Ken Griffey Jr. and Barry Bonds are two of the most prolific players in Major League history, with 27 All-Star Games, eight MVP awards, 18 Gold Glove Awards and 19 Silver Slugger Awards between the two. Griffey led the league in home runs four times, while Bonds did it twice. You can say that both of these players were some of the best entertainment in the game, with every kid wanting to emulate Griffey’s stance and it was every kayaker’s dream to catch a home run from Bonds in McCovey Cove.

Neither player had the opportunity win a World Series, with Bonds having his shot in 2002, just coming up short in Game 7 against the Angels and Griffey only making it to the ALCS once, never playing in a World Series game.

It’s tough to say who the better player was, with Bonds career being shattered by the PED (performance enhancing drugs) allegations and Griffey’s stints on the disabled list in the latter part of his career. 

We will start with Bonds, who allegedly started taking steroids after the 1998 season, so first we will examine his career to that point against Griffey. Following the 1998 season, Bonds already had 411 career home runs, 1,216 RBIs and a career batting average of .290. He also had a career WAR of 99.5. During Griffey’s first 13 seasons, he hit .296 with 460 home runs, 1,335 RBIs and a WAR of 77.9. During that span Griffey had more hits, home runs, RBIs, higher slugging percentage, to go with a better BABIP (Batting Average on Balls in Play), Isolated Power. Bonds had more runs, doubles, triples, walks, less strikeouts, more stolen bases, higher OBP, OPS, and WAR. 

Note: You can change the seasons on the stats page to see how the two players match up over different time spans.

After looking at those stats it’s fair to say that both players were pretty even, and it would have been tough to choose one player over the other. We didn’t even look at the defensive stats, which would favor Griffey.

Looking at the comparison for the last nine seasons of each player’s career is a lot different, Bonds dominated every category, better batting average, more hits, runs, home runs, RBIs, triples, doubles, walks, less strikeouts, more stolen bases, OBP, SLG, OPS, BABIP and WAR. You name it and Bonds was better than Griffey at it during the last nine seasons of his career. 

What Bonds did at the end of his career was unbelievable even with PEDs, nobody could walk off the street on to a Major League team, take some steroids and magically be the best player in the game. The PEDs did help him hit more home runs, but what Bonds did during the end of his career was more than just hit home runs, he walked over 1,200 times in 9 seasons. He was so feared by pitchers that they would even walk him with the bases loaded. You could probably break the Bonds, Griffey comparison into two sections the beginning of their careers and the end. With Griffey controlling the beginning and Bonds dominating the end, respectively.