The Smartest Hitters In Baseball History

[@madethecut]

Use code MTC50 to get 50% off your first Factor box at bit.ly/3MWvAfD!

[@jeffphillips1832]

Gwynn was the last player to come close to batting .400 not Brett. Gwynn hit .394 in 1994.

[@Harapan162]

@@jeffphillips1832 he said full 1994 was strike shortened

[@jeffphillips1832]

@@Harapan162 if you compare the number of at bats they are pretty close.

[@Harapan162]

@@jeffphillips1832 i know but thats his reasoning

[@AllThingsGreat579]

I'd like to see Vlad Guerrero. I read somewhere once that Vlad sometimes didn't even know the name of the opposing pitcher and did very little prep. He was a fascinating talent.

[@user-hn9qw7ou8d]

Yes, he possessed about as much raw talent as any baseball player I have ever seen. His son has the same gifts.

[@spoonsz]

I was going to comment the same thing his average and eye arnt anywhere close to these guys but vlad could turn a curve ball in the dirt and hit it out of the park and that in itself to me is more impressive then these hitters he listed

[@riltalk4055]

@@spoonsz Vlad’s avg which is .318, is higher than Bonds, Brett, Ichiro and Votto.

[@spoonsz]

@@riltalk4055 does not surprise me I only remember him from his A's days but when I was a kid I absolutely loved watching him bat actually used his batting stance in real life as a kid 😂

[@r4v4g3r]

@@spoonsz As an Orioles fan his time on the Orioles cemented him as my favorite player ever.

[@Figwumberton]

One of the craziest stats for me about Tony Gwynn is that in his 20 year career, he hit more doubles than he struck out. 543 doubles, 434 strike outs. Just insane.

[@BluesImprov]

Stan "The Man" Musial also had more doubles than strikeouts. . .But Stan seems very forgotten these days.

[@warlordofbritannia]

@@BluesImprov Stan played at a time with considerably lower strikeouts, maybe fifty percent of today. Gwynn played in the 1980s and 1990s when strikeouts were only about 15 or 20 percent lower.

[@MarcoLopez-dt7lq]

@@BluesImprovgreat player but different Era

[@drewskij2175]

So did; Bill Buckner Joe Sewell Nellie Fox Frankie Frisch Joe DiMaggio and gobs of other players Shoot, Sweet Willie Keeler, my man had more triples than strikeouts

[@davidfeltz8697]

Agreed. He was just super special. One of the coolest and beloved player of our time.

[@mikebrase5161]

1989 I was 14 years old. My whole time in Little League i was a mediocre underachiever at the plate. Late that summer i watched this week in baseball with Tony Gwynn as the guest. He showed how he took 300 cuts a day everyday off the T. 100 inside, 100 outside, 100 straight away. When the next season rolled around i hit .400 which id never done before and hit 4 homeruns during a 21 game season then hit two more including a Grand slam to win a game in the state tournament. I dont think id have done that had i not seen that episode and talked my Pop into getting me a batting T. Tony Gwynn will always be my hero.

[@aidenbrulotte1723]

Damn, you have way more pop than me, I am 14 now batting .700 with only one home run, but it was on an extremely tiny field, I don’t ever strikeout, it would be nice to have as much pop as you had.

[@jameskasselman8503]

Love your story!!! Thank you for sharing. I never worked that much on a tee... But I tried to get my inside, central, and out side swings in on soft toss. I'm the reason you see signage of "do not hit balls against fence. We dented the fence so badly that in an attempt to reverse the damage we hit from the other side of the fence. Hitting soft toss into a convex chain link fence added too much extra ball shagging to really get a good work out in

[@mikebrase5161]

@@jameskasselman8503 my Dad came up with a fix. He used a drill press and drilled a hole through a baseball and tied a piece of nylon rope to the ball and wrapped it around the neck of the batting T.

[@mikebrase5161]

@@aidenbrulotte1723 ever hear, they don't make them like they used too? Easton achieved perfection with the 34/31 Black Magic bat. They stopped making them in the early to mid 90's. The other part of the story I left out was I discovered weight lifting over that summer as well.

[@gumpotronic]

If I read this bullshit story one more time on social media, I'm going hunting.

[@trsetere12]

Edgar Martinez deserves to be included. He ended up with a .312/.418/.512 career slash and more walks than strikeouts. He also smashed doubles to every corner of the park. OBP machine year after year.

[@nacoran]

And Boggs.

[@TurdFergusson318]

The saddest thing about Barry Bonds his career is he didn’t need to cheat. He would’ve been a first ballot Hall of Famer no matter what.

[@bradleymcdaniel7915]

If he had stayed on track, he would have gotten 3000 hits and 500 homers... and probably played 2 or 3 more seasons

[@helgaratbone1691]

Im not so certain.

[@krolik1157]

Bill James said that Bonds was the best player of the 1990s, and that the gap between #2 and #10 was smaller than the one between Bonds and the #2 player. And he was skinny through the ‘90s.

[@ethanweeter2732]

@@krolik1157Except I am not sure he was number one by a mile either.

