Hall of Fame Pyramid - Honorable Mention Right Fielders
Apr 17, 2019 10:23:17 GMT -5
Rich - Former GM, Texas Rangers, and 1 more like this
Post by sansterre - Milwaukee Brewers on Apr 17, 2019 10:23:17 GMT -5
A quick aside before we get started. We’re about to step into the ‘big offense’ section of the floor. The hitters we see in the outfield are going to be in way more offensive top tens than the players you’ve been seeing recently. Just remember positional value, about how much harder shortstop is to play over a career than left field. You’ll see guys with OPS+ below 100 announced as Bronze tier players because they play short, but nobody below 120 will even sniff this building at right field. This is completely fair; being a good hitter in the outfield (specifically the corners) is normal. When we’re considering who was greatest we’re comparing them to their peers. So if you see a great hitter in the Honorable Mention section here, we’re not saying they weren’t a great hitter, we’re saying that all factors (including their limitations that kept them playing a low-fielding position) suggest that in aggregate they were not as great as their bat was. That’s all.
Anyhow, let’s start the Right Fielders off small with ‘Wee’ Willie Keeler! Keeler was perhaps the most perfect pure slap hitter in history and was a perfect fit for his time. Listed at 5’4’’ and 140 pounds, Willie Keeler was indeed, ‘Wee’. He started playing full time in 1892 at the age of 22 for the Baltimore Orioles, the team that dominated much of the 1890’s. As you may guess between his size and era, Keeler had absolutely no home run power but did have modest gap power, with three top tens in triples and one in doubles. His slash line for his career was 341/388/415, which is pretty illustrative, and worth an OPS+ of 127 over 9607 plate appearances. His bat control was the best of his day, with the lowest strikeouts per at bat *ever* for his career. True, his era had fewer strikeouts than most, but he led his league in that stat nine times. His strikeouts were so low that he walked four times for every strikeout and Willie Keeler didn’t walk that much. An average season for him included 35 walks and 8-9 strikeouts. He became associated with his famous strategy “hit it where they ain’t”, one that he executed better than anyone else. He had thirteen top tens in both batting average, hits and singles, leading his league twice in average, thrice in hits and seven times in singles. He was never the best hitter in his league but was in the top ten six times, boasting seven 4+ WAR seasons. Willie Keeler is one of the players most synonymous with the deadball era (even though most of his career technically came before it). He retired in 1910, the best singles hitter of his day. He barely sneaks into the Honorable Mention section, but his inclusion captures a very special player.
Less well known than Willie Keeler, but better in his peak, playing around the same time, Elmer Flick! Flick was the complete package as a hitter; dominant at nothing but very good at everything. Listen to these top tens: steals (six), walks (seven), triples (nine), doubles (five), total bases (seven), hits (six), average (seven), obp (eight), WAR (eight). The impressive thing is that he struck out a lot for his era, but his career line of 313/389/445 shows that he made such good contact with the ball when he connected that it didn’t matter. This total hitting package was worth an OPS+ of 149 which is the 7th best for right fielders ever, but his career was very short, only 6417 plate appearances. Only one right fielder in this building had a shorter career but hit better . . . any guesses? Nobody wants to take a gamble? Okay, don’t worry, we’ll get to him later this afternoon.
Flick came on to the Philadelphia Phillies in 1898 (age 22) guns blazing. He had four great years with them (including 1900 when he was the best hitter in the NL), then jumped to the Athletics and then the Cleveland Naps. With the Naps he had five great years (including 1905, when he was the best hitter in the AL). Such was Flick’s quality that in 1907 the Detroit Tigers, frustrated with their irascible 20 year-old phenom Ty Cobb, offered him in trade straight up for Flick, and the Naps turned the offer down. Of course, Cobb turned out to be one of the best ever, but in the spring training of 1907 nobody knew that. And for that matter, nobody knew that Flick would suffer from acute gastritis in the next offseason, a condition which effectively ended his career. Flick had nine 4+ WAR seasons, six 5+ WAR seasons and three 6+, but little besides this impressive peak. His career was cut too short for him to earn a place in the Bronze tier. But he’s one of the many players we are proud to have as an Honorable Mention.
Let’s jump a few decades into the future to meet Enos ‘Country’ Slaughter! Slaughter came up with the Cardinals in 1938 (age 22), just in time for the tail-end of the ‘Gashouse Gang’. He fit right in with their hustling, hard-nosed energy and played with them until he was 37 (1953), when he was traded to the Yankees. Slaughter (awesome name notwithstanding) is the sort of guy that causes disagreements between stats and conventional wisdom. Here’s the conventional case for him: he made ten All-Star games and won four rings, two with the Cardinals (‘42 and ‘46) and two with the Yankees (‘56 and ‘58). He is a career 300 hitter, always played on winners, and is responsible for one of the more famous individual moments in World Series history (the “Mad Dash” when he ran through the third-base coach’s stop sign and scored from first on a double to left-center to win Game 7 of the 1946 World Series against the Red Sox).
The sabermetric view of him is less rosy. His hustle and aggressiveness can be observed statistically in both his unusually low number of times grounded into double-play, and his willingness to attempt 126 steals, even he was caught almost half of those attempts (55). His OPS+ over 9086 plate appearances is only 124, the second lowest of any right-fielder in this building (much of that is caused by how long he played; his peak was comfortably in the 130s). He was a surprisingly solid fielder for a guy that played most of his career after 30, but nothing great. His career line of 300/382/453 reveals a very good, but not great, hitter. Perhaps the most subtle knock on him was that he rarely stayed healthy for a full season, only breaking 500 plate appearances in ten of his nineteen seasons. Add to this the fact that he was consistently good but rarely great. He had 13 above average seasons, but only six at 4+, an unusually low total, with only one season in the top 5 of his league. That he played with great teams, the Cardinals of the 40s and Yankees of the 50s, has little to do with him; had he played his whole career with the Senators, hoping to sniff 70 wins in a year, he might well be remembered by connoisseurs as “that one hustling outfielder for that bad team; he was pretty good in his day”. His JONS, frankly, is just barely short of Honorable Mention.
