Who is the best baseball player of all time?

Hank Aaron is the most consistent player over a baseball career as long as his

Question: Who is the best baseball player of all time?
Position‹2 of 5›: Hank Aaron is the greatest baseball player ever
Argument‹2 of 2: Hank Aaron is the most consistent player over a baseball career as long as his

In all team sports, especially baseball, consistency in individual player performance can be hard to come by, but when a player like Hank Aaron so profoundly impacts his league and his team each season in his 23-year career, he automatically joins the elite conversation.

The argument

Hank Aaron is the greatest of all time because he went out and put up unfathomable numbers every season in his 23 years as a player. The real feats in his game do not simply arise from his records in multiple batting categories, but they emerge from the unrivaled consistency with which he commanded baseball. He is third all-time in games played over his career at 3,298 behind Pete Rose and Carl Yastrzemski, neither of whom, unlike Aaron, even crack the top five for runs scored, total bases, home runs, or RBIs. Throughout his tenure, he made 21 all-star appearances (the last of which came at age 41) and reached the top 10 for NL MVP voting for 13 of those seasons. 8 of his playing seasons saw him claim first for total bases in either the National League or the entire MLB, and he led in both RBIs and slugging percentage in 4 seasons. In his third year, he led the National League in hits, batting average, and total bases, and in his eighteenth year, he led the MLB in slugging percentage, OPS, and OPS+. He never hit under 20 home runs in a single season from 1955 to 1974. His game did not age, and his incredibly level numbers over his historically long career, coupled with his record-breaking batting statistics, make him the GOAT.

Premises

[P1]Aaron put up elite numbers every season across 23 years, ranking third all-time in games played while surpassing everyone above him in runs, total bases, home runs and RBIs—an unrivalled consistency. [P2] He made 21 all-star appearances (the last at 41), reached the top 10 in NL MVP voting 13 times, led in total bases 8 seasons, and never hit under 20 home runs from 1955 to 1974, his game never aging. [C] Because his record-breaking statistics were sustained with unmatched consistency over a historically long career, Hank Aaron is the greatest baseball player ever.

Counter-arguments

Consistency in statistical averages over a long period of time does not automatically determine individual greatness, especially not all-time greatness. Yes, a player can achieve regularly high marks throughout their tenured career, but Aaron only achieved one World Series victory, so does his consistency necessarily mean he went above and beyond the performances of his contemporaries? Additionally, if someone had consistently high numbers over, say, 18 seasons instead of 23, does that take him out of the GOAT conversation? Babe Ruth does not even reach the top 50 all-time games played list, so is he, along with many other amazing players, out of the running?The definition for greatness as well as consistency are vague here, and the jump between the two is inherently illogical.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Consistency does not always equate greatness or value. [Rejecting P3] The jump from P2 to P3 is unfounded.

Framing

Consistency in baseball is essential in determining a player's intrinsic value, skill, and greatness. Hank Aaron, because of his extremely high level of play each season, especially over a top three longest all-time career benchmark and his outstanding record-breaking batting totals and averages, is the greatest ever.