Tag Archives: best Red Sox players

H2H 116: Vladimir Guerrero vs. Manny Ramirez – Who was Better?

Disclaimer: I am well aware that Manny Ramirez tested positive numerous times for steroids during his MLB career and this is the primary reason why he is currently not in the Baseball Hall of Fame.  With all of this background in mind, this head-to-head between Vladimir Guerrero and Manny Ramirez is meant to compare them based solely on their career numbers and achievements without judgment on Ramirez’s steroid use during his career.

The end of the 2011 MLB season marked the last time that baseball fans would see two of the greatest Dominican-born players ever suit up for a major league game – for nearly two decades apiece, Vladimir Guerrero and Manny Ramirez were two of the game’s best sluggers.  Moreover, they were among the unique characters in the game, from Guerrero’s penchant for swinging at anything to Ramirez’s personality of “Manny being Manny”.  Even though Ramirez’s legacy has been tarnished by a number of positive steroid tests, he and Guerrero still sit at or near the top of most career hitting categories among their countrymen, thus making this an apt comparison:

Who was better – Vladimir Guerrero or Manny Ramirez?

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H2H 77: Al Kaline vs. Carl Yastrzemski – Who was Better?

The 1970s saw a record seven MLB players reach the magical 3,000-hit mark, starting with Hank Aaron in May 1970 and concluding with Carl Yastrzemski in September 1979 (the others being Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Al Kaline, Pete Rose, and Lou Brock).  Among this sterling seven, only Kaline and Yastrzemski hailed from the AL, serving as the respective franchise faces for the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox over their lengthy careers.  There are deep similarities between the two players – each was an outfielder, each was both an excellent hitter and fielder, each played 20+ years, and each was a first-ballot Hall of Famer.  With their careers overlapping for more than a dozen years, it is natural to ask the question:

Who was better – Al Kaline or Carl Yastrzemski?

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