The World’s Best Baseball Players – 2015
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
In this day and age, information is ubiquitous. The 24-hour news cycle captures everything. What slips through the cracks shows up in cyberspace, filling your computer screen on YouTube, FaceBook, or any one of a handful of mega-popular websites designed to make the transfer of information simple and expedient. In their book Warp Speed: America in the Age of Mixed Media, noted authors and former reporters Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel write, “The press has moved toward sensationalism, entertainment, and opinion,” and away from traditional values of verification, proportion, relevance, depth, and quality of interpretation.
This 20-second sound bite, in-your-face highlight clip approach to news gathering and reporting has led to the glorification of a number of baseball players who, frankly, aren’t all that special. ESPN told you who you should think is good; now we get our turn. After years of watching, analyzing, scrutinizing, and living baseball, the editors of BaseballObservers.com are proud to present our readers with our first annual – The World’s 10 Best Baseball Players.
It is with the above thoughts and perspective on today’s media analysis and coverage of the game we love that we here at Baseball Observers went about selecting the ultimate list of the world’s 10 Best Baseball Players. While PEBA coverage dominates the airwaves, the game has made incredible strides in the near decade since the collapse of Major League Baseball. Expanding to reach audiences in new corners of the globe, people from countries as far-flung as Western Sahara (Abdul Khaliq bin Ayyub) and Belarus (Fabiyan Naberejnev), to name but a few, have found themselves on baseball rosters. Thanks to the prominence of the LRS, Japan is quickly catching, and in some cases, surpassing America in its appetite for baseball. With professional and amateur leagues popping up all over the globe, we thought this a good time to create one list to rule them all…
We truly are in the century of globalization of the Great American Pastime, and in that vein, we thought it only fitting to settle the argument once and for all: Who is the best baseball player in the world today? Our criteria is simple and purely objective: Regardless of income or years played, and all things being equal, which players would produce the best if placed on the same stage? So without further ado, we present you with this year’s list of the world’s best baseball players, period.
10. Armando Gallegos; SP – Fargo Dinosaurs, PEBA – Throughout his seven-year PEBA career, Gallegos has been a horse for the Dinosaurs. Although his production dipped slightly in 2015 because of injury, the Fargo ace has been nothing short of outstanding, boasting a career 2.86 ERA and 1.01 WHIP. Equipped with a nasty array of six pitches he can easily throw for strikes, Gallegos has firmly established himself as one of the PEBA’s best and most dominating starting pitchers.
9. Pat Lilly; RF – Bakersfield Bears, PEBA – Iconic images of the Royal Raker himself lacing doubles and home runs off opposing pitchers are forever etched in to the minds of every BO staffer. Three years ago, Lilly would likely reside atop this list. A career .306/.441/.576 hitter, Lilly has remained one of the top offensive players in the PEBA for almost ten seasons. Were it not for a host of injuries over the earlier periods of his career and some very stiff competition from his peers, Lilly would likely have won Royal Raker Awards in 2008 and 2012, giving him five total. Despite his advanced age, Lilly shows no signs of letting up and figures to keep himself in the discussion of best players in the world for several seasons to come.
8. Tony “Whitey” Carmona; C – Aguadilla Roadrunners, SJWL – “Whitey” Carmona has become something of a legend in his native Puerto Rico. Never has a player so thoroughly dominated his league as Carmona has the SJWL. A career .336/.421/.660 hitter for Aguadilla, Carmona also boasts a lofty reputation as a signal-caller for the Roadrunners. Considering this, Carmona becomes even more interesting when you realize that he will become a free agent for the first time in approximately four months. The competition for his services figures to be heated between free-spending PEBA and LRS teams. The whole of Puerto Rico watches and waits as Whitey prepares to venture into uncharted territory and prove he belongs atop this list.
