If you were awarded a MLB franchise & had the 1st 3 picks in the draft (every player in history is available) who do you take?

Griffey

Randy

Edgar

*Ichiro

There is only one player that should be at the top of everyone's list; without a doubt THE greatest baseball player of all time:

Sidd Finch

Derek Jeter

David Eckstein

Craig Counsell

Rube Foster

Oscar Charleston

Bud Harrelson

Ohtani (value of versatility is just too high!), Koufax, and either Bonds or Mays

Y'know what? I flubbed it. Would delete my last comment if I could. Ohtani & Ruth (for identical reasons), then either Pedro or Bonds.

And after six seasons, he would be eligible for free agency, and may not stay with your franchise.

If you want to maximize your return on three players you draft at age 20, you need to pick three players who were the most productive from age 20 to 25 or the first six seasons in the major. After that, there is no guarantee they will still be playing for your team.

Based on that, Trout should be #1 choice. Pujols would be #2 if I am allowed to take his first six seasons (age 21 to 26). (Or for that matter, Ichiro's first six seasons starting at age 27 aren't bad.)

There are not many modern pitchers who were highly productive in their first six seasons. Christy Matthewson or Walter Johnson would be a good pick for age 20 to 25. If I am allowed to take any first six seasons regardless of age, then Lefty Grove could be a better choice.

Is this based on scaling their production to the modern era or are we just teleporting the player in their prime to 2022? Because Babe Ruth would suck against modern pitching. Based on it being the actual players, I'll take:

1. Barry Bonds

2. Mike Trout

3. Randy Johnson

You say Babe Ruth would suck against modern pitching. Babe Ruth's last year was 1935. Ben Hogan turned pro in 1930. Present day ... would you rather have a current Sergio Garcia or a 1930s-ish Ben Hogan? Or a 1970-ish Jack Nicklaus.? And I mean Ben would have current clubs and current balls.

I don't know anything about golf so no idea. With baseball I stand by it. Hitters in prior eras didn't see nearly the same velocity or pitch movement and would look silly against replacement level modern pitching.

And pitchers in prior years had a bigger strike zone and a higher mound to dominate the hitters. Let's see how today's players would fare against a Bob Gibson 1968.

I'm going to add the "greatest single season with 3 rookies aged 20 or younger" parameter because otherwise, it becomes quite subjective. Given that, it's pretty easy with hindsight and a quick google search, "which mlb players have had the greatest age 20 season?" I'm also going to disqualify non-live ball players for obvious reasons (In 1888 Silver King pitched 584 innings with 64 complete games and 45 wins at age 20). My picks also cover offense/pitching/infield/outfield. It wasn't considered but by coincidence, I'm covered against the PC police as I've got a Dominican American, African American, and an old white man.

1. Alex Rodriguez - 9.2 War

2. Mel Ott - 7.2 War

3. Dwight Gooden - 11.9 War

Total - 28.3 WAR

Does anybody have a live ball-era team with three 20 year-olds with at least 1 pitcher, 1 infielder, 1 outfielder, and a higher WAR?

If we're talking 15+ seasons, still drafted before 20 years old, it becomes a crap shoot but I still keep A-rod and I guess I'll add Pedro Martinez and Mickey Mantle.

Bob Feller pitched around 99 MPH. Justin Verlander has a 15-3 record and only throws 95 with regularity. Walter Johnson was rumored to have thrown 104 but likely threw about 97. I think the pitchers of yesteryear would do quite nicely today.

Randy Johnson

Ken Griffey Jr

Edgar Martinez

I just looked at Jim Palmer stats and he won 20 games 9 out of 10 years. Amazing.

No way did we pick the same three...

Mariners between 1989 and 1999 were my jam....

Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle and Walter Johnson

If I remember right, Dwight Gooden had back-to-back games with 15K's and 0 walks, and one of those games he never even went to ball 3. Good call.

I think you need to have one pitcher, one skill position player and one outfielder/first baseman. I would also leave out players from before 1950 (maybe unfairly) and those suspected of PED use. Using these criteria, I would pick:

Tom Seaver (honorable mention Greg Maddux or Steve Carlton)

Mike Schmidt (easy choice)

Willie Mays (honorable mention Ted Williams)

It is really dumbfounding that so many people listed Nolan Ryan.