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Who are the top MLB players of the 1910s? Here is our top 10 countdown:
10. Eddie Cicotte: before his role as the ringleader of the Black Sox Scandal of 1919 led to his banishment from baseball, Cicotte was one of the game’s workhorse pitchers during the decade (48.1 WAR), leading the league in wins 2x and earning an ERA title while pitching the Chicago White Sox to the 1917 World Series title.
9. Honus Wagner: a member of baseball’s inaugural Hall of Fame class, Wagner was in the twilight of his career in the 1910s and retired after the 1917 season at age 43, but nevertheless won his final batting title in 1911 (8x total) and had three straight seasons of top-10 MVP finishes early in the decade (34.3 WAR).
8. Home Run Baker: arguably the best power hitter of the dead-ball era, Baker led the AL in home runs in four straight years from 1911 to 1914, powering the Philadelphia Athletics to three World Series titles and accumulating 53.3 WAR for the decade in the process.
7. Babe Ruth: perhaps the greatest baseball player ever and one of the original five Hall of Fame inductees, Ruth was still in his early days with the Boston Red Sox in the 1910s – as both a pitcher and a hitter (39.0 total WAR), he had a pair of 20-win seasons and won an ERA title while also leading the league in home runs in consecutive years, helping the Red Sox win three titles in the process.
6. Shoeless Joe Jackson: before being banned from baseball for his alleged role in the Black Sox Scandal, Jackson was one of the league’s premier hitters – though he never won a batting title, he hit .300+ every year of the decade (including a career-best .408 in 1911) and finished top-10 for MVP four straight years en route to a .356 career batting average (third-best all-time) and 55.2 WAR for the decade.
5. Eddie Collins: the leader in career hits among second basemen (3,315), Collins was AL MVP in 1914 and led the league in runs scored for three consecutive years mid-decade; in addition to earning 73.5 WAR for the decade, he won four World Series titles with the Athletics and White Sox.
4. Grover Cleveland Alexander: with 68.7 WAR for the decade, Alexander was arguably the second-best pitcher of the 1910s and the best hurler in the NL – he led the league in innings pitched 6x, wins 5x, strikeouts 5x, and ERA 4x, in the process winning the Pitching Triple Crown three years in a row with 30+ wins.
3. Tris Speaker: baseball’s all-time doubles leader (792), Speaker would have been the best outfielder in baseball had it not been for Ty Cobb (76.5 WAR); he hit .300+ 9x (winning the batting title in 1916), led the league in doubles 4x, and won AL MVP in 1912 while guiding the Red Sox to a pair of World Series titles.
2. Ty Cobb: until Pete Rose came along, Cobb owned both the highest career batting average (.366) and most career hits (4,189) in baseball history; during his prime in the 1910s, he was the premier hitter in baseball, winning the batting title every year except 1916 (yet still hitting .370 that year), leading the league in stolen bases 4x (including a career-high 96 in 1915), playing a strong center field, and winning the AL MVP in 1911 while compiling 84.3 WAR for the decade.
1. Walter Johnson: an overpowering mound presence during the dead-ball era, Johnson was an absolute workhorse during the 1910s – 300+ innings pitched 9x (with 290.1 innings in 1919 being the lone exception), 20+ wins every year (5x league leader), four ERA titles (with only one season above 2.00), 9x strikeout leader, a pair of Pitching Triple Crowns, and AL MVP in 1913 for a staggering 107.8 WAR.
Agree/Disagree? As always, debate/discuss, and leave your thoughts and comments below.
Note: All statistics as of time of publication.
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