You have five players on this list when there should probably be more like fifty . You have players that played in different eras with less competition , players that played in batter friendly ballparks , players that were on the juice , and players that played on teams that had great hitters thru the lineup .There were also several players who were in the service during World War Two that missed several years of playing time . So your whole vote thing for just these five players is goofy .

Barry Bonds. Its sickening to have to say it, but its true.

Just give Teddy back the prime lost seasons for military duty and from the chipped elbow that happened when he made the catch off the Green Monster, and put him in a place like Yankee Stadium or Tiger Stadium with the short porches and he would have hit 900 home runs. Not even close as far as being the best hitter ever [.388 ave. hit at age 42], and if he was in the right park with those extra seasons he would have been the best home run hitter. You had to see this guy hit, even against lefties and the shift to truly appreciate his ability.

Teddy Ballgame was the best all-around hitter ever, no question. But the answer to this question is Babe Ruth. The deciding factor is how many more home runs he hit than the second place player each year. His records were Gretzky-like. For Pujols to be compared to Ruth in an era when several players hit 40 or more each year, he would need to hit 80-90 homers, and then do it every year for about a decade.

Hank Aaron. Did what he did without enhancing drugs.

Rick and BigMike60 make good points... but the question is slugging, not hitting, and Ruth will always be the greatest slugger - Brian S.-445892 nailed it. If Williams didn't like a pitch, he wouldn't swing at it. If the Yankees needed a homerun, Ruth would hit it, and it didn't matter if there was a short porch in right field or not.

Aaron ,  Musial ,   Mays ,  Robinson ,  Bonds ,  Griffey Jr ,  Ott,  Thomas ,  Hornsby ,  Fox ,  Dimaggio ,  to name a few .

I wonder how many Ruth hit to staightaway center field in Yankee Stadium when they had the original dimensions. How many would he hit in the more modern stadiums? Remember he also hit against spitballs pitchers in their prime! He didn't care -- see the ball - hit the ball really far.

Have you ever watched the modern day  All Star games when they have the home run derbys . Those batters participating really whack the crap out of those balls. I bet on average that about every fifth pitch or so is hit for a homerun . I don't know how good the pitching was back in the 20s, 30s, and 40s ,  but some of those pitchers pitched a lot of innings .  If you take a look at the record books you will find the all time leaders for games pitched , wins , complete games , etc. all came from way back then . They also used four man rotations . Even though these players are leaders in many pitching catagorys ,  they are not the leaders in strikeouts . Nolan Ryan , Randy Johnson , Roger Clemens , Steve Carlton , and Bert Blyleven are the top five all time leaders in strikeouts. If a pitcher is really chucking it up there it takes a lot of wear and tear on his arm . It makes it a lot less likely he can pitch 7356 innings or have 749 complete games with 511 wins if a pitcher is constantly throwing 90 MPH fastballs  . Those are Cy Young's records . He also had a career ERA of 2.63 with 2803 strikeouts . Nolan Ryan had a career ERA of 3.19 with 5714 strikeouts , 222 complete games , 5386 innings pitched , and 324 wins . Which pitchers  do you think are  better , those pitchers from back 80 , 90 or 100 years ago or the Ryans , Johnsons , Clemens , and Carltons . How would these chosen best batters of all time do against them .

Personally, I think the rise in strikeouts is more to do with batters swinging for the fences rather than the pitchers being better. I am not taking anything away from the 100 mile an hour fastball, but all to often you see the batter swinging just as hard at the 0-2, 1-2, 2-2, and 3-2 pitch as he does at any other pitch. Gone are the days of just trying to get on base in those situations. For all the DiMaggios with 34 strikeouts in a years, you have the Jacksons with 150 a year who think nothing of it. How many does Dunn have per year? At MLB.com in 9 year of active time he has 1400 strikeout already. He is considered a power hitter, averaging just over 33 a year (300 so far in those same 9 years). By comparison, Ruth had 1330 strikeouts in 22 seasons and was considered to be prone to strikeout when he didn't make contact. The most he ever struck out was 93 in one season. Yes some of those seasons, he didn't play even close to 150 games with the Red Sox, but even still, his ratio is well below the modern day players.

My point is that the perception has changed over the years to where it was once considered a letdown to the team to strike out, now it is no big deal, so all pitchers get an increase in the number of strikeouts. Not just the ones with blazing fastballs. Look that the runs scored and ERAs and how those numbers have risen over the decades. Yes there are more teams, so look at the average per game vice totals for years.

It has always been an interesting concept to compare the different eras for sure. But I think that ERA is a good one. I would be interested to see if anyone has done an ERA by inning on some of those older era pitchers to see if the late innings produced more runs, or later in the seasons with the 4 man rotations, the ERAs increased as the season progressed and the arms 'tired' out?

Always fun to look at things like that.

Based on slugging Pct it's still the Babe. Throw out the 3 years that Bonds slugged ridiculous numbers that were almost 200 points aboved his lifetime average (2001-2004). Clearly Balco Steroid Years. Pujols has been Amazingly consistent for 9 years. His highest slugging Percentages are in the .670 area, very similar to Aaron's numbers, not out of whack like Bonds numbers in the high.700s to .850. Pujols lifetime slugging % is about .624. No one knows if Pujols is 100% clean, but every one hopes so. There is no proof he has been dirty, at least so far and he came out of Jr. College and a short stint in the minors posting similar numbers as he is today. Pujols has 3 seasons of 40+ home Runs and 40+ doubles if he gets 3 more doubles this season. Only Gehrig and Ruth have 4. Home Runs, Doubles combined with a good batting average comprise slugging to me.  Babe is still the Sulton of Swat with Pujols, Aaron, Gehrig, and Williams in a small group behind him. Stan Musial, Dimaggio, Fox, Mantle, Frank Robinson, Willie Mays and a few others in a goup beind that. I have left out a few names but you get my point. No known juicers allowed on this list.

I voted "Other", Henry Aaron gets my vote.

Ruth's batting average is the same as Williams' over the length of their careers, and Ruth spent as many years pitching in the dead-ball era as Williams spent in the military.

Ruth held the record for pitching the most consecutive scoreless innings in World Series for close to 40 years. So not only was Ruth the greatest slugger, he was the greatest ballplayer of all time. Period.