ESPN greatest MLB season of all-time bracket

ESPN has an interactive bracket of the 32 greatest MLB seasons of all-time. As a player can only make the list once, obviously it isn't the best 32 seasons, period, but it is a neat list. For fun, here is how I would rank the seasons, with the ESPN ranking in parenthesis next to it.

1.       Babe Ruth, 1921 (1)

2.       Honus Wagner, 1908 (9)

3.       Barry Bonds, 2001 (2)

4.       Mickey Mantle, 1956 (4)

5.       Joe Morgan, 1975 (5)

6.       Tris Speaker, 1912 (24)

7.       Carl Yastrzemski, 1967 (8)

8.       Ty Cobb, 1911 (12)

9.       Ted Williams, 1941 (3)

10.   Lou Gehrig, 1927 (6)

11.   Cal Ripken Jr., 1991 (14)

12.   Robin Yount, 1982 (11)

13.   Stan Musial, 1948 (7)

14.   Johnny Bench, 1972 (31)

15.   Jackie Robinson, 1949 (20)

16.   Ernie Banks, 1959 (23)

17.   Alex Rodriguez, 2000 (15)

18.   Mike Piazza, 1997 (29)

19.   Willie Mays, 1962 (10)

20.   Joe DiMaggio, 1941 (16)

21.   Jimmie Foxx, 1932 (19)

22.   Rogers Hornsby, 1922 (13)

23.   Sammy Sosa, 2001 (25)

24.   Ricky Henderson, 1990 (21)

25.   Albert Pujols, 2003 (17)

26.   Eddie Collins, 1913 (27)

27.   George Brett, 1980 (26)

28.   Mike Schmidt, 1980 (28)

29.   Ken Griffey Jr., 1997 (18)

30.   Rod Carew, 1977 (30)

31.   Hank Aaron, 1957 (22)

32.   Hack Wilson, 1930 (32)

The BPP All-Time Dream Project

Graham Womack of the baseball blog Baseball Past and Present has a project up where you can vote for your all-time lineup. The idea being if you could pick one player for each position, no bench, relievers, etc., who would you take. If you want to look at the players Graham thought most worthy or to submit a vote, click here. Below is the team I would choose, including the lineup order I would put them in.

1. Barry Bonds, LF: While you could certainly pick Ted Williams as your LF (or possibly Stan Musial or Rickey Henderson), I take Bonds because of his amazing offense and defense. Even if you throw out his late "steroid" years, I think he still is a great fit. Take his 1990 season (age 25), where he led the NL in slugging while also stealing 52 bases.

2. Willie Mays, CF: Ty Cobb would fit here perfectly as well. Frankly, good arguments for Tris Speaker, Mickey Mantle, Oscar Charleston, or Joe DiMaggio. But it's Willie Mays. He's on the team.

3. Babe Ruth, RF: This is pretty easy as he is the best player of all-time. He also works as an emergency pitcher in case anything happens to my starter. Apologies to Hank Aaron.

4. Josh Gibson, C: Between the statistics available and the opinion of him at the time, he has a compelling argument as a legendary slugger and greatest catcher of all-time. If you wanted to choose Johnny Bench or Yogi Berra, I could see that.

5. Lou Gehrig, 1B: If I had more flexibility, I might go with Stan Musial as my 1B, but he is correctly listed as a LF, and I can't argue with the choice of Gehrig, although I could understand people choosing Jimmie Foxx or Albert Pujols.

6. Rogers Hornsby, 2B: If you want to go with Eddie Collins or Joe Morgan or even Jackie Robinson, I can understand that, but I couldn't pass up Hornsby's hitting prowess from the 2B position. Also, I love that my 1-6 hitters alternate between lefty and righty (although that isn't as big a deal if the other team also doesn't have relievers).

7. Mike Schmidt, 3B: He is pretty clearly the best 3B of all-time, who hits for power and played great defense. Apologies to Eddie Mathews (ironically a teammate of Aaron).

8. Honus Wagner, SS: As much as I wanted to put Cal on this team, I had to go with Wagner. Consideration could also go to John Henry Lloyd or Alex Rodriguez.

9. Cy Young, P: There are plenty of great candidates for pitcher. Walter Johnson. Christy Mathewson. Bob Gibson. Sandy Koufax. Tom Seaver. Roger Clemens. Lefty Grove. Nolan Ryan. Pete Alexander. Warren Spahn. Pedro Martinez. Randy Johnson. Kid Nichols. Satchel Paige. Smokey Joe Williams. That is 15 names right there off the top of my head who would be perfectly great choices. But at the end of the day, I have to go with the pitcher whose name has been chosen to honor the best pitcher each season. It helps that having thrown the most innings in the history of baseball, I don't have to worry about him tiring in extra innings.