Players Tamil Dubbed Movie

[Carmelina Olden]

But how high do you rank him? We're considering only accomplishments from 2000 on, and as great as Bonds was in those years, most of his career value came before 2000 (103.7 of his 162.8 WAR). The performance-enhancing-drug allegations complicate his place in history even more.

Indeed, this is an issue for others besides Bonds: Alex Rodriguez, Roger Clemens, Manny Ramirez ... legendary players, problematic legacies. And where do you rank Shohei Ohtani? He has won two MVPs as a two-way player and might win a third this season as a DH, but he's only seven seasons into his MLB career. Or Clayton Kershaw -- there's no denying his regular-season feats, but he has struggled in the postseason. Or the fabulous Ichiro Suzuki, whose impact goes beyond mere statistics. Or Derek Jeter, the ultimate winner. Or others in the middle of their careers, such as Mookie Betts and Bryce Harper.

It wasn't easy to sort through all these players. Disagree with our list, which was voted voted on by ESPN's baseball experts, if you must. In the end, however, there was a clear choice for No. 1. -- David Schoenfield

They called him The Machine. Pujols' swing was direct and to the point: power emanating from his lower half, firing through hands he used with the precision of a surgeon, his bat a weapon that placed Pujols among the game's greatest right-handed hitters ever. Rogers Hornsby, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Joe DiMaggio, Albert Pujols. He belongs. A 13th-round draft pick who will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 2028, Pujols' lone ding is an end-of-career fade with the Angels. In 12 seasons with the Cardinals, he was undeniable. -- Jeff Passan

Only three hitters have piled up more WAR since the century began than Trout, and all of them had more than a decade head start on him when he launched, fully-formed, into the majors at age 19, two years after going 25th in the 2009 draft. That's how quickly Trout leaped into the conversation about the game's historical elite. As perhaps the first star whose greatness was sharpened by contemporary analytics, Trout's all-around dominance was on display from the start. At 32, Trout has won three MVP awards and finished in the top five of balloting seven other times. Injuries have slowed his momentum, but if Trout can string together a few more healthy campaigns, the kid from Millville, New Jersey, could yet transcend his status as the best of his generation and challenge for the crown of best ever, period. -- Bradford Doolittle

More homers than Bonds? More WAR than Ruth? The 'what-if' legacy of Mike Trout3. Clayton KershawKey accomplishments: Three-time Cy Young winner, 2014 MVP, 10-time All-Star, five ERA titles, Triple Crown winner, Gold Glove winner, 2020 World Series champion, no-hitter in 2014.

Early in the 2016 season, then-San Francisco Giants ace Madison Bumgarner said of his great West Coast rival: "Are we watching the best ever at his best?" Maybe so. During his peak from 2011 to 2017, Kershaw went 118-41 with a 2.10 ERA. Even as he's battled injuries, he's remained effective: His career 2.48 ERA is the lowest for a starting pitcher since 1920 and his winning percentage the highest since 1900 for a pitcher with 2,000 innings. The Los Angeles Dodgers lefty was never the hardest thrower, but he was a perfectionist who once went nearly four seasons without allowing a home run on his curveball. -- David Schoenfield

Cabrera arrived in the major leagues at 20, found himself batting cleanup in the World Series, whacked an opposite-field home run off Roger Clemens and charted a course that would end two decades later with 3,174 hits. Cabrera's spray chart was a thing of beauty, with dots connoting his hits in all corners of the stadium -- and 511 over the fence. He managed to hit for power without sacrificing his innate bat-to-ball skill, and he peaked in 2012, when he became the first hitter in 45 years to win batting, home run and RBI titles in the same season. -- Jeff Passan

His most famous play is his "Star Wars" throw from his rookie season. His most famous record is the 262 hits he registered in 2004. He was 27 when he went to Seattle and still finished with more than 3,000 hits -- indeed, more career hits, if you can include his Japanese totals, than Pete Rose. The iconic Ichiro's hits started with the pull of the sleeve in the batter's box, the bat held high in front of him, then outracing the ball to first base. "No single number could ever explain a human as thrilling, as unusual, and as wonderful as Ichiro," Joe Posnanski wrote. -- David Schoenfield

Bonds is the best living baseball player, and never was he better than the eight seasons he played this century. In that time, he smashed the single-season home run record, got on base at a 51.7% clip -- a figure last reached in an individual year by Ted Williams in 1957 -- and came as close as anyone to mastering the art of hitting. Bonds' steroid use has kept him out of the Hall of Fame, but those who witnessed him play know: 21st-century Bonds was the closest we've seen to Babe Ruth. -- Jeff Passan

