We examined 20 of baseball’s 100 best players in two stories last week, and we’ll follow the same pattern today and Friday.
This installment of the Baseball 100 covers the hitters and pitchers who rank between 80th and 71st place. You can find their profiles below.
Friday’s entry will cover the group from 70th to 61st place.
If you’ve been following this series, you can skip the next nine boilerplate paragraphs. If you’re unfamiliar with my scoring system, keep reading.
The rankings within the Baseball 100 are determined by 2024’s overall base values (OBV), which measure the relative effectiveness of batters and pitchers.
A positive OBV indicates one of two things:
A particular batter reached more bases than the average big leaguer would have attained under identical circumstances.
A given pitcher surrendered fewer bases than his typical counterpart would have yielded under the same conditions.
Click here if you want to know more about the formulas and calculations. (Be aware that OBV is slightly different from the BV described in the link. The initial sign for a pitcher’s BV is reversed for his OBV. A negative sign is better for a pitcher’s BV, but a positive sign is ideal for an OBV, which is what we’re using here.)
The player with the highest OBV — whether a hitter or pitcher — is deemed to be the best overall player. The rankings proceed downward in order.
If two or more players are tied with identical OBVs, I break the tie by matching their ratios of bases per out (BPO) against 2024’s big-league average of .675. BPO is exactly what it sounds like, a comparison of bases reached or yielded (through hits, walks, hit batters, stolen bases, and sacrifices) against outs made or induced.
Preference within a tie is given to the player who surpassed the BPO norm by the greatest amount, either above .675 for a batter or below the same mark for a pitcher.
Each player in the Baseball 100 is listed with his rank, club, primary position (the one he played more than any other in 2024), BPO or BPO allowed (BPOA), the numbers of bases and outs involved, and OBV.
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Club: Mets
Primary position: P
BPOA: .591 (on 322 bases and 545 outs)
OBV: +46
Bottom line: Manaea exceeded the Mets’ expectations by going 12-6 with a 3.47 ERA. He pitched 181.2 innings, the biggest workload in his nine-year career.
Club: Padres
Primary position: P
BPOA: .587 (on 307 bases and 523 outs)
OBV: +46
Bottom line: King came to the Padres from the Yankees in the Juan Soto deal. He posted a 2.95 ERA, fourth-best in the National League.
Club: Reds
Primary position: P
BPOA: .573 (on 256 bases and 447 outs)
OBV: +46
Bottom line: Greene trimmed more than two runs off his ERA — from 4.82 in 2023 to 2.75 in 2024. He finished with a 9-5 record.
Club: Athletics
Primary position: RF
BPO: .820 (on 259 bases and 316 outs)
OBV: +46
Bottom line: Butler uncorked 22 home runs in his first season as an everyday player. He also showed decent speed, stealing 18 bases (and not once getting caught).
Club: Dodgers
Primary position: 3B
BPO: .921 (on 174 bases and 189 outs)
OBV: +46
Bottom line: A rib misalignment limited Muncy to 73 games, yet he was highly productive over that limited period. He drove home 48 runs in less than half a season.
Club: Astros
Primary position: P
BPOA: .583 (on 295 bases and 506 outs)
OBV: +47
Bottom line: Blanco advanced from a hybrid starter-reliever in 2023 to a fulltime starting pitcher in 2024. He fashioned a 13-6 record and a 2.80 ERA in 167.1 innings.
Club: Reds
Primary position: P
BPOA: .565 (on 243 bases and 430 outs)
OBV: +47
Bottom line: Martinez enjoyed the best season in his seven-year career. He went 10-7 with a 3.10 ERA as a combination starter-reliever for the Reds.
Club: Cardinals
Primary position: C
BPO: .878 (on 202 bases and 230 outs)
OBV: +47
Bottom line: Contreras was restricted to 84 games by a broken forearm and a fractured finger. He still managed to hit 15 homers and post a .380 on-base percentage for the Cardinals.
Club: Braves
Primary position: P
BPOA: .447 (on 93 bases and 208 outs)
OBV: +47
Bottom line: Jimenez worked 69 games as a reliever for the Braves, usually as an eighth-inning setup man. He held opponents to a .182 batting average.
Club: Rangers
Primary position: P
BPOA: .421 (on 77 bases and 183 outs)
OBV: +47
Bottom line: Yates was a dominant reliever in 2019, leading the majors with 41 saves. He notched only seven in the 2020-2023 period, then rebounded to 33 for the Rangers in 2024.
