MLB Series: Each team's All-Time Center Fielders

[redsmetz]

MLB has been wiling away the time doing an ongoing series of each team's best player at a position. Today's was CF. I wondered if they might select Edd Roush, a player often overlooked since he played so long ago. They didn't, but gave this nod to him with their ultimate selection:

Although Edd Roush is a Dead Ball Era Hall of Famer and Eric Davis was one of the top five-tool players of the late 1980s, the nod here goes to Pinson. Pinson’s 47.7 bWAR is eighth all time for Cincinnati, behind five Hall of Famers, the banned Pete Rose and possible future Hall of Famer Joey Votto. During his 11 seasons in Cincinnati, he batted .297/.341/.469 with 186 home runs. At different points, Pinson led the National League in runs (1959), hits ('61 and ’63), doubles ('59-60) and triples ('63 and ’67). In '61 -- the year Cincinnati won the NL pennant -- he was third in MVP Award voting and won a Gold Glove Award. Five times during his career, Pinson had 20-homer, 20-steal seasons

With another link, they listed out the Reds Top 5 CFers (and some honorable mentions)

https://www.mlb.com/news/reds-all-ti...enter-fielders

Fun read.

[redsmetz]

Here's the link for the initial article: https://www.mlb.com/news/best-all-ti...every-mlb-team

[RedsManRick]

The 6 players with 3,000+ PA (~5 seasons) as Reds CF:

#	Name		G	PA	HR	R	RBI	SB	BB%	K%	ISO	BABIP	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	wRC+	BsR	Off	 Def	fWAR	fWAR/600
1	Vada Pinson	1565	6850	186	978	814	221	 6.0%	12.1%	.172	.316	.297	.341	.469	.357	120	14.3	173.2	 -4.2	42.8	3.7
2	Edd Roush	1399	5965	 47	815	763	199	 5.9%	 2.8%	.131	.336	.331	.377	.462	.391	136	-2.1	246.9	-39.3	42.0	4.2
3	Eric Davis	985	3819	203	635	615	270	12.9%	22.9%	.240	.307	.271	.367	.510	.382	138	33.8	202.8	-43.5	29.3	4.6
5	Cesar Geronimo	1203	3736	 44	404	344	 72	 8.7%	17.7%	.110	.312	.261	.330	.371	.314	 93	 1.5	-28.3	 47.2	14.6	2.3
8	Gus Bell	1235	5111	160	634	711	 24	 6.7%	 8.8%	.167	.288	.288	.335	.454	.349	104	-1.0	 25.4	-78.6	10.9	1.3
9	Ken Griffey Jr.	945	3904	210	533	602	 17	12.2%	17.2%	.244	.276	.270	.362	.514	.369	119	-9.4	 85.3  -107.6	10.0	1.5

Obviously your WAR of choice my vary and who knows when it comes to defensive metrics from games played 100 years ago, but given that, it's pretty clearly a 2-man race if you care about total production and a 3-man race if you look at average production. For his combination of volume and rate production, my choice is Roush.

[Big Klu]

I read the lists for each position. At catcher, Ryan Hanigan was not better than Johnny Edwards.

[foster15]

The 6 players with 3,000+ PA (~5 seasons) as Reds CF:

#	Name		G	PA	HR	R	RBI	SB	BB%	K%	ISO	BABIP	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	wRC+	BsR	Off	 Def	fWAR	fWAR/600
1	Vada Pinson	1565	6850	186	978	814	221	 6.0%	12.1%	.172	.316	.297	.341	.469	.357	120	14.3	173.2	 -4.2	42.8	3.7
2	Edd Roush	1399	5965	 47	815	763	199	 5.9%	 2.8%	.131	.336	.331	.377	.462	.391	136	-2.1	246.9	-39.3	42.0	4.2
3	Eric Davis	985	3819	203	635	615	270	12.9%	22.9%	.240	.307	.271	.367	.510	.382	138	33.8	202.8	-43.5	29.3	4.6
5	Cesar Geronimo	1203	3736	 44	404	344	 72	 8.7%	17.7%	.110	.312	.261	.330	.371	.314	 93	 1.5	-28.3	 47.2	14.6	2.3
8	Gus Bell	1235	5111	160	634	711	 24	 6.7%	 8.8%	.167	.288	.288	.335	.454	.349	104	-1.0	 25.4	-78.6	10.9	1.3
9	Ken Griffey Jr.	945	3904	210	533	602	 17	12.2%	17.2%	.244	.276	.270	.362	.514	.369	119	-9.4	 85.3  -107.6	10.0	1.5

Obviously your WAR of choice my vary and who knows when it comes to defensive metrics from games played 100 years ago, but given that, it's pretty clearly a 2-man race if you care about total production and a 3-man race if you look at average production. For his combination of volume and rate production, my choice is Roush.

Just looking at the old time stats, I think Eric Davis comes out ahead. When you extend his stats out to equal the plate appearances of either Pinson or Roush, the only ones he falls behind is batting average and barely OBP to Roush. But his HRs and SBs dominate the others and he also comes out ahead in runs scored and RBI because he's got about 3 less full seasons of plate appearances to Roush and 4 to Pinson.

Not sure about Roush, but pitchers were not going to pitch around Pinson to get to Robinson where Eric Davis was pretty much the one Red that teams feared most during his playing days.

Eric Davis, final answer.

[mth123]

Just looking at the old time stats, I think Eric Davis comes out ahead. When you extend his stats out to equal the plate appearances of either Pinson or Roush, the only ones he falls behind is batting average and barely OBP to Roush. But his HRs and SBs dominate the others and he also comes out ahead in runs scored and RBI because he's got about 3 less full seasons of plate appearances to Roush and 4 to Pinson.

Not sure about Roush, but pitchers were not going to pitch around Pinson to get to Robinson where Eric Davis was pretty much the one Red that teams feared most during his playing days.

Eric Davis, final answer.

If I had to take one player for one game at the top of his prime, Eric Davis might be my choice at any position (Joe Morgan is the only guy who can compete with him), but when looking at it in terms of FRanchise History, volume matters. The fact is, he didn't play those games and its part of what needs to be evaluated. I think they got it right with Vada.

[foster15]

If I had to take one player for one game at the top of his prime, Eric Davis might be my choice at any position (Joe Morgan is the only guy who can compete with him), but when looking at it in terms of FRanchise History, volume matters. The fact is, he didn't play those games and its part of what needs to be evaluated. I think they got it right with Vada.

And that's why we'll never come up with an answer we can all agree with. How much does volume matter? If a guy accomplishes 5 of the greatest seasons and he's up against someone who played at 75 percent of the first guy for 15 seasons, who do you give it too? Obviously Greg Vaughn was great throughout his Reds career, but that consisted of 1 season. Too short. Personally I think there needs to be a cutoff and then you don't take longevity in it any longer. Eric Davis gave us 6 pretty full seasons and couple of injury shortened ones. To me that's enough.

But I see your point.

[Red Raindog]

Vada was my favorite player as a kid so I just might be biased when I support his selection.......


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