Will Verlander be baseball's last 300-game winner? He'll have to coax 40 more wins out of his Hall of Fame-bound arm, but if it's ever going to happen again, it'll be Verlander who does it. A true throwback to the days when ace pitchers held sway in the big leagues, Verlander has combined dominance and durability in a way that harkens back to the days of Tom Seaver, Bob Gibson and Nolan Ryan. With 260 wins and 3,300-plus strikeouts and more on the way, this is what Verlander always wanted. "I love being a pitcher," Verlander said in 2018 "When I first started playing baseball, I always envisioned myself as a pitcher. I idolized Nolan Ryan, that old-school grit." -- Bradford Doolittle

A-Rod helped usher in the golden era of the jumbo-sized shortstop, a position long reserved for educated fielders who couldn't hit. Rodriguez mashed, for power and average, to all fields, a gifted batsman. His abundance of talent was unassailable. He also drew the longest steroid suspension in baseball history, coloring his achievements and cooking his reputation. History will see Rodriguez as one of the most talented players ever, but as is the case with all performance-enhancing drug users, the distinction comes with an invisible asterisk. -- Jeff Passan

Big Papi will be remembered most for feasting in the biggest of moments. As the game's greatest designated hitter, Ortiz had Cooperstown numbers -- 541 career homers and a .931 OPS -- but that's only the tip of Papi's boisterous iceberg. He had 17 career playoff homers as part of three championship Boston Red Sox clubs and hit .455 over 14 World Series games. That includes 2013, when, at age 37, he went 11-for-16 with two homers and eight walks in the Fall Classic against a St. Louis Cardinals team that almost literally could not get him out. After Ortiz was elected to the Hall of Fame, longtime teammate Dustin Pedroia said of him, "From day one, in a big moment, everything was in slow motion. He found a way to come through in moments where you dream of as a kid. He did it every single time." -- Bradford Doolittle

Scherzer pitched the most dominant back-to-back games in MLB history. On June 14, 2015, he pitched a 16-strikeout one-hitter, allowing only a bloop single. In his next start, he lost a perfect game when he hit the 27th batter. He's had a record-tying 20-strikeout game, postseason heroics and one of the greatest months ever in June 2019 (6-0, 1.00 ERA, 68 strikeouts) -- which he did with a broken nose. He threw 98 mph while mixing in four other pitches. Most of all though, the last image will be his intensity, stomping around on the mound after recording another strikeout. -- David Schoenfield

The lore of Beltre has grown since his retirement following the 2018 season and placed him alongside Mike Schmidt and Brooks Robinson among the game's best third basemen. No one at third played more games than Beltre, a testament to his willingness to grit through pain. He manned the position with grace and consistency, two tenets that apply to the rest of his game. Beltre's counting stats never screamed superstar, he never won an MVP and his allergy to walks limited his ceiling. But that's all ancillary to the truth of who Adrian Beltre was: the ultimate ballplayer's ballplayer. -- Jeff Passan

Few players have had as many iconic moments: the Jeffrey Maier home run last century, the flip, the dive, Mr. November, the home run for hit No. 3,000, the walk-off single in his final game. He did it all in the pressure cooker of New York, playing for the sport's most fabled franchise. Jeter's legend cannot be separated from the pinstripes he wore: Before he joined the Yankees, they hadn't won a World Series in 15 years; with him, they won five. He's been retired 10 years and we still hear Yankee Stadium PA announcer Bob Sheppard: "Now batting for the Yankees ... No. 2 ... Derek ... Jeter." -- David Schoenfield

Rivera was inevitability personified. Thriving in baseball's most mercurial of roles -- the ninth-inning reliever -- he emerged from the bullpen to the pounding tones of Metallica's "Enter Sandman" night after night, year after year. Every time he did so, dread-filled Yankees opponents knew the bell was tolling -- for them. Armed with one pitch -- a cutter that righty hitters waved at and lefty hitters could not barrel up -- Rivera became New York's closer in 1997 and never put up anything but stellar seasons on his way to a 2.21 lifetime ERA and record 652 saves. For all of that, he was better than anyone in October, posting a 0.70 ERA and 42 saves over 96 playoff games. -- Bradford Doolittle

When ESPN runs the sequel to our top 100 athletes of the 21st century in 2050, Ohtani is the likeliest candidate from baseball to rate worthy of the top 10. His first seven years in MLB have been transcendent. What before him was taken as fact -- that nobody can hit and pitch at a high enough level to warrant doing both -- is now null. Ohtani arrived from Japan with a freighter of hype and only exceeded it, stretching the definition of what a baseball player can be. "Shohei," Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said, "is arguably the most talented player who's ever played this game." -- Jeff Passan

c80f0f1006