A couple folks on Facebook noted that three players who are related to each other were born in Illinois and also deserved mention. Both SS Dick Schofield Sr. (1953-71) and Dick Schofield Jr. (1983-1996) were good-glove, light-hitting shortstops. At most they deserve honorable mention here, but Schofield Sr.'s grandson, RF/LF Jayson Werth deserves more attention. I definitely should have at least included Werth as a fourth RF on the roster -- after all, I included 5 SS and 5 1B too, so why not someone who is at least in the conversation along with Granderson, Green, and Barfield?
Werth and Barfield in particular have some similarities... while their raw numbers vary a bit, they actually each had a 117 OPS+ for their careers (a metric that relativizes their OBP and SLG numbers to the era in which they played). They were both an All-Star once, and they both struck out quite a bit too. Neither often led their league in offensive categories much -- Werth once in doubles, Barfield once in HR.
Barfield was only in one post-season series and did OK. Werth was in many, and while he only hit .251 -- he did have 15 HR in only 271 PA, so that is solid.
The big difference, and why I'd rate Barfield just ahead of Werth, is on defense. Werth only led RF in putouts once. Barfield - led RF in putouts three times and led RF in assists and impressive six times. Yes, Worth's fielding % was higher (.986 vs. .981), but that is entirely a factor of the different era as Fielding % keep improving (his was 2 points higher than RF league average, Barfield's was 3 points higher than league average.)
A key metric we have today for judging defense is Total Zone Runs, for Worth in RF he had 19, which ranks 81st since 1953. For Barfield this was 149, which ranks 4th since 1953 -- behind only Roberto Clemente, Al Kaline, and Jason Heyward. Worth played a bit more in LF, but even his total OF TZR was only 40.
Another defensive metric is Range Factor per Game, and here Worth's for RF was 1.95, which ranks 78th since 1901. Barfield's RF/G in RF was 2.19 which ranks 7th since 1901.
So I'd say Barfield was an elite RF -- something I remember often said of him during the 1980s -- whereas Werth was just a league-average OF really.
A couple folks on Facebook noted that three players who are related to each other were born in Illinois and also deserved mention. Both SS Dick Schofield Sr. (1953-71) and Dick Schofield Jr. (1983-1996) were good-glove, light-hitting shortstops. At most they deserve honorable mention here, but Schofield Sr.'s grandson, RF/LF Jayson Werth deserves more attention. I definitely should have at least included Werth as a fourth RF on the roster -- after all, I included 5 SS and 5 1B too, so why not someone who is at least in the conversation along with Granderson, Green, and Barfield?
Werth and Barfield in particular have some similarities... while their raw numbers vary a bit, they actually each had a 117 OPS+ for their careers (a metric that relativizes their OBP and SLG numbers to the era in which they played). They were both an All-Star once, and they both struck out quite a bit too. Neither often led their league in offensive categories much -- Werth once in doubles, Barfield once in HR.
Barfield was only in one post-season series and did OK. Werth was in many, and while he only hit .251 -- he did have 15 HR in only 271 PA, so that is solid.
The big difference, and why I'd rate Barfield just ahead of Werth, is on defense. Werth only led RF in putouts once. Barfield - led RF in putouts three times and led RF in assists and impressive six times. Yes, Worth's fielding % was higher (.986 vs. .981), but that is entirely a factor of the different era as Fielding % keep improving (his was 2 points higher than RF league average, Barfield's was 3 points higher than league average.)
A key metric we have today for judging defense is Total Zone Runs, for Worth in RF he had 19, which ranks 81st since 1953. For Barfield this was 149, which ranks 4th since 1953 -- behind only Roberto Clemente, Al Kaline, and Jason Heyward. Worth played a bit more in LF, but even his total OF TZR was only 40.
Another defensive metric is Range Factor per Game, and here Worth's for RF was 1.95, which ranks 78th since 1901. Barfield's RF/G in RF was 2.19 which ranks 7th since 1901.
So I'd say Barfield was an elite RF -- something I remember often said of him during the 1980s -- whereas Werth was just a league-average OF really.