons ever came from Lefty Grove in 1930. MLB admittedly juiced the ball in that season to try and bring more offense to games in response to declining attendance due to the Great Depression and Grove was the ONLY STARTING PITCHER to record an ERA below 3.50 that season.

He gets shorted quite a bit in the discussion of greatest pitchers of all time because of his numbers, but if you compare what he did to the pitchers of the same era, he was clearly dominant.

Pedro turned in a Grove-esque season the year that Mac and Sammy both broke the HR record, which is similarly amazing.

Can we apply this to Bonds? Sure. But look at the numbers - Bonds' on-base perecntage this year was .582. The second-place hitter was Brian Giles - at .450. That's .132 ahead of everybody else. Clearly dominant.

He didn't have the HRs this year that he had last year, but honestly, he didn't get the chance to hit 73 this year. I don't think he saw 73 hittable pitches all year.

I don't really think of Barry Bonds as the best hitter in baseball history, although he is definitely among the best sluggers in history. I see a distinct difference between the two categories.

When I think of the list of greatest hitters, I think Ted Williams, Tony Gwynn, Pete Rose, et al, because these guys could come through in the clutch day-in and day-out, but were not necessarily known for hitting lots of home runs. (OK, Teddy hit his fair share, but he's best known as the last player to hit over .400, which buy definition makes him a great hitter.)

OK, semantics aside, there's still more substance to being a great hitter than just hitting tremendous home runs in great quantities. Not that Bonds is not a good hitter, he's just not the greatest hitter as far as "total package" goes.

Now personally I don't care for Barry Bonds because he has a terrible tendancy to be a jerk, but unfortunately that doesn't disqualify him from being a great slugger or hitter. After all, one could even argue that Ty Cobb was the greatest pure hitter of all times, and he's generally regarded as a reprehensible human being (and rightly so IMO).

Pete Rose and Ted Williams were better hitters than Bonds, not necessarily for power, just better hitters.

And it's anybody's guess as to what Ted Williams' record would be had he not served in two wars during his baseball career.

As for power, Babe Ruth was the dominant player of his time, but it is nearly impossible to compare Bonds to Ruth or Williams because of how the game has changed.

this thread needs to be closed immediately!!!

hes a great modern power hitter, but to classify as the greatest player is ... unthinkable!

Unthinkable? He's eclipsed Babe Ruth, the clear leader for best player in baseball in several categories, including walks and slugging percentage. Maybe that doesn't mean he's better, but it's certainly not unthinkable...

30 or 40 years from now, I think history will be a little kinder to Bonds than the media today is. He is truly a remarkable player.

Originally posted by Azale
Does that mean the pitchers are worse or that the batters are better?

Is mean that batters take more drugs (steroids).

Is mean that batters take more drugs (steroids).

It's a little o/t but it made me think of this:

Yeah, unfortunately the days of pitchers loading up on drugs are well past... Steve Howe, Dock Ellis pitching his no-hitter on acid...

And who knows what John Rocker was on.

Bonds is probably the best HITTER and SLUGGER of our generation.

He has recorded some amazing statistics the past five years, ones that Gwynn, Boggs, Brett or anyone else haven't come close to.

He's not the best player ever (Mays Williams and Ruth were better IMO) but I certainly think he's one of the best hitters.

Remember, Teddy Ballgame was not kind to the media most of his career, and look how history has treated him.

I don't personally like the guy, but he is an excellent hitter. The main difference is that he is hitting in a very big hitters time. With more and more drugs and supplements for hitters it's getting easy for them to whack balls out. Now had he done this in ted williams or ruth's time...I don't think their would be a question as to whether or not he's the greatest.

It's really tough to measure greatest across the different eras...
There are far to many differences to make any comparison really valid, so you really need to look at how a player compares with those from the same time frame...

And Bonds is by far the best player in the modern era...