Originally Posted by
RedsBaron
I agree that Vada Pinson is an easy pick over Ken Griffey Jr. in CF. Frank Robinson is an absolute must in rightfield. The rest of the outfield for me depends in part upon whether or not I put Pete Rose in the outfield. If I do, then I may platoon Pinson and Eric Davis in CF. If I don't, then I've been tempted to put George Foster in leftfield, as I have a weakness for guys who hit 52 HRs in one season. However, in reviewing their stats I was somewhat surprised to find that Pinson had a slightly higher five year peak than Foster. Career wise Pinson as a Red put up 47.7 WAR to Foster's 39.5-no surprise. For one season, Foster's 8.4 WAR in 1977 tops any single season by Vada, whose high was 7.5 in 1961-again no surprise. For a five year stretch of seasons, which is what I regard to be more of a consistent peak, Pinson from 1959 through 1963 had 6.5, 5.6, 7.5, 4.7 and 6.4, for 30.7 total WAR, a seasonal average of 6.14. Foster's best five year stretch was 1975 through 1979, 4.8, 5.9, 8.4, 4.9 and 5.1, for 29.1 total WAR, a seasonal average of 5.82-that surprised me.
I checked on the best five year stretch for Pete Rose and Eric Davis.
Davis, who had 30.6 career WAR as a Red, had a five year peak between 1986 and 1990 of 5.3, 7.9, 4.4, 2.9 and 3.3, for total WAR in those seasons of 23.8, a season average of 4.76, well below Pinson and Foster.
Rose had a five year stretch between 1969 and 1973 of 6.6, 4.8, 5.1, 6.1 and 8.3, for total WAR in those five seasons of 30.9, a seasonal average of 6.18, a hair above Vada. If you instead us the five year stretch from 1972 through 1976, the latter two years being seasons where Rose played at third, he had 6.1, 8.3, 5.9, 4.1 and 7.0, a total of 31.4 and an average of 6.28. Part of Rose's greatness as a player wasn't that he had a single season peak as high as many other superstars-it was that he more less maintained his peak level for a ridiculously long time.