Major League Baseball's Top 10 Outfielders of All Time | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

Career Stats: .344 BA, .482 OBP, .634 SLG, 521 HR, 1,839 RBI, 123.1 WAR

Five-Year Peak: 1946-50

Like Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams lost three of his best baseball seasons because of World War II. He finished second in the AL MVP vote in both 1941 and 1942, hitting a cumulative .379 with 73 home runs and 257 RBI. Then, he was gone for three years and somehow came back and looked like he didn't miss a single day.

From 1946-49, Williams batted at least .342 and had an OPS greater than 1.110 each year. He averaged 34 home runs and 131 RBI despite drawing more than 150 walks per season. He was named the American League MVP in both 1946 and 1949 and finished in second and third in 1947 and 1948, respectively.

Over the course of his 19-season career, Williams placed top-seven in the MVP vote 12 times, including four second-place finishes. 1947 was the most painful silver medal, as he led the AL in average, home runs and RBI that year, only to fall one vote behind Joe DiMaggio (202 to 201). Though the vote wasn't quite as close, getting snubbed in 1942 was even more unforgivable, because Williams led the major leagues (by a wide margin, no less) in all three categories that year.

So, to recap, he won the Triple Crown in both 1942 and 1947 yet somehow wasn't named MVP either year.

Had Williams played from 1943-45 and had the voters done the right thing in 1941 (Williams batted .406 with an MLB-best 37 HR), 1942 and 1947, he might have won half a dozen or more MVPs in his career.

Postseason Success

If it weren't for the postseason, you could make a strong case for Major League Baseball's all-time leader in on-base percentage to rank No. 2 on this list.

However, the Splendid Splinter only played in the postseason once in his career, and he did next to nothing that year. Williams went 5-for-25 (.200 BA) with no extra-base hits and only one RBI in the 1946 World Series.

It's hard to hold that lack of postseason experience against Williams, though.

It's unfortunate that his career fell entirely during the 29-year window (1936-64) in which the Yankees won the American League pennant 22 times. At any rate, Boston's combined record of 216-244-8 while he was serving in the war proves that this team wasn't the same without him. Still, postseason success was a major factor considered, and Williams simply didn't have any.