[@krolik1157]

@@ethanweeter2732 well that changes everything

[@markveals2915]

Loved watching Tony Gwynn while living in San Diego in the 1980s to the early 90s. Such a great man who left us far too soon.

[@davidfeltz8697]

One of my favorite athletes. One to emulate. Never forget that smile and laugh. A remarkable man.

[@paulmayfield4554]

Did we forget Miguel Cabrera? Miggy is famous for changing his stance and swing mid plate appearance. He played mind games with pitchers.

[@Demoralized88]

As a newer, casual fan who watched some late 2000s Indians, I think Miggy is probably misremembered as an overweight 1B/DH type power hitter in the mold of Fielder Jr and others around that era. Having taken an interest in stats I was surprised to see that Miggy was a god-tier hitter for almost 20 seasons with a consistently elite BA and OBP while having modest HR rates. He seems hugely underrated and almost forgotten in a thinly-vieled attempt to hype current stars that value walks over hits. I was very surprised the first time I saw his bbref page and how little he's talked about in relation to the best players of the 2000s and 2010s. I'm sure playing for the Tigers didn't help along with the WAR penalty for his position(s).

[@2nerdsinhell]

@@Demoralized88Uhh… how is averaging over 33 home runs a season for his first THIRTEEN SEASONS considered modest in any way whatsoever?

[@Demoralized88]

@@2nerdsinhell Because it was modest to what he could've hit if he wanted to? He could've easily hit 50HR/season but wisely didn't want to sacrifice his BA and OBP. Modest does not mean bad and is not necessarilly negative. 33HR/yr is obviously good, but he wasn't that archetype like a Pujols.

[@tokivikerness8863]

Miggy is certainly exceptional but doesn't belong here

[@Polack-ml9fh]

@@tokivikerness8863oh Christ, I’d take prime miggy over a prime votto any day.

[@a-a-ron3542]

I'd suggest Ken Griffey Jr. I seem to recall Jay Buhner once saying that Jr. took 500 cuts a day off the tee, and in a hitting instructional video, Jr. talks about having a simplified swing and hitting the ball in front so it can't break. He had a unique approach, and possibly the best swing of all time.

[@rockstarperformance]

My dad bought one of those instructional videos that Jr made when he started coaching my team in junior high. He also bought the Instructo Swing product from the video that Jr designed (or just used? I can't remember) to teach that nice simple swing. I thought it was going to be a waste of money like one of those as seen on TV kind of things, but I have never encountered anything else that was as effective in doing what it was designed to do. Every player on our team improved their batting average by at least 50 points that season. I don't know whether Jr studied pitchers like some of these other guys, but he had swing efficiency figured out like no one before or since.

[@a-a-ron3542]

@@rockstarperformance I remember those! I watched the hell out of them, but never really managed to put it into efficacious usage. I was really young, and just was enamored with watching Jr. talk baseball. I remember his bits on having your knuckles lined up, taking a small stride, but the rest was a bit over my head as a 7 year old.

[@andrewsmith3257]

Better swing than Ted Williams? Both were pretty damn good and had a beautiful swing

[@a-a-ron3542]

@@andrewsmith3257 Ted very literally wrote the book on swing mechanics, so I know that my take is a little controversial, but when I watch them, it still looks to me like Williams is trying to hit the ball hard. Jr. just looks like he's taking warm-up cuts in BP, and then it sails 500+ feet.

[@rodneyscott7108]

I thoroughly enjoyed the video. After watching it, I decided to do some reading about Joey Votto, who I didn’t really know anything about. In the article about him, I came across a really funny quote of his about himself and other great hitters that I want to share. Back during the 2016 season, he told an interviewer: “”Until Trout came into the league, I thought every year that I would be in the conversation for best player in the game. And he fucked that up for everybody, Babe Ruth and Ted Williams included. He’s ruining it for everyone.” If there is a Hall of Fame for best baseball quotes, I would nominate this one. So while I don’t have any suggestions for hitters to include in the next video, it certainly sounds like Mr. Votto has some thoughts on the subject. And he has surely earned the right to have his opinion respected. Great video. Thanks for all your work.

[@warlordofbritannia]

Did you see Votto’s recent interview on High Heat?

[@mattfig2924]

I had a coach growing up who played minor league ball with Tony Gwynn and you could tell the way he talked about him he was in awe of everything he said and took it all in. RIP to a legend

[@derick-smith]

Boggs, Pujols and Rod freaking Carew need to be in a part 2 for sure. Not enough love for Carew in here!

[@northstarjakobs]

I mean... the AL batting title is named for Rod Carew the way that the national league title is named for Tony Gwynn. He absolutely needs some attention.

[@PinballBob1]

Carew being a singles hitter hurts his fame a bit. We like the long ball. Plus, he played for a secondary market team.

[@christopherbarney8424]

I'd like to add Nomar to that list. Ted williams himself called Nomar his heir apparent. It sucks to think about what could've been and what Should've been with Nomar.