But there’s one last factor. Starting at age 23 his seasons were 4.9, 3.9, 3.3 and 6.2 WAR (his age 26 year). His next four seasons (starting at age 30) were 4.4, 3.5, 5.4 and 6.2 WAR. What happened in between, during the years of 1943-1945? Slaughter spent his ages 27 through 29 seasons in the service during World War II, right in the middle of what should have been his peak. Give him three 5 WAR seasons there and he’s easily Honorable Mention. Give him three 6 WAR seasons there and he’s Bronze. We can’t know what would have happened had he played those three years. But we can certainly surmise that he would have done enough to get him in the door. So here he is, Enos Slaughter.
Not as famous as his son, Bobby Bonds! Bonds was an unusual player with a diverse array of skills, playing from 1968 to 1981 (ages 22 to 35). Historically underrated he only made three All-Star teams, but has a JONS of 38.7, scratching the barrier to Bronze. A part of his reputation was tied to his strikeouts; Bobby Bonds struck out a looooot. He was in the top ten in strikeouts ten times and led the league three times, including the record for the most times struck out in a season for the entire 20th century. This held back his average, leaving him with a career line of 268/353/471, good for an OPS+ of 129 over 8090 plate appearances. He didn’t walk as much as you’d guess with his strikeout numbers (five top tens) but his power was considerable, with an ISO above 200. Listen to his power top tens: doubles (four), triples (two), home runs (seven) and total bases (eight).
More unusual were the other skills he brought to the table. He was a quality fielder (+48 runs) and winning three Gold Gloves, but he also could run. In fact, his legs were worth almost as much (+39 runs), stealing 461 bases and only being caught 169 times (eleven of his thirteen seasons had a top ten in steals). These factors combined into nine seasons at 4+ WAR, seven at 5+ WAR. He was never truly dominant at any one thing, but his skills combined to give him an excellent career.
Very similar to Bonds if less well known, Reggie Smith! Smith was another excellent player, held back by his relatively short career. He started in 1967 for the Red Sox (age 22) and played through age 37 (going to the Cardinals and Dodgers in the second half of his career) but only played in 150+ games three times in his career. His 287/366/489 line was worth an OPS+ of 137 over 8051 plate appearances. He was a better fielder than Bonds (+78 runs) but a worse runner (though still above average). He struggled emotionally as one of the first African American players for the Red Sox (twenty years after the color barrier was broken by the Dodgers), routinely receiving hate mail and being pelted with objects by the fans of the team he played for. You would not know it from his stat lines, however. His top tens include: extra base hits (7), walks (2), home runs (5), triples (4), doubles (4, leading the league twice), slugging (8), obp (5) and WAR (5). He had ten different 4+ WAR seasons, five 5+ and two 6+. Making seven All-Star teams he only won a single Gold Glove. One of the tragedies of the modern game is that, with twice as many teams playing as did in the first half of the century, it takes much more for a player to stand out. Put Reggie Smith in an 8-team league and he would have been one of the top five players in his league for five-six years. Instead we simply remember him as an excellent player, lost in the shuffle of greatness.
Speaking of outfielders for the Red Sox, Dwight Evans! Evans was one of apparently seventeen excellent outfielders that the Red Sox had in the 70s and 80s. In fact, Evans is one of those guys that Bill James and the like are actually big supporters of. Did you know that Evans hit more home runs in the 80s than anyone else? He won eight Gold Gloves and two Silver Sluggers, hit 385 home runs, had 2400+ hits and played for 20 seasons with the same team, what’s not to like? I’m sad to say that JONS isn’t quite as big a fan of him, even though it thinks that Evans is right on the cusp of Bronze.
His career OPS+ is 127, which is respectable for a 10k PA career, but it’s lower than you’d expect as he’s penalized for playing in Fenway his whole career. If Evans’ career line was 283/379/505 over ten thousand plate appearances, that would be a guaranteed Hall of Famer (remember, the 80s were relatively low offense). But that isn’t his career line, that’s his career *home* line. Away he hit 261/361/437. Not quite as impressive. His glove was excellent, worth +66 runs over his career, though not quite consistent with his 8 Gold Glove reputation. His true career line was 272/370/470. His top tens are diverse: extra base hits (five), runs created (seven, league lead twice), strikeouts (five), walks (seven, league lead three), home runs (five), triples (four), doubles (five) and WAR (two). He was the model of consistency, with fourteen 3+ WAR years and eight 4+ WAR years. He never broke 7 WAR, but that he didn’t is an interesting story. In 1981 he hit 296/415/522 (OPS+ 163) for 6.7 WAR in only 108 games. You may think, “jeez, it stinks that he was injured, he might have had a 10-WAR year if he’d kept it up!” Alas, he wasn’t injured. 1981 was the year of the player strike; 108 games was all there was. So the one MVP-level season that Dwight Evans could have had was cut short. He gets some credit for losing that part of the season, but had that season been complete, and he’d put up 9-10 WAR and won an MVP . . . he’d have made Bronze. An even weirder thing: he played twenty years, so how many times do you think he played in 150+ games in a season? Ten? Fifteen? Try six. Even just another five games a year would have made a big difference.
Every now and then we get a player whose defensive reputation was very much at odds with his actual skill (at least as far as numbers can qualify it). With that in mind, Dave Winfield! Winfield’s list of awards are considerable: six Silver Sluggers, seven Gold Gloves, twelve All-Stars, a ring (Toronto, 1992) and a spot in Cooperstown. But in here, Winfield is an Honorable Mention, right smack in the middle, lower than Bonds, Smith or Evans. First, let’s be clear; Winfield could hit. He’s got a career line of 283/353/475, good for a 130 OPS+ over an astounding 12,358 plate appearances. He played for 23 years (1973-1995) for the Padres and Yankees mostly, racking up a lot of contact/power top tens: doubles (three), triples (three), home runs (seven) and extra base hits (nine). His bat by itself should qualify him for Bronze.
