If you were to pin players from today vs the 20’s.. they’d absolutely destroy those guys. They never saw 100mph heat, sliders, shifts or even black and Latin players ffs. Imagine what today’s HOF players would do offensively if none of those existed? Now you can argue hypothetically that if Ruth were born in the 80s or 90s he’d be a good major leaguer with modern training and nutrition. But the odds of him being as dominant in today’s age are hilariously slim just based on sheer population alone. He put up great numbers when there were maybe a few thousand people even playing baseball in his era, but today there are millions of players who play baseball growing up.
You’re taking 1 guy who dominated out of a few thousand.
Compare that to someone who’s dominated out of hundreds of thousands if not millions.
- much larger talent pool/competition
- advanced scouting/metrics
- shifts
- overall better pitching
You can say Ruth is the GOAT based on his era, but if you do that you can’t say he’s better than bonds or trout because they played in different eras. Personally, I’d say modern and recent players are much more skilled than early generation players.