[@aviecenna8579]

And Ty Cobb for the old timers

[@TheGotoGeek]

That was my first thought.

[@NOLAchop92]

I'm interested if Arraez can continue this Gwynn-like approach with similar success at the plate. To me there will never be another equal to Mr. Padre but Luis Arraez is about as close as we'll ever get.

[@warlordofbritannia]

Honestly, I’d be psyched if we just see another .400 hitter and Arraez seems to be the best option.

[@davidbayliss4415]

Love Arraez - have since he broke with the Twins

[@blackestknightx8881]

​@@davidbayliss4415seems overrated

[@edsteadham4085]

Stan Musial was one of the great smart hitters. Asked how to hit the curve ball he said stay back stay back stay back.....and then knock the shit out of it! I could have used that advice years ago!

[@davidfeltz8697]

My favorite legends. Quietly good and like Gwynn widely adored and loved. Stan's stats are absolutely jaw dropping.

[@shanesnell1049]

How is Pete Rose not on this list? That’s unbelievable

[@ronnieberryman573]

All time hits leader, I agree 💯

[@daviddmitchell]

Fuckin unbelievable , rose not even an honorable mention

[@davidfeltz8697]

Great hitter, but not really in the same league as far as hitting excellence compared to Gwynn or Williams.

[@JtBaxter-pb9ij]

Are you trying to piss Kane off??!! For the love of God don’t!😂

[@thomaslemon3971]

@@davidfeltz8697 I think what’s interesting about Rose is that he kinda just WILLED himself to be a good ball player. Wasn’t naturally a super talented guy nor a hitting technician. It was just sheer willpower to do his best. Ol’ Charlie Hustle!

[@HT-sm9dm]

Frank Thomas. He was the 1990s version of Albert Pujols. Absolute genius and monster at the plate with the size and power of Giancarlo Stanton/Aaron Judge while maintaining top notch plate vision and discipline.

[@Crush_Tiggrr]

Right on. Frank Thomas and Pete rose should definitely be featured. It’s amazing to think that Frank played so much of his career injured and still put up such amazing numbers. Almost no one compares to Frank at his prime.

[@logan2811]

Big brain hit big

[@robbiearroyo2292]

Big time

[@jluchette]

Walk softly & carry a big stick. Got A Em Sumerr

[@andrewcarroll7641]

Barry Bonds smashing home runs in the early 2000's was must see TV. He either walked or hit a home run. The kind of hitter that make any pitcher reconsider his choice of occupation.

[@woundedcrow4606]

Part two, Pete Rose for sure. Robin Ventura didn’t waste too many at bats either. Bill Mueller. Lots of catchers. If this were a “smartest pitcher” essay I’d recommend a low key baseball genius; Rick Sutcliffe.

[@allainangcao28]

Ichiro hitting is like watching Bob Ross paint, somehow, someway, he can picture the gaps in the infield, flick his bat, and the ball would go through every time. He was also a master of the zone, he would take pitches most sluggers would swing at in a heartbeat.

[@SvendleBerries]

Ichiro was always amazing and weird to watch. His swing was almost lazy looking the way he would just wave the bat over the plate only for the ball to find a gap somewhere lol If this were a video game I'd say he was using an aimbot lol

[@jameskasselman8503]

I had to pause this to say that we need it to be more broadly known that a 27 yr old Ichiro won a rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season. We also need to know that he is not a late bloomer. He has over 4k hits. All of them need to be respected as professional hits. As a Professional Baseball Hall of Famer, you can't dismiss Japanese pro ball from MLB. If y'all want that, call it the MLB HoF. Not Professional Baseball HoF

[@ethanweeter2732]

Yes, but we don’t count the Japanese hits in America.

[@edwardfessenden9490]

You can't? Is MLB not a higher level?

[@warlordofbritannia]

Jackie Robinson is underrated for a similar reason-he was 28 when he debuted and only started playing pro ball two years earlier.

[@Throawei]

Ichiro would've prob had 5000 hits if he was in the league at 18 or 20.

[@Demoralized88]

Yeah, but that's very rare in the modern era along with 20+ year careers. Doesn't really matter though when nobody takes Rose's career seriously anymore.

[@Pwj579]

The fact that Greg Maddux "The Professor" couldn't strike out Tony Gwynn in 170 at-bats is a testament to Gwynn's mastery of the game.

[@davidfeltz8697]

They were quite chummy too. I live that quote by Maddux about Gwynn. Mad respect

[@adamdavis2760]

I put Ted over Tony all day.....The man was able to come back and play at the major league level after missing nearly half a decade of his PRIME Not to mention he didn't have a video machine in the dug out to go over his at bats over and over again....He just watched pitchers...in fact he watched everyone....I saw in an interview years ago he said something along the lines of " I learned from everyone around me just by paying attention ....What that man could have done with a picture box in the runway haha....Tony had a career ops of .847 while Teds was 1.116 2nd highest career OPS of all time. He has a higher career average and actually did hit 406 in a season. Ted had 200 more walks in his career than he had career RBIS and had 1300 more walks than Tony. Ted had a career OBP of 482 while Tony was a 388....not that it has much to do wth hitting but Ted was 9 points away from doubling Tonys career WAR. I loved Tony growing up in the 80s and 90s but he was no Splendid Splinter. PS John Olerud and Edgar Martinez were two of the best hitters I saw coming up back in the day

[@willzavala6379]

Ted Williams is the greatest hitter ever (along with Ruth and we'll never know about Bonds). Who's comparing Tony to Ted?