But his fielding . . . Through age 27 his glove was actually positive (+19). For the rest of his career his glove was more than a hundred runs below average. Now I’ll be for the first to admit that fielding is hard to statistically quantify, so any stats need to be taken with a grain of salt. I think the eye test is even more flawed, but let’s consider 1983, a season for which Winfield won a Gold Glove with the Yankees. Of 21 outfielders who played at least 1000 innings he finished 13th in putouts, 18th in assists, 14th in errors, 16th in error%, 16th in range factor . . . It’s hard to look at that and think anything other than that he was a weak fielder that year (and for that matter, most every year after 27). It’s telling that in offensive WAR (basically WAR minus fielding) he is the 50th most successful hitter ever. In actual WAR (with fielding) he’s 100th. He had one monster year in 1979 for the Padres (308/395/558 in San Diego!) worth 8.3 WAR but besides that he never broke 6 WAR. His bat is properly recognized as great and he had a really good career, but his fielding really depresses his contributions to his teams.
Speaking of Padres, Tony Gwynn! Gwynn was a throwback, the best deadball-era player who just happened to play in the 80s and 90s. He was the best singles hitter for two decades, and retired (2001) the same season as his replacement was arriving on the scene in Seattle (and curiously, Gwynn started his career when Pete Rose, the prior best singles hitter, was in his 40s and clearly winding down. And Rose started his career after Richie Ashburn retired. It's like strikeout-avoiding singles-hitting Highlander. There can only be one). In a Hall of Fame that celebrated players for being the best of their kind Gwynn would be a shoe-in; he was by far the best in the league during his career at what he did. In fact, if you were to look through history for players that hit mostly singles, had a high batting average and never struck out, you’d find Rose, Ichiro, Gwynn, and then a bunch of guys from the deadball era or before. In the modern game they’re incredibly rare. And there’s a reason; if you have almost no home run power, and you’re relying on singles for offense, you’d better be damned good at it. Gwynn was. Here are his list of times leading the league: WAR (2), batting average (8), on-base (1), hits (7), singles (7) and at-bats per strikeout (10).
His career batting line was 338/388/459, good for an OPS+ of 132 over 10232 plate appearances. His low ISO (121) is a product of his lack of home run power (only 135 for his career), though his gap power was considerable (top ten in doubles and triples six times each). His credentials are impressive, with seven Silver Sluggers, five Gold gloves and fifteen All-Stars. Despite his Gold Gloves he only grades out as an average fielder. This is not to say that he did not have his moments; through age 27 his glove was worth +46 runs, and he remained an excellent right fielder until his early 30s. However, past 33 he became a serious defensive liability and in his brief stint of playing center field he was a fair disaster. He was a quality baserunner (319 steals and caught only 125 times).
All this adds up to an impressive career, but one that falls just short of Bronze. While his peak was considerable (eight seasons at 4+ WAR with an 8.6), his faltering glove kept him from having too many strong seasons, with only ten seasons at 3+. He was very good, the best of his kind. But in aggregate his career has more in common with those in this section than those in the floors above.
In contrast, known for home runs, Sammy Sosa! Sosa was secretly a really good fielder, worth 86 runs above average, in large part due to his incredibly strong arm. Sosa is easily remembered for his home run race with Mark McGwire. For his career he hit 609 home runs and led the league twice. Interestingly, his career OPS+ is only 128, despite a career line of 273/344/534 (the late 90s and early 2000s had crazy offense). Nevertheless he won an MVP, six Silver Sluggers and made seven All-Star games. His career was mostly peak; eight 4+ WAR seasons but only three in the 1-2 range. And his peak itself was one mammoth 10.3 WAR season (328/437/737) but his next highest is 6.5 WAR. Basically, take away his 2001 and he’s barely an honorable mention. As it is, his career is exactly at the beginning of Bronze. Except. Sosa was one of the names turned up in the MLB’s performance-enhancing drug testing for violating the rules. Lending weight to this is his career arc as relates to home runs. Through age 29 he was a good power hitter, having hit 30+ home runs four times but never hit more than 40. Starting at age 30 his home run totals: 66, 63, 50, 64, 49, 40. Name one other hitter who suddenly had their home run totals jump by 50-100% in their 30s. I’ll be honest, the only name that leaps to mind is Barry Bonds. A fairly damning indictment. Sosa gets into the building. But Honorable Mention is where he stays.
The third-best hitting Honorable Mention Right Fielder, Gary Sheffield! Sheffield hit 292/393/514 over his career, worth an OPS+ of 140 over 10947 plate appearances. This is a fantastic total, in fact, tied for 12th among all right fielders. He won five Silver Sluggers, nine All-Stars and even a ring (1997 with Florida). He has an impressive list of top tens: walks (nine), home runs (seven), batting average (four), OBP (ten) and runs created (six). Not an unimpressive resume. And yet Sheffield is an Honorable Mention, not close to Bronze. Why?
First, Sheffield was consistently excellent but rarely dominant. Twelve 3+ WAR seasons and eight 4+ WAR seasons are quality numbers, but he only had four seasons at 5+ and never broke 7 WAR. Also, while many things changed (Sheffield played for eight teams over his career, the longest with the Marlins for six years), one constant stayed the same besides his hitting. Sheffield was a consistently terrible fielder. In fact, he did more damage with his glove (to his own team) than any other right fielder in this building. Breaking into the majors at 19 in 1988, he played infield (third and short) through age 24, costing his teams 68 runs. Over the next sixteen years he played outfield (and a little DH when he was in the AL) and cost his team an additional 126 runs. Bump his fielding to league average and how does his career look? Thirteen 3+ WAR, ten 4+, seven 5+, five 6+ and three 7+. Easy Bronze tier. But of course, we could as easily look at an all-glove player and wish he could hit. Hitting is far more important than fielding. But if you are consistently terrible at fielding, even an excellent bat isn’t enough to counteract it.
Wildly underrated, Brian Giles! Giles got a starting job later than most, first getting a bench role with the Indians in 1996 (age 25) and the starting a year later. While he walked a lot his average and slugging in his Cleveland years never got above 270 and 460 respectively. Clearly thinking little of him the Indians flipped Giles (already 28) to the Pirates for quality reliever Ricardo Rincon. Giles proceeded to improve his contact considerably (and his power, though for less long). He on-based 400+ in six of the next seven years, hit 298 or higher in six of the next seven years and slugged over 500 for the next five years. Giles was traded to the Padres at age 32, which didn’t help his batting numbers any. He put up a series of solid seasons for the Padres and, by age 38, was out of baseball. His batting numbers are obviously inflated by era (late 90s early 2000s) but he still racks up an OPS+ of 136 in his 7836 PA. Had he come up a decade or two later his walk-heavy approach might have got him called up earlier; being brought to the majors so late didn’t do his career any favors.
