The other day in my Luis Gonzalez post, I had a table that listed the top 20 left fielder of all-time, ranked by JAWS. The only issue was that in my rush to complete the list, I happened to forget two prominent players on the list. So here is the completed table:
Player | Career WARP3 | Peak WARP | JAWS | BRAR | BRAA | FRAA |
Barry Bonds | 226.2 | 100.2 | 163.2 | 1675 | 1373 | 128 |
Stan Musial | 193.2 | 88.6 | 140.9 | 1422 | 1082 | 67 |
Ted Williams | 164.4 | 89.4 | 126.9 | 1398 | 1166 | -24 |
Rickey Henderson | 175.5 | 74.6 | 125.1 | 1219 | 840 | 41 |
Carl Yastrzemski | 137.3 | 63.7 | 100.5 | 990 | 589 | 47 |
Tim Raines | 128.7 | 71.4 | 100.1 | 866 | 569 | 36 |
Jim O'Rourke | 128.9 | 56.0 | 92.5 | 579 | 309 | -58 |
Ed Delahanty | 110.5 | 71.3 | 90.9 | 746 | 513 | -11 |
Billy Williams | 110.8 | 62.8 | 86.8 | 801 | 493 | 64 |
Luis Gonzalez | 104.8 | 60.2 | 82.5 | 581 | 319 | 89 |
Al Simmons | 104.1 | 60.1 | 82.1 | 652 | 378 | 45 |
Bob Johnson | 96.4 | 60.4 | 78.4 | 633 | 407 | 2 |
Albert Belle | 85.3 | 71.2 | 78.3 | 638 | 445 | -18 |
Willie Stargell | 99.4 | 56.3 | 77.9 | 860 | 597 | -84 |
Manny Ramirez | 96.5 | 59.0 | 77.8 | 791 | 594 | -66 |
Joe Medwick | 92.2 | 60.3 | 76.3 | 628 | 391 | 43 |
Fred Clarke | 100.9 | 51.4 | 76.2 | 673 | 387 | 44 |
Jesse Burkett | 94.7 | 56.1 | 75.4 | 741 | 478 | -54 |
Brian Giles | 82.7 | 63.8 | 73.3 | 566 | 412 | 140 |
George Foster | 85.7 | 60.2 | 73.0 | 515 | 279 | 27 |
A couple of things. There were some complaints about some aspects of this table, such as "Brian Giles is in no way the best defensive left fielder ever." Obviously, Giles isn't. He just happens to have the most Fielding Runs Above Average in the top 20 left fielder list, which is comprised entirely of big bats.
There also seemed to be this feeling that I was pushing Luis Gonzalez for Cooperstown. I was simply showing how close he actually was, which I knew would be a surprise to many -- it surprised me, and I purposely seek out weird statistical nuggets like that. Luis Gonzalez at present is not a Hall of Famer; he's a little short, and a few more league average seasons would give him the value he needs.
Another point...there seems to be this idea that Luis Gonzalez was a fringe starter who revived a career that he never really had when he came to Arizona. Has anyone taken a look at his WARP3 scores?
- Year by Year WARP3
- 1991: 5.6
- 1992: 4.2
- 1993: 8.4
- 1994: 6.2
- 1995: 7.0
- 1996: 5.6
- 1997: 5.1
- 1998: 4.7
- 1999: 8.0
- 2000: 8.2
- 2001: 13.0
- 2002: 6.9
- 2003: 8.7
- 2004: 3.1
- 2005: 6.1
I understand it seems like it isn't the case, but if you take a look at the numbers, Gonzalez has had a fine career, with some very good seasons outside of his Arizona time, and when the Hall doesn't take him, he'll be one of the better players in the Ray Lankford Wing.