Jim Edmonds and Greatness

Or how Edmonds is more Duke than Dewey.

Last time we looked at some of Jim Edmonds’ context-neutral career numbers in arguing his case for the Hall.  But let’s face it – just looking at career numbers alone doesn’t always make the point. Most of the time, for a player be recognized as Hall of Fame worthy, that player will have needed to prove greatness for a sustained period, not pad their WAR totals with a long career of solid but unspectacular seasons.

One of the commenters from the last post mentioned Dwight Evans as a possible comparison to Edmonds. Dewey Evans had a terrific career and I don’t want to downplay it, but he never really separated himself as a Hall of Fame caliber player in the minds of the voters; thus he lasted only through three ballots before falling off.  I would say Duke Snider is a better comparison for Edmonds, and I think the numbers bear this out.

I don’t think anyone will argue that Duke Snider doesn’t deserve being in the Hall of Fame. When Bill James published his New Historical Abstract in 2001, he ranked Snider as the 6th best CF of all time, followed by Griffey Jr. and Puckett. Bill may consider moving Junior ahead of Snider now, but suffice to say that Snider is rightly regarded as one of the best center fielders of all time.

Charted below is Edmonds, some of his contemporaries (Andruw Jones and Bernie Williams), some Hall of Famers, Dale Murphy and Dwight Evans. We’re looking at career best WAR, their 5-year peaks and Wins Above Excellence, a stat Sean Smith recently concocted. It’s straightforward: It’s how many wins a player has above three in a season, though his season total can never be below zero. We’re using this to give credit for great seasons while disregarding any season where a player is merely average or below. It doesn’t add for hinder a player’s case for greatness and doesn’t handicap a player for his decline.

Name	Career High	5-Year Peak	Wins Above Excellence	Career WAR
Jim Edmonds	8.4	36.5	31.4	66.6
Duke Snider	9.5	38.6	31	67.2
Andruw Jones	7.9	33	28.5	58.4
Dale Murphy	7.5	26.6	20.7	44.4
Andre Dawson	7.3	30.6	18.3	56.8
B. Williams	6.1	26.8	16.6	47.1
Dwight Evans	6.8	22.2	16.2	61.7
Kirby Puckett	7.2	23.2	13.8	45

We see that as it turns out, Edmonds was the most dominant center fielder of his era, although Andruw Jones is right there. We see that Edmonds outclasses Kirby Puckett by a long shot, both in his five-year peak and the Wins Above Excellence group. Dawson had a strong five-year peak and still falls short of Edmonds’ peak, and he doesn’t come close in WAE, Excellentitude, or whatever you want to call it. Dewey Evans had a lot of good seasons, but nothing that matