Morgan, Rose ranked among MLB’s top 40 players by ESPN

ESPN’s latest (apparently successful, we must admit) attempt to make up news involves Major League Baseball and at least two Cincinnati Reds.

The network is ranking the top 100 players of all time, a list created via head-to-head votes on players by an "expert" panel considering both peak performance and overall career value.

No Reds appeared on the list until today, when Joe Morgan showed up at 38th and Pete Rose followed at No. 37.

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The full list hasn’t been rolled out yet, but we already know Morgan and Rose are behind noted Reds killer Albert Pujols, who is No. 31.

Tom Seaver, who pitched for the Reds from 1977-82 but was better known as a member of the New York Mets, is ranked 34th.

Also of note: Rose is ranked 28 spots ahead of Ichiro Suzuki, who was the (seemingly unwanted) subject of some controversy earlier this season when he reached 4,256 hits between his career in MLB and the Japanese professional league.

For comparison’s sake, Baseball-Reference.com puts Morgan 30th among all players in WAR (wins above replacement) while Rose is No. 65 (and Barry Larkin is 97th).

More on the Reds: Our favorite notes from Ken Griffey Jr.'s HS scouting report

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