<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN">
<html><head><style type="text/css"><!--
blockquote, dl, ul, ol, li { margin-top: 0 ; margin-bottom: 0 }
--></style><title>Re: "out of left field" (Why
"left"?)</title></head><body>
<div>At 8:07 AM -0500 3/28/01, Frank Abate wrote:</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>We need to check stats. </blockquote>
<div>Agreed.</div>
<div><br></div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>I'm not sure that either contention
(centerfielders</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>make more putouts OR less play takes
place in left) is correct. </blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div>I can't speak to the latter, but the former is indeed the case,
as I shall try to show. Here are some of the lifetime totals of
seasons with over 300 putouts by center fielders:</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>T. Speaker 16</div>
<div>W. Mays 14 (6 over 400)</div>
<div>R. Ashburn 13 (4 over<b> 500</b>, the only
times ANY outfielder racked up > 500)</div>
<div>D. Cramer 13 (yes, the
immortal Doc Cramer, not even a Hall of Famer)</div>
<div>A.
Otis
12</div>
<div>J. DiMaggio 11 (out of 13 seasons)</div>
<div>M. Mantle 10</div>
<div>E. Averill 10</div>
<div>D. Snider 9</div>
<div>V. Pinson 9</div>
<div>S.
West
9 (4 over 400)</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>[Mays and Ashburn totaled 15 seasons with over 400 assists, and
Ashburn 4 over 500. No corner outfielder (LF or RF) ever topped
400 even once, as far as I can tell; at least none of the ones listed
here did.]</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Now we switch to right fielders, all Hall of Famers.</div>
<div>H. Aaron 9 seasons with over
300 putouts</div>
<div>P. Waner 9</div>
<div>A. Kaline 7</div>
<div>B. Ruth 6</div>
<div>F. Robinson 4</div>
<div>C. Klein 4</div>
<div>M. Ott
4</div>
<div>E. Slaughter 4</div>
<div>R. Jackson 3</div>
<div>R. Clemente 2 (Roberto was a legendary fielder,
although partly on the basis of his arm--266 lifetime assists--but he
only managed 2 seasons of over 300 putouts, compared to Richie
Ashburn's 4 seasons of over<b> 500</b>!)</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>And finally Hall of Fame left fielders</div>
<div>J. Medwick 9 seasons with
over 300 putouts </div>
<div>G. Goslin
8</div>
<div>T. Williams 7</div>
<div>Z.
Wheat
7</div>
<div>F.
Clarke
5</div>
<div>C. Yastrzemski 4</div>
<div>R.
Kiner <span
></span> 4</div>
<div>B. Williams 1</div>
<div>L.
Brock <span
></span> 1 (Brock, a notorious speedster, had
only one season with over 300 putouts, but 14 with between 221 and
283, close to the norm for a reasonably fast LF. Billy
Williams's stats were quite comparable. )</div>
<div>W. Stargell
0</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>[Source: Bill James' Historical Baseball Abstract (1988
edition). I suspect Barry Bonds might now top the third list,
but I don't know if he's in double figures yet.]</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Conclusions: </div>
<div>(1) Centerfielders, at least good ones, do make more
putouts than left or right fielders, even good ones.</div>
<div>(2) If you do want to make a lot of them in left, it helps
if you're part waterfowl, as shown by "Ducky" Medwick and
"Goose" Goslin.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>larry</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
</body>
</html>