Who Was Better: Babe Ruth Or Barry Bonds?

A few years ago, Baseball Prospectus wrote a book in which the first chapter asked the question of who was better in their career: Babe Ruth or Barry Bonds. The book was written while Bonds was still playing and concluded that it was a close call that would depend on what Bonds did in the final years of his career.

Fast forward to today. Fangraphs has added historical WAR (Wins Above Replacement) data to their database and with both players retired, the verdict is in. According to Fangraphs' WAR data, Ruth (177.6 career WAR) beat out Bonds (1702 career WAR) by ~7 WAR for his career, or about ~3.2 runs per season.

To put their greatness in perspective, consider the following:

• Bonds and Ruth are the only major league players to even accumulate 165 WAR.
  
• Only five major league players (Ruth, Bonds, Mays, Cobb, Aaron) eclipsed 150 WAR in their career, while only six (the sixth being Honus Wagner) reached the 150 WAR plateau.
• Ted Williams "only" accumulated 139.7 WAR (blame the war).
• Alex Rodriguez has amassed 105.2 WAR in his career. Will he last (and be effective) long enough to challenge Bonds and Ruth?

Question Of The Day #2

Right now, Albert Pujols has 30 home runs over the course of 78 games (265 PA). That's a home run per every 8.83 at bats, or a long ball per every 2.6 games. Extrapolating the same size, Pujols in on pace for a 550 AB season with 62+ home runs. Even with the league leading 24 IBBs (second is Adrian Gonzalez with 11), Pujols' pace this season far and away surpasses his monstrous 2006 campaign that was shortened by injury (535 PA, 49 HR). Thus, a pair of important questions that collectively make up today's QUESTION OF THE DAY are posed:

1) Will Pujols eclipse 60 home runs this season, or will pitchers be less inclined to pitch to The Machine in the second half? Will Pujols slow down or need more rest down the stretch?
2) If Prince Albert does indeed eclipse 60 home runs this season, how do we regard the single-season home run record with regard to the tainted legacies of Barry Bonds (73), Mark MwGwire (70) and Slammin' Sammy (66, 64, 63)? Do we crown Pujols the unquestioned champion or leave the records as they are, however tainted they may be.

Personally, I believe that if Pujols does achieve the 60 HR milestone, he should be crowned the true home run king, with BB, MM and SS being listed as asterisked footnotes in the Guiness Book of World Records. As much as I defend the legacies of the bulk of great players who were on roids (its not like you inject and succeed -- you still need to train your ass off; plus MVPs who can't hit 20 HRs (let alone any that eclipsed 400 FT in length) are boring), I feel that the home run title is something pure and accomplished that transcends VORP. In other words, it must be truly earned.

On a final note, the term BB is not an abbreviation for Base on Balls. It refers to Barry Bonds, who was intentionally walked 120 times in 2004 [232 BB that season]. Only three times in the history of baseball has a batter been intentionally walked more than 45 times. All three of those instances belong to Barry Bonds (the other two were 68 and 61 IBB seasons). Pujols is on pace for 51.

More Stupid Comments

EDIT: Baseball Analysts FJMed this Jon Heyman article a few days back.
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We really should start a new section on this blog called "Jon Heyman Says The Darndest Things." Even though he's often on top of MLB trades, he often utters the "stupidest" fucking comments. Comments like this one:

Among active players, Manny Ramirez would have made a nice addition to the Giants. He could have replicated the years of Barry Bonds, with comparable productivity, less controversy and more good cheer.

What cheer? What about Manny's turbulent relationship with the Red Sox or his turbulent, greedy and drawn out negotiations with the Dodgers? Less controversy, perhaps, but less cheer? I think not.

Furthermore, according to Baseball Prospectus, Barry Bonds' cumulative Batting Runs Above the Replacement level (BRAR) since 2000 has been 730 runs (this includes a season of 5 BRAR in 2005, when Bonds only accumulated 42 ABs). Over the same time frame, Manny Ramirez accumulated a BRAR of 615 runs. There is literally no comparison -- especially considering that Manny played full, healthy seasons in each of those years. Manny's best season was last year, when he batted 80 runs above the replacement level. His second best season was back in Cleveland a decade ago, when he posted a 79 BRAR. By comparison, Barry Bonds -- his 2005 season removed from the equation -- posted an average BRAR of 84.7 per season (Manny Ramirez has a seasonal BRAR average of 63.5).

Finally, Heyman states that Manny could have brought less controversy along with him than Barry Bonds. Going back to the drawn out Dodgers negotiations, I'd like to postulate that rejecting a $45 million, two-year deal (especially when no one else is bidding for you) amidst an economic recession is about as insensitive and controversial as something can be barring the use of PEDs.