With me just getting into baseball i'm still not familiar with the "best players" there are a couple of names that keep cropping up (Derek Jeter is one of them)
But i was wondering if anyone on here could fill me in?
t'would be mostly appreciated

I would imagine baseball has an official website which would tell you all you need to know.
Football has NFL.com so maybe MLB.com?

I'm a Pirates fan so not really the best person to answer that will say I think Jeter is highly overrated and only so high in value because he plays for they Yankees..

Thanks Wolfie.
So Jim, which players do you rate?
Top 5 maybe? (at the moment - not of all time)

You know what you are asking is entirely subjective, right? To say definately "These are the top 5 players in all of major league baseball" when people are usually more devoted to a team rather than a player is unfair

So... since you asked, I'll say my favorite players is Cole Hamels (http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/7509)

I had to ask my kiddo, but that's the best I got for ya.

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Streich:
I'm a Pirates fan so not really the best person to answer that will say I think Jeter is highly overrated and only so high in value because he plays for they Yankees..

And they beat the Yankess last night whoo hoo!

I live in a city with a National League team, so I pay a lot more attention to the NL, but here are the Top 5 current position players (in my humble opinion):

Chipper Jones (Atlanta Braves)
Albert Pujols (St Louis Cardinals)
Ryan Howard (Philadelphia Phillies)
Torii Hunter (LA Angels) -- only a little above average hitter, but one of the best fielders of all time
Alex Rodriguez (NY Yankees)

As a Milwaukee Brewers fan, I'll add Ryan Braun to the list -- he's good and only getting better. He'll be a superstar someday.

For pitchers, right now I would say Josh Beckett (Boston), Ben Sheets (Milwaukee), Johan Santana (NY Mets -- having an off year, but he's great), and Brandon Webb (Arizona)

These are just my biased opinion, but I'm sticking to it

Is there really a player called Strawberry?

If so he gets my vote.

He's retired, but yes, he did exist! There is also a player on Boston, named Coco Crisp!

quote:

Originally posted by Batman:
He's retired, but yes, he did exist! There is also a player on Boston, named Coco Crisp!

And one of the hottest players this season has been Milton Bradley.

Top best/most popular players today in my view:
1. Alex Rodriguez
2. Albert Pujols
3. Ryan Howard
4. Jeter
5. Chipper Jones

Stay away from collecting baseball cards if you know nothing about baseball . You'll be swimming with the sharks if you do .
sumo

Problem with baseball is that unlike football most people BET on prospects .. Jeter has had decent stats but if he played in any other city his main rookie(sp authentic) and autos would not fetch what they do.. If your asking players To collect I would say pick a team and go with that but in general

1. Alex Rodriguez hands down
2. Albert Pujos
3. Ichiro

would be my TOP 3 but there are a lot of young guys even with the pirates..

Nate Mclouth came out of nowhere in most peoples eyes and his Sp authentic rc went from UNDER 5.00(what I paid) to almost 100.00 at one point this year..

Then there are current players who will be HOFERs but are still cheap

1.Randy Johnson
2.Greg Maddux
3.Tom Glavine
4.Ken Griffey Jr
5.Manny Ramirez

Before I quit collecting sports I had ventured into Rookies of older and HOF players they can be had cheap esp. 1980's

1980 Rickey Henderson
1982 Cal Ripken Jr
1983 Tony Gwynn/Wade Boggs/Ryan Sandberg
1985 Roger Clemens/Kirby Puckett/Mark Mcgwire
1986 Jose Canseco/Barry Bonds/Will Clark
1987 Greg Maddux
1988 Tom Glavine
1989 Ken Griffey Jr./Randy Johnson/Gary Sheffield


The best bet is to not collect everything and to pick something that interests you

Pick a favorite player or team to collect
Pick something that interests you like
. 500 HR Club members
. 300 Win Clum Members

Rookies* usually take a few years for them to make the majors and some suprise and pop up in 5 years after everyone gives up..

As a pirates collector I had a lot to do there were Hofers like Clemente, Stars like Bonds and prospects like Mclouth, Snell, Duke, Doumit etc.

