A few notes:
Very few pitchers whose careers occured mostly before 1900 are included; the dead-ball era pitchers' high IP and decisions coupled with low ERAs would have badly skewed the results. Exceptions are made for a few pitchers, most notably Christy Mathewson and Cy Young.
No caught-stealing records exist for a number of years. Because caught stealing numbers tend to negate much of the value of steals, stolen bases are not counted for players in years their caught-stealing numbers are unknown. This tends to hurt players like Ty Cobb.
Players are ranked at the position at which they played during the majority of their peak years. Thus, Joe Torre is listed as a catcher though the majority of his total career time was spent at other positions. Chipper Jones is listed as a thirdbaseman, but he may very well be an outfielder by the end of his career.
For now, all the relievers on the list have closer credentials. The pool is made up of the 116 relievers with the most
career saves. Middle relievers may be included at a future date. Because changes have been made
over time in the way relievers are used and in how saves are determined, the list is dominated by players
of the past couple decades. John Smoltz is the only player to qualify for the list of Relievers and Starting Pitchers.
A few notables who didn't make the cut:
Don Baylor, Frank White, Phil Cavaretta, Mickey Lolich, Bill Mazeroski, Jim Lonborg, Mel Harder, Chuck Finley and Mark Langston.