How would you rank these four players?

Question

From time to time I like to get the opinions of baseball fans regarding players from the past. This is one such case.

Knowing in advance what their careers would bring, how would you rank the following four players assuming you were going to draft them? Take into account all aspects of their game - hitting, defense, speed, leadership, intangibles - whatever you feel is important when assessing a player.

Please provide reasoning behind your opinion, something beyond "He was the man!" :-)

As always, thanks in advance for your thoughtful responses.

The players, presented alphabetically:

- Rickey Henderson
- Joe Morgan
- Frank Robinson
- Mike Schmidt

Answer 1

1. Rickey -- possibly the most versatile player (who didn't pitch) the game has ever seen. Could beat you with any of his many weapons. (see: 1989 ALCS, Blue Jays, destruction of)

2. Schimdt -- great third basemen are hard to find, and he's the greatest of them all.

3. Morgan -- great second basemen tend to be in short supply, too.

4. F.Robby -- because someone has to be fourth in this group. Genuinely great, but outfielders are somewhat easier to come by (though not so often of this man's caliber).

I count eight MVP Awards among them.

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Kris, I'm actually going to dignify you with a response. All four of these players are immensely great and worthy of their Hall plaques (Rickey's coming in 2009). Fourth place in this little group is no disgrace. SOMEONE has to be fourth.

That said, my general criteria was "whom is most difficult to replace with another player of similar quality?" Well, Henderson is practically unique, Schmidt IS the greatest 3Bman ever, and Morgan was an astounding hitter at 2B; all extremely rare entities. Robinson, for as immensely great as he was, has more peers at his position of similar quality. To build a winning team, it is a smart strategy to acquire talent that the other teams then cannot have by virtue of rarity. No one comps to Henderson and Schmidt AT THEIR POSITIONS, Morgan is quite rare, and there are other Hall-class slugging outfielders to match up to Robby. Yes, he is (was) a rare talent, but he is the "least rare" of this quartet.

And that's why he's fourth. I'd still take him, and gladly.

Answer 2

Chip - I'm shocked you have Frank Robinson 4th. You need to re-evaluate this question.

1. Robinson - Best all-around player on this list, and the most underrated/under appreciated player of all time.

2. Schmidt - Great power hitter and 1 of the best defensive 3rd basemen - the clear choice as best 3rd baseman ever.

3. Henderson - Best leadoff hitter ever, walks, run, stolen bases, and the most leadoff home runs in history.

4. Morgan - Great second basemen, had alot of pop for a 2B. Was a pivotal part of the Big Red Machine.
.

Answer 3

Great question. You can make legitimate cases for 3 of these guys to be first. Here's my thoughts.

1) Ricky Henderson. Great speed & great power in the most important position in the lineup. Robinson & Schmidt are better players, but if I had a chance to draft the best leadoff man ever, I'd take him.
2) Frank Robinson. Argubly one of the 10 best players ever period. Best all around game of the 4. Only second because Ricky was a leadoff man.
3) Mike Schmidt. Best power hitting 3B ever & one of the two best fielding 3B ever. A combination we are not likely to see again. But quiet demeanor did not make him a clubhouse favorite.
4) Joe Morgan. Best 2B ever & great team leader. But just doesn't make the same impact as the 3 guys ahead of him here.

Answer 4

I put Frank Robinson first, he was a very dominant player who was a great leader beyond the home runs. Schmidt would be number 2 due to both his defense and offense. Pure power at the plate. I forget who said it but this was said about Schmidt "If he had hit .300, he would have been the greateset player ever." #3 would be Morgan. Power, speed, and defense and a star on a team that had Bench, Foster, and Tony Perez. #4 would be Rickey. He was a great player but not much of a team player. He was in it for himself. Having said that, he was one of the more intimidating players due to his speed and lead off power. Not much of a defender but he didn't care to be.

Answer 5

Rickey Henderson - Possibly the lowest IQ of any ball player that ever lived.

Joe Morgan - vastly overrated 2nd baseball who can't seem to keep his mouth shout. Worse baseball color commentator of all time.

Frank Robinson - An angry old man who is pissed off at the world because he never got the big bucks when he played.

Mike Schmidt - Was perhaps the greatest 3rd baseman of all time but his blind loyalty to Pete Rose has made me lose a great deal of respect for him.

All players of worthy of the hall of fame except Joe Morgan.

Answer 6

1. Frank Robinson. The man won MVP's in both leagues.
2. Mike Schmidt. 10 gold gloves and 548 home runs.
3. Joe Morgan. Very good 2nd baseman numbers.
4. Rickey Henderson. Played for 25 years and never had over 80 rbi's. ( Yes, I know he was a lead off hitter. )

Answer 7

#1 Frank Robinson period. The guy was great.
#2 Mike Schmidt. Great but his ba is not so hot.
#3 Joe Morgan
#4 Rickey Henderson. Steals won't cut it alone.

Answer 8

1 R. Henderson - the way he set the tone for the game, he can beat you with power & speed. He would put so much pressure on the opposing pitchers they didn't know what to do with him. He also was a pretty decent OF.

2 F. Robinson - Did not get to see him play but I've read a lot about the guy, great defensive player great offensive as well.

3 J. Morgan - another spark plug can run and play a gold glove 2b. Did not get to see him play.

4. M. Schmidt - saw the twighlight of his career, struck out too much for me, but damn he can play 3b.

just my opinion
thanks

Answer 9

1 R Henderson Great player and all time leader in SB and runs has to be #1
2 Frank Robinson one of the best greates hitters plus 500 and something Home runs has to be number 2 and he also in my list of the 10 greates baseball players
3. Mike schmidt in my opinion the greates 3basement all time
4. Joe morgan good player but i have no idea how good he was. From what i know he was just a good player but not great like the other three in this list.

Answer 10

1. Rickey Henderson - Best leadoff hitter of all time no matter how many haters he has. You cant deny it.

2. Frank Robinson - More HR's and R.B.I.'s and better FP then everyone.

3. Micke Schmidt - Great all around player.

4. Joe Morgan - The worst of all of the 4. But still possibly the best 2B ever.

Answer 11

a million) Kobe Bryant 2) Dwayne Wade 3) Allen Iverson 4) Tracy McGrady this may well be the order in terms of universal activity. I wasn't specific between T-Mac and AI in the beginning up, yet Iverson's protection easily information the dimensions in his prefer.