[@berndtherrenvolk1951]

Rogers Hornsby was phenomenal in understanding HOW to hit. A recently retired Hornsby and a young Ted Williams had doctoral level conversations on hitting.

[@PinballBob1]

Hornsby's vison was reputed to be extraordinary. He refused to read the newspaper before a game to "save" his eyesight for the game.

[@warlordofbritannia]

@@PinballBob1 Not that saved him from declining hard and fast.

[@TX_BoomSlang]

I was at George Brett's final game at Arlington stadium and he hit the ball right up the middle in his last career at bat. It was an easy out, but the Rangers infielders allowed him on base out of respect for the all-time great.

[@jareddegroot7691]

Lefty hitters are just so smooth man

[@dsigs]

I thought Tony was closest to .400 since Ted with .394 in 94? They named a beer after it

[@TheSlowoldman]

a good beer too......

[@aaronstreitenberger6012]

A great rundown of some of the Best Pure Hitters in baseball history. I think OBP and bat control really stand out as the common elements of what makes a Pure Hitter. Excellent video!

[@rhysmason2330]

RIP Mr. Padre. Absolute legend

[@davidfeltz8697]

Super special player.

[@trutty]

Best switch hitters of all time would be a cool video

[@zeldacomm]

Does it also help to be a leftie? All six of these hitters were

[@adamk4733]

Yea that’s what I thought too

[@user-hn9qw7ou8d]

Being a left-handed hitter makes it easier to hit off of right-handed pitchers (and vice versa). Since there are more right-handed pitchers, left-handed hitters have it slightly easier than right-handed hitters.

[@Demoralized88]

Sure does statistically but I struggle to understand why the difference is so big. I suppose because opposite hand has the ball trajectory coming more straight down the plate versus a very slight angle away from the batter for same handed matchups. This, in turn, possibly means more solid contact for balls coming directly perpendicular to the bat?

[@user-hn9qw7ou8d]

@@Demoralized88 Former D1 baseball player here (not trying to make an argument from authority. Just letting you know that I know from experience). The reason it is easier to hit off of a pitcher who throws with the opposite hand (relative to the side of the plate from which you are batting) is because it is significantly easier to make an adjustment on a breaking ball (curveball, slider, sweeper, cutter, etc) that is breaking towards your body as opposed to breaking away from your body. I have heard people mention other reasons (such as it being easier to track the ball from the opposite hand), but the reason I mentioned is the advantage I noticed the most in my playing days.

[@Demoralized88]

@@user-hn9qw7ou8d This makes sense intuitiviely. I think this is because, like I said, opposite hand pitches are almost perfectly perpendicular and therefor it's much easier to guage horizontal movement versus the slight angle of same handed pitching. Also, given the rarity of left-handedness, I have to presume that they're slightly worse pitchers overall minus a few unicorns.

[@bigjared8946]

Gwynn was the best pure hit the ball hitter I ever saw. Boggs was a great hitter at Fenway but merely solid to average elsewhere.

[@Polack-ml9fh]

Boggs was average?

[@bigjared8946]

@@Polack-ml9fh When not at Fenway? Yes, though I said solid to average with solid being a solid tick above average. His numbers elsewhere are what they are. Check the Baseball Reference if you disbelieve.

[@ShepherdMetalBand]

Boggs batted over .300 4xs for the Yankees. His career batting average was .328 and his career Obp was .415!!!!

[@johnf1235]

“Nobody has been able to even touch Gwynn’s .397 average” Arraez: Hold my beer

[@HT-sm9dm]

Manny Ramirez. Way more than just a power threat and bad fielder. An absolute demon at the plate.

[@davidfeltz8697]

I agree. Manny was a great student of hitting. Check him out on KZbin. Literally a how to in.hitting mechanics. One of the sw÷test swing in our time. But his mechanics were so consistently good. Dude could rake to all fields. Really fun to watch in the batters box

[@Jabbersac]

13:29 "The closest any player has come to hitting .400 since Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941" Dude you literally just talked about Tony Gwynn earliier in the video, how did you forget

[@DonRavioli92]

Whats crazy to me is just how underrated Votto has been his entire career, even in Cincinnati. He's never been given the respect he deserves. IMO he's an easy HOF'er

[@TysonHook-22-]

Well he's certainly highly respected by Canadians and the Cincinnati fans love him too... theres no doubt hes been underrated and even hated through plenty of his career, but I feel thats changed a bit over the last few years... like hes came out of his shell and it made him way more likable by baseball fans league wide, i mean, hes even had a few viral video moments with fans at this point, that i think really changed peoples general perception of him. and just the fact that he keeps on going and going, despite his personal ups and downs and the game changing around him, hes managed to remain relevant in todays game. which is always admirable and respected among true ball fans. So yeah to a casual baseball fan hes still not nearly as recognizable of a name as someone like Judge, but i mean neither is Trout... If Votto or Trout played in different markets theyd for sure be way bigger names without a doubt, but with that said, among true baseball fans the name Votto is for sure respected these days.

