Dean's Top 10 Center Fielders of All-Time
A Blog By Dean
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This was easily my favorite Top 10 I have written so far. It goes off the rails multiple times, giving you a little bit of everything you want.
10. Andre Dawson
Key Stats: .279 AVG, 438 HR, 1,591 RBI, .806 OPS, 2,774 H, 314 SB
bWAR: 64.9
WAR7: 42.7
JAWS: 53.8
Accolades: Hall of Fame (2010), NL MVP (1987), 8× Gold Glove, 8× All-Star, 4× Silver Slugger
Why: For the first time in these blogs, I wrote from #1 to #10. Damn, Andre Dawson has nothing on the rest of these players.
9. Kirby Puckett
Key Stats: .318 AVG, 207 HR, 1,085 RBI, .837 OPS, 2,304 H, 134 SB
bWAR: 51.1
WAR7: 37.7
JAWS: 44.4
Accolades: Hall of Fame (2001), 10× All-Star, 6× Gold Glove, 6× Silver Slugger, 2× World Series Champion (1987, 1991), ALCS MVP (1991)
Why: I often overlook Puckett because his numbers do not pop out when looking over rankings and leaderboards. When you look at his baseball reference, however, it is listed only with awards and MVP votes. His postseason numbers were also great, as you can see below. He never missed games and was only placed on injured reserve after waking up one day and being blind in his right eye. That blindness would end his career short at the age of 35.
8. Duke Snider
Key Stats: .295 AVG, 407 HR, 1,333 RBI, .919 OPS, 2,116 H
bWAR: 65.9
WAR7: 49.5
JAWS: 57.7
Accolades: Hall of Fame (1980), 8× All-Star, 2× World Series Champion
Why: As you will see, this blog is full of poems, songs, and history. I feel like today, sports only enter into the music realm through terrible rap songs about purple drinks and girls dancing. Back in the day, they used to tell stories and pay homage to the game's greats. The song below is called Talkin' Baseball by Terry Cashman. It was initially titled Willie, Mickey, and the Duke. While it does have a quick reference to marijuana, it is a homage to the golden days of baseball.
You could argue that Snider benefited from being attached to Mantle and Mays in that way. Once he hit 30, he fell off a cliff and was a shell of his former self. Being immortalized in this song might keep him in the minds of baseball fans for years to come.
7. Ken Griffey Jr.
Key Stats: .284 AVG, 630 HR, 1,836 RBI, .907 OPS, 2,781 H, 184 SB
bWAR: 83.8
WAR7: 54.0
JAWS: 68.9
Accolades: Hall of Fame (2016), AL MVP (1997), 13× All-Star, 10× Gold Glove, 7× Silver Slugger
Why: “The Kid” was a generational talent who combined jaw-dropping defense with one of the smoothest swings in baseball history. Griffey’s ten-year peak from 1990-2000 is one of the best ever. Perhaps even THE best ever. However, he fell off a cliff. Fans like me only saw a shell of the generational talent from the 90s. It distorts my perspective on him as I can’t wrap my head around putting someone I saw with my own eyes be so bad above players like DiMaggio, who never even sniffed a lousy year.
6. Joe DiMaggio
Key Stats: .325 AVG, 361 HR, 1,537 RBI, .977 OPS, 2,214 H
bWAR: 79.1
WAR7: 52.1
JAWS: 65.6
Accolades: Hall of Fame (1955), 3× AL MVP (1939, 1941, 1947), 13× All-Star, 9× World Series Champion
Why: DiMaggio is one of the top 20 players of all time. It just happens that he played by far the most stacked position in terms of all-time greats. DiMaggio never struck out and holds the record for most seasons with more home runs than strikeouts. He did this seven times total, and five consecutively from 1937-1941.
There are a lot of factors that would have bumped DiMaggio higher if he played a different position.
1. He lost three prime years to WWII
2. Early retirement
3. Playing at Yankee Stadium, which was terrible for right-handed batters at the time.
Did DiMaggio benefit from Ted Williams being hated by the voters who chose MVP? Anyone who says otherwise doesn’t know baseball history. Does that make DiMaggio’s career any less impressive? Nope, he is still one of the best ever to do it.
Here are Ted Williams vs DiMaggio stats. Yes, I am a biased Red Sox fan.
5. Tris Speaker
Key Stats: .345 AVG, 117 HR, 1,531 RBI, .928 OPS, 3,514 H, 436 SB
bWAR: 135.0
WAR7: 62.7
JAWS: 98.8
Accolades: Hall of Fame (1937), 3× World Series Champion, AL MVP (1912)
Why: I really wanted to put Speaker higher, but I want to try and balance the different eras of baseball as best as I can. That being said, Speaker is one of the players that crosses over into two different generations of baseball. Speaker started in the deadball era and played into the 1920s as the home run, and Babe Ruth changed the game forever. Ruth and Speaker were actually teammates with the Red Sox early on, and when Speaker was traded to the Indians, most fans thought it was going to be the worst trade in the team’s history. Lol to that!
The speaker is fifth all-time in BA (amongst players with 5,000 PA or more), fifth all-time in hits, and the all-time leader in doubles. I am keeping him at #5 for now, but if my #4 player doesn’t pick it up, I will have to make a move.
4. Mike Trout (active)
Key Stats: .299 AVG, 378 HR, 954 RBI, .991 OPS, 1,648 H, 212 SB
bWAR: 86.2
WAR7: 65.1
JAWS: 75.6
Accolades: 3× AL MVP (2014, 2016, 2019), 11× All-Star, 9× Silver Slugger
Why: I hope that one day, baseball fans will be a little more appreciative of how great Mike Trout was at his peak. I don’t want to bloat a blog that is already full of songs from the 1950s, poems from funerals, and a rant about college athletics. So, when you finish this blog, 1. Make sure to subscribe, but 2. Come back and click on the blog linked here about Trout.
3. Mickey Mantle
Key Stats: .298 AVG, 536 HR, 1,509 RBI, .977 OPS, 2,415 H, 153 SB
bWAR: 110.2
WAR7: 64.7
JAWS: 87.5
Accolades: Hall of Fame (1974), 3× AL MVP (1956, 1957, 1962), 16× All-Star, 7× World Series Champion
Why: Mantle is the best of the centerfielders who “could have been the best player ever.” Most will point to Mantle tearing his ACL during the 1951 World Series, an injury he would never get repaired (I love how that is just overlooked today,) but I look at how he treated his body as the more significant factor. At the end of his life, he admitted to drinking and smoking himself to death. This is something that is often overlooked today. People would rather post memes about Mantle smooching a female fan during a game than actually memorializing the man. Few acknowledge how he was able to become sober towards the end of his life and even found God. So, I will choose to honor Mantle with the poem he wanted to be read at his funeral. (Yes, I watched Mickey Mantle’s funeral to research this blog.)
God’s Hall of Fame
by Walt Huntley
Your name may not appear down here
In this world’s Hall of Fame,
In fact you may be so unknown
That no one knows your name;
The Oscars and the praise of men
May never come your way,
But don’t forget God has rewards
That he’ll hand out someday.
This Hall of Fame is only good
As long as time shall be;
But keep in mind, God’s Hall of Fame
Is for eternity;
To have your name inscribed up there
Is greater more by far
Than all the fame and all the praise
Of ev’ry man-made star.
This crowd on earth they soon forget
When you’re not up at the top,
They’ll cheer like mad until you fall
And then their praise will stop;
Not God, He never does forget,
And in His Hall of Fame,
By just believing on His Son,
Forever – there’s your name.
I tell you, friend, I wouldn’t trade
My name, however small,
That’s written there beyond the stars
In that celestial Hall,
For all the famous names on earth,
Or glory that they share;
I’d rather be an unknown here,
And have my name up there.
2. Ty Cobb
Key Stats: .366 AVG, 117 HR, 1,938 RBI, .944 OPS, 4,189 H, 897 SB
bWAR: 151.4
WAR7: 69.0
JAWS: 110.2
Accolades: Hall of Fame (1936), AL MVP (1911), 12× Batting Champion
Why: Whenever I think of Ty Cobb, I think of the stanza in the poem Line-Up For Yesterday: An ABC of Baseball Immortals by Ogden Nash. It is as follows
C is for Cobb,
Who grew spikes and not corn,
And made all the basemen
Wish they weren’t born.
Cobb is the greatest player of the dead-ball era and probably in my top five of all time (a list I am working on). Causal baseball fans only perceive Cobb from the movie Cobb, starring Tommy Lee Jones. However, the early biographies of Cobb, which the film was based on, were heavily fabricated and have been proven as such. I encourage everyone to go and read Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty by Charles Leerhsen. It is my second favorite baseball book ever, next to The Kid. I will be posting a review on it in the coming weeks and have reached out to Charles Leerhsen personally.
I like athletes who are “killers,” which is one of the reasons I fell in love with Ted Williams. Look, all professional athletes (and most college athletes.) are killers. 33% of high school students play a varsity sport. Yeah, you will get some duds in there, but for the most part, those are kids who are competitors. Of that 33%, less than 6% go on to play in college. This is where you start to get into the “killer” territory. Of that 6% only 2% go on and play professionally.
I think ultra-competitors like Cobb, Ted Williams, Michael Jordan, etc, make people uncomfortable. To them, they just see a crazy person who is an a*****e to his teammates. Jordan put it best in The Last Dance when he says
“When people see this, they are going to say, ‘Well, he wasn’t a nice guy; he was a tyrant.’ That’s you because you never won anything. I wanted to win, but I wanted them to win and be a part of that as well.”
Cobb was a killer. His teammates hated him, and his opponents feared him, which made him one of the greatest players in MLB history.
1. Willie Mays
Key Stats: .301AVG, 660 HR, 1,909 RBI, .941 OPS, 3,293 H, 339 SB
bWAR: 156.2
WAR7: 73.5
JAWS: 114.9
Accolades: Hall of Fame (1979), 2× NL MVP (1954, 1965), 24× All-Star, 12× Gold Glove, World Series Champion (1954)
Why: It has been ingrained in me since childhood that Willie Mays was the greatest baseball player to ever live. Connecting my #1 and #2 players on this list, Cobb once said that Mays was the “only player I’d pay money to see.” This coming from a player who played against Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, and all the original GOATs of baseball says a lot.
Mays lost two seasons to the Korean War. It is safe to say that if he had those years back, he would have come pretty darn close to that 700 HR mark. I am not saying that he was going to catch Ruth, but it would have been close.
When I do my Top 10 players of all time, I will dive even deeper into Mays. For now, I will simply leave the image below. Mays almost matched the production of Mantle and Snider combined….
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Really appreciated this.
I’d be satisfied put ahead of Trout. If Junior gets dinged on his injuries with the Reds then Trout needs dropped also. I hope he rebounds but he hasn’t been healthy in a while.