The best baseball players born on Feb. 2

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 Feb. 2.

1) Red Schoendienst (1923)
After a 19-year career in which he recorded 2,449 hits, earned 10 All-Star selections and won two World Series titles -- one with the Cardinals in 1946 and another with the Milwaukee Braves in 1957 -- Schoendienst went on to manage for 14 seasons, all with St. Louis. He led the Redbirds to a World Series crown in 1967 and another Fall Classic appearance the following year.

The Veterans Committee elected the former second baseman to the Hall of Fame as a player in 1989.

2) Wes Ferrell (1908)
One of baseball’s top hitting pitchers, Ferrell holds the AL/NL record for homers by a pitcher with 38, and his .797 OPS ranks first among hurlers with at least 1,000 career plate appearances. Ferrell also holds the single-season mark for homers by a pitcher with nine in 1931.

His brother, Rick, a catcher, is a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. A rare MLB brother battery, the two were teammates with the Red Sox for three seasons before being traded together to the Washington Senators in 1936.

3) Melvin Mora (1972)
A two-time All-Star, Mora spent the majority of his career with the Orioles, joining Baltimore in the 2000 trade that sent shortstop Mike Bordick to the Mets. (Bordick returned to the O’s as a free agent the following offseason.) Mora eventually found a home as the team’s starting third baseman after beginning his career as a utility player.

His best season came in 2004, when he hit .340 with 27 homers, 104 RBIs and an AL-leading .419 on-base percentage. Mora had another 100-RBI season in 2008.

4) John Tudor (1954)
While he had a solid career, posting a 124 ERA+ over 1,797 innings, Tudor is best remembered for his magical 1985 run with the Cardinals. After starting out the season 1-7 with a 3.74 ERA, the left-hander reeled off a stretch that saw him go 20-1 with a 1.37 ERA and 10 shutouts in 26 starts. He finished second in the NL Cy Young voting behind the Mets’ Dwight Gooden, who turned in one of the greatest pitching seasons of all time (24-4, 1.53 ERA, 268 K’s, 12.2 bWAR).

5) Scott Erickson (1968)
In 1991, Erickson led the Majors with 20 wins, finished second in the AL Cy Young Award race behind the Red Sox’s Roger Clemens and won a World Series title with the Twins. Three years later, he threw the third no-hitter in Twins history.

Others of note:

Doris Sams (1927): Sams, also known as "Sammye," was a star pitcher and outfielder for eight seasons in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, winning the Player of the Year Award twice. Jean Faut, widely considered to be the greatest overhand pitcher in AAGPBL history, was the only other player in the league's 12-year run to earn multiple Player of the Year Awards. Sams threw a perfect game in 1947 and led the league in batting average in 1949 and homers in 1952.

Jason Vargas (1983): Vargas went 99-99 with a 4.29 ERA over 14 seasons. He led MLB with 18 wins as a member of the Royals in 2017, earning his only All-Star selection the same year.

Matthew Boyd (1991): Traded to the Tigers in the 2015 deal that sent David Price to the Blue Jays, Boyd posted a 4.87 ERA over seven seasons with Detroit and struck out 238 batters in 2019.

Adrian Houser (1993): In 2015, the Brewers traded Carlos Gomez and Mike Fiers to the Astros and got back a four-player package that included future All-Star closer Josh Hader. It also included Houser, who pitched to a 132 ERA+ over 142 1/3 innings for Milwaukee in 2021.

Want to see more baseball birthdays for Feb. 2? Find the complete list on Baseball-Reference.