The Best Four-Year Peaks in Baseball History

Here’s a fantastic read from FanGraphs on, among other things, the top 100 four-year peaks in baseball history by WAR. The chart, in particular, is something I could peruse and enjoy for hours.

Barry Bonds had a .559 OBP and .809 SLG over a FOUR-YEAR PERIOD. Yes, yes, era and PEDs and all that, but still. Good Lord. Babe Ruth, who is the only other player in that class, was at .506 and .761, respectively.

How about this: only one other player on the chart had a four-year SLG over .700. Can you name him without looking?

Mark McGwire.

Other random things I noticed:

  • A fun stretch of names about 2/3 of the way down: Andre Dawson, Sammy Sosa, Nomar Garciaparra.
  • Ozzie Smith makes the list despite a 105 wRC+ during the four-year stretch.
  • Tim Raines is on there.
  • 14th on the list: Ron Santo.
  • Read More

    written by

    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and @Brett_A_Taylor.

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