7. Conan McCullough; SP – Charleston Statesmen, PEBA – The “Eldest Statesman”, as he’s sometimes referred to by Charleston seamheads, is showing very few signs of letting up despite his advanced age. In spite of the minor injuries that led to an abbreviated 2015 campaign, Conan once again proved why he’s in an ultra-elite group of starting pitchers, posting another sub-3.00 ERA to go along with a sparkling 1.16 WHIP. Now pitching for his third team, Conan owns so many single-season and career PEBA records, it is almost laughable to debate the merits of his placement on this list. For the detractors out there (if there are any), Conan owns the career marks for VORP and opponents SLG percentage to go along with single-season records for ERA, winning percentage, and opponents OPS, to name but a few. And in case you have forgotten, he’s also the owner of three Planetary Extreme Championship rings. Lest you still have any doubts that he remains among the best, we’ll repost his epic 2009 pitching line to jog your memory: 23-0, 1.28 ERA, 210 ⅓ IP, 254 K, 0.95 WHIP. Any questions?
6. Bing-zhang “Wheels” Chien; 1B – Edo Battousai, LRS – Chien is currently putting the finishing touches on another utterly dominating LRS campaign. The 26-year-old and 2014 Saiyu-shu-senshu award winner will soon complete his third consecutive season with an OPS over 1.000, an astounding feat for a player at any level of competition. His leadership paved the way for Edo’s 2014 Neo-Tokyo Cup victory, and the Battousai – behind the bat of Chien – appear poised to make another run at the championship in 2015.
Just Missing the Cut: There were a number of other players who weren’t named in the top 10 that enjoyed ardent support among the Baseball Observers team. Rather than referring to them as “Honorable Mentions”, we like to call them the Near Misses for the WBBP 2015, provided in no particular order:
- Bob Keller: The fresh-faced catcher from the PEBA’s Aurora Borealis looks like a star in the making. Despite having to wait his turn in the eternally deep Aurora farm system, Keller quickly made his presence felt since his call-up and will likely be appearing on this list in the not-too-distant future.
- Nori Oike: The young first baseman from the Kuwana Steel Dragons has exploded on the scene the last three years posting an aggregate .329/.406/.581 slash line. Anyone who argues his placement here hasn’t watched the Oike mercilessly hammer opposing LRS pitching.
- Chris “Moondog” York: The 25-year-old flamethrower from the PEBA’s Florida Featherheads just misses the cut because of a short résumé. Beginning to make his mark as one of the league’s up-and-coming stars, Moondog averaged an astounding 10.4 K/9IP this year to go with his 2.49 ERA and microscopic 0.99 WHIP.
- Eduardo Molina: The Crystal Lake Sandgnats long-time left fielder seems to get better with age. His hopes of winning the Sovereign League triple crown in 2015 were derailed by an injury that sidelined him for the season’s final week and the team’s eventual playoff loss. If Molina can make his mark in the post-season, worldwide greatness could be his.
- Ricardo Longoria: Perhaps the player on the list with the most upward mobility, Longoria appears to be the front-runner for this year’s Sovereign League Royal Raker Award. Tremendous bat speed and killer plate discipline are the hallmarks of this rising phenom.
- Cory Pierce: Another Borealis. The two-time Royal Raker award winner had a down year in 2015 but, when healthy, can stroke the ball like few around. Questions abound regarding Pierce’s injury history and whether the effects of Father Time are beginning to catch up with the Aurora legend.
- Nobuhito Hasegawa: The three-time Saiyu-shu-senshu winner from Neo-Tokyo suffered an ugly season-ending injury in September, but his body of work is unquestioned. If Hasegawa returns the same player he’s always been, there’s no reason to suspect he can’t climb the leaderboards once again and prove he belongs among the world’s elite.
- Morihiro “Homu-Ran” Nakamura: Despite a dip in production the last couple of years, the five-time Saiyu-shu-senshu winner, seven-time All-Star, and three-time Gurabukin Award winner at CF for the Edo Battousai still has plenty left in the tank. This living legend of Japanese baseball has done more than enough to earn himself a place in the record books as one the world’s all-time greats.Rafael “Bingo” Suárez: The West Virginia Alleghenies second baseman has seemingly entered his prime as both an offensive force and a perennial All-Leather competitor. A top contender for this list, Bingo checks in at number 11 on this year’s ranking, missing the cut by a razor-thin margin.
5. Ronald Lowry; 3B – Connecticut Nutmeggers, PEBA – One of the most unlikely players to land on this list. A third round pick out of Purdue and hailing from Turlock, California, Lowry is no longer a well-kept secret in Connecticut. Following his breakout 2013, Lowry has continued to rake at a torrid pace for the Nutmeggers while playing a stellar third base in the process. The soft-spoken slugger and recent recipient of a lucrative five-year contract extension, Lowry posted a .299/.383/.544 line to go along with his third consecutive season of 32 or more homers in 2015. Baseball analysts and Nutmeggers fans agree: The future is bright for this young star.
4. Luis “Digger” Torres; LF – Florida Featherheads, PEBA – It seems only a matter of time before Digger Torres claims his rightful place atop the PEBA’s all-time homerun king list. At the tender age of 26, Torres has already amassed 191 homeruns – good enough for 23rd on PEBA’s all-time list – following his third consecutive season of 40-plus homers. A sabermetrician’s dream, Torres also owns a career .410 OBP to go with his prodigious power. Torres’s brash style has landed him in hot water with both the PEBA league office and Featherheads management over the least four seasons, but it’s also won him masses of supporters that show up to watch Digger go deep at Farmer Field all summer long.
3. Markus “Fireworks” Hancock; SP – Bakersfield Bears, PEBA – Perhaps the most famous player in the world, Fireworks continued his run of astounding production in 2015 and doesn’t figure to let up anytime soon. Bolstered by career numbers standing at a 2.29 ERA, 9.5 K/9IP, a WHIP south of 1.00, and an astonishing K/BB ratio of more than 6.5, Hancock remains his generation’s most awe-inspiring pitching talent. Bakersfield’s acquisition of Hancock during the 2013-2014 off-season grabbed headlines around the globe. Hancock hopes to provide his team with a few more headlines and cement his legendary status by securing a PEC for his Bears teammates this year.
2. Rob Raines; 1B – Arlington Bureaucrats, PEBA – Without question, Raines has established himself as the premier offensive force in the game of baseball today. Following up on two previous award-winning seasons, Raines hammered his way to a .330/.450/.519 line in 2015 and a likely third consecutive Royal Raker Award. The only thing keeping Raines from holding down the top spot (aside from one darn good player) is his lack of a position. He was recently shifted from first base to designated hitter by Bureaucrats management. Instead of complaining, though, we suggest you sit back and enjoy watching a legend in the making as Raines attempts to rewrite the PEBA record books.
1. Manuel “Mayor” Corona; SP – Gloucester Fishermen, PEBA – June 14th 2010 was a landmark day in the history of both the Fishermen and the PEBA. It is the day that one Manuel Corona was officially designated a free agent by the Commissioner’s Office following his discovery in a Cuban amateur league. We here at BO can safely say that the baseball-watching world would be a lesser place if fate had not intervened that day. In only four short years, Corona has taken the PEBA – and, by extension, the world – by storm. In 2015, he put the Fishermen on his back, carrying them to their first-ever IL Alliance Tournament matchup with the ever-present Charleston Statesmen. He’ll toe the rubber tonight in Game 1 of the series. Punctuating another gem of a year in 2015, Corona also hurled the PEBA’s first ever post-season no-hitter on October 8th against the above-mentioned Rob Raines and his Arlington Bureaucrats. Despite his youth, Corona has full command of a deadly arsenal of three pitches that he throws with utmost precision and violence, routinely lighting up radar guns with triple digit readings, tempting hitters to take their chances. The sky truly is the limit for Gloucester’s young superstar, and the world is his stage.