The best baseball players born on Jan. 10

Who are the best players born on each day of the year? We have a list for every day on the calendar.

Here’s a subjective ranking of the top five for Jan. 10.

1) Willie McCovey (1938)
As you might have guessed, McCovey Cove outside Oracle Park in San Francisco is named for this Giants star and Hall of Famer. McCovey spent 19 of his 22 seasons with the Giants, sharing 13 of them with fellow franchise icon Willie Mays. McCovey burst onto the scene in 1959, winning the NL Rookie of the Year, and kept raking in accolades from there. He received MVP votes 10 times, won the NL MVP in 1969, led the NL in home runs and slugging three times each and finished his career with 521 homers. McCovey, who ranks in the top 10 all-time for the Giants in nearly every hitting category, became a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 1986.

2) Del Pratt (1888)
For the first six years of his career, Pratt consistently produced for a mostly subpar St. Louis Browns club that finished above .500 once in that span. While in St. Louis, he averaged 151 games played, 160 hits, 30 doubles, 12 triples and 29 stolen bases per year while hitting .282 and leading the AL in games played four times. Pratt spent the second half of his playing tenure with the Yankees, Red Sox and Tigers, sharing a roster with newly minted Yankee Babe Ruth in 1920. He was also one of the most patient hitters ever to don pinstripes; his 21.3 at-bats per strikeout is the ninth-best in Yankees history.

3) Chick Stahl (1873)
Stahl spent his entire MLB tenure in Boston with the Beaneaters and Americans, as both a player and a manager. Between the lines, Stahl mostly manned center field and was an expert contact hitter -- he finished his career with a .305 batting average and hit over .300 five times, twice topping .350. Stahl also played in the first World Series in 1903, in which the Americans beat the Pirates, and hit .303 over the eight-game set. After he briefly served as the Americans’ manager in 1906 before opting not to manage the following season, Stahl’s life took a tragic turn when he died of an apparent suicide in 1907 at age 34.

4) Adam Kennedy (1976)
The California native came up with the Cardinals in 1999, but it was in Anaheim where he made his greatest impact over a 14-year career. Kennedy mostly manned second base with the Angels and swung a steady bat, averaging 25 doubles per year with a .280 batting average. He came through on the big stage in the 2002 postseason when he smashed three home runs in Game 5 of the ALCS against the Twins, which clinched the pennant for the eventual World Series champions. Kennedy, who was hitting ninth in the order, only had 23 Major League homers to his name before his remarkable display of playoff power. It was the only three-homer game of his career, and he earned the 2002 ALCS MVP award for his efforts.

5) John Beckwith (1900)
Beckwith was a star in the Negro Leagues for parts of 12 seasons between 1920-35. Nicknamed “The Black Bomber,” the infielder was routinely compared to Ruth, both for his power and raw hitting ability. Beckwith finished his career with a .349 average and hit over .350 in five of his first eight seasons. On May 22, 1921, he made history with the Chicago Giants by clobbering the first home run to clear the high fences at Cincinnati’s Redland Field (later known as Crosley Field), signifying baseball’s transition into the live-ball era of the 1920s.

Others of note:

Harry Wright (1835)
Known as one of the “Fathers of Professional Baseball,” Wright played for and managed the first known professional baseball team, the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings. After his seven-year playing career ended in 1877, Wright continued managing until 1893 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1953. His brother, George, was a star player for the Red Stockings and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1937.

Want to see more baseball birthdays for Jan. 10? Find the complete list on Baseball Reference.