Giles was a below average fielder, but his quality baserunning more or less cancels that out. Despite such a low number of career plate appearances, his JONS is enough to get him in because his peak was solid. He had seven 4+ WAR seasons, six at 4.8 WAR or better. His top tens are unremarkable for a corner outfielder, besides seven top tens in walks. Giles’ patient skillset got little attention at the time, but he was a very, very good player.
Not particularly known for his patience, Vladimir Guerrero! Guerrero was known for his incredible contact skills, particularly for his ability to hit any pitch regardless of whether or not it was in the strike zone. Guerrero hit 318 for his career (seven top tens). While he had little reputation for patience he took his share of walks, averaging about 50 a season for an OBP of 379 (though given the fact that he led the league in intentional walks five times, his ‘patience’ may not have been entirely voluntary). He had plenty of power, with an ISO of 235 and an SLG of 553, he had eight top tens in home runs, three in doubles eight in total bases and four top tens in WAR. His career totals were worth an OPS+ of 140, comparable to Gary Sheffield, Larry Walker or Reggie Jackson, over 9059 plate appearances. He was a solid fielder and decent baserunner but grounded into double plays left and right, leading the league twice and has currently done so the 19th most in MLB history.
He came up for Montreal in 1996 at 21, providing what excitement for the Expos he could given the cash-strapped nature of the franchise. From age 23 through age 28 for the Expos he put up 33 WAR in six seasons, an excellent total. He then left in free agency and signed with the Angels, putting up 22.6 WAR over his six years with them. His career was relatively short: ten 3+ WAR, eight 4+, five 5+ and two 7+. He was very good, but there’s little that makes him clearly better than any of the other Honorable Mentions here (he’s one of the higher JONS of them, but certainly not the highest). He won eight Silver Sluggers, made nine All-Stars and an MVP (of dubious value; it was for a 5.6 WAR season the same year that Ichiro hit 372, and four other batters in the AL finished ahead of Guerrero in WAR). He was incredibly physically gifted, doing things that no other players could do. And such abilities always translate into an unreasonable amount of respect. It’s like Kobe Bryant; everyone was so impressed with his ability to make impossible shots that his stock was unrealistically high, and few questioned whether or not taking impossible shots was itself a desirable trait. Vlad was great. But he wasn’t Bronze.
Patient as heck and criminally underrated, Bobby Abreu! Unlike Vlad, Abreu got very little love, winning a single Silver Slugger, a single Gold Glove and only two All-Star appearances. What was he great at? I’ll give you a hint; it wasn’t batting average or home runs. You guessed it, Bobby Abreu walked a lot. He played from 1996 to 2014, so you’d think that he’d have gotten some love for it, but he did not. His career line of 291/395/475 was worth a respectable OPS+ of 128 and he was an above average baserunner, rarely grounding into double plays and stealing 400 bases (caught 128). His top tens feature his patience prominently but are fairly diverse: times on base (11), runs created (5), walks (13), doubles (5), OBP (8) and WAR (5). He was never particularly dominant, but had seven different seasons between 5.2 WAR and 6.6 WAR. He was one of the top 25 batters in the league for much of his career. He deserves an honorable mention.
With a great glove and the shortest career of any modern player, Jason Heyward! Heyward had a fairly tragic career arc. He came up in 2010 (age 20) with the Nationals and by next year he was throwing up 5+ WAR years regularly. Between ages 21 and 25 he put up 29.3 WAR, hitting about 300/425/520 with great fielding. I want you to appreciate how rare that is; players that put up 29.3 WAR by age 25 are not common. It’s happened, but players that do it invariably end up in this building. If he only kept that pace up through age 30 and then retired, he’s Bronze, and most players play a lot longer than 30. Anyhow, at age 26 he went to Tampa Bay and suffered a terrible injury, missing most of the season. When he came back his BABIP had dropped from about 308 to 285 and his ISO from 200 to 170. Even with lower average (280ish) he still walked a ton and was still good, averaging about 4 WAR for the next four years. Then he joined the Mets, got injured repeatedly (never playing in more than 120 games past age 29) and saw his batting stats plummet; he was hitting 211/317/330 by age 32. He retired at 33.
But let’s focus on the positive; he was really good in his prime. He retired with an OPS+ of 128 over 6786 plate appearances (on the low end for an RF) but was above 140 before age 26. His career line of 276/391/457 is a little underwhelming (except for the OBP) but it’s dragged down by his late career. He had seven top tens in walks, six in OBP and four in RC/27. He played Gold Glove defense (even if he only won two), contributing 108 runs with his glove, the fourth highest such number for Right Fielders. Even when his bat had regressed horribly, his glove stayed true. Jason Heyward, the Hall of Famer that should have been.
The 7th best hitting Right Fielder in this building, Guy Richmond! Richmond could flat out hit. His career line is 275/364/539, for an OPS+ of 153 over 12268 plate appearances. And not only could he hit but he hit well deep into his career; the first season with an OPS+ below 140 was at age 41. He was drafted in the 26th round of the 2025 draft and slowly grew into one of the best hitters in the league. Though full of potential he struggled in 2030 and 2031 for the Astros (ages 25 and 26) and so the Pirates swooped in, trading for Richmond in exchange for a 1st, a 2nd and a quality but inferior prospect in Ken Rauschenbe (who went on to have a great peak but disappointing career overall). Richmond became a fixture in Pittsburgh, not leaving until the age of 38. In those eleven years he put up 43.7 WAR. Over his career he won an MVP (at age 33 when he hit 350/431/672 for 9.1 WAR), a Rookie of the Year, five Silver Sluggers, eight All-Stars and two rings.
As far as hitting, his list of achievements is considerable. Listen to these top tens: home runs (eleven, led league three times), walks (three), intentional walks (seven), extra base hits (six), average (three), OBP (four), slugging (eight, led league twice), runs created (seven), ISO (ten, led league twice). He hit 615 home runs. So why was he only in the top ten of WAR twice? Because he was a catastrophically bad fielder. His glove in right field cost you 15 - 20 runs a year; his total ‘contribution’ was -189 runs with his glove, which is impressively bad since he wasn’t really allowed to field in the second half of his career. Was Guy Richmond a great hitter? Heck yes. Was he one of the worst fielding right fielders ever? Also yes. Put the two together and he barely gets in as an Honorable Mention. He had one single season above 5 WAR, his MVP 9.1 WAR season. It’s almost impossible to make Bronze without the ability to break 5 WAR consistently. But he was a great hitter and I’m glad we get to remember him.
