Phillies' Brandon Marsh is between Ty Cobb and Shoeless Joe Jackson on all-time MLB leaderboard

Phillies' Brandon Marsh is between Ty Cobb and Shoeless Joe Jackson on all-time MLB leaderboard originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

This is one of those stats that's pretty much unbelievable.

Would you consider Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Brandon Marsh one of the best hitters in baseball history? No? Well, there's something you ought to see.

Marsh ranks second in MLB history in batting average on balls in play, the relatively modern stat known as BABIP.

The lefty, bearded Marsh has a career .370 BABIP.

The only player above him is Ty Cobb (.383 BABIP).

Shoeless Joe Jackson is third at .366, with Rogers Hornsby (.365) and Rod Carew (.359) rounding out the top-five.

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The key is that BABIP doesn't account for strikeouts. And in this modern era, there's a lot more striking out than there ever was with the old-school players.

And yeah, Marsh strikes out a lot.

Still, this stat is absurd. When Marsh hits the ball, he's the man. He's historically great, when he hits the ball.