u/Bright-Pressure-5787

Connor McDavid has long been considered one of the best hockey players in the world and is already considered one of the greatest hockey players to ever live. However, despite everything he has achieved in his eleven-year career up to this point, he hasn't lead the Edmonton Oilers to a Stanley Cup championship despite going to the Stanley Cup Final twice. Is McDavid to blame for it, or is a mixture of things outside of his control (injuries, front office mistakes, coaching, tough competition, the like)?

Personally------and this is just me viewing things from a modern lens-----I usually defer to Bonds when it comes to this question. I know, "PEDs", but there's probably no one who really has dominated the game with his bat and simulateously had opposing teams quaking in their boots has much as Barry Bonds did.

I chose these four because all of them were or are, at one point in time, the home run king in their respective leagues. It's kind of an experiment, I guess.

Babe Ruth's career stats:

182.6 WAR

2503 G

.342 BA

.474 OBP

.690 SLG

1.164 OPS

2873 H

714 HR

2214 RBI

123 SB

194 wRC+

Sadaharu Oh's career stats:

180.4 WAR

2831 G

.301 BA

.446 OBP

.634 SLG

1.080 OPS

2786 H

868 HR

2170 RBI

89 SB

199 wRC+

Barry Bonds' career stats:

162.8 WAR

2986 G

.298 BA

.444 OBP

.607 SLG

1.051 OPS

2935 H

762 HR

1996 RBI

514 SB

173 wRC+

Hank Aaron's career stats:

143.3 WAR

3298 G

.305 BA

.374 OBP

.555 SLG

.928 OPS

3771 H

755 HR

2297 RBI

240 SB

153 wRC+

Here's the link to the article: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/04/27/magazine/greatest-living-songwriters-methodology.html

Again, I'm paywalled, so I can't read the article. The only quote I saw from it was Jon Caramanica's quote about how Billy Joel writes 1 or 1.5 kinds of songs well, which is just fucking stupid.

Now, when I asked the question "What makes Wayne Gretzky the undisputed GOAT of hockey?", some of y'all said that Super Mario was on Wayne's level or even better and that injuries and disease impacted his chance of becoming the GOAT. Does that make him somewhat a "what if?" I'm not saying, like, an Eric Lindros-kind of what if? I'm saying, like, a Mickey Mantle-kind of what if?: A top ten player ever despite everything, but injuries or factors not in his control (and, in Mantle's case, personal issues) really hurt his chance to become THE GOAT.

In the years 1996 and 1998, Juan Gonzalez of the Texas Rangers won American League MVP. However, both award wins are looked at as robberies by many folks. What do you guys think?

NOTE: I put the top six vote-getters for each race on the Versus Finder because I felt like it lined up better.

1st NL MVP award: 1990

9.7 WAR (led NL)

.301 BA

33 HR

114 RBI

52 SB

.406 OBP

.565 SLG (led NL)

.970 OPS (led NL)

170 OPS+ (led NL)

2nd NL MVP award: 1992

9.0 (led MLB)

.311 BA

34 HR

103 RBI

39 SB

.456 OBP (led MLB)

.624 SLG (led MLB)

1.080 OPS (led MLB)

204 OPS+ (led MLB)

109 R (led NL)

127 BB (led MLB)

3rd NL MVP award: 1993

9.9 WAR (led MLB)

.336 BA

46 HR (led MLB)

123 RBI (led NL)

.458 OBP (led NL)

.677 SLG (led MLB)

1.136 OPS (led MLB)

206 OPS+ (led MLB)

4th NL MVP award: 2001

11.9 WAR (led MLB)

.328 BA

73 HR (led MLB)

137 RBI

.515 OBP (led MLB)

.863 SLG (led MLB)

1.379 OPS (led MLB)

259 OPS+ (led MLB)

177 BB (led MLB)

5th NL MVP award: 2002

11.8 WAR (led MLB)

.370 BA (led MLB)

46 HR

110 RBI

.582 OBP (led MLB)

.799 SLG (led MLB)

1.381 OPS (led MLB)

268 OPS+ (led MLB)

198 BB (led MLB)

68 IBB (led MLB)

6th NL MVP award: 2003

9.2 WAR (led MLB)

.341 BA

45 HR

90 RBI

.529 OBP (led MLB)

.749 SLG (led MLB)

1.278 OPS (led MLB)

231 OPS+ (led MLB)

148 BB (led MLB)

61 IBB (led MLB)

7th NL MVP award: 2004

10.6 WAR (led MLB)

.362 BA (led NL)

45 HR

101 RBI

.609 OBP (led MLB)

.812 SLG (led MLB)

1.422 OPS (led MLB)

263 OPS+ (led MLB)

232 BB (led MLB)

120 IBB (led MLB)

Honestly, this is kind of difficult for me because Aaron Judge has been the second-best hitter of the 21st century after Barry Bonds, IMO. We'll probably never seen a clean hitter among his like again or, at least, for a very long time. At the same time, Shohei Ohtani has redefined what could be done on a baseball field and can impact the game in ways that no one else in the history of the game has. That's not even mentioning his four MVP seasons and his performances in the postseason.

I'm a diehard Yankee fan, so my heart says to choose Judge, but Ohtani might be the greatest player who has ever lived, so my brain says that he is the best player of this generation.

I think that considering all of the hype that Bryce Harper came into the league with-------the SI cover, the Golden Spikes Award, the #1 overall pick stock, etc-------he has more than lived up to all of that hype:

2x NL MVP (2015, 2021)

8x All-Star (2012, 2013, 2015-2018, 2022, 2024)

NL Rookie of the Year (2012)

NLCS MVP (2022)

4x Silver Slugger Award (2015, 2021, 2023, 2024)

2x NL Hank Aaron Award (2015, 2021)

NL Home Run Champion (2015)

Home Run Derby Champion (2018)

Career stats as of April 28, 2026:

54.1 WAR

.280 BA

.380 OBP

.519 SLG

.905 OPS

142 OPS+

1,830 H

369 HR

1070 RBI

153 SB

However, I know that even with all of these accomplishements, there are several people who feel that Bryce has felt short of living up to the immensely lofty expectations placed on him as a teenager. What say you guys?

I'm paywalled, so I can't really give you the link to Thugga's part specifically, so I'll just link the whole article: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/magazine/greatest-american-songwriters-alive.html

It's always been said, "There's always a GOAT debate in every sport but hockey. EVERYBODY agrees that Wayne Gretzky is the greatest hockey player who has ever lived." I'm not familiar with hockey like that, so I wanna know how Gretzky got that kind of reputation.