[@DonRavioli92]

@@TysonHook-22- man you would be shocked by how many people in Cincinnati don't like him and act like his contract was a terrible mistake. The reason these people aren't very apparent online is because they're mostly 45+ year olds. They seem to think he has no shot at the HOF, they say he was overpaid (which is hilarious when you look at the list of players who are paid about the same or more since he signed his contract). They've always said he "takes too many walks." I've never seen any other player get so much criticism for getting on base. I love the Reds and Cincinnati but there are some very ignorant fans here

[@DonRavioli92]

@@TysonHook-22- however I do very much appreciate the respect, especially from a Cardinals fan. I feel like the animosity has greatly cooled down over the past decade. Probably helps that Molina and Phillips are no longer on both teams lol.

[@Patsfan973]

The Gwynn thing is interesting. I have 20/10 vision and its crazy to me how far away i can be and still read things. Never thought of it for baseball 😅

[@davidfeltz8697]

No had superhero vision. Bonds too. Plus the work they put in and honing their craft. Soooo hard to strike Tony out. It is kinda insane.

[@bryanzzz748]

if Ted Williams had been playing baseball today, he’d be an advanced metric obsesssive

[@krosnest0713]

Ted Williams is 100%. He wrote a book hitters still use and read. Every great hitter always went to Williams when he was alive to talk or try to talk to him for hitting

[@ryankay5097]

Edgar Martinez was an underrated superstar. Hell of a batter

[@ingchatboy]

"Chemically added power to all fields"... 😂🤣😆

[@shaindaman13]

Everyone always forgets about the great Brett Butler. He could slap it around with the best of em!

[@mikebrase5161]

Brett Butler was the best drag bunter I've ever seen.

[@mikelmart]

I've never heard great and Brett Butler mentioned in the same sentence. Good player, not great.

[@mikebrase5161]

@@mikelmart best drag bunter I've ever seen. I didn't say he was great but he was the spark plug that got on base for the Giants back in '89. The only guy on this list who did it better was Ichiro. I'm not a Giants fan either so I'm not fan girling just stating what I saw with my own eyes.

[@mikelmart]

@@mikebrase5161 Good player, long career. The type of player every team needed if they wanted to be successful.

[@underhandcloud1414]

Albert Pujols would be great for a part 2. He would hit soft toss and off a tee every day and would constantly watch film of not only his own swing but of pitchers to pick up on every little intricacy in their delivery’s to get an edge

[@daryldixon3685]

He was Amazing!

[@warlordofbritannia]

It really sucks how bad his knees got. Dude went from stealing 20 bases some years to being the slowest player in baseball within a few years.

[@johnporter4628]

@@warlordofbritannia I don't think he ever stole 20, though he did steal more than you'd expect for a guy his size who, even when young, wasn't particularly fast. He was an intelligent base runner who picked his spots and took advantage when the pitcher wasn't paying attention. He was also a very good fielding first baseman for a number of years before his mobility declined.

[@ralphus44]

1. Tony Gwynn - HALL OF FAMER 2. Ted Williams - HALL OF FAMER 3. Joey Votto - FUTURE HALL OF FAMER 4. Ichiro Suzuki - FUTURE HALL OF FAMER 5. George Brett - HALL OF FAMER 6. Barry Bonds - CHEATER

[@TheNinergeek]

I knew Tony Gwinn would be #1

[@davidfeltz8697]

Hn Kruk said, as soon as her Met T. Gwynn it was ridiculous how much better he was than everyone else. These guys were great frie,friends, and were roommates. Tony is one of the most respected snd widely lived players of our time. He was soooo good and just so fucking cool.

[@ticnatz]

You mentioned Musial, but he was not included. He should be. I hope Votto makes it to Cooperstown.....

[@christopherguyor3314]

Gwynn, Williams, Votto, Ichiro, Brett and Bonds. All great hitters... and all lefties. All, with the exception of Williams, modern ballplayers. The only one I'd argue about is Votto... not that he's not a great hitter... but how does his .297 lifetime average and 2095 hits get him ahead of Miguel Cabrera, who has a lifetime .307 and 3118 hits? Miggy is a marvel who hits to all fields, like Votto, and does it better. Maybe this should have been the smartest lefties in history (Although, then you'd also have to include Ty Cobb, Stan Musial and Babe Ruth). But let's talk some of the righties who should be here... Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Honus Wagner and Al Kaline, to name a few. Still a good watch, though.

[@yammie75]

Per the next part of this series, may I suggest Kirby Puckett and Paul Molitor? (Wade Boggs, too, please)

[@trofl]

If Mauer hadn't been so sidetracked by injuries, he'd probably be here too.