Whew! That was a lot of right fielders? Let me get a drink; that section always kills me. But after this break, a step into history, 1910-1919!
Anyhow, let’s start the Right Fielders off small with ‘Wee’ Willie Keeler! Keeler was perhaps the most perfect pure slap hitter in history and was a perfect fit for his time. Listed at 5’4’’ and 140 pounds, Willie Keeler was indeed, ‘Wee’. He started playing full time in 1892 at the age of 22 for the Baltimore Orioles, the team that dominated much of the 1890’s. As you may guess between his size and era, Keeler had absolutely no home run power but did have modest gap power, with three top tens in triples and one in doubles. His slash line for his career was 341/388/415, which is pretty illustrative, and worth an OPS+ of 127 over 9607 plate appearances. His bat control was the best of his day, with the lowest strikeouts per at bat *ever* for his career. True, his era had fewer strikeouts than most, but he led his league in that stat nine times. His strikeouts were so low that he walked four times for every strikeout and Willie Keeler didn’t walk that much. An average season for him included 35 walks and 8-9 strikeouts. He became associated with his famous strategy “hit it where they ain’t”, one that he executed better than anyone else. He had thirteen top tens in both batting average, hits and singles, leading his league twice in average, thrice in hits and seven times in singles. He was never the best hitter in his league but was in the top ten six times, boasting seven 4+ WAR seasons. Willie Keeler is one of the players most synonymous with the deadball era (even though most of his career technically came before it). He retired in 1910, the best singles hitter of his day. He barely sneaks into the Honorable Mention section, but his inclusion captures a very special player.
Less well known than Willie Keeler, but better in his peak, playing around the same time, Elmer Flick! Flick was the complete package as a hitter; dominant at nothing but very good at everything. Listen to these top tens: steals (six), walks (seven), triples (nine), doubles (five), total bases (seven), hits (six), average (seven), obp (eight), WAR (eight). The impressive thing is that he struck out a lot for his era, but his career line of 313/389/445 shows that he made such good contact with the ball when he connected that it didn’t matter. This total hitting package was worth an OPS+ of 149 which is the 7th best for right fielders ever, but his career was very short, only 6417 plate appearances. Only one right fielder in this building had a shorter career but hit better . . . any guesses? Nobody wants to take a gamble? Okay, don’t worry, we’ll get to him later this afternoon.
Flick came on to the Philadelphia Phillies in 1898 (age 22) guns blazing. He had four great years with them (including 1900 when he was the best hitter in the NL), then jumped to the Athletics and then the Cleveland Naps. With the Naps he had five great years (including 1905, when he was the best hitter in the AL). Such was Flick’s quality that in 1907 the Detroit Tigers, frustrated with their irascible 20 year-old phenom Ty Cobb, offered him in trade straight up for Flick, and the Naps turned the offer down. Of course, Cobb turned out to be one of the best ever, but in the spring training of 1907 nobody knew that. And for that matter, nobody knew that Flick would suffer from acute gastritis in the next offseason, a condition which effectively ended his career. Flick had nine 4+ WAR seasons, six 5+ WAR seasons and three 6+, but little besides this impressive peak. His career was cut too short for him to earn a place in the Bronze tier. But he’s one of the many players we are proud to have as an Honorable Mention.
Let’s jump a few decades into the future to meet Enos ‘Country’ Slaughter! Slaughter came up with the Cardinals in 1938 (age 22), just in time for the tail-end of the ‘Gashouse Gang’. He fit right in with their hustling, hard-nosed energy and played with them until he was 37 (1953), when he was traded to the Yankees. Slaughter (awesome name notwithstanding) is the sort of guy that causes disagreements between stats and conventional wisdom. Here’s the conventional case for him: he made ten All-Star games and won four rings, two with the Cardinals (‘42 and ‘46) and two with the Yankees (‘56 and ‘58). He is a career 300 hitter, always played on winners, and is responsible for one of the more famous individual moments in World Series history (the “Mad Dash” when he ran through the third-base coach’s stop sign and scored from first on a double to left-center to win Game 7 of the 1946 World Series against the Red Sox).
The sabermetric view of him is less rosy. His hustle and aggressiveness can be observed statistically in both his unusually low number of times grounded into double-play, and his willingness to attempt 126 steals, even he was caught almost half of those attempts (55). His OPS+ over 9086 plate appearances is only 124, the second lowest of any right-fielder in this building (much of that is caused by how long he played; his peak was comfortably in the 130s). He was a surprisingly solid fielder for a guy that played most of his career after 30, but nothing great. His career line of 300/382/453 reveals a very good, but not great, hitter. Perhaps the most subtle knock on him was that he rarely stayed healthy for a full season, only breaking 500 plate appearances in ten of his nineteen seasons. Add to this the fact that he was consistently good but rarely great. He had 13 above average seasons, but only six at 4+, an unusually low total, with only one season in the top 5 of his league. That he played with great teams, the Cardinals of the 40s and Yankees of the 50s, has little to do with him; had he played his whole career with the Senators, hoping to sniff 70 wins in a year, he might well be remembered by connoisseurs as “that one hustling outfielder for that bad team; he was pretty good in his day”. His JONS, frankly, is just barely short of Honorable Mention.
But there’s one last factor. Starting at age 23 his seasons were 4.9, 3.9, 3.3 and 6.2 WAR (his age 26 year). His next four seasons (starting at age 30) were 4.4, 3.5, 5.4 and 6.2 WAR. What happened in between, during the years of 1943-1945? Slaughter spent his ages 27 through 29 seasons in the service during World War II, right in the middle of what should have been his peak. Give him three 5 WAR seasons there and he’s easily Honorable Mention. Give him three 6 WAR seasons there and he’s Bronze. We can’t know what would have happened had he played those three years. But we can certainly surmise that he would have done enough to get him in the door. So here he is, Enos Slaughter.
