The Best Rookie Class of Major League Baseball

In Major League Baseball, every year that passes brings a crop of new talent to replace the players that have retired, released, or were injured throughout the season. Some players make their debut with an extraordinary amount of hype and others sneak up on the fans. Fans love to compare their favorite team's new rookie to other all-stars and legends that have played in the past, but the majority of rookies will never live up to the hype. This obviously means that some rookie classes will be better than others, especially when reviewed in hindsight. That's why I present to you the best rookie class in Major League Baseball history...the 1986 class.

The rookies of the year for 1986 were Jose Canseco for the American League and Todd Worrell for the National League. While there have been better rookie of the year winners, the 1986 class also featured many more players that would end up in the Hall of Fame, all-star rosters, and became impact players for their organizations.

Players such as Barry Larkin, Barry Bonds, Will Clark, Kevin Mitchell, Bobby Bonilla, John Kruk, Wally Joyner, Danny Tartabull, Ruben Sierra, Andres Galarraga Robby Thompson, Darren Daulton, Bob Tewksbury, Kelly Gruber, Cecil Fielder, Cory Snyder, Bobby Witt, Dan Plesac, Terry Mulholland, Mark Portugal, Doug Drabek, and Jim Deshaies exceeded their rookie limits during the 1986 season. The same season also saw the debuts of players such as Mark McGwire, Bobby Thigpen, Jay Bell, Greg Swindell, David Cone, Bo Jackson, Kevin Seitzer, Terry Steinback, Kevin Brown, Pete Incaviglia, Mike Stanley, Mitch Williams, Fred McGriff, Duane Ward, Greg Maddux, Jaime Moyer, Rafael Palmeiro, Kal Daniels, Dave Magadan, John Smiley, Bip Roberts, and Benito Santiago. The 1986 class would provide some of the most important players for the next decade in Major League Baseball.

This includes the all-time home run leader (Barry Bonds) , one of the best shortstops of all-time (Barry Larkin), the debuts of one of the best pitchers of all-time (Greg Maddux), and several other players that would arguably be in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame (Rafael Palmeiro, Fred McGriff, Jose Canseco) if not for the fact that they played during the steroids era and were either suspected of cheating, caught cheating, or just overlooked because of the era their power peaked.

This class had it all. Power, speed, defense, pitching, closers, and team leaders. It even had a two sport star in Bo Jackson. While some of these players might not have been the nicest guys in baseball, they definitely had the most talent as a rookie class.

The only classes that could rival the 1986 class of rookies is the 1951 class (Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, and Minnie Minoso) and the 1982 class (Ryne Sandberg, Wade Boggs, and Cal Ripken Jr.).

Picture shown is 1986 Donruss Wally Joyner rookie card