[@c.v.emmans]

Mauer was so fun to watch. He would just take pitch after pitch so he and the team could see more arm angles, more movement on breaking pitches, more differences between each pitch. He'd look at where each fielder was and he was so good at taking what the pitcher was giving him, unafraid to put a ball on the ground or go the opposite way, things so many batters seemed reluctant to do. It really is too bad about the injuries. He changed what it was even possible to expect from the position that he played.

[@kevinfleming9423]

A writer tells you Barry Bonds was a cheat but he never tested positive for steroids yet because you don't like him you go along with the lie. Mr Bonds was and is the best hitter I've ever witnessed I'm baseball. He not only hit for average, but also for power which is very rare in baseball and let's not forget he also had a glove and arm. He was a very rare and unique specimen.

[@flame-sky7148]

Yea it's really a sad commentary by mainstream media. You have this situation in which MLB doesn't agree to test for steroids until 2004. Players like Bonds, Clemens and McGwire came into the league in the mid 80's and there they were dominating. Then by the near end of their careers they don't test positive or in McGwire's case, you don't even take a test and somehow your whole career is cheat. They didn't do this with players who took greenies. If there was testing in place early on, this wouldn't have been an issue.

[@queifjay]

Barry Bonds can easily be the best hitter you've ever witnessed. Everyone else with eyeballs clearly witnessed his physical transformation aided by PEDs. You can acknowledge his insane baseball acumen and talent without having to deny that he used steroids. The two things are not mutually exclusive.

[@ericmarks7648]

I was so lucky to witness Jr. and Ichiro, Rickey up close. Unbelievable!. That's my all-time outfield.

[@mattmorgan3864]

The fact Miguel Cabrera isn’t on this list is disrespectful. He could put the ball wherever he wanted and hit bombshell when he needed too. One of only three players 3000 hits 500 HRs and a career 300 Avg

[@Demoralized88]

career .300 DESPITE terrible years way past him prime that hurt his avgs. His batting stats make the bigger 'stars' look terrible. His WAR would be nuts if 1B wasn't so ridiculously penalized.

[@ianyoung8147]

Lou Brock, Rickey Henderson, Stan Musial, Pete Rose. Do a series on the Smartest Pitchers as well.

[@ImAlxxy]

Ricky is somehow seemingly forgotten in modern times or mislabeled as only a base stealer

[@BluesImprov]

Musial is always forgotten by young guys and these lists.

[@thedeucemonkey2331]

Joe DiMaggio Hank Aaron Joe Jackson Miguel Cabrera Wade Boggs Ty Cobb Roberto Clemente Rod Carew Willie Mays Stan Musial Pete Rose Kirby Puckett Don Mattingly Rogers Hornsby Honus Wagner Vlad Guerrero Sr. Larry Walker Yogi Berra Frank Robinson Mickey Mantle Ok, Alex Rodriguez Take your pick... Anyone of these guys deserve to be on this list considering whos in it already imo... Great list though to start...

[@BoondockBrony]

Ichiro also benefited greatly from having a bigger ball to hit in MLB compared to Japan. Guy was already a .353 hitter in Japan so even with stiffer competition in MLB dude would've been amazing outside of injuries or work ethic tanking.

[@ShepherdMetalBand]

Wade Boggs deserves a nod

[@davidfeltz8697]

Ed

[@finessecurve2651]

I think Victor Martinez was one of the best modern players at NOT striking out looking

[@HT-sm9dm]

Yes he is so underrated

[@duhbigcat1848]

Great list. Those are my favorite professors of hitting.

[@willgoins218]

Barry Bonds and Ichiro were unreal hitters, watching them and trying to emulate their swings as a kid was so fun.

[@ag5795]

Excellent!!! For the next one: Ty Cobb, Pete Rose, Wade Boggs, Ron Carew, Willie Mays.

[@DND_Editz627]

I think Roberto Clemente should be here. He was an all time great

[@SimonVanliew26]

Make chapters in the video for projects like this! Great content love the advancement from compilations. Although I like those too!

[@markbadgley6216]

A lineup of Ichiros would be the scariest thing ever

[@rogergiroux9095]

I'm surprised you didn't mention Rod Carew

[@CapAnson12345]

Automatically a vision of Tony Gwynn appears in my head with that title.

[@JoeSanders25]

I’m confused. You say Ted Williams missed 5 years. Yet show his baseballref which shows 3 years missed surrounded by full seasons. Why? 2 years is a lot. Damn near doubled the time he actually served in the military to make his numbers sound better for no reason.

[@kthkthkth]

Pete Rose should probably feature in a part 2.

[@darrinlindsey]

With all due respect for Pete Rose. The biggest factor in he being the hit leader, was the fact that he played 27 seasons.

[@dtpugliese318]

It also seems to help to be left handed. I wonder if it’s because the most likely pitchers you’ll face are righties that you’ll be able to pick up on more. So on top of vision and obsession, being left handed is another thing all those greats have in common.

