ever since one of my friends [a diehard braves fan as well as the lead writer for the rogue league] said that chipper jones was THE greatest switch hitter of all time, it has been my lifelong goal to refute this claim. i will admit that i do have a dislike for the chipper [i have my reasons], but i know for a fact that he is not the best switch hitter who ever lived. even as my friend made that statement, three players came to mind who are head and shoulders better than the man they call chipper, to which he agreed [more on who they are later]. at any rate, this is a list of the top 10 greatest switch hitters in baseball history. mind you, it is of the greatest hitters, and not necessarily the greatest players. otherwise players such as ozzie smith, maury wills and willie wilson would [possibly] have made the list. also, current players who are still relatively young in their careers but who are not quite as established [eg mark teixeira, lance berkman] have been excluded.10. ken singleton : i know what you're thinking: who? um, i'm not so sure myself, but his name is ken singleton and he played 15 seasons for the mets, expos and orioles. he is a three time all-star who had a career on-base percentage of .388 and played in two world series, with his team winning one in 1983. he had a career high 35 home runs and 111 rbi's in 1979, which helped him finish 2nd in mvp voting that year. [trust me, he's the 10th best switch hitter ever. if you know of anyone not on this list who is better, please, do tell.]
9. reggie smith : do you hear that sound? no? well, it's the sound of me scraping the bottom of the barrel. after no. 8, it was fairly difficult to choose the last 2 players to round out the rest of this list. not because there were so many choices to choose from, but because there really aren't that many quality switch hitters. anyway, reggie smith deserves the no. 9 spot over ken singleton merely because i like his name better. that, and he was a 7 time all-star who slugged 314 home runs [not in a season, that would be a record or something] and batted over .300 seven times in 17 seasons. he also played in 4 world series, hitting 3 hrs in one game during the '77 fall classic. other than that, he sounds like a guy who would have your back in a street brawl.
8. tim raines : i like to call him 'the rain man,' only because i thought he was somewhat autistic when i was younger [jokes jokes]. tim appeared in 7 straight all-star games and has a career batting average of .294 over the course of 23 seasons. while he did not have the power numbers as some of the other players on this list, he did maintain a high on-base percentage throughout his career and scored runs like it was going out of style. ultimately, his biggest flaw though was providing the y chromosome for tim raines jr, thus subjecting baseball fans everywhere to atrocious baseball.
7. roberto alomar : the second thing i think of when i hear roberto alomar's name is his postseason play in the '92 and '93 seasons, which helped his team, the toronto blue jays, win two consecutive world series. if i remember correctly, during those two postseasons, he delivered clutch hit after clutch hit to help his team's cause. when most people [and by 'people,' i mean the 2% of the population who actually watch baseball] think of the '93 world series, they think of joe carter hitting the series-ending home run, which resulted in his teammates trying to crawl up his butt [fyi, around the 0:52 mark, you can actually see a ballboy try to crawl in a player's butt]. anyway, other than the joe carter being violated, when i think of the '93 world series, i think about how the phillies could never seem to get alomar out. he was just a tough batter. at any rate, alomar batted over .300 in six straight seasons and in 9 out of 10 seasons. after his stay with the blue jays, he went to play with many other teams, including the orioles, which brings me to the first thing i think of when i hear his name: don't stand close to the man when he thinks a called strike is a ball.
6. bernie williams : no, i'm not putting bernie williams at no. 6 because he is an amazing jazz musician, but because he has truly put up some great numbers. at first, i was reluctant to include bernie in this list [mostly because i think yankee players tend to be over-hyped], but after reviewing his numbers and career accomplishments, i had to give the man some props. he is a 5 time all-star, but i think it's partially due to the fact that joe torre was always picking the all-star team [and his nose. um, his own nose, not bernie's. still, i wouldn't put it past torre.] anyway, bernie hit over .300 in eight straight seasons and was a mainstay in the powerful yankees lineup. he also holds postseason records with 22 home runs and 80 rbi's [although i think that these numbers were helped immensely by the new playoff format that was introduced in 1995, which led to more playoff games per season and therefore more chances to culminate statistics].
5. chipper jones : going along with my dislike of chipper, one of my favorite memories of chipper jones is the time towards the end of his rookie season when a ground ball or something hit him in the face, causing him to have a split lip for the playoffs and everyone seeing him like that on national tv. good times... seriously though, i tried hard to get chipper out of the top 5 of the greatest switch hitters of all time, but the boy just puts up good numbers. and as much as i don't like chipper jones, i respect that he is a good ballplayer who was a central part of a successful team. not only that, he has hit over 20 home runs in each of his 12 full seasons [not counting the current 2007 season, in which he has 18 as of today, so he will most likely get to 20 this year if he can avoid one of his trademark nagging injuries]. during this stretch, chipper had at least 100 rbi's in 8 straight seasons and sports a career .306 batting average to go with a career on-base percentage over .400. he's also had some other great accomplishments [including finishing 2nd in rookie of the year voting to dodger sensation hideo nomo], but enough is enough. let's just move on.
4. frankie frisch : i had to dig deep to find someone to supplant chipper jones from no. 4, and i think i found that someone in frankie frisch [if you have heard of this guy before today, congratulations on turning 125 years old within the next year]. frankie played in 8 world series, with his team winning 4 of them. not only is he a career .316 hitter and the 1931 national league mvp, he was inducted into the hall of fame in 1947. oftentimes he is compared to rogers hornsby, a player who he was once traded for. in terms of being a better overall player, some have argued that frisch was better than hornsby [i know that's not what this list is about, but i'm just sayin']. so take that larry.
