Written by Joe Lucia at Bloguin
On Monday night, Minnesota Twins outfielder Torii Hunter announced his retirement after 17 full seasons in the majors with the Twins, Angels, and Tigers. Hunter has a reputation of being an above average hitter and excellent defender in center field, and a player who could receive some support for the Hall of Fame when he reaches the ballot in five years.
(note: this article will not discuss any of Hunter’s controversial public stances, comments, or clubhouse incidents. Sticking to sports today!)
But when talking about Hunter, one also has to talk about two of his contemporaries that were similar players – above average hitters, and fantastic defensive outfielders. Let’s play “guess the player”, shall we?
PLAYER A: 2,196 career games, 8,664 plate appearances, .254/.337/.486, 434 home runs, 111 OPS+, 10 Gold Gloves, 5 All-Star Games, 62.8 rWAR, 67.1 fWAR
PLAYER B: 2,372 career games, 9,692 plate appearances, .277/.331/.461, 353 home runs, 110 OPS+, 9 Gold Gloves, 5 All-Star Games, 50.0 rWAR, 41.6 fWAR
PLAYER C: 2,011 career games, 7,980 plate appearances, .284/.376/.527, 393 home runs, 132 OPS+, 8 Gold Gloves, 4 All-Star Games, 60.3 rWAR, 64.5 fWAR
So on the surface, all three players look pretty similar defensively (at least from a “Gold Glove” standpoint, which doesn’t tell you all that much), and received a similar amount of love from their fans during their careers. Player C is clearly the better offensive player, while Player B stuck around the longest and Player A had seemingly the better combination of offensive and defensive abilities.
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