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 Jan. 18.

1) Curt Flood (1938)
If Flood had done nothing but play baseball, he¡¯d have had a memorable enough career, spending 12 seasons as a defensively gifted center fielder on the Bob Gibson-era Cardinals of the 1960s, winning seven Gold Gloves while helping to win the World Series in both 1964 and ¡®67. Of course, Flood is notable for considerably more than that, because his refusal to report to the Phillies upon being traded there after the 1969 season led to lawsuits and laid the groundwork for the beginning of the age of free agency we still know today.

2) Brady Anderson (1964)
In 1988, Baltimore sent former 20-game winner Mike Boddicker to the Red Sox in a Deadline trade that returned a pair of unproven prospects: Curt Schilling and Brady Anderson. Not bad, Orioles. While Schilling made his mark on baseball history after leaving Maryland, Anderson spent 14 seasons in the Baltimore outfield, becoming one of just two players, along with Barry Bonds, to have a season with 50 steals (53 in 1992) and a season with 50 homers (50 in 1996). He later spent several seasons as Baltimore¡¯s vice president of baseball operations, but he¡¯ll always be remembered for one of baseball¡¯s most unexpected great seasons, that ¡®96 when he blasted 50 homers and had a 1.034 OPS.

3) Mike Lieberthal (1972)
The third overall pick in the 1990 Draft, two picks behind Chipper Jones, Lieberthal didn¡¯t quite reach the same heights as Atlanta¡¯s legendary third baseman. That¡¯s not the same thing as saying he didn¡¯t have a strong career, though; Lieberthal played parts of 14 seasons in the Majors, all but the last for the Phillies, and took more plate appearances as a catcher than any other Phillie in modern-era history.

4) Scott McGregor (1954)
McGregor was a first-round pick of the Yankees in 1972 but never pitched in New York, finding himself traded to the Orioles as a Minor Leaguer in 1976. He¡¯d spend his entire 13-year career in Baltimore, earning Cy Young votes in two different seasons while pitching extremely well in the postseason, allowing just nine earned runs in 49 2/3 October innings -- most notably, throwing a shutout against the Phillies in Game 5 to finish off the 1983 World Series.

5) Max Fried (1994)
When you earn Cy Young votes, Most Valuable Player votes, win a Gold Glove, win a Silver Slugger, and win the deciding game of the World Series before you even turn 28, then it doesn¡¯t matter that your career is still a work in progress. The No. 7 overall pick by the Padres in 2012, Fried was sent to Atlanta in the Justin Upton trade in 2014; over eight seasons with the Braves, he posted a 3.07 ERA. Fried joined the Yankees on an eight-year, $218 million deal, the largest contract ever issued to a left-handed pitcher, prior to the start of the 2025 season.

Others of note:
Michael Pineda (1989)
One of the all-time great prospect-for-prospect challenge trades seemed like it had been made in 2012, when the Mariners traded 23-year-old All-Star Pineda to the Yankees for 22-year-old super-prospect catcher Jes¨²s Montero. While it didn¡¯t end up playing out that way -- Montero never ended up hitting at all and Pineda was held back from stardom by multiple injuries -- ¡°Big Mike¡± has enjoyed a solid career as a mid-rotation starter, first for the Yankees and then later the Twins and Tigers.

Billy Grabarkewitz (1946)
A man born well ahead of his time, Grabarkewitz had what would by today¡¯s standards be considered an all-time great rookie season. In 1970, he hit 17 homers, stole 19 bases, posted a .399 OBP and played capable defense at three infield positions, good for what¡¯s now seen as a monster 6.8 WAR season despite earning zero Rookie of the Year votes. But he got into only 97 more games as a Dodger, in part because he struck out what was then a franchise-record 149 times and mostly because he battled a seemingly never-ending set of injuries. (¡°I¡¯ve been X-rayed so much I glow in the dark,¡± he once cracked, and that was before he even reached the big leagues.) By age 29, Grabarkewitz was out of the Majors for good.

Carl Morton (1944)
Potentially one of the most-currently-anonymous award winners in Major League history, you might not remember Morton at all, but he did win the 1970 National League Rookie of the Year Award for the Expos. Morton was later traded to the Braves, where he threw at least 250 innings three years in a row, but his career was done by 1976 and he unfortunately passed away from a heart attack in 1983 at only 39 years old.

Mike Fornieles (1932)
"Mike¡± was really Jos¨¦ Miguel, born in Havana before becoming one of many Cuban players to suit up for the original Washington Senators, who had a farm team in Havana at the time. In his Major League debut at 20 years old, Fornieles threw a one-hitter (while walking six) against the Philadelphia A¡¯s, but after stops with the White Sox and O¡¯s, he found his greatest success as a reliever with Boston from 1957-63, winning the very first ¡°AL Fireman of the Year¡± award in ¡®60.

Want to see more baseball birthdays for Jan. 18? Find the complete list on Baseball Reference.