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

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.

He just hits the ball a lot less than the likes of Cobb, Jackson and Hornsby once did.

Marsh has struck out in 30.9% of his career at bats. For reference, Cobb struck out in 5.2% of his at bats.

To be fair to Marsh, pitching is incredible in the modern game. That explains most of the difference.

But man, what a stat. Marsh hanging out with some of the purest hitters from a long bygone era.

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