Baseball: 5-Tool Players during the past 20 years.

In My Humble Opinion
1

In baseball, a 5 tool player is a position player that is excellent at:

  1. Hitting for average
  2. Hitting for power
  3. Having great speed and/or stealing bases successfully
  4. Fielding
  5. Throwing

My friend and I were trying to recall which players over the past 20 years would be able to fit that description at any point in their careers.

We couldn’t come up with many. I know that there are quite a few baseball fans on these board, so I was hoping that we could form a list.

I’ll start with some obvious current ones:

Barry Bonds
Alex Rodriguez
Jim Edmonds

2

I know he can hit for average, hit for power, run the bases, and throw. I’m pretty sure he’s a solid fielder. I nominate:

Vladimir Guerrero

3

Roberto Alomar

4

I’m pretty sure Jermaine Dye has at least 4 of those…can he run?

5

Andruw Jones needs to work on his average a little bit (career .268) but he is outstanding in the other 4 categories.

6

At one point, at least, Griffey would probably have qualified. These days, of course, his average is down and he doesn’t steal, but there was a time when he did fairly well.

7

No player can be a 5-tool player throughout his entire career. Eventually your speed diminishes, along with other skills. I’m looking for any players that had all 5 qualities at any point over the past 20 years. The examples given so far certainly qualify (except Andruw Jones). How about some players who’ve retired?

8

Bonds, Jones, Edmonds, Guerrero - I would agree

Rickey Henderson - During his peak years (late 80’s- early 90’s) , he did all phases well.

Bo Jackson - Maybe a bit light in the average, buy had everything else in spades

Paul Molitor - Not outstanding power, but decent. everything else was good

Jose Canseco - was definately a 5 tool player when he first started. Turned into a one-dimensional caricature of a baseball player in near record time.

Robin Yount - AL MVP at 2 positions (SS and CF). Used to hit ~25 homers when that was a good numbe

9

Dammit, dammit, dammit
DefinItely.
[sigh] Where’s that thread on words you never spell right again?

10

So, Roberto Alomar (who has averaged 13.5 HRs a year over the past 14 seasons) “certainly qualifies” but Andruw Jones doesn’t?

Interesting…

11

Dye doesn’t move well enough for the 5-tool tag. Here’s some more recent candidates -

Bobby Abreu - 30/30/.300 guy, not many errors. Don’t know about his arm though.

Alfonso Soriano needs to clean up his fielding and he will be a 5-tooler. Hes already been a fantasy monster this year.

Ichiro’s missing the power, although there are those who speculate that with a different approach he could hit 20 HRs.

Shawn Green.

Sammy Sosa.

Larry Walker.

Tori Hunter is developing into one this year.

Carlos Beltran is on his way, just needs to get the average up.

Cliff Floyd? Don’t know about his fielding, plus he is a cripple master so maybe he gets dq’ed…

12

Normally a first baseman wouldn’t be considered in a 5 tool discussion, but what about Jeff Bagwell?

He has won a gold glove at first, and although not necessarily having a powerful arm, does have a solid, accurate arm and is willing to take chances on throws to other bases when circumstances arise. He was a third baseman during his minor league career, and was only moved to first because the Astros needed a first baseman and already had future steroid-popper Ken Caminiti at third.

He’s a career .301 hitter, with a career high .368 in 1994, when he won MVP in the strike-shortened season.

He has hit 30+ home runs 9 times, and driven in 100+ runs 7 times. Career highs are 47 HR (2000) and 135 RBI (1997).

He has stolen 181 bases, including 30+ bases twice, making him the only first baseman to have two 30/30 seasons (1997 and 1999). He may not steal as many bases as some people, but he has good enough speed and base-running smarts to have 7 100+ run seasons.

Power, average and glove: definitely. Speed and throwing arm? I made my arguments. As a first baseman, it’s hard to show off one’s arm, and some would argue that the only sufficient proof of a player’s speed is his stolen base total.

Perhaps for Bagwell “all around good ballplayer” would be a more accurate description than “5 tool player”.

13

Id say Jeter, but you have to make the “good power for a short stop” allowance.
Soriano will be one by the end of the year or next year.