The other day on ESPN they had the argument of who was/is the better player Manny Ramirez or Ken Griffey Jr. Manny recently hit a milestone HR with number 500 and Ken Griffey Jr. is on the cusp of 600 HR.
So the question is who was the better player?
Case for Manny:
The guy has been so solid for a long time. He has not missed long stretches of games like Ken Griffey Jr. has. Ramirez is an RBI machine and is a lock for 100-120 RBI in a season. Manny has a higher batting average and at this point in his career is a better hitter than Griffey. Manny is very dangerous because of his ability to continue to hit the ball to the opposite field for power.
Case for Griffey:
Griffey has better career stats in just about every category than Manny. Griffey is a far superior defender winning 10 gold gloves in a row, while Manny has yet to win one (although if he keeps high-fiving the fans after catches he may get one). Griffey was one of the top players in the game during the 1990's and many forget that Griffey was a very good hitter to all fields. Only recently has Griffey become mainly a pull hitter, who hits for less average.
Career stats look like this:
Manny Ramirez- 2006 games, 7274 ABs, 1378 R, 2273 H, 485 2B, 18 3B, 502 HR, 1643 RBI, 35 SB, 31 CS, 1149 BB, 1593 SO, .312 BA, .408 OBP, .591 SLG %, 154 OPS+, 4300 TB, .978 Fielding Percentage, 0 MVP awards, 2 WS titles, 1 WS MVP
Ken Griffey Jr- 2431 games, 9030 ABs, 1572 R, 2610 H, 484 2B, 37 3B, 599 HR, 1728 RBI, 184 SB, 69 CS, 1190 BB, 1626 SO, .290 BA, .373 OBP, .550 SLG %, 139 OPS+, 4965 TB, .985 Fielding Percentage, 1 MVP award, 0 WS titles, 0 WS MVP