Part 1, found here, looks at trends and genres of baseball nicknames as well as explains how I got my list of nicknames.

The goal today is to rank the best nicknames in baseball. I have a list of 934 active players, 565 of them have a nickname on Baseball Reference and 105 of them have multiple nicknames. That’s a lot to whittle down. You may think ranking such a thing is arbitrary and biased, however, I would like to point out that it’s also silly and pointless.

So let's get to it.

20. The Big Maple - James Paxton

The 6’ 4” lefty from British Columbia is as big as a tree and the maple leaf tattoo on his forearm makes him look so much like a Big Maple that a Bald Eagle even tried to roost on him.