The Sporting News Top 50 Baseball Players

You can find the list here.

I know that making these types of lists is difficult and is mostly subjective but I do have some problems with some of the rankings:

- How can you have Ivan Rodriguez listed as the top ranked catcher and not have either Mike Piazza or Javy Lopez on the list? (Jorge Posada was the only other catcher to make the list.) Piazza is still more valuable than I-Rod even though he was injured for most of the year (Roy Oswalt was injured for most of the year too but he still made the list). Javy had the best year of any catcher last year - how come he doesn't make the cut?

- Where's Preston Wilson? Last year he hit 36 HR with 141 RBI. Vernon Wells is listed at 14 and their numbers are comparible (Wells had a much better average but 24 fewer RBI). I'm not saying that Wilson should be higher than Wells - just saying that Wilson should have made the list.

- No Keith Foulke? He did lead the AL in saves last year. Mariano Rivera had fewer saves but is ranked at 15 (yeah - I grant that Rivera is a Hall of Famer but he is also getting old and he did have FEWER saves than Foulke last year). They also had Billy Wagner at 23. So the top 3 closers in the NL made the top 25 but the AL leader is left off the list?

- Mike Lowell doesn't make the list but Hank Blalock does? Last year Lowell had 32 HR and 105 RBI vs. Blalock's 29 HR and 90 RBI. Sure Blalock is much younger than Lowell but let's wait for Blalock to have a 100 RBI season before we put him in the top 50. Let's also not forget that 62% of Blalock's HR's came at the Launching Pad in Arlington last year.

- Carlos Beltran at 41? What does The Sporting News have against Beltran? Last year he didn't even make the top 50. I would have Beltran in the top 10. Not to have him in the top 20 is insulting. Not to have him in the top 40 is crazy.