Comments on: Keltnerizing Fred Lynn

By: garrett Hawk

garrett Hawk — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:50:28 +0000

The guy who brought up the 1912 Red Sox OF reminded me of the 1908 Tigers. Not a bad young outfield:
Matty McIntyre was known for his glove, led the league in Runs, and had an OPS+ of 148. Sam Crawford was one of the 5 best players in the league, had an OPS+ of 159, and is in the HOF.
And then there was that Ty Cobb guy.

By: Dan

Dan — Sat, 23 May 2009 20:55:22 +0000

I was 9 when Rice, Lynn & Niles played for the ‘73 BriSox. Everyone knew who Rice was; his homeruns quickly grew to legendary proportions. Reggie Niles also seemed like a sure thing; I often wonder if he would have put Dewey out of job or would he have been traded him like Cecil Cooper. Lynn was just a 3rd thought after Rice and Niles; he was far from the talk of the town like Rice. As far as Rice being Hall of Famer worthy one can take into account that the Green Monster probably took away more homers from Rice than it gave him; many of his line drive singles off the wall would have easily cleared many fences in other parks. There are very few players that could hit for average and power like Rice could (4 – 200 hit seasons). When considering that between 1966 – 1989 only one player topped the 50 HR mark (Foster ‘77) and the great Mike Schmidt topped out at 48, one should conclude that Rice’s numbers in his era were superior. One should not get caught up in comparisons to players of different eras. Jim Ed was also a better fielder than most think with a good arm; he had 21 assists 1n 1983 & 16 in 1986. I may be a bit biased but when considering his Hall of Fame credentials just ask the players he played with and against. Jim is deserving of the Hall.

By: Joe

Joe — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 19:15:34 +0000

I lived in Bristol Connecticut and had the pleasure of seeing Jim Rice, Reggie Niles and Fred Lynn play together. Reggie was the best of the three players. Reggie was shot to death in the off season in Alabama during an armed robbery in a bar. He and a female friend of his were having a drink and the robbers hit his friend and Reggie was shot as he stood up for her. He was a great player and very fast. Reminded me of a young Andrea Dawson type of player. I was a bat boy on the team and Reggie was a great man. If not for his untimely death he’d be a household name with the likes of George Brett, Jim Rice and Rod Carew.

By: JeffSol

JeffSol — Sat, 10 May 2008 04:47:13 +0000

Not sure how we define “young” but the idea that that BoSox OF compares to the Pittsburgh Bonds/Van Slyke/Bonilla one is pretty specious. I say this despite the fact that I hated that Pirate team, that kept beating the Mets, and Dwight Evans is one of my favorite players, stemming originally from Strat-O-Matic in the early 80’s. Some may have considered Lynn the best player in baseball, but Bonds almost unquestionably was. I just see Bonds as so superior to any of the other players under discussion that he easily carries the day despite the fact that Lynn was better than Van Slyke and Dewey better than Bonilla. The A’s OF is underrated to an extent as well for the same reason — Rickey is head and shoulders the best player in most comp sets.

By: Jerry

Jerry — Fri, 09 May 2008 23:11:01 +0000

I always liked that Blue Jays OF with Moseby, Bell and Barfield. The Expos with Cromartie, Dawson, and Valentine wasn’t too bad for a couple of years. The A’s with Tony Armas, Dwayne Murphy and Rickey Henderson were not too shabby. None of them were Rice/Lynn/ Evans caliber though.

By: nomar34

nomar34 — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:55:18 +0000

+1, Alejandro….+1

By: antoniomo

antoniomo — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:40:06 +0000

I’m with Alejandro (#15 and 19) on Peanut Butter M&M’s ruling the M&M galaxy . A bag of them and a box of popcorn at the movies…..whooeee baby!

By: Pat S.

Pat S. — Thu, 08 May 2008 12:39:18 +0000

Re#24 – “Rice could take Perez or Puckett, mmmmaybe. The other seven comparisons are wipeouts. Fictional 1980s You amazes too easily.”

My point, albeit a tacit one, was that Rice totally dropped off the table at the age of 33. I don’t know whether he was a smoker, or his vision went, but four or five more years of 85% of his normal production gets him to Cooperstown easily.

My main point was that during those first ten or so years of his career, if you were to ask any baseball fan on the street who the top 5 players were, Rice would be on practically every list.

If not, he wouldn’t be on this list;
http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/mvp_cya.shtml

I don’t think I’ve ever used MVP shares as a tool, but hey.

My point being that he was always in the MVP conversation, and that during that period of time, he was considered superior to all of the players mentioned in post 22. Granted, most players on that list made their bones in the late 80’s and 90’s but my point stands.

And for the record, I grew up a Cardinal fan in Missouri, I’m not a Boston honk.

By: Mikey

Mikey — Thu, 08 May 2008 01:43:08 +0000

On the subject of young outfields, how about the Bonds, Bonilla, Van Slyke trifecta on the Pittsburgh teams that won three straight divisions but never a pennant?

I’m using “young” somewhat liberally with Van Slyke, I know.

By: studes

studes — Thu, 08 May 2008 00:44:52 +0000

Not sure if you saw this, from earlier this year:

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/remembering-fred-lynn/