Who is better, Ruth or Bagwell?
Babe Ruth leads with a GOAT score of 94.6 against 84.4 for Jeff Bagwell — a gap of 10.2 points on GOAT Rank's weighted model.
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Ruth vs Bagwell
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Quick answer
GOAT Rank currently ranks Babe Ruth above Jeff Bagwell: 94.6 vs 84.4. Babe Ruth leads on Dominance, Honours, Statistics.
How the GOAT Score is calculated →GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
RuthWinner
94.6Ruth wins: Dominance, Peak, Longevity, Honours, Statistics
Bagwell
84.4Bagwell wins: no category outright
Candidates
Locked to BaseballShareable URL · /compare/babe-ruth-vs-jeff-bagwell
Time range
Showing full careers. Pick a window to recalculate the selected period.
Category radar
Verdict
Weighted GOAT score
🇺🇸 Babe Ruth
94.6
Ruth leads in 5 of 5 weighted categories.
1. Babe Ruth
2. Jeff Bagwell
Category breakdown
Season form · Form index per season
Career timeline · Form index per season
Cumulative output season by season — the shape of each career against the other.
GOAT pace tracker
Through age 23 · Form index per season
1. 🇺🇸 Babe Ruth11 home runs
1 season by age 23 · 11 per season
Setting the pace at age 23
No verified birth date for Bagwell — shown in the pro-debut view instead.
Every career is cut at the season the athlete turned 23, so a rookie today is measured against exactly what a legend had banked by the same birthday.
| Metric | RuthRetired | BagwellRetired |
|---|---|---|
| Home runs | 714 | — |
| World Series titles | 7 | — |
| Career OPS | 1.164 | — |
| Batting average | 0.342 | — |
| RBIs | 2,214 | — |
| Pitching ERA | 2.28 | — |
| Career home runs | — | 449 |
| MVP awards | — | 1 |
| Career RBIs | — | 1,529 |
| All-Star selections | — | 4 |
| Career on-base percentage | — | 0.408 |
| Dominance w25% | 100 | 82 |
| Peak w20% | 99 | 94 |
| Longevity w20% | 82 | 76 |
| Honours w20% | 94 | 82 |
| Statistics w15% | 97 | 90 |
Fan vote — data vs the people
GOAT Rank · the data
Ruth94.6
Bagwell84.4
FAQ
Where does Bagwell beat Ruth?
Bagwell does not lead any of the five categories; Ruth is ahead or level on all of them.
How is the Ruth vs Bagwell score calculated?
Both are scored on peak, dominance, honours, statistics, longevity within their sport. Ruth: 94.6, Bagwell: 84.4.
What do you think?
0 commentsMake your case for Ruth vs Bagwell. The scoring is published in full — if you can point at the pillar or the weight you disagree with, we read it. Read the methodology paper.