Top Twenty Left Fielders: Updated and Corrected

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:

Top Twenty LF'ers by JAWS

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

Somewhere around 4.5 WARP3 is league average. Luis Gonzalez has had one season out of 16 where he was a below average player according to WARP3, and within that one season he only played in 105 games due to injury. For those who questioned his defensive play, Gonzalez is not quite the defender he used to be, but back in his Houston days he seems to have been quite the fielder, which would account for the high FRAA value. I'll close by saying that Luis Gonzalez is not quite a Hall of Famer, but he is much more qualified than some of the guys the Hall are thinking about inducting, like Jim Rice, who ranks 28th on this list of left fielders, whereas Gonzo ranks 10th. He has the longevity, and he has a better peak.

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.