We'll see the names of Hank Aaron and Willie Mays a few times below.
We'll see the names of Hank Aaron and Willie Mays a few times below. (Getty Images)

Thursday marks the 81st birthday for Hall of Famer and baseball legend Hank Aaron. Everyone knows Aaron sits toward the top of the home run, RBI, hit and many other leaderboards in the history of the game. Not surprisingly, he's also rather high in Wins Above Replacement.

With the birthday and the spread of WAR as a (polarizing) more discussed stat, I figured it might be fun to fire up the Leaderboarding machine.

I'm done qualifying WAR, so I'll just simply say that if you hate WAR, you won't care about anything below. That's fine. You do get fired from the Internet if you elect the uncreative and played "WAR, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing" refrain. Also keep in mind that no one with a brain thinks one stat -- especially an imperfect and complicated one that is calculated differently on different sites -- fully defines a player.

Anywho, let's rock.

Career WAR, baseball-reference.com version

1. Babe Ruth, 183.6
2. Cy Young, 168.4
3. Walter Johnson, 165.6
4. Barry Bonds, 162.4
5. Willie Mays, 156.2
6. Ty Cobb, 151.1
7. Hank Aaron, 142.6
8. Roger Clemens, 140.3
9. Tris Speaker, 133.6
10. Honus Wagner, 131

Among position players ...

1. Ruth, 163 (remember, he had great value as a pitcher, too)
2. Bonds, 162.4
3. Mays, 156.2
4. Cobb, 151.1
5. Aaron, 142.6
6. Speaker, 133.7
7. Wagner, 131
8. Stan Musial, 128.1
9. Rogers Hornsby, 127
10. Eddie Collins, 123.9

This is where we need to remind that WAR is a cumulative stat and having a shorter career costs players the ability to compile. Ted Williams, for example, ranks 11th but missed three prime years in an actual war.

Among pitchers ...

1. Young, 170.3
2. Johnson, 152.3
3. Clemens, 139.4
4. Pete Alexander, 117
5. Kid Nichols, 116.6
6. Lefty Grove, 109.9
7. Tom Seaver, 106.3
8. Greg Maddux, 104.6
9. Randy Johnson, 104.3
10. Phil Niekro, 97.4

Defensive WAR

1. Ozzie Smith, 43.4
2. Mark Belanger, 39.4
3. Brooks Robinson, 38.8
4. Cal Ripken, 34.6
5. Joe Tinker, 34.3
6. Luis Aparicio, 31.6
7. Rabbit Maranville, 30.8
8. Ivan Rodriguez, 28.7
8. Bobby Wallace, 28.7
10. Omar Vizquel, 28.4
10. Bill Dahlen, 28.4

Career WAR, Fangraphs.com version, position players

1. Ruth, 168.4
2. Bonds, 164
3. Mays, 149.9
4. Cobb, 149.3
5. Wagner, 138.1
6. Aaron, 136.3
7. Speaker, 130.6
8. Ted Williams, 130.4
9. Hornsby, 130.3
10. Musial, 126.8

Among pitchers ...

1. Clemens, 139.5 (wow)
2. Young, 135
3. W. Johnson, 123.9
4. Maddux, 113.9
5. R. Johnson, 111.7
6. Nolan Ryan, 106.6
7. Bert Blyleven, 105.7
8. Gaylord Perry, 104.6
9. Steve Carlton, 103.2
10. Seaver, 98.1

Defensive WAR (Fangraphs.com scores things far differently, so the numbers seem way out of whack)

1. Smith, 375.3
2. Robinson, 359.8
3. Belanger, 345.6
4. Rodriguez, 315.1
5. Ripken, 310.1
6. Aparicio, 302.7
7. Tinker, 288.7
8. Andruw Jones, 281.3
9. Maranville, 278.4
10. Dahlen, 274.1

So there you have it. Some fun leaderboards all revolving around WAR. Happy Thursday.