Sultan Award
Named for Babe Ruth, the Sultan of Swat. The season’s top total WAR among position players — our version of the MVP. Pitchers are not eligible.
Blazing Fastball
Blazing Fastball
Inaugural class · October 2026
A permanent club for the top 1% of players who have ever played Major League Baseball. Career value and a player’s seven best seasons form the base score; each Blazing Fastball Award adds one point.
Our version of the Hall of Fame.
These are the 238 best players in Major League history. Why 238? Baseball-Reference counts 23,804 major leaguers in history — and one percent of that is 238. Every member is retired; every score blends career value (60%) with a player's seven best seasons (40%), all in Baseball-Reference WAR, with credit for wartime service, full inclusion of the Negro Leagues, and a point banked for each Blazing Fastball Award. The bar sits at 50.76 — Tommy John's score, the last man in. For the full methodology, the proration details, and every edge case, see How it works.
| Rank | Player | Pos. | Career | Added | Total WAR | Peak 7 | Awards | Score |
|---|
Active players aren’t members yet. Thirteen are already above the permanent bar; everyone else is still building the case.
The On-Pace Watch List tracks every active player's score against the permanent induction bar of 50.76. Players with 50.76 points or more will gain entry into the 1% Club after they retire — the thirteen already above the bar are in on points and only waiting on retirement. Everyone else is still building a case, and the distance column shows exactly how far each has to go.
Every season, decided by the record instead of reputation.
For over a century, the baseball writers have voted on the game’s major awards — and gotten them wrong about half the time. So we went back and re-voted every ballot on the record alone: no narratives, no reputations, just WAR. The results are the Blazing Fastball Awards: the Sultan is our MVP, the Big Train our Cy Young, the Pioneer our Rookie of the Year, the Sandman our reliever of the year, and the Wizard our defensive player of the year — the one the voters never had. Each is worth a point toward the 1% Club.
Five awards, one point each, straight to the final score. Multiple wins stack. The point is a compact dominance premium—not a rewrite of career value.
American and National League ballots run from 1901–2026. A combined Negro Leagues ballot covers 1920–1948. The Sandman Award begins in 1950, when relief pitching had become a distinct role.
Named for Babe Ruth, the Sultan of Swat. The season’s top total WAR among position players — our version of the MVP. Pitchers are not eligible.
Named for Walter Johnson, the Big Train. The season’s highest pitcher WAR, awarded back to 1901 — our version of the Cy Young.
Named for Jackie Robinson. The strongest qualifying first season by WAR — our version of the Rookie of the Year.
Named for Mariano Rivera, the Sandman. The highest-WAR qualifying relief season — our reliever of the year.
Named for Ozzie Smith, the Wizard. The season leader in defensive runs — our defensive player of the year.
Choose a year and ballot to see the winners.
Three famous ballots where contemporary fame and the season’s value parted company.
Sultan over Joe DiMaggio.
Sultan over Sammy Sosa.
Sultan over Miguel Cabrera.
One score balances staying power with dominance, then makes a small set of explicit historical corrections.
The inaugural class is the top 238 retired players. Active players live on the separate watch list, and anyone retiring at or above 50.76 joins the next induction class.
Tommy John’s #238 score became the fixed bar by explicit approval. Future inductees never bump out earlier members.
Official Negro League seasons are prorated to 154 team games when at least 30 official team games can be verified. Raw and adjusted totals remain visible. A prorated player-season can never exceed 12.0 WAR.
WWII and Korean War seasons lost to service are projected from the player’s surrounding full seasons. The added value is displayed separately and is never presented as an official statistic.
Players are scored normally, but only the top ten whose careers were primarily before 1901 can hold spots. This limits the effect of extreme early pitching workloads.
The Sultan, Big Train, Pioneer, Sandman and Wizard awards each add +1.0 straight to the final score; multiple wins stack. AL/NL ballots span 1901–2026, with a combined Negro Leagues ballot for 1920–1948. The Ruth Award is not open to pitchers. All awards use the same prorated, 12.0-capped values as the club.
Sandy Koufax’s two Johnson Awards move him from 47.74 to 49.74—still short. Mariano Rivera still cannot clear the bar because WAR structurally compresses reliever value. Those outcomes are documented, not patched away.
Career and season values use bWAR, combining batting and pitching value for two-way players. Postseason play is excluded. The source register was pulled October 9, 2026.
Methodology version 5 · ranking rebuilt October 14, 2026. Adjusted values and Re-Vote awards are Blazing Fastball analytical overlays, not official Baseball-Reference totals. Values are rounded for display; ranking uses full-precision scores.