3. eddie murray : when i think of eddie murray, i think of the detroit lions kicker from tecmo super bowl. man, that guy was accurate. i also think of one of the best hitters of our generation who is only one of three men [plus one confirmed steroid user] to have at least 500 home runs and 3,000 hits. he was a consistently great hitter throughout most of his career and performed well in the clutch. he also played in three world series, with his team winning one in 1983. out of the 21 seasons that he played, he had 16 seasons of 20 home runs or more, including 13 out of the first 14 seasons of his career. his ability to hit is only surpassed by his character on and off the field. and his facial hair.
2. mickey mantle : mickey mantle's feats were so amazing that people oftentimes forget that his actual first name is 'mickey.' seriously, anyone with that name this day and age would get jumped after school everyday after class. anyway, the 'mick' hit some of longest home runs in baseball history, with several of his home runs claiming to be over 600 ft [that's over 2 football fields peoples]. he hit over .300 in 10 of his 18 seasons, and almost averaged 30 home runs per year for his career. he also played in 12 world series, with his team winning 7 of them. he holds world series career records of home runs [18], runs [42] and rbi's [40]. he has also won 3 mvp awards and is the last person to win the major league triple crown when he did it in 1956 with a .353 average, 52 home runs and 130 rbi's. and i'm pretty sure he slayed a dragon with his bare hands.
1. pete rose : thanks to the espn movie hustle, whenever i picture pete rose in my mind, i think of tom sizemore and the ridiculous haircut he had in that movie. then i remember, pete rose looks like this. and this. so, i guess it's justified. off-field issues aside, pete rose is one of the greatest hitters who ever lived, switch hitter or not. he had 10 seasons where he had 200 or more hits and 3 other seasons where he had 192 hits or more. his team won 3 world series out of the 6 that he played in [even bringing a title to the city of philadelphia, which is notable because that city is cursed]. even though pete only had 160 home runs [but if steroids were more popular back then, that number could be double], he finished his career with over 4,000[!] hits. eventually, as we all know, pete rose's reputation would slowly deteriorate with gambling problems and being banned from baseball and whatnot, but without that, it probably would not have led to this glorious moment in time.
7 comments:
frankie frisch? is that a joke? frisch the cat, if he were to play today, could not hold chipper's jock.
other than that lapse in judgment, your list is pretty good. it's virtually impossible for anyone to argue with the first two. i doubt anyone will ever beat pete rose, and mantle is just as solid a #2 as one you would have after a hearty meal of meat and potatoes.
there's a pretty significant drop after those two though. if chipper keeps up his pace, he'll be knocking on eddie's door in about 4 or 5 years. i'm very interested to see how tex and berkman will do over the next few years.
if chipper's going to knock on anyone's door, it's going to be the back door... that is all.
first off, i'm angry that i didn't think of limeade's comment first.
second, i defend my decision to put the frisch 4th ahead of chipper. what's also significant about frankie playing in 8 world series is that his first team [giants] did not win much after he was traded, and his second team [cardinals] started winning pennants only after he arrived. he also struck out very little, with only two of his 19 seasons having over 18 k's [and never more than 28], including 12 k's in 641 at-bats in 1923 while hitting .348 as well as 10 k's in 617 at-bats in 1927 while batting .337. simply put, the kid can rake.
i'm obviously a chipper jones fan, but limeade's comment did make me chuckle, so well done.
you are free to defend it, but it was pretty obvious by your wording that you were not going to let chipper be #4. my guess is you knew you couldn't keep him out of the top 5, but you were going to give him the minimum. you made no attempt to hide your bias.
first, to me, best hitter is more than merely not striking out. david eckstein puts a lot of balls in play too, but he sucks, world series mvp or no. being a good hitter is also more than just hitting for high average. slap hitters can do that, which frankie frisch clearly proved. i think something is to be said for power as well, and chipper clearly is far superior to frankie frisch, so much so that i think the stats speak for themselves.
i also wouldn't put a whole ton of stock into the teams getting better/worse after his arrival/departure things, for two reasons: 1) there are tons of factors that go into a team winning and losing, so much so that to attribute it to one (slap) hitter seems far-fetched. 2) even if it is true, so what? it still says zero about his ability to hit. i doubt anyone would argue that tony gwynn is somehow less of a hitter because he never won a world series with the padres.
like i hinted at, i'm pretty sure if you could separate your hatred for chipper from your judging on this, you'd see he's at least #4, and by the time he's done, he could easily make it up to #3
I just saw the Joe Carter clip. And that was disgusting.
hey, what about bobby bonilla? he was amazing. take a look at his stats. he should've at least cracked the top 10. he's even won a world series and was the league's highest paid player for a time. but for the most part, i agree with the top 10.
first, bobby bonilla was not that great of a hitter. sure, he had some good years in his prime, but aside from that, he only hit over .300 three times, and when he had no protection in the lineup [eg mets, orioles] he didn't really produce anything.
second, i don't hate chipper as much as you might think. while i don't like him, i don't dislike him as much as i used to, especially since the braves division titles streak is over.
next, comparing david eckstein to frankie frisch isn't really a comparison. although they are both slap hitters, they are on different levels. pete rose was a slap hitter, but that doesn't devalue him as a hitter. and while chipper definitely hits more home runs than frisch, it doesn't mean he's a better hitter. richie sexson hits a ton of home runs, it doesn't mean he's a better hitter than ichiro.
officially, i think that you are evaluating chipper based on the numbers chipper will have at the end of his career. i can only rate players with what they've done, not what they might do. so at this point, frisch is +800 on hits, +50 in doubles and +100 in triples. so it's not as though chipper is totally dominating frisch in every significant hitting category. and in time, it is conceivable that chipper will pass frisch, but with the stats they way they are as of today, frisch is #3 and jones is #4.
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