[@brycemartin69]

lefties also have a very natural good swing

[@TysonHook-22-]

Some currently known right handed sluggers are Aaron Judge, Mike Trout, Giancarlo Stanton, Vladdy Jr, Bo-Bichette, Pete Alonso, Mookie Betts, Trea Turner, Acuna Jr, Nick Castellanos, Julio Rodriguez, Tatis Jr, Yandy Diaz. But there is also many great left handed hitters in todays game of course and as brycemartin69 already alluded to, many believe lefties have the most natural and beautiful swings in baseball... but that said, some of those names I mentioned above have vary beautiful swing mechanics too. With the majority of pitchers being right handed and the mechanics of pitching... its no secret that lefty hitters have a natural plate advantage... "Left-handed hitters get the natural advantage of batting in their favored matchup more often. This should skew their stats higher than right-handed who are batting against their platoon advantage." "Statistically, left handed batters have a batting average that is 7 points higher than right handed batters - .270 for lefties, .263 for righties." Whats even more amazing is the great switch hitters of the game like Pete Rose and Micky Mantle, two names that easily couldve been on this list. Pete Rose has for sure talked about the art of hitting/switch hitting over the years and has specifically mentioned how his ability to switch hit was a big advantage to him, since its like having a secret weapon to pull out against pitchers. He also was the type of guy that would switch back and fourth just to mess with pitchers heads.

[@michaelbaucom4019]

Also: Willie Mays Pete Rose Ty Cobb Stan Musial Henry Aaron Rod Carew

[@rjcolombe]

Would love to see anither list like this, including Boggs, Gehrig, Guerrero Sr., Griffey, and Larry Walker.

[@davepangburn]

MADE THE CUT: "...regardless of where you come down on the Steroid Issue, Barry Bonds...". Okay, I'm going to take some of the air out of that sentence serving as part of the premise for the Content Creator's discussion of the topic. Reality: there are two Barry Bonds. Pre-PED Bonds 1986-1998 & juiced-up Bonds 1999-2007. When you mention Bond's career statistics, it is strongly advisable to SPLIT them between those distinct timelines for clearer understanding. In my opinion it's lazy & clumsy methodology to combine them as a single Career-whole IF you mean to use those as a single tool of comparison against others or history. If you lump in the artificially-inflated performance or stats, you know there is a significant percentage from the sums of 1999-2007 period tainted as disingenuous. Thus compromising the integrity of the whole from what Bonds was legitimately accumulating before 1999. As the example cited in the video, Bonds lifetime .444 OBP. If a chunk of that OBP was derived from PED-use from that segment of his career, does he genuinely have the 6th-best career OBP ever to cite as a tool of comparison? In the shallowest sense, yeah. If you don't want to do the work to look beyond a 1st-glance at numbers on a page, not bother digging deeper. As too his success at not striking out much, being able to be selective despite early strikes in an at-bat, please, please remember a major factor in this success from 1999 to 2007 is not just his intelligence & vision. Both are beyond dispute. But you have to understand from '99 to '07 his ability to be patient & succeed is in overwhelming measure from artificial PED-enhancement. During a two-strike count, that PED-conditioning allowed his body to have the requisite quicker flexes & body strength to hold back his swing to the very last nano-second in order to foul off a pitch for a strike he doesn't like. And then keep waiting in the at-bat for the fat pitch he wants to drive. Or just take a Walk on four balls. There are so many great hitters through history with intelligence & vision whose hitting stats would surge if they took PED's to defy the limits of natural conditioning & aging. Despite Bond's hitter's IQ & vision, those tools only take him to certain level if there isn't the vital component of PED-enhancement allowing him the strength & reflexes to defy convention & time. What I have just said is a reminder that timing is everything in a swing. I want to point out what I think are obvious things because taking the easy way in examination still pervades Baseball culture. The whole point of the Advanced Stats revolution was to get away from the easy, the lazy, to understand the game at a deeper, more accurate level. And all of us being honest is the first, integral component to the process. It sucks that PED-users didn't have the integrity to be honest to themselves & others. But as Baseball fans & thinkers it is our responsibility & burden to be honest for them. Again, it sucks the PED-users put us all in that unenviable position. More simply put, take PED-users stats with a large grain of salt before making comparisons. By the way, this conversation is not meant as an attack on Barry Bonds. I think what Bond's did from 1986 to 1999 makes him an all-time great and a Hall of Famer. But what I have tried to impress with this conversation is that too often I am hearing Baseball-content Creators on KZbin (and so many Sports writers & broadcasters for that matter) uttering sentences with ease such as "well, whatever you think about Steroids with Player X, you know...", or "despite the PED's...", as cheap throw-away lines. Serving as half-hearted verbal mechanisms to move on from the PED portion of the conversation before beginning a very compromised process of method for inquiry or examination. I think integrity demands more accountability of how thorough we look into & talk about the effects of PED's upon so many facets of Baseball. Including the legacies of those who played. For discussions about the game we all love, I want better, not easy.