Not as famous as his son, Bobby Bonds! Bonds was an unusual player with a diverse array of skills, playing from 1968 to 1981 (ages 22 to 35). Historically underrated he only made three All-Star teams, but has a JONS of 38.7, scratching the barrier to Bronze. A part of his reputation was tied to his strikeouts; Bobby Bonds struck out a looooot. He was in the top ten in strikeouts ten times and led the league three times, including the record for the most times struck out in a season for the entire 20th century. This held back his average, leaving him with a career line of 268/353/471, good for an OPS+ of 129 over 8090 plate appearances. He didn’t walk as much as you’d guess with his strikeout numbers (five top tens) but his power was considerable, with an ISO above 200. Listen to his power top tens: doubles (four), triples (two), home runs (seven) and total bases (eight).
More unusual were the other skills he brought to the table. He was a quality fielder (+48 runs) and winning three Gold Gloves, but he also could run. In fact, his legs were worth almost as much (+39 runs), stealing 461 bases and only being caught 169 times (eleven of his thirteen seasons had a top ten in steals). These factors combined into nine seasons at 4+ WAR, seven at 5+ WAR. He was never truly dominant at any one thing, but his skills combined to give him an excellent career.
Very similar to Bonds if less well known, Reggie Smith! Smith was another excellent player, held back by his relatively short career. He started in 1967 for the Red Sox (age 22) and played through age 37 (going to the Cardinals and Dodgers in the second half of his career) but only played in 150+ games three times in his career. His 287/366/489 line was worth an OPS+ of 137 over 8051 plate appearances. He was a better fielder than Bonds (+78 runs) but a worse runner (though still above average). He struggled emotionally as one of the first African American players for the Red Sox (twenty years after the color barrier was broken by the Dodgers), routinely receiving hate mail and being pelted with objects by the fans of the team he played for. You would not know it from his stat lines, however. His top tens include: extra base hits (7), walks (2), home runs (5), triples (4), doubles (4, leading the league twice), slugging (8), obp (5) and WAR (5). He had ten different 4+ WAR seasons, five 5+ and two 6+. Making seven All-Star teams he only won a single Gold Glove. One of the tragedies of the modern game is that, with twice as many teams playing as did in the first half of the century, it takes much more for a player to stand out. Put Reggie Smith in an 8-team league and he would have been one of the top five players in his league for five-six years. Instead we simply remember him as an excellent player, lost in the shuffle of greatness.
Speaking of outfielders for the Red Sox, Dwight Evans! Evans was one of apparently seventeen excellent outfielders that the Red Sox had in the 70s and 80s. In fact, Evans is one of those guys that Bill James and the like are actually big supporters of. Did you know that Evans hit more home runs in the 80s than anyone else? He won eight Gold Gloves and two Silver Sluggers, hit 385 home runs, had 2400+ hits and played for 20 seasons with the same team, what’s not to like? I’m sad to say that JONS isn’t quite as big a fan of him, even though it thinks that Evans is right on the cusp of Bronze.
His career OPS+ is 127, which is respectable for a 10k PA career, but it’s lower than you’d expect as he’s penalized for playing in Fenway his whole career. If Evans’ career line was 283/379/505 over ten thousand plate appearances, that would be a guaranteed Hall of Famer (remember, the 80s were relatively low offense). But that isn’t his career line, that’s his career *home* line. Away he hit 261/361/437. Not quite as impressive. His glove was excellent, worth +66 runs over his career, though not quite consistent with his 8 Gold Glove reputation. His true career line was 272/370/470. His top tens are diverse: extra base hits (five), runs created (seven, league lead twice), strikeouts (five), walks (seven, league lead three), home runs (five), triples (four), doubles (five) and WAR (two). He was the model of consistency, with fourteen 3+ WAR years and eight 4+ WAR years. He never broke 7 WAR, but that he didn’t is an interesting story. In 1981 he hit 296/415/522 (OPS+ 163) for 6.7 WAR in only 108 games. You may think, “jeez, it stinks that he was injured, he might have had a 10-WAR year if he’d kept it up!” Alas, he wasn’t injured. 1981 was the year of the player strike; 108 games was all there was. So the one MVP-level season that Dwight Evans could have had was cut short. He gets some credit for losing that part of the season, but had that season been complete, and he’d put up 9-10 WAR and won an MVP . . . he’d have made Bronze. An even weirder thing: he played twenty years, so how many times do you think he played in 150+ games in a season? Ten? Fifteen? Try six. Even just another five games a year would have made a big difference.
Every now and then we get a player whose defensive reputation was very much at odds with his actual skill (at least as far as numbers can qualify it). With that in mind, Dave Winfield! Winfield’s list of awards are considerable: six Silver Sluggers, seven Gold Gloves, twelve All-Stars, a ring (Toronto, 1992) and a spot in Cooperstown. But in here, Winfield is an Honorable Mention, right smack in the middle, lower than Bonds, Smith or Evans. First, let’s be clear; Winfield could hit. He’s got a career line of 283/353/475, good for a 130 OPS+ over an astounding 12,358 plate appearances. He played for 23 years (1973-1995) for the Padres and Yankees mostly, racking up a lot of contact/power top tens: doubles (three), triples (three), home runs (seven) and extra base hits (nine). His bat by itself should qualify him for Bronze.
But his fielding . . . Through age 27 his glove was actually positive (+19). For the rest of his career his glove was more than a hundred runs below average. Now I’ll be for the first to admit that fielding is hard to statistically quantify, so any stats need to be taken with a grain of salt. I think the eye test is even more flawed, but let’s consider 1983, a season for which Winfield won a Gold Glove with the Yankees. Of 21 outfielders who played at least 1000 innings he finished 13th in putouts, 18th in assists, 14th in errors, 16th in error%, 16th in range factor . . . It’s hard to look at that and think anything other than that he was a weak fielder that year (and for that matter, most every year after 27). It’s telling that in offensive WAR (basically WAR minus fielding) he is the 50th most successful hitter ever. In actual WAR (with fielding) he’s 100th. He had one monster year in 1979 for the Padres (308/395/558 in San Diego!) worth 8.3 WAR but besides that he never broke 6 WAR. His bat is properly recognized as great and he had a really good career, but his fielding really depresses his contributions to his teams.
