Best Canadian Players in MLB History

[BJBirdy]

I think the obvious question to who the best Canadian player of all-time is Fergie Jenkins, but who would you rank #2-5? There's some good choices, you have the likes of Larry Walker, (a prime) Jason Bay, Matt Stairs, John Axford, and Eric Gagne. Who do you rank #2 behind Jenkins?

 

[VJ_Sportsgeek]

Probibly Joey Votto or Justin Morneau. They have to be in the top 5 for sure

 

[StroShow]

Of course #1 is Fergie. The most underrated pitcher of his day, 1 Cy Young, won with some bad teams and can someone please tell me why his 31 is NOT retired by the Cubs when he went into the Hall as a Cub? I would even put him ahead of Nolan Ryan in the top pitching category. 2-5?!? Here's how I would put it:

Larry Walker
Justin Morneau
Joey Votto
Matt Stairs

Hope to see Lawrie step up his game and make my lists some day.

 

[Babe_Ruth]

Joey Votto has a chance to become first or second by the time he retires. Just needs to stay relatively healthy.

He's 30-years old and his career slash line is pretty impressive: .310/.417/.533

Now, he's having a terrible season, but he's only played in 62 games. It would be hard for him to surpass Larry Walker's numbers, but there's a strong possibility that he'll finish up with better overall numbers than him.

Also, even though he's having a good season this year, it's sad that it took Morneau so long to recover from his concussion - which also derailed his career. He was on his way to Larry Walker type of numbers.

But, the clear cut number one is Fergie Jenkins.

 

[Millz]

The best Canadian player I've seen with my own eyes was Larry Walker. He had some inflated numbers in Denver but was still excellent in Montreal and St Louis.

 

[BJBirdy]

Of course #1 is Fergie. The most underrated pitcher of his day, 1 Cy Young, won with some bad teams and can someone please tell me why his 31 is NOT retired by the Cubs when he went into the Hall as a Cub? I would even put him ahead of Nolan Ryan in the top pitching category. 2-5?!? Here's how I would put it:

It is retired...

My 2-5 would be:

2 - Justin Morneau
3 - Joey Votto
4 - Larry Walker
5 - Matt Stairs

Honorable mentions to Eric Gagne and Stubby Clapp.

 

[StroShow]

Of course #1 is Fergie. The most underrated pitcher of his day, 1 Cy Young, won with some bad teams and can someone please tell me why his 31 is NOT retired by the Cubs when he went into the Hall as a Cub? I would even put him ahead of Nolan Ryan in the top pitching category. 2-5?!? Here's how I would put it:

It is retired...

My 2-5 would be:

2 - Justin Morneau
3 - Joey Votto
4 - Larry Walker
5 - Matt Stairs

Honorable mentions to Eric Gagne and Stubby Clapp.

Completely slipped my mind! I should've checked his Wiki page before I opened my big mouth. In my defense, it happened back in 2009.

 

[TheMontréalRoyals]

Jenkins was good. But if you ask me, he comes in a distant second to the best Canadian player of all time... Napoléon Lajoie. Now I know Lajoie was born in Woonsocket R.I. but hear me out. We know that his dad, and probably his mother as well, were french-canadian migrants who participated in the great exodus to the US of 1840-1930. So, had there been a canadian citizenship back then, Lajoie would have been a Canadian citizen despite being born on US soil. And I'd go a bit further. French-canadians who emigrated to the states back then, especially in a place like Woonsocket where you had such an important canadian population, tended to congregate in neighborhoods called "Little Canadas", because life so closely ressembled life in the St-Lawrence Valley (they even had their own institutions - schools, churches, hospitals, newspapers, etc.) So, I don't know the specifics of Lajoie's youth, but he probably had virtually no contact with American culture, or even with the english language, before he was 8-9 years old. He was a Canadian living on American soil.

And his stats are quite impressive. I know those were different times, but the man had a BA over ,375 five times in his career. 107 career WAR, he's 7th all-time in doubles, 14th in hits, and he still holds, and will probably hold until the end of times, the record for best BA in a season in the AL (,426). Best Canadian ever.

 

[TheMontréalRoyals]

BTW, isn't there any love for James Edward "Tip" O'Neal in your lists? His career was short, I know. But he deserves consideration, if nothing else, for his 1887 season, when he led the American Association in runs, hits, 2B, 3B, HR, RBI, BA, OBP, OPS, OPS+ and TB. Almost a clean sweep!