[@HamsterK37]

Why waste all of this in the comments of KZbin? This should have been submitted to a site for broader consumption.

[@davepangburn]

@@HamsterK37 Because this is where the content, the video, was posted.

[@HamsterK37]

@@davepangburn it's too good for KZbin

[@ranger053]

You better check Rod Carew!

[@5UserName0]

Rod Carew was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991. 3053 career hits, .328 lifetime batting average, seven batting titles and 18 All Star games.

[@JunkYardCardGuy]

Paul Molitor was an undervalued monster, too.

[@conedx]

votto returned to the reds last night. of course he hit a home run and went 2 for 3 with a walk. in his first major league game in NEARLY A YEAR.

[@user-hn9qw7ou8d]

Apparently right-handed hitters aren’t smart?

[@colonialstraits1069]

Would love to see Hank Greenberg aka “the Hebrew Hammer”. 4x AL home run leader, 4x AL RBI leader, .313 lifetime batting average, 2x AL MVP, first ballot Hall of Famer. Like Williams, Greenberg spent 47 months, of his baseball prime, serving in the military during WWII.

[@duhbigcat1848]

Bonds without roids was as good as Willie Mays, Bonds on roids was on a whole another plane of existence.

[@p.a.paolino9505]

Great video. Have you considered doing a video on the smartest right handed hitters?

[@Galantski]

Excellent video!

[@davidallen-smith1291]

A new Made The Cut video? You have my attention.

[@ChrisClaybern]

No pete rose!?!? The hit king. Glaring omission!

[@davidfeltz8697]

Was do to.longevity. phenomenal snd versatile player, but his approach at the plate is not equal to Tony or Ted.

[@sethboyd9877]

Freddie freeman is an insane hitter…

[@morganjacob1195]

I always said Tony was the best hitter I ever saw and nobody mentions him. Always losing but batting 3.50. Barry and Tony are the two best I have ever seen with a bat.

[@blakecscott5525]

Brett is my all time favorite player, and it is good to see Votto getting a little recognition. But not all smart batters are left handed man… how about DiMaggio, Edgar Martinez, the shamefully underrated Frank Thomas, or even Miguel Cabrera??? There needs to be at least 1 righty, after all they’ve got farther to run…

[@captaino16]

I would respectfully disagree with your statement at 11:50. Ichiro's speed was definitely insane. Have a look at his "infield hit king" highlight videos. It wasn't simply his slap technique to get him out of the box that made him beat out so many grounders. In 2015, as a 41-year old, the first year of statcast, he was the 5th fastest player in baseball, more than 10 years older than anyone else in the top five. Some of his infield hits in 2001 shouldn't have been possible.

[@DipreG]

Not having Albert Pujols as a part of this list is criminal.

[@JesseMiller-x4s]

My grandpa went to high school with Ted in Chula Vista, I believe. In San Diego nonetheless. Pretty cool story.

[@willzavala6379]

I'm from Chula Vista. Ted went to Hoover High, I believe, which is in San Diego.

[@JesseMiller-x4s]

@@willzavala6379 Yep

[@RD22]

Cobb & Hornsby for sure, so many great ones to list. Boggs & Carew to....

[@aVerveQuest]

Imagine those Royal teams with George Brett Bo Jackson and Steve Balboni. The weight room got little use

[@Cindoreye]

Even as a lifelong Yankee fan, Tony Gwynn might be my favorite player. He was simply phenomenal.

[@jeffshootsstuff]

Really enjoyed this one.

[@luis_exotics]

Barry Bonds is the GOAT, period.

[@cedricgist7614]

Good video. You began your series featuring six great hitters - all left-handed. I don't mean to suggest that it's unfair to be a left-handed hitter in a right-handed World. We bring what we're given to the table. It does reinforce the notion that the platoon advantage is real even if we cannot fully explain it.

[@patrickgoodman4576]

Nice MTC ok for part 2 (no particular order) Edgar Martinez Rogers Hornsby Stan Musial Hank Aaron Ty Cobb

[@andrewnyman4128]

This fall season is a ways in the future...not even summer yet.

[@RichUniverse_]

Anyone who thinks bonds would be a HOF is under 30 years old. Bobby Bonilla was the better player from the twin B’s. He was a fringe player at best who was fast. Just look at his stats Max he’s a career .250 150HR / 400RBI guy. Tony G was a pure genius and no one would hear about him playing in SD back then. Marketing and small market teams wouldn’t even get on the TV highlights and there was no internet so stats were not available as they are today. U would see your local team stats but not league leaders.

[@ericmarks7648]

I'd put Rickey on this list. Great hitters have no fear with two strikes. Gwynn would just foul off 55 pitches in a row, then effortlessly drop a single over the shortstop.

[@louies5988]

Steroids or not, Bonds was the most scariest hitter in MLB history

[@Polack-ml9fh]

I enjoyed your list, but votto? Votto over Boggs? What about Musial? I’m just not sold on votto.

[@Demoralized88]

Votto is the Westbrook of the MLB. Same as Soto.