SDMB Baseball Hall of Fame Vote #6: Right Fielders

This is the sixth round of voting on the SDMB Baseball Hall of Fame. In this round we will be voting on right fielders.

The rules remain the same as before, with one additional explanatory point:

  1. Please vote for TEN right fielders who have played major league baseball in North America, not including Negro League play, for which we will have other rounds of voting. You may vote for fewer than ten if you like, but I do ask you name ten if you possibly can. If you vote for more than ten, all names past #10 are discounted. The order you place the players in makes no difference.

  2. Your votes are not restricted by any restriction Cooperstown uses. You may vote for currently active players, players who have just recently retired, or players who eligibility to Cooperstown has passed.

  3. The ten players who receive the most votes are immediately inducted into the Hall of Fame.

  4. Although I will provide, in this post, a full list of all right fielders who are in the Hall of Fame, likely candidates, or had careers of significant length and accomplishment, it is an open ballot and you may vote for absolutely anyone you wish. If I miss a really significant name, please make it known.

  5. Discussion is encouraged but please let some votes gather up first. Detailed discussion of this series of threads may be found here:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=477967&page=1

Eligibility Note: Establishing what outfielders are right fielders is a bit of a judgment call here. Due to record keeping anachronisms, it is difficult to find detailed information on what position various outfielders played for most of baseball history; Babe Ruth is credited with 2241 games as playing “outfield.” So to be honest it’s possible, despite my best efforts, that we have some right fielders here who might have played a lot of center or left. And of course, even in cases where I do know, it’s often a close call; Andre Dawson played over 1200 games in right, so here he is, but he also played over 1000 games in center. Pete Rose I always thought played most of his outfield games in right, but according to baseballreference he played mostly in left. But I think this list is reasonably spot on. If you think a great player is missing here I probably have him classified as a left or center fielder. Please let me know if I have made any egregious errors.

Thanks, and happy voting!
Henry Aaron
Bob Allison
Felipe Alou
Jesse Barfield
Hank Bauer
Bobby Bonds
Jeff Burroughs
Jay Buhner
Johnny Callison
Jose Canseco
Jack Clark
Roberto Clemente
Rocky Colavito
Sam Crawford
Gavy Cravath
Kiki Cuyler
Andre Dawson
Dwight Evans
Elmer Flick
Juan Gonzalez
Ken Griffey SENIOR
Tony Gwynn
Vladimir Guerrero
Harry Heilmann
Tommy Henrich
Babe Herman
Harry Hooper
Reggie Jackson
Fielder Jones
Al Kaline
Wee Willie Keeler
King Kelly
Chuck Klein
Roger Maris
Tommy McCarthy
Wally Moses
Paul O’Neill
Tony Oliva
Mel Ott
Dave Parker
Sam Rice
Frank Robinson
Babe Ruth
Wildfire Schulte
Ruben Sierra
Gary Sheffield
Enos Slaughter
Reggie Smith
Sammy Sosa
Rusty Staub
Darryl Strawberry
Ichiro Suzuki
Sam Thompson
Mike Tiernan
Jack Tobin
Dixie Walker
Larry Walker
Paul Waner
Dave Winfield
Ross Youngs

I missed the last couple while away at a conference. This one is going to be right off the top of my head.

Hernry Aaron
Roberto Clemente
Tony Gwynn
Vlad Guerrero
Reggie Jackson
Al Kaline
Frank Robinson
Babe Ruth
Ichiro
Dave Winfield

Henry Aaron
Bobby Bonds (my sentimental vote this round)
Roberto Clemente
Sam Crawford
Al Kaline
Willie Keeler
Mel Ott
Frank Robinson
Babe Ruth
Paul Waner

I’ll vote for Mr. October in the at-large round(s).

I had a hard time not voting for Babe Herman, just because.

Henry Aaron
Ichiro Suzuki
Vladimir Guerrero
Tony Gwynn
Reggie Jackson
Babe Ruth
Al Kaline
Frank Robinson
Roberto Clemente
Dave Winfield

Wanted to add Larry Walker, just couldn’t do it.

Hmm why are we going with right fielders first, and not left?

In any event:

The Babe (underrated as an athlete)
Hammerin’ Hank (one of the most consistent ballplayers ever-never really had an off-year until he was 41)
Frank Robinson (neither did this guy-1963 maybe)
Mel Ott (proof that you can own a great hitting park and still be great yourself)
Tony Gwynn (yeah mostly average but was a good defender and baserunner)
Reggie! (unfairly knocked for the K’s)
Roberto Clemente (quite a bit of the myth has some truth to it)
Paul Waner (took big advantage of his huge home park-check out all the doubles and triples)
Sam Crawford (played 2nd banana to Ty Cobb, which makes him kind of underrated)
Al Kaline (never really developed from his age 20 season, but it was good enough of a baseline to get him in)

[My Sad Sack vote probably would have gone to Bobby Bonds, but that would mean either of the Two Tigers would have to be bumped, which I really couldn’t do)

Hmm who is the best RFer of the current generation? Nobody stands out-Manny hasn’t played RF in almost ten years. Magglio Ordonez? Won’t come within sniffing distance of the Hall. [Edit Oh yeah, forgot Vladdie, he might have a shot, and in a couple of more years he may be at 9-10 on my list. Ichiro gets an Incomplete until he gets old enough for me to properly evaluate him-Japan time included]

