"Greatest Red Sox of All Time"

[IRON HORSE]

I just thought that I would pose this question as to who is the greatest red sox player of all time? I know this might be a very vague and complex, but with our franchise being so rich I decided to ask everyone this question.

[Dojji]

Ted. Full stop. You will not see any significant disagreement with this sentiment.

A better question is who the second greatest guy is.

[Spitball]

Originally Posted by Dojji

Ted. Full stop. You will not see any significant disagreement with this sentiment.

A better question is who the second greatest guy is.

Right! I'd have to go with Captain Carl Yastrzemski as number 2 with apologies to Pedro Martinez.

[?who?]

How about by position? If you are only going with 1 player, its hard to go further than #9.

[mvp 78]

Ted
Pedro
Yaz
Roger
Rice

[Lucienbel]

Top three for me, in this order would be:

1.) Ted Williams
2.) Pedro Martinez
3.) Carl Yastrzemski

At first I was sort of iffy on where to put Yaz and Pedro, but every time I look at Pedro's numbers and the fact he put them up in the steroid era I'm amazed. There are times I don't think he gets enough credit for that still.

[Dojji]

Yeah, pretty hard not to put Pedro right up there as #2.

Incidentally, where do you all put Clemens? By all accounts no one ever accused him of doping during his Red Sox days. He met that corrupt trainer in Toronto. And despite the flaws that saw him never take his team over the top, he was one heck of a pitcher, even if you end his career at about 1996 when it probably should have ended.

[cbbosox]

While undoubtedly 1978 was one of the greatest years ever by a Red Sox
i think for their entire careers Evans was a little better than Rice & may rival Yaz.

Several gold gloves and arguably the best hitter numbers wise in the 80's.

Don't get me wrong i like Yaz and Rice but i think people tend to get caught up
in the one unbelievable season each had (yaz 67 Rice 78)

so for me
Williams
Pedro
Clemens
Manny(0 titles in over 90 years without Manny & Papi that has to count for something)
Ortiz
Evans
Yaz
Rice

[Dojji]

I think modern audiences would have appreciated Evans more for what he was. He was an OBP machine along with being a fairly decent power hitter. If people appreciated OBP the same way 30 years ago that they do today Evans is probably considered to be on track for the Hall.

[a700hitter]

Yaz was the most significant player in the history of the Red Sox. Williams ws the best hitter of all time, but Yaz did everything else much better. Where Yaz vaults to the top of the pack for me is that the 1967 team revived the moribund franchise that was considering leaving Fenway and Boston. The trajectory of the franchise changed with that season, and that was the season of Yaz. Beyond 1967 the Red Sox remained as a winning and competitive franchise with teams built around Yaz. After 1967, the Sox failed to field a winning team only once for the rest of Yaz career -- in 1983 (Yaz's last season). From 1967 to 1982, they finished above .500 for 16 straight seasons. That is the longest streak in the history of the franchise.

Yaz was the leader on most of those teams. He is the player who made the most significant contributions to the Red Sox in the era that turned the Red Sox franchise around and made them not just relevant again, but beloved. The Red Sox need to commission a statue in his honor at Fenway, because I truly believe that Fenway might have been long gone had it not been for Yaz. For that matter, the Red Sox might not be in Boston either. I'd like to this done while he is still around for the dedication.

[cbbosox]

While i don't disagree with what 700hitter said about Yaz
to me most significant and greatest are not the same thing.

For a team like the Orioles for example
Cal Ripken probably the most significant player. But i don't think was as great
a player as Robinson,Palmer or Murray.

While this was not the original question i will say this
when most people think Red Sox- Williams & Yaz are the first names that probably come to peoples mind.

[Whiteandnerdy42]

Yeah, undoubtedly Ted; probably Yaz and Pedro finishing a distant second and third.

[a700hitter]

Originally Posted by cbbosox

While i don't disagree with what 700hitter said about Yaz
to me most significant and greatest are not the same thing.

For a team like the Orioles for example
Cal Ripken probably the most significant player. But i don't think was as great
a player as Robinson,Palmer or Murray.

While this was not the original question i will say this
when most people think Red Sox- Williams & Yaz are the first names that probably come to peoples mind.

I would not underestimate the greatness of Yaz. Don't forget that his prime years were in a pitching dominated era with a higher mound -- that got lowered in 1969 (Yaz's 9th season). For a power hitter, he rarely struck out. If you compared him to the other power hitters from his era, his k's per 162 games and per HR were pretty phenomenal. Pedro is the pitching equivalent of Yaz in that he dominated in a hitting dominate era while Yaz did so in a pitching dominated era.

[Dojji]

Originally Posted by a700hitter

Yaz was the most significant player in the history of the Red Sox.

No he was not. There have been players before Yaz, and players after Yaz, who had bigger impacts in their time.

Yaz put the team on his back in 67, and is one of the team's great cultural icons, but that doesn't put him ahead of Williams. Williams was just too dominant for just too long.

Honestly I'd seriously consider putting Pedro Martinez ahead of Yaz, because he was as dominant as Yaz at their respective peaks, in as pitcher-unfriendly an era as Yaz's era was hitter unfriendly, AND he got us all the way to the promised land.

Which Yaz did not.

[jacksonianmarch]

The best player to ever wear the sox uniform was Babe Ruth. The greatest Red Sox player as in the guy who put up the best numbers wearing a Red Sox uniform is Ted Williams with no questions asked