Speaking of Padres, Tony Gwynn! Gwynn was a throwback, the best deadball-era player who just happened to play in the 80s and 90s. He was the best singles hitter for two decades, and retired (2001) the same season as his replacement was arriving on the scene in Seattle (and curiously, Gwynn started his career when Pete Rose, the prior best singles hitter, was in his 40s and clearly winding down. And Rose started his career after Richie Ashburn retired. It's like strikeout-avoiding singles-hitting Highlander. There can only be one). In a Hall of Fame that celebrated players for being the best of their kind Gwynn would be a shoe-in; he was by far the best in the league during his career at what he did. In fact, if you were to look through history for players that hit mostly singles, had a high batting average and never struck out, you’d find Rose, Ichiro, Gwynn, and then a bunch of guys from the deadball era or before. In the modern game they’re incredibly rare. And there’s a reason; if you have almost no home run power, and you’re relying on singles for offense, you’d better be damned good at it. Gwynn was. Here are his list of times leading the league: WAR (2), batting average (8), on-base (1), hits (7), singles (7) and at-bats per strikeout (10).
His career batting line was 338/388/459, good for an OPS+ of 132 over 10232 plate appearances. His low ISO (121) is a product of his lack of home run power (only 135 for his career), though his gap power was considerable (top ten in doubles and triples six times each). His credentials are impressive, with seven Silver Sluggers, five Gold gloves and fifteen All-Stars. Despite his Gold Gloves he only grades out as an average fielder. This is not to say that he did not have his moments; through age 27 his glove was worth +46 runs, and he remained an excellent right fielder until his early 30s. However, past 33 he became a serious defensive liability and in his brief stint of playing center field he was a fair disaster. He was a quality baserunner (319 steals and caught only 125 times).
All this adds up to an impressive career, but one that falls just short of Bronze. While his peak was considerable (eight seasons at 4+ WAR with an 8.6), his faltering glove kept him from having too many strong seasons, with only ten seasons at 3+. He was very good, the best of his kind. But in aggregate his career has more in common with those in this section than those in the floors above.
In contrast, known for home runs, Sammy Sosa! Sosa was secretly a really good fielder, worth 86 runs above average, in large part due to his incredibly strong arm. Sosa is easily remembered for his home run race with Mark McGwire. For his career he hit 609 home runs and led the league twice. Interestingly, his career OPS+ is only 128, despite a career line of 273/344/534 (the late 90s and early 2000s had crazy offense). Nevertheless he won an MVP, six Silver Sluggers and made seven All-Star games. His career was mostly peak; eight 4+ WAR seasons but only three in the 1-2 range. And his peak itself was one mammoth 10.3 WAR season (328/437/737) but his next highest is 6.5 WAR. Basically, take away his 2001 and he’s barely an honorable mention. As it is, his career is exactly at the beginning of Bronze. Except. Sosa was one of the names turned up in the MLB’s performance-enhancing drug testing for violating the rules. Lending weight to this is his career arc as relates to home runs. Through age 29 he was a good power hitter, having hit 30+ home runs four times but never hit more than 40. Starting at age 30 his home run totals: 66, 63, 50, 64, 49, 40. Name one other hitter who suddenly had their home run totals jump by 50-100% in their 30s. I’ll be honest, the only name that leaps to mind is Barry Bonds. A fairly damning indictment. Sosa gets into the building. But Honorable Mention is where he stays.
The third-best hitting Honorable Mention Right Fielder, Gary Sheffield! Sheffield hit 292/393/514 over his career, worth an OPS+ of 140 over 10947 plate appearances. This is a fantastic total, in fact, tied for 12th among all right fielders. He won five Silver Sluggers, nine All-Stars and even a ring (1997 with Florida). He has an impressive list of top tens: walks (nine), home runs (seven), batting average (four), OBP (ten) and runs created (six). Not an unimpressive resume. And yet Sheffield is an Honorable Mention, not close to Bronze. Why?
First, Sheffield was consistently excellent but rarely dominant. Twelve 3+ WAR seasons and eight 4+ WAR seasons are quality numbers, but he only had four seasons at 5+ and never broke 7 WAR. Also, while many things changed (Sheffield played for eight teams over his career, the longest with the Marlins for six years), one constant stayed the same besides his hitting. Sheffield was a consistently terrible fielder. In fact, he did more damage with his glove (to his own team) than any other right fielder in this building. Breaking into the majors at 19 in 1988, he played infield (third and short) through age 24, costing his teams 68 runs. Over the next sixteen years he played outfield (and a little DH when he was in the AL) and cost his team an additional 126 runs. Bump his fielding to league average and how does his career look? Thirteen 3+ WAR, ten 4+, seven 5+, five 6+ and three 7+. Easy Bronze tier. But of course, we could as easily look at an all-glove player and wish he could hit. Hitting is far more important than fielding. But if you are consistently terrible at fielding, even an excellent bat isn’t enough to counteract it.
Wildly underrated, Brian Giles! Giles got a starting job later than most, first getting a bench role with the Indians in 1996 (age 25) and the starting a year later. While he walked a lot his average and slugging in his Cleveland years never got above 270 and 460 respectively. Clearly thinking little of him the Indians flipped Giles (already 28) to the Pirates for quality reliever Ricardo Rincon. Giles proceeded to improve his contact considerably (and his power, though for less long). He on-based 400+ in six of the next seven years, hit 298 or higher in six of the next seven years and slugged over 500 for the next five years. Giles was traded to the Padres at age 32, which didn’t help his batting numbers any. He put up a series of solid seasons for the Padres and, by age 38, was out of baseball. His batting numbers are obviously inflated by era (late 90s early 2000s) but he still racks up an OPS+ of 136 in his 7836 PA. Had he come up a decade or two later his walk-heavy approach might have got him called up earlier; being brought to the majors so late didn’t do his career any favors.
Giles was a below average fielder, but his quality baserunning more or less cancels that out. Despite such a low number of career plate appearances, his JONS is enough to get him in because his peak was solid. He had seven 4+ WAR seasons, six at 4.8 WAR or better. His top tens are unremarkable for a corner outfielder, besides seven top tens in walks. Giles’ patient skillset got little attention at the time, but he was a very, very good player.
