The best baseball players born on Nov. 8

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 Nov. 8:

1) Giancarlo Stanton (1989)
Known for his prodigious home run power and routinely topping Statcast’s exit velocity leaderboards, Stanton has compiled a 44.0 WAR through the first 14 seasons of his career from 2010-23. A second-round Draft pick of the Marlins in 2007, the slugger’s first eight seasons came in Miami, where he was a four-time All-Star, a two-time Silver Slugger and a Home Run Derby champion. Stanton won the NL MVP Award in 2017, when he slashed .281/.376/.631 and led the Majors with 59 homers and 132 RBIs. The Marlins signed Stanton to a 13-year, $325 million contract in 2014, but they traded him to the Yankees after his MVP season. Although the outfielder and DH dealt with various injuries over his first few seasons in New York, Stanton is still one of the most feared hitters in the game.

2) Edgardo Alfonzo (1973)
Alfonzo was a force in the Mets’ lineups of the late 1990s and early 2000s, often batting second or third in front of great hitters like John Olerud and Mike Piazza. Fonzie had incredible back-to-back seasons in 1999-2000 to help guide the Mets to consecutive playoff berths for the first time in club history, as he slashed .313/.404/.521 while averaging 26 homers, 116 runs scored and 101 RBIs. The infielder delivered arguably the greatest single-game performance in Mets history on Aug. 30, 1999, when he went 6-for-6 with three homers, a double, six runs scored and five RBIs in a win over the Astros. In a one-game tiebreaker against the Reds for the NL’s Wild Card spot in ’99, Alfonzo got the Mets off to a fast start with a two-run homer in the first inning and later added an RBI double to propel New York into the NLDS. And Alfonzo came up clutch again in Game 1 against Arizona, belting a solo homer off Randy Johnson in the first inning and then a game-winning grand slam in the top of the ninth as the Mets went on to defeat the D-backs in four games before losing to the rival Braves in a riveting NLCS. Alfonzo made his lone All-Star team in 2000 and hit .444 in the NLCS against the Cardinals as the Mets rolled to their first World Series appearance since 1986 before falling to the crosstown rival Yankees in five games. Fun fact: I once caught a foul ball off the bat of Alfonzo at Shea Stadium when I was in high school!

3) Yasmani Grandal (1988)
The switch-hitting catcher has played for four teams over the first 12 years of his MLB career from 2012-23, but Grandal began to make a name for himself during his four seasons with the Dodgers from 2015-18, when he hit 89 homers with a .790 OPS. Grandal then signed a one-year deal with the Brewers and had the best full season of his career in ’19, hitting 28 homers with a .380 on-base percentage and an .848 OPS. A first-round Draft pick of the Reds in 2010 and a two-time All-Star, Grandal signed a four-year, $73 million deal with the White Sox after his strong one season in Milwaukee.

4) John Denny (1952)
The right-hander pitched for St. Louis, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Cincinnati during his 13-year career, compiling a 32.2 WAR that ranks third among all players born on Nov. 8. Denny won the National League ERA title in 1976 with a 2.52 mark for the Cardinals, with whom he spent the first six years of his career. Pitching alongside Hall of Famer Steve Carlton in Philly, Denny delivered his best season in 1983, going 19-6 with a 2.37 ERA to claim the NL Cy Young Award. Then in the postseason that year, Denny tossed a 7 2/3-inning gem to win Game 1 of the World Series, but the Phillies ended up falling to the Orioles in five games.

5) Tony Cuccinello (1907)
Cuccinello played for five teams over his 15-year career, racking up 1,729 hits while batting .280, but the three-time All-Star never made it to the postseason as a player. The infielder hit a productive .289 with a .770 OPS over the first seven seasons of his career, four of which came with the Brooklyn Dodgers. After his playing days, Cuccinello served as a coach on numerous big league staffs from 1949-69, and that’s when he got his first taste of postseason baseball. He was on the losing end of the World Series as a coach with Cleveland in 1954 and the White Sox in 1959, but he finally earned a ring with the 1968 Tigers.

Others of note:

Jerry Remy (1952)
A member of the Red Sox Hall of Fame, Remy was a .275 hitter over his 10-year career with the Angels and the Sox, but he was beloved in Boston for his work in the broadcast booth for 33 years until his death in 2021.

Bucky Harris (1896)
Harris is in the Hall of Fame for his 29-year managerial career, but he also hit .274 over his 12-year playing career as a second baseman. Harris won his first World Series in 1924 as the player/manager of the Washington Senators, and his second title came as the skipper of the 1947 Yankees.

Ed Kranepool (1944)
A member of the 1969 Amazin’ Mets, Kranepool homered in Game 3 of the Fall Classic that year to help New York seize control of the Series. The first baseman and outfielder played all 18 seasons of his career with the Mets and was an All-Star in 1965.

Jeff Blauser (1965)
Blauser was the shortstop for the powerhouse Braves in the 1990s and won a World Series with the club in ’95, although he didn’t play in the Fall Classic due to injury. The two-time All-Star’s best season came in his last year with Atlanta in ’97, when he slashed .308/.405/.482 with 17 homers and won a Silver Slugger Award.

Want to see more baseball birthdays for Nov. 8? Find the complete list on Baseball Reference.