Tag Archives: best five-tool players

H2H 39: Carlos Beltran vs. Larry Walker – Who was Better?

Note: Updated for Larry Walker’s 2020 Hall of Fame selection.

Every major league baseball team is constantly on the lookout for the next great five-tool player (speed, power, hitting for average, fielding, arm strength), with the best example in today’s game being Mike Trout.  In recent memory, two of the best five-tool talents of the 1990s and 2000s were Carlos Beltran and Larry Walker, who between the two of them, had nearly 5,000 hits, 800 home runs, 3,000 runs scored, 3,000 runs batted in, and 500 stolen bases, and were honored with All-Star selections, Gold Gloves, Silver Sluggers, batting titles, and MVPs.  Though each player’s respective Hall of Fame credentials have been (and in Beltran’s case, will be) debated among Cooperstown voters, between the two of them, the question is:

Who was better – Carlos Beltran or Larry Walker?

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