Let's start an all-time rhubarb. Greatest hitter of all time:

[kairos12]

Ted Williams.

[bmbmd]

1. No doubt.

The Splendid Splinter.

[NightWatcher]

2. Ichiro!!!

4316 hits combined in Japan and MLB

[kairos12]

5. Good choice.

[rurallib]

3. my first sense is Ted Williams, but a case could be made

for Henry Aaron, Willie Mays, the Babe and had he stayed healthy, Mickey Mantle.

But if I had one hitter to send up with the game on the line - Ted Williams

Stan Musial should get a mention also

[gopiscrap]

4. Ty Cobb

I would have said Williams also, but you took him so I picked the guy with the highest life time batting average

[GeoWilliam750]

6. Then there is the question of over what time period

Total career or peak few years or peak year?

Ted Williams is hard to argue against in any of the above time frames, but Ichiro, Cobb, Hornsby, Klein, Aaron, Mays, Gehrig, (even Rose) could all be considered.

[The Polack MSgt]

7. The best 10 year stretch by any hitter

In my lifetime was Albert Pujols second through eleventh seasons.

Then his feet decided to turn into bags of bone shards and glue

[The Polack MSgt]

8. Look at this slash line

Albert Pujols was a damn monster


2002 .314 .394 .561 .955
2003 .359 .439 .667 1.106
2004 .331 .415 .657 1.072
2005 .330 .430 .609 1.039
2006 .331 .431 .671 1.102
2007 .327 .429 .568 .997
2008 .357 .462 .653 1.114
2009 .327 .443 .658 1.101
2010 .312 .414 .596 1.011
2011 .299 .366 .541 .906

He averaged .329 over 10 seasons and not as a slap hitting fast guy beating the throw to 1st base. He drew a boat load of walks and hit for power while hit almost .330.

His on base plus slugging in that decade was 1.040. His worst year was 2011 when he hit .299, with 37 HRs

[bathroommonkey76]

9. The record book

says Pete Rose is the greatest hitter of all-time.

I'm going with Rose- Modern day? Ichiro. Imagine if Ichiro played his whole career in the MLB. Dude would have had over 5000 hits!