Who Would Have Been the Better Deadballer?

[mwiggins]

We've had a lot of discussion about how various deadball era stars would fare in later eras...the purpose of this poll is to see which of these post-deadball stars you think would have ben greater if they'd played their careers primarly during the deadball era.

I've chosen 4 players, all of whom are I think among the 25 best players of all time. All 4 have different skills and styles, which one do you think would reign supreme if they had all played in the deadball era?

[SamtheBravesFan]

Jackie Robinson.

Deadball era players made contact and didnt strike out any. They also stole some bases. Robinson and Musial were the best at not striking out, but I think Robinson would have been better because he also had a speed game.

[VIBaseball]

Agreed -- Robinson's daring and assortment of little-ball skills would have made him well suited.

Others whom I can see flourishing in the deadball era:

Richie Ashburn
Brett Butler
Jason Tyner (a poor man's version of the above two)
Keith Hernandez

[leecemark]

--Aaron would have been the best of this group in the deadball era, just as he was the best when he actually played. Assuming he was allowed to play, of course;). He obviously wouldn't have hit as many HR, but he would have had a much higher average and more doubles, triples and stolen bases. He probably would have stuck at secondbase then too. They all would have transitioned well to that style and been huge stars though.

[mwiggins]

Jackie Robinson.

Deadball era players made contact and didnt strike out any. They also stole some bases. Robinson and Musial were the best at not striking out, but I think Robinson would have been better because he also had a speed game.

Musial also had big time speed when he was younger. Doubt he would have been the basestealing terror that Jackie would have probably been (and was), though.

But with his great contact hitting ability and line drive power, and his good raw speed, I think he would have been an extra base hitting machine.

[SamtheBravesFan]

Musial also had big time speed when he was younger. Doubt he would have been the basestealing terror that Jackie would have probably been (and was), though.

But with his great contact hitting ability and line drive power, and his good raw speed, I think he would have been an extra base hitting machine.

I don't doubt that. Aaron would have done well too because he would have focused on doubles, I guess.

[csh19792001]

I vote for the one who was deemed "Ty Cobb in Technicolor" by the contemporaneous media of the 1940's.

He had the widest range of skills of the players in question, and not only played all of the positions he was asked to play in the major leagues, but also played them all well!!

He was far and away the best baserunner of his era and of perhaps the best of any post WWII player. Jackie was completely fearless, got into people's heads, and adapted to the situation. He was a great bunter, never struck out, and knew baseball strategy as well as anyone.

On May 31st, 1951, Jackie beat out SIX Phillies in a rundown between third and home. This was not the only time he pulled off such a feat.

See Slides 15-16 (http://www.retrosheet.org/Research/SmithD/Demythologizing%20Dubious%20Memories.pdf)

In short, he would be the perfect deadball player.

[csh19792001]

I don't doubt that. Aaron would have done well too because he would have focused on doubles, I guess.

Hank did focus on line drives and average when he was young. Truth be told, he was a natural line drive hitter who worked very hard mid career to modify his natural approach.

Long story short, early in his career Aaron saw that Eddie Mathews got all the press and accolades in Milwaukee; he somewhat idolized Eddie. After the 59' season he began explicitly trying to pull the ball and uppercut more, sacrificing average for the sake of home run power. Being the awesome talent he was, he was able to continue being arguably the best all around hitter in the league irrespective of the change in approach.

Late in his career- after his speed and skills had begun to deteriorate- he moved to The Launching Pad and relied even more on pull hitting and the home run to generate value.

[four tool]

iwent with Jackie over Hank because of Jackie's basestealing abilities--he'd flourish in any era. Of course I'm presuming Jackie or Hank or Rickey wouldn't face racism, so the only "real" answer is Stan.

[mwiggins]

I vote for the one who was deemed "Ty Cobb in Technicolor" by the contemporaneous media of the 1940's.

He had the widest range of skills of the players in question, and not only played all of the positions he was asked to play in the major leagues, but also played them all well!!

He was far and away the best baserunner of his era and of perhaps the best of any post WWII player. Jackie was completely fearless, got into people's heads, and adapted to the situation. He was a great bunter, never struck out, and knew baseball strategy as well as anyone.

On May 31st, 1951, Jackie beat out SIX Phillies in a rundown between third and home. This was not the only time he pulled off such a feat.

See Slides 15-16 (http://www.retrosheet.org/Research/SmithD/Demythologizing%20Dubious%20Memories.pdf)

In short, he would be the perfect deadball player.

My only reservation on Jackie is that I'm unsure if the fact that his game would have adapted amazingly well to the deadball era would have been enough to make up for the fact that Aaron and Musial seem to be clearly better hitters.

Here's the best comps I could come up with this early in the morning...

Hank - Wagner at the plate and on the basepaths. Essentially like if Wagner would have stayed in RF his whole career. But as Mark pointed out earlier, Hank very well may have stayed at 2B.

Stan the Man - Joe Jackson, without the off the field problems.

Jackie - A more aggressive Eddie Collins, with a Cobb like presense on the basepaths. Jackie would probably have hit closer to .300-.310, rather than .333, but would have more extra base power to make up for it, and so I think would have been just a slight notch below Collins at the plate.

[brett]

--Aaron would have been the best of this group in the deadball era, just as he was the best when he actually played. Assuming he was allowed to play, of course;). He obviously wouldn't have hit as many HR, but he would have had a much higher average and more doubles, triples and stolen bases. He probably would have stuck at secondbase then too. They all would have transitioned well to that style and been huge stars though.

I agree that Aaron could have been a second baseman, though I'm not sure he wouldn't have been more valuable in the outfield.

In fact, I think that Henderson, Aaron and Musial would have been top 10 deadball defensive centerfielders for starters.

Aaron and Musial would have hit like Speaker and Wagner as well.

Henderson would not have been able to take advantage of walks so much, but in the low scoring era, had he stolen 1400 bases at an 80% clip it would have been incredibly valuable when there was 4 rpg per team. That's like 80-100 games worth of offense in steals alone. And he could have hit .320 as well.

Jackie is interesting. Who knows what would have happened if he had focused on baseball. As it was, he could have matched Henderon offensively while playing second or third, but I' still take a centerfielder at that time, and one who played 25 years over one who played 12-13.

[Iron Jaw]

Pete Rose would have fit in the deadball era. He was a good contact hitter, could play many positions and though he wasn't overly speedy, he was a tough, aggressive runner. Plus, Pete had the deadball era attitude.