Babe Ruth (I mentioned I don’t pay a lot of attention to OPS+ but 207? Holy crap!)
Henry Aaron
Roberto Clemente
Frank Robinson
Mel Ott
Sam Crawford

*The first 6 were easy. *
**Harry Heilmann
Paul Waner
Reggie Jackson ** Low average but great power, good speed and incredible run production with a good chunk of his career in a pitcher’s era. Also that whole Mr. October thing.
**Tony Gwynn ** *was actually better at being Wee Willie was than Wee Willie and I decided to only support one of the two and I would rather have Reggie than etiher and he was my ninth choice. *

Henry Aaron
Bobby Bonds
Roberto Clemente
Dwight Evans
Tony Gwynn
Reggie Jackson
Mel Ott
Frank Robinson
Babe Ruth
Dave Winfield

It would have made more sense to choose 30 outfielders instead of splitting them by position.

Henry Aaron
Bobby Bonds
Roberto Clemente
Ken Griffey SENIOR
Tony Gwynn
Reggie Jackson
Al Kaline
Mel Ott
Frank Robinson
Babe Ruth

Babe Ruth - Ate lots of hot dogs!
Hank Aaron - so good some goofy white guy came out to run with him.
Frank Robinson - MVP both leagues.
Sam Crawford - Even Ty Cobb liked him
Chuck Klein - Stats probably inflated by the park. But, great stats while in Philly. Even a triple crown. And, reportedly a great defensive player.
Roberto Clemente - Great player that died too young.
Tony Gwynn - A hit machine. Great pitcher studier.
Mel Ott - Lots of homers
Dave Winfield - Watch out pigeons!
Paul Waner - I look up a bunch of guys to see who I think deserves top ten honors. In the process I found this great piece of trivia about Waner from this baseball page

Hank Aaron
Roberto Clemente
Tony Gwynn
Harry Heilmann
Reggie Jackson
Al Kaline
Mel Ott
Frank Robinson
Babe Ruth
Paul Waner

I really wanted to put Dave Winfield in there, but there’s a limit of ten, and the competition is mighty good.

George Herman Ruth
Henry Aaron
Mel Ott
Frank Robinson
Roberto Clemente
Dwight Evans
Paul Waner
Willie Keeler
Tony Gwynn
Sam Rice

Babe Ruth

Hank Aaron
Frank Robinson
Mel Ott
Sam Crawford
Reggie Jackson
Al Kaline
Paul Waner
Roberto Clemente
Tony Gwynn (A rarity – significantly overrated, but still great. An on-base machine for over 10,000 plate appearances)

Close, but lacking in cigars: Harry Heilmann, Gary Sheffield, Chuck Klein

My picks:

Henry Aaron
Babe Ruth
Roberto Clemente
Frank Robinson
Wee Willie Keeler
Paul Waner
Mel Ott
Reggie Jackson
Tony Gwynn
Dave Winfield

  1. Bonds
  2. Ruth
  3. Kaline
  4. Clemente
    5.Crawford
  5. Guerrero
  6. AAron
  7. Gwynn
    9 Ott

Number 10 wont come out.

ichiro suzuki No 10. He is just too good to leave off. He could have 4000 hits if he played here his whole career.

A bit difficult after the first few picks:
George Herman “Babe” Ruth - His life seemed to have been a mess, but this guy was just playing on a different planet than everyone else.

… …

Hank Aaron - He kept up a great standard of play for so long, it’s quite remarkable. Being the all-time HR king really suited him.
Frank Robinson - One of the great all-time sluggers.
Mel Ott - Almost a perfect offensive package, great OBP, great slugging, great walk/strikeout ratio.
Vladimir Guerrero - OPS+ 147, even in the offensive hyper-age. Seems to have a joy of playing that I just love to watch.
Harry Heilmann - OPS+ 148, featuring a lovely .410 OBP. A tough man to strike out, as well.
Paul Waner - I admit I’m a bit biased by the stories I’ve read about Big & Little Poison, but OBP .404 and OPS+ 134 show that there’s something to the tales.
Reggie Jackson - His OBP is a bit low for this list, but there’s no denying he was one of the few pre-eminent sluggers of his fairly low offense era.
Sam Crawford - He’s just numbers to me, but OPS+ 144 is really nice, and he seemed to have decent speed on the basepaths. I’m not too familiar with that era, but he seems like a good representative.
Tony Gwynn - This last slot was between Clemente, Kaline and Gwynn; they all have similar OPS+, but I’m such an OBP whore that Gwynn gets the slot. He also has the (unfair) advantage of being the only one of the three I’ve seen play. Great arm, as well.

Sorry Roberto and Al. Tough ballot. I really would have liked to vote for Ichiro, as he’s probably my favorite player to watch, but the numbers just don’t add up. He’s fairly one-dimensional, and his OBP isn’t even all that spectacular.

Wow. I don’t want to cut anyone. Much different than the las t round

Henry Aaron
Roberto Clemente
Andre Dawson
Tony Gwynn
Babe Herman
Reggie Jackson
Roger Maris
Mel Ott
Frank Robinson
Babe Ruth

Just a question to put out there: How many of you are considering defense at all for this position?

Henry Aaron
Rocky Colavito
Harry Heilmann
Reggie Jackson
Mel Ott
Frank Robinson
Babe Ruth
Gary Sheffield
Enos Slaughter
Sammy Sosa