Above, you will find a blank bracket that you can use to predict the winners in our eventual coaches' poll. And don't forget that you can vote already for the 'play-in' matchup between George Davis and John Clarkson, to see who gets the final 16-seed in the Infielders Region.
I highly recommend that you DO NOT try "penning" them onto the .jpg using MS-Paint, but maybe some other photoshop program wouldn't take as long. Here is what took me an hour to "handwrite":
[UPDATE: April 2nd]
The first round of polling now complete, we can see that there were many upsets and several places where my own predicted backet was busted. Here are the results:
[UPDATE: April 8th]
After two rounds, we have narrowed things down to the Sweet Sixteen. My own personal bracket (above) is now thoroughly busted, as Babe Ruth was upset by Ted Williams. Here are the rest of the scores:
[UPDATE: April 10th]
After three rounds, we are down to the Elite Eight, with each "region" pitting its two "best" players against each other. Here is the new bracket:
[UPDATE: April 11th]
After four rounds, we have finally reached the Final Four, with no two same seeds having advanced this far. We are down to a single one-seed (Cy Young), and single two-seed (Rogers Hornsby), a single five-seed (Christy Mathewson), and the nominal Cinderella, Ted Williams, the eight-seed from the Outfielders. Here are the deets:
[UPDATE: April 13th]
Just to wrap things up over here on the blog, we ended up voting, 5 to 1, for Cy Young as the top pitcher, and voted 4 to 2 for Ted Williams as the top hitter. We followed that up with Ted Williams besting Cy Young by 4 votes to 2, to capture the title of Best Baller in Baseball History.
Thanks to all for participating in this lengthy, and not always interesting exercise.
Compiling this list taught me something important. Before now, I had no idea that the average third baseman had such a short MLB career. I always knew it was the most demanding position in baseball because I have played third base myself, for the past three years. When looking at the Catchers, and the First Basemen, and the Second Basemen, I noticed that they generally all had very long and careers and were still effective in the latter stages. The exact opposite seems to happen to the elite Third Basemen. They usually start their careers slowly, have tremendous success through their prime years, then just drop completely off during their final three to five seasons. I can honestly say that I have new found respect for these guys and I can finally sympathize with Chipper Jones for never having been able to stay healthy.
Before anyone has the chance to question the obvious, let me head them off at the pass. I have A-Rod ranked 8th for the simple reason that he has played just 752 of his 2024 career games at Third Base. I firmly believe that had A-Rod stayed at shortstop, that he'd be by far the greatest shortstop in MLB history. I just have a hard time trying to justify A-Rod's placement among the greatest when he's played just 37% of his career at a certain position. That said, tell me what you think of the order, in the Comments section.
3x AL MVP (2003, 2005, 2007) 2x Gold Glove Award Winner (2002, 2003) 10x Silver Slugger Award Winner (1996, 1998-2003, 2005, 2007, 2008) 12x All-Star (1996-1998, 2000-2008)
7. Scott Rolen(Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals, Toronto Blue Jays, Cincinnati Reds 1996-present) 1630 GP, 5945 AB, 1021 R, 1679 H, 412 D, 35 T, 274 HR, 1067 RBI, 109 SB, .282 AVG, .966 FPCT
1997 Rookie of the Year Award Winner 7x Gold Glove Award Winner (1998, 2000-2004, 2006) Silver Slugger Award Winner (2002) World Series Champion (2006) 5x All-Star (2002-2006)
2x NL Home Run Crown Winner (1953, 1959) 2x World Series Champion (1957, 1968) 9x All-Star (1953, 1955-1962) Hall of Fame 1978
4. Wade Boggs(Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Devil Rays 1982-1999) 2439 GP, 9180 AB, 1513 R, 3010 H, 578 D, 61 T, 118 HR, 1014 RBI, 24 SB, .328 AVG, .962 FPCT
2x Gold Glove Award Winner (1994, 1995) 8x Silver Slugger Award Winner (1983, 1986-1989, 1993, 1994) World Series Champion (1996) 12x All-Star (1985-1996) Hall of Fame 2005
3x NL MVP (1980, 1981, 1986) 10x Gold Glove Award Winner (1976-1986) 6x Silver Slugger Award Winner (1980-1984, 1986) *won the first five handed out World Series Champion (1980) 12x All-Star (1974, 1976, 1977, 1979-1984, 1986, 1987, 1989) Hall of Fame 1995
1980 AL MVP Gold Glove Award Winner (1985) 3x Silver Slugger Award Winner (1980, 1985, 1988) *won the inaugural award World Series Champion (1985) 13x All-Star (1976-1988) Hall of Fame 1999
