griffey or bonds?

let me start out by saying that i'm a griffey jr. fan. not a huge fan, but a fan nonetheless. he's been one of the best players of my generation and has still, to me, the prettiest swing i have ever seen in any sport.

let me follow up by saying that i am not a barry bonds fan. he, as well, has been one of the best players of my generation and is probably the most feared hitter at the plate i have ever seen (steroid use aside).

it should be pretty obvious by now that i'm going to choose bonds. granted it is fairly reasonable to assume that he has done steroids and/or hgh. and although you can never be sure with griffey, i have a feeling that he has not used those substances (at least to the same degree as bonds) or maybe we would have seen him less frequently on the dl.

regardless of bonds' alleged use of peds (which supposedly started around 1999), i still would argue that he's better than griffey. if you include the steroid years and ignore the effect of peds, then it's not even close.

griffey is a great player. great. but not as great as ruth, mantle, williams or mays. his career numbers are around .285, .375 and .550 (ba, obp, slugg) without considering park effect or anything else. those are fine numbers especially when considering he's one of the top few defensive outfielders ever. but so was bonds and that's where he gets the edge.

if bonds were a bad outfielder or even an average one, i could see the argument. even though centerfield is a more important defensive position, bonds was the best in lf, possibly ever. bonds' career numbers are .298, .444, .607 playing primarily in a pitcher's park. add in the large discrepancy in steals between the two and i don't know if there's an argument.

people will obviously argue about his use of peds, but listen to this. prior to 1999, barry bonds had 9 consecutive years with an obp over 400. prior to 1999, bonds had five years with a slugging percentage over 600.

in griffey's entire career, he's only had two seasons with an obp over 400 and five seasons with a slugg percentage over 600.

take, on top of all of this, that bill james rated barry bonds as the best player in baseball every single year from 1990 to i believe 2004 with the exception of 1999. bill james took into consideration defense, offense and baserunning. you would think that if griffey was even close, he would have snuck in their one of those years.

things may, and i repeat may, have been different without bonds' ped use or griffey's injuries, but i doubt it. by the time griffey had reached cincy, he was already past his prime (age 25-30) and bonds had already established himself as the preeminent player in baseball.