Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth
This may be hard to read given the format but this is James' general discussion of why he thinks people place too much importance on a right fielder's throwing arm.
https://books.google.com/books?id=3u...mente&f=falseI
Still looking for his Clemente specific thoughts. |
In the Bill James book you linked to, Bill James ranks Clemente as the 8th best Righfielder of all-time. He ranks Al Kaline as 11th, so not quite in the top 10.
It is very difficult to find a source that ranks Kaline ahead of Clemente (other than this thread).
The Athletic top 100: Clemente at 40, Kaline at 51
Baseball Egg Top 100: Clemente 32, Kaline 42
ESPN Top 100: Clemente at 27, Kaline at 71 (the gap clearly shouldn't be that big, but I do think you can make a case for Clemente in the top 30).
SABR (from 1999) has Clemente 20, Kaline 59.
The
Sporting News Top 100 (from 1998) has Clemente at 20, Kaline at 71
The one source I did find was this
Bill James article from 2000 which ranks Kaline as 9 and Clemente as 11 for right-fielders. The fact that it lists Paul Waner ahead of both them though is a bit troubling.
One could say that top 100 lists are typically popularity contests, and to a certain extent they may be. But the Baseball Egg article follows a more quantitative formula. Note that Dan Holmes, the guy that runs the Baseball Egg site mentioned that he is going to be re-ranking the top 100 soon though, so the current ranking of Clemente at 32 and Kaline at 42 could change. I personally would rank them with Clemente around 35 and Kaline around 40.