View Single Post
  #41  
Old 12-12-2018, 12:38 PM
nat's Avatar
nat nat is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2016
Posts: 931
Default Kaline and Baines

There are two huge differences between the two.

First, Kaline was an awesome right fielder, whereas Baines was a DH. In Kaline's best defensive season he saved 29 runs more than an average right fielder, whereas Brooks Robinson, possibly the greatest defensive player of all time, had only two seasons in which he saved more runs than that above an average third baseman. (Brooks pulls far ahead over the course of his career, but at his best Kaline was comparable to Brooks at his best.) Baines' best season was 8 runs above average, he was often below average in the field, and his spent most of his career as a DH.

The other big difference is that Kaline played through the mini-deadball era in the 1960s, whereas Baines mostly played in a much higher-scoring environment. So although their raw offensive numbers are pretty similar, once you adjust for the difficulty in putting up those numbers, Kaline comes out much better. (Maybe you have to do some complementary adjusting to their respective defensive numbers, but the defensive gap between the two is so huge that it's not going to make that much of a difference.)
Reply With Quote