While a player’s overall contribution to their team’s success hasn’t been a commonly used metric until recently, we can retroactively examine it for its purpose as a measurement of value and greatness both during the times they played and for all time. We’ll examine multiple variations of the WAR leaderboard. 

No play in baseball is as exciting as the grand slam. Hitting a home run with the bases loaded can instantly turn a game around or blow it wide open. Older fans can enjoy explaining what is a grand slam in baseball to younger fans and watching their face light up the first time they see the bases cleared in one swing.

Grand slams have been enthralling baseball fans as long as the game has been played and many historic grand slams are the stuff of legends. But who has the most grand slams in baseball history? 13 ball players have cleared the bases more than 15 times in their careers. The list of who has the most grand slams is a who’s who of some of the greatest sluggers in the Hall of Fame, and some who may find themselves there someday soon.

Whenever the subject of unbeatable records comes up, Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak is near the top of the list. And, of course, with good reason. In addition to remaining locked in for almost two months to reach 56 games, a player has to have a fair amount of luck, too. DiMaggio’s streak would have stopped at 29 games had the official scorer not scored his lone hit against the White Sox a hit instead of an error on Luke Appling. In his 36th game he got his first hit in the eighth inning after Browns pitcher Bob Muncrief ignored his manager’s instructions to walk Joltin’ Joe. Pete Rose has come closest to reaching DiMaggio, and he was still twelve games away, stalling out at 44. There have only been 80 instances of players reaching at least a 28 game streak – just half of DiMaggio’s – in the history of baseball. Here are the top 10 longest hitting streaks in the history of baseball (since 1900).

October. The weather starts cooling down and the leaves begin to change. But most importantly October is synonymous with the Major League Baseball postseason. As we gear up for the 2023 fall classic between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Texas Rangers, we would be remiss to overlook some other notable storylines from the 2023 postseason, namely Phillies outfielder Kyle Schwarber slugging his way to the MLB postseason home run record among lefties and Astros second baseman Jose Altuve mashing his way closer to the all-time record for most postseason home runs. So who leads MLB in postseason home runs? Let’s look at the 12 players who have touched ‘em all at least 18 times in October. 

Right field can be a tricky position for a number of reasons. It’s the farthest from third base, so right fielders usually have the best arm in the outfield. However, of the 25 right fielders with the highest career WAR, only 6 have a positive dWAR. Yet most teams want a good fielder in that position, especially if right field is a sun field at their park, which is often the case. As you’ll see below, some of the greatest hitters of all time have been right fielders, with four members of the 500-home run club, seven members of the 3,000-hit club, and seven with a career OPS+ of 140 or higher. Here are the top 10 right fielders of all time, according to WAR.

There may be no more sure-fire way to remain in Major League Baseball than to be an effective left-handed pitcher. A southpaw is practically worth his weight in gold, whether he just throws the ball so hard that hitters can’t catch up to it, or he’s a bit more crafty and keeps hitters off-balance, inducing soft contact. Pitchers like Jamie Moyer, Tommy John, and Kenny Rogers likely had longer careers as left-handers than they would have had if they were right-handers. And it’s not just starting pitchers. The top-3 in career games pitched are lefties Jesse Orosco, Mike Stanton, and John Franco, who had five career starts combined out of more than 3,500 games pitched. Only 10% of the general population is left-handed, but the numbers suggest that among all-time greats, left-handedness is a bit more common. The 10th-greatest lefty and the 46th-greatest righty have the same career WAR, which means that among the greatest 56 pitchers according to WAR, 17.8% are left-handed. More than we would think. Here are the top ten, presented alphabetically.

In a 1999 commercial, Atlanta Braves pitchers Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine famously proclaimed “Chicks dig the long ball” after watching adoring fans fawn over Mark McGwire’s batting practice homeruns. And while that may be true, every baseball fan knows that a good pitcher can neutralize those long ball hitters. After all, McGwire had more than twice as many strikeouts as homeruns in his career. Even though great power hitters like Babe Ruth may receive more adoration, baseball history is filled with players whose main skill was keeping Ruth and his ilk from getting on base. Whether throwing the ball past a hitter – with brute speed or a sweeping break – or locating a pitch so precisely, or varying its speed just enough to throw off a hitter’s timing and cause light contact, pitchers have found ways to get outs. Here are the top ten greatest right-handed pitchers in baseball history, according to WAR, presented alphabetically.

Some of the greatest names in the sport have graced the left field. From impact bats to legendary fielders, the impact on the national pastime from this outfield position can’t be ignored. We are going to break down the best left fielders of all time, using statistics. For this we are going to look at the leaders in Position Player WAR. This stat takes into consideration batting runs, baserunning runs, fielding runs to name a few which will help determine the best left fielders to ever play the game. Here are some of the greatest of all time to patrol left in alphabetical order, according to WAR.

After sharing the initial burst of joy with their friends and family, a newly-elected Baseball Hall of Famer might be forgiven for asking, “Where is the Baseball Hall of Fame?” The upstate New York village of Cooperstown isn’t an easy place to get to, but every summer for one weekend, it’s the center of the baseball universe as another class of inductees takes its spot among the game’s legends. The following seven players are those who comprised the 2022 Baseball Hall of Fame class.

Some tremendous Major League center fielders have dominated the game throughout baseball history. This position requires speed, agility, and an excellent eye for the ball off of the bat. If they have the wheels in the field, they will likely have them on the baselines as well, so add in a solid bat, and you’ll have a great all-around player. Here are ten of the strongest candidates for the title of the greatest center fielders of all time.