When talking about the greatest of all-time . . .

[SJ24]

why do so few people mention Rickey Henderson?

That guy, for my money, is the archetype for what I want in a baseball player.

He could absolutely go deep if necessary and was a total game changer (the modern game has no peer) on the basepaths.

Rickey's 1985 season: 654 PA. 146 R. 24 HR. 80 SB. 15.1 BB%. 9.9 K%. .314 AVG with .320 BABIP. .516 SLG. .935 OPS. .413 wOBA. 159 wRC+.

Trout's 2013 season: 716 PA. 109 R. 27 HR. 33 SB. 15.4 BB%. 19.0 K%. .323 AVG with .376 BABIP. .557 SLG. .988 OPS. .423 wOBA. 176 wRC+.

Rickey had 62 fewer plate appearances but scored 37 more times. Hit about the same amount of HR. Stolen bases and K% weren't close. Everything else is close, and no doubt aided by Trout's much higher BABIP.

 

[msstate7]

Better get in your GOAT discussion now bc acuna coming...

 

[SJ24]

Better get in your GOAT discussion now bc acuna coming...

Haha. True that.

 

[smootness]

Henderson was truly great and is probably underrated, but he's not the best ever.

 

[rico43]

Don't need to. Henderson was one of the greatest self-promoters ever.

 

[mfree80]

Don't need to. Henderson was one of the greatest self-promoters ever.

This"

Ricky was good at talking about Ricky.

 

[thewupk]

He gets talked about plenty. He's an inner circle guy at 16th fWAR all time among position players and 7th since WW2. Looking at players that have played since he came up you only have Bonds and Arod ahead of him and I would certainly knock Arod down a bit due to roids. Bonds imo was still on another level even before them. And only Trout has a chance to legitimately pass him of those currently playing. So yeah, Henderson is one of the greatest ever. No question.