data.3news-bydate.train.rec.sport.baseball.105161 Maven / Gradle / Ivy
From: [email protected] (Roger Lustig)
Subject: Re: Winfield's spot on THE ALL TIME GREATS TEAM
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Reply-To: [email protected] (Roger Lustig)
Organization: Princeton University
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In article <[email protected]> [email protected](Michael Lurie) The Liberalizer writes:
>In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (David M. Tate)
>writes:
>> In article
>[email protected] (David Robert Walker) writes:
>> >In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (David M. Tate)
>writes:
>ielding RF of all time, as far
>> as anyone can tell
>> I did a quick scan last night, looking for players with a peak
>comparable
>> to or better than Winfield. In my quick-n-dirty subjective judgement,
>you
>> could make good cases for Ruth, Aaron, Ott, Robinson, Clemente, Kaline,
>> Maris, Klein, Jackson, Waner, and probably a few others. This is not a
>> knock on Winfield, but a comment on his consistency: all of those other
>> players had awesome stretches and very good stretches, while Winfield
>has
>> been more uniformly excellent. Hall of Fame? Absolutely. Top-10 peak?
>> I'm not so sure. Top 10 total career value? Yes, almost certainly.
>Point taken. When was winfield's peak years anyway? probably around 85.
That's the trouble: *what* peak years? He wavers between excellent and
very good, with no real bell-shaped pattern in there. 1979 was a fine
year; 78 and 80 were merely really good. With the Yankees, 84 (I think)
was the best; that was the one with the .340 BA.
Of course, 1992 wasn't bad, either. He's been in the bigs since 1973,
with a one-year intermission for surgery. Though he doesn't have the
mix of skills that Pete Rose did, he's like Pete Rose in one way: he's
not a natural hitter. Winfield's swing used to be the ugliest thing
in New York, and that includes the Gulf+Western Building. But his sheer
athletic prowess and physical size made up for a lot.
Fascinating player to watch, even now. Not obviously great in any one
way; but able to do quite a few things in surprising ways and at surprising
levels.
Roger