Who are the 50 greatest players in Philadelphia Phillies history?
Compiling any all-time list takes hours of research and dedication, especially when you are examining the 136 seasons in Philadelphia Phillies history. Picking out the 50 greatest players in Phillies history? That takes months of examination, research and craft to compile.
Thanks to the work of several writers at That Ball’s Outta Here we have compiled the 50 greatest players in Phillies history.
The list comes with only a few stipulations, particularly the players eligible for the list. We did not include any Deadball Era players on this list, which means Ed Delehanty, Billy Hamilton, Nap Lajoie and Sam Thompson are not ranked.
An exception was made for Pete Alexander because his career started during the Deadball Era, but ended after.
Editors George Stockburger and John Town each compiled their individual top-50 player lists which came out very different in a couple of ways. George looked at more of the raw numbers and awards, while John favored some of the analytical stats more.
Both the lists were averaged out and after some debate players were added and removed from each list and adjusted on the final ranking.
The final list is compiled strictly from the average of the two lists with the exception of Roy Halladay, who moved up a couple of spots on the final list after his induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
The list only examines a player’s time in Philadelphia. So several players who might have had Hall of Fame careers might not be ranked as high as those who spent twice as much time in a Phillies uniform.