Not particularly known for his patience, Vladimir Guerrero! Guerrero was known for his incredible contact skills, particularly for his ability to hit any pitch regardless of whether or not it was in the strike zone. Guerrero hit 318 for his career (seven top tens). While he had little reputation for patience he took his share of walks, averaging about 50 a season for an OBP of 379 (though given the fact that he led the league in intentional walks five times, his ‘patience’ may not have been entirely voluntary). He had plenty of power, with an ISO of 235 and an SLG of 553, he had eight top tens in home runs, three in doubles eight in total bases and four top tens in WAR. His career totals were worth an OPS+ of 140, comparable to Gary Sheffield, Larry Walker or Reggie Jackson, over 9059 plate appearances. He was a solid fielder and decent baserunner but grounded into double plays left and right, leading the league twice and has currently done so the 19th most in MLB history.
He came up for Montreal in 1996 at 21, providing what excitement for the Expos he could given the cash-strapped nature of the franchise. From age 23 through age 28 for the Expos he put up 33 WAR in six seasons, an excellent total. He then left in free agency and signed with the Angels, putting up 22.6 WAR over his six years with them. His career was relatively short: ten 3+ WAR, eight 4+, five 5+ and two 7+. He was very good, but there’s little that makes him clearly better than any of the other Honorable Mentions here (he’s one of the higher JONS of them, but certainly not the highest). He won eight Silver Sluggers, made nine All-Stars and an MVP (of dubious value; it was for a 5.6 WAR season the same year that Ichiro hit 372, and four other batters in the AL finished ahead of Guerrero in WAR). He was incredibly physically gifted, doing things that no other players could do. And such abilities always translate into an unreasonable amount of respect. It’s like Kobe Bryant; everyone was so impressed with his ability to make impossible shots that his stock was unrealistically high, and few questioned whether or not taking impossible shots was itself a desirable trait. Vlad was great. But he wasn’t Bronze.
Patient as heck and criminally underrated, Bobby Abreu! Unlike Vlad, Abreu got very little love, winning a single Silver Slugger, a single Gold Glove and only two All-Star appearances. What was he great at? I’ll give you a hint; it wasn’t batting average or home runs. You guessed it, Bobby Abreu walked a lot. He played from 1996 to 2014, so you’d think that he’d have gotten some love for it, but he did not. His career line of 291/395/475 was worth a respectable OPS+ of 128 and he was an above average baserunner, rarely grounding into double plays and stealing 400 bases (caught 128). His top tens feature his patience prominently but are fairly diverse: times on base (11), runs created (5), walks (13), doubles (5), OBP (8) and WAR (5). He was never particularly dominant, but had seven different seasons between 5.2 WAR and 6.6 WAR. He was one of the top 25 batters in the league for much of his career. He deserves an honorable mention.
With a great glove and the shortest career of any modern player, Jason Heyward! Heyward had a fairly tragic career arc. He came up in 2010 (age 20) with the Nationals and by next year he was throwing up 5+ WAR years regularly. Between ages 21 and 25 he put up 29.3 WAR, hitting about 300/425/520 with great fielding. I want you to appreciate how rare that is; players that put up 29.3 WAR by age 25 are not common. It’s happened, but players that do it invariably end up in this building. If he only kept that pace up through age 30 and then retired, he’s Bronze, and most players play a lot longer than 30. Anyhow, at age 26 he went to Tampa Bay and suffered a terrible injury, missing most of the season. When he came back his BABIP had dropped from about 308 to 285 and his ISO from 200 to 170. Even with lower average (280ish) he still walked a ton and was still good, averaging about 4 WAR for the next four years. Then he joined the Mets, got injured repeatedly (never playing in more than 120 games past age 29) and saw his batting stats plummet; he was hitting 211/317/330 by age 32. He retired at 33.
But let’s focus on the positive; he was really good in his prime. He retired with an OPS+ of 128 over 6786 plate appearances (on the low end for an RF) but was above 140 before age 26. His career line of 276/391/457 is a little underwhelming (except for the OBP) but it’s dragged down by his late career. He had seven top tens in walks, six in OBP and four in RC/27. He played Gold Glove defense (even if he only won two), contributing 108 runs with his glove, the fourth highest such number for Right Fielders. Even when his bat had regressed horribly, his glove stayed true. Jason Heyward, the Hall of Famer that should have been.
The 7th best hitting Right Fielder in this building, Guy Richmond! Richmond could flat out hit. His career line is 275/364/539, for an OPS+ of 153 over 12268 plate appearances. And not only could he hit but he hit well deep into his career; the first season with an OPS+ below 140 was at age 41. He was drafted in the 26th round of the 2025 draft and slowly grew into one of the best hitters in the league. Though full of potential he struggled in 2030 and 2031 for the Astros (ages 25 and 26) and so the Pirates swooped in, trading for Richmond in exchange for a 1st, a 2nd and a quality but inferior prospect in Ken Rauschenbe (who went on to have a great peak but disappointing career overall). Richmond became a fixture in Pittsburgh, not leaving until the age of 38. In those eleven years he put up 43.7 WAR. Over his career he won an MVP (at age 33 when he hit 350/431/672 for 9.1 WAR), a Rookie of the Year, five Silver Sluggers, eight All-Stars and two rings.
As far as hitting, his list of achievements is considerable. Listen to these top tens: home runs (eleven, led league three times), walks (three), intentional walks (seven), extra base hits (six), average (three), OBP (four), slugging (eight, led league twice), runs created (seven), ISO (ten, led league twice). He hit 615 home runs. So why was he only in the top ten of WAR twice? Because he was a catastrophically bad fielder. His glove in right field cost you 15 - 20 runs a year; his total ‘contribution’ was -189 runs with his glove, which is impressively bad since he wasn’t really allowed to field in the second half of his career. Was Guy Richmond a great hitter? Heck yes. Was he one of the worst fielding right fielders ever? Also yes. Put the two together and he barely gets in as an Honorable Mention. He had one single season above 5 WAR, his MVP 9.1 WAR season. It’s almost impossible to make Bronze without the ability to break 5 WAR consistently. But he was a great hitter and I’m glad we get to remember him.
Whew! That was a lot of right fielders? Let me get a drink; that section always kills me. But after this break, a step into history, 1910-1919!