JoeyUK , LMK if you understood anything Streich had to say , cause if you didn't , then stay out of baseball . Streich obviously knows what he's talking about but you probably don't have a clue . Try soccer or cricket , or if you want to get exotic i've got thousands of Japanese Sumo wrestling cards .
sumo

quote:

Originally posted by sumozilla:
JoeyUK , LMK if you understood anything Streich had to say , cause if you didn't , then stay out of baseball . Streich obviously knows what he's talking about but you probably don't have a clue . Try soccer or cricket , or if you want to get exotic i've got thousands of Japanese Sumo wrestling cards .
sumo

I don't have a clue what he's on about...but i'm not getting in it for the money...i'm getting into the sport as a whole and just thought cards would help me with players and teams and of course be fun

If you're just in it for the fun , that's great . Stick with base sets and forget the rest .
sumo

quote:

Originally posted by JoeyUK:

quote:

Originally posted by sumozilla:
JoeyUK , LMK if you understood anything Streich had to say , cause if you didn't , then stay out of baseball . Streich obviously knows what he's talking about but you probably don't have a clue . Try soccer or cricket , or if you want to get exotic i've got thousands of Japanese Sumo wrestling cards .
sumo

I don't have a clue what he's on about...but i'm not getting in it for the money...i'm getting into the sport as a whole and just thought cards would help me with players and teams and of course be fun

Your best bet for fun is to either pick a team to collect or try for a set or 2.. There are some sets that are a huge challange like topps total which is like 900 cards and then there is Allan And Ginter which is a smaller set but fun to try and hunt down(and does have some non sports in it)...

right now, as of today, i think the best players in the MLB are

1. alex rodriguez (NY Yankees)
2. Josh Hamilton (Texas Rangers)
3. Lance Berkman (Houston Astors)
4. Edinson Vólquez (Cincinnati Reds Pitcher)
5. Tim Lincecum (San Francisco Giants pitcher)
5a. Cliff Lee (Cleveland Indians pitcher)

I think if your looking for a player to collect, Its probably gonna be A-Rod. He is in the biggest media market in the world, he plays on the biggest team in the world (argueable), and he is likely to hold some of the biggest records in baseball when its all said and done. Plus, he has about 7 good years left in him. I think Josh Hamilton has finally gotten his head on right, went through his personal struggles and is poised to be a perenial MVP candidate for years to come, and he is only like 26 so he can play for 10 or so years. As for pitchers, i would suggest tim lincecum would be the way to go.
1. 99 MPH fastball, with control
2. Sick curveball at 94 mph
3. actually has a changeup and cut fastball
4. Just turned 24 like yesterday
5. He's small (i.e. no steroids), so he wont go breaking down when he goes off the juice like some other pitchers (insert gagne's name here) we know of.
6. He consistently wins with sup 100 pitchcount outings (now at least). No Mark Prior mistakes being made with this kid
7. he is a very underrated athlete. I know hes not big, but that isnt the end all be all. He does standing backflips sometimes in practice , walks on his hands. Thats goofy i know, i but it shows he is overall in not only great shape, but has atheletic ability beyond just being an arm.
8. Hes a good person from all accounts. Character counts when collecting in the long run. A BB collecting friend of mine sumed it up best for me. "you can have all the talent of a steve carlton, all the stats and records of a steve carlton. But if you act like a steve carlton, you will be remembered as a steve carlton and no one will want any of your stuff when your done." (trust me, that makes sense).

No love for Kevin Youkilis? Maybe not top 5 but still a fine player.

Vladamir Guarrero, might have misspelled that but you know who I mean. Best Hispanic baseball player since Roberto Clemente, and I'm including A-Rod who has yet to do anything in post-season.

Thanks very much for all your input
I've been reading up on Tim Lincecum and he does indeed sound **** hot! lol i've also heard this A-Rod guy mentioned a lot but don't know much about him.
If i was to pick a team to collect (bearing in mind i don't know whose who yet) i'd probably choose the Boston Red Sox....my reason? well lets just say i'm a huge Lost fan! if that makes sense lol