Choose Your Top 5 Reds Of All-Time

[Ron Madden]

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Here's my list. What's your's?

Frank Robinson
Johnny Bench
Joe Morgan
Barry Larkin
Pete Rose

[fearofpopvol1]

Originally Posted by Ron Madden

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Vote now!!!

Here's my list. What's your's?

Frank Robinson
Johnny Bench
Joe Morgan
Barry Larkin
Pete Rose

Looks perfect to me. Technically, Griffey Jr. had a better career than Rose, Bench and Larkin, but he obviously didn't spend his prime years here, so it would be tough to put him ahead of those guys.

[Ron Madden]

John Erardi and Greg Rhodes made a list of the top 100 Reds of all time.
Marty Brennamen helped them narrow the list down to the top 20.
It will be interesting to see their top 5.

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/reds/201...greatest-reds/

[mth123]

They counted them down in a slideshow.

1. Morgan
2T. Bench
2T. Rose
4. Robinson
5. Larkin

[Red in Chicago]

Rose
Bench
Morgan
Robinson
Larkin

[dougdirt]

Originally Posted by mth123

They counted them down is a slideshow.

1. Morgan
2T. Bench
2T. Rose
4. Robinson
5. Larkin

They got it wrong IMO. Joe Morgan was great. But he was a Red for 8 seasons. Those 8 seasons were fantastic. His OPS+ as a Red was 147. But those 8 fantastic seasons (well, 6 were truly fantastic and the last two were not on par with those first 6) don't add up to being better than the 17 Bench put out. I am not even sure they are fully on par with the 10 that Frank Robinson had as a Red.

[Cedric]

Larkin
Rose
Morgan
Davis
Bench

[PickOff]

1. Johnny Bench
2. Pete Rose
3. Barry Larkin
4. Frank Robinson
5. Joe Morgan

Years with the Reds counts in my book.

[HokieRed]

!. Robinson
2. Bench
3. Morgan
4. Rose
5. Here I have trouble: Perez, Pinson, Larkin.
For me, the clear break is between the first four, in some order, and #5.

[kaldaniels]

Adam Dunn
Chris Denorfia
Chris Heisey
Zach Stewart
Edwin Encarnacion

Am I missing anyone? Oh, and challenge me on any of these and this thread is going 20 pages.

[kaldaniels]

On a serious note...

Bench
Rose
Morgan
Robinson
Larkin

With free agency it will be hard for anyone else to crack into the top 5. Bruce has a chance. He could have 10 seasons with the Reds under his belt when it is done.

[westofyou]

Bench
Rose
McPhee
Larkin
Robinson

[kaldaniels]

Originally Posted by westofyou

Bench
Rose
McPhee
Larkin
Robinson

Thinking outside the box with McPhee. I don't agree but interesting nonetheless.

This page could help the thread. (There's a pitching one too if interested, but for the Reds, I doubt it is necessary)

http://www.baseball-reference.com/te...ders_bat.shtml

[mace]

Shouldn't Edd Roush and Ernie Lombardi at least be in the conversation? Roush (18 years) had a career OPS+ 10 points higher than Larkin, and by all accounts played an excellent center field. Lombardi (10 years) had the same OPS+ as Bench. Obviously, he didn't compare defensively. But still.

Also--just sayin'--Bucky Walters had seasons of 27, 22 and 23 wins, twice leading the league in ERA as he carried the club into the World Series.

That said, there's no getting around Rose, Bench, Robinson and probably Morgan (the only caveat being his tenure).

[mth123]

Originally Posted by dougdirt

They got it wrong IMO. Joe Morgan was great. But he was a Red for 8 seasons. Those 8 seasons were fantastic. His OPS+ as a Red was 147. But those 8 fantastic seasons (well, 6 were truly fantastic and the last two were not on par with those first 6) don't add up to being better than the 17 Bench put out. I am not even sure they are fully on par with the 10 that Frank Robinson had as a Red.

I think its wrong too. I think Morgan is getting extra credit because his big years were all in a row and happened while the Reds were one of the super teams in baseball history. I took a quick look at several guys based on OPS+ for a six year period and Morgan was barely the best red ever based on that criteria.

Player	         Years	  1     2	3	4	5	6	Ave
Joe Morgan	72 - 77	149	154	159	169	186	138	159.1666667
Frank Robby	59 - 65	152	169	163	172	133	160	158.1666667
George Foster	76 - 81	150	165	151	155	131	150	150.3333333
Edd Roush	17 - 22	159	151	146	141	143	131	145.1666667
Tony Perez	68 - 73	124	140	158	120	145	159	141
Pete Rose	68 - 73	152	158	125	130	134	138	139.5
Big Klu	        52 - 57	146	143	167	147	132	97	138.6666667
The Schnozz	35 - 40	148	140	130	152	119	137	137.6666667
Eric Davis	86 - 91	143	155	139	152	123	105	136.1666667
Johnny Bench	70 - 75	141	107	166	119	143	140	136
Jake Beckley	99 - 04	132	128	130	139	126	144	133.1666667
Barry Larkin	91 - 96	143	132	124	107	133	154	132.1666667
Adam Dunn	03 - 08	116	146	140	114	136	132	130.6666667
Jr. Griffey	00 - 05	133	124	103	145	122	145	128.6666667
Sr. Griffey	76 - 81	140	127	113	129	127	120	126
Vada Pinson	59 - 64	128	118	130	114	142	110	123.6666667
Frank McCormick	39 - 44	130	131	106	111	119	143	123.3333333

But taking the best six years would put Morgan behind Robinson

Player		          1   	2	3	4	5	6	Ave
Frank Robby		172	169	163	160	152	151	161.1666667
Joe Morgan		186	169	159	154	149	138	159.1666667
George Foster		165	155	151	150	150	139	151.6666667
Edd Roush		159	151	148	146	143	141	148
Big Klu		        167	147	146	143	132	124	143.1666667
Pete Rose		158	152	141	138	134	132	142.5
Johnny Bench		166	143	141	140	133	129	142
Eric Davis		155	152	143	139	139	123	141.8333333
Tony Perez		159	158	145	140	124	124	141.6666667
The Schnozz		152	148	140	137	131	130	139.6666667
Barry Larkin		154	143	138	134	133	132	139
Adam Dunn		146	140	136	136	132	130	136.6666667
Jake Beckley		144	139	132	130	128	128	133.5
Jr. Griffey		145	144	133	124	122	119	131.1666667
Sr. Griffey		140	129	127	127	120	119	127
Vada Pinson		142	130	128	127	118	114	126.5
Frank McCormick		143	131	130	119	113	111	124.5

Guys like Robinson, Bench, Rose etc could put a few more seasons over 120 OPS+. Morgan was a great defender. but so was Bench. Rose did the job wherever needed (even won a couple Gold Gloves in the OF) and Robinson was a better bat for longer. I'm not a big SB guy, but Morgan's steals need to be factored in. He had many at a high success rate and he didn't just accumulate stats, but ran effectively at the right time. I can see the argument for Morgan, but the added seasons would get more weight with me.

I'd probably go with Bench or Rose (tough call). Robinson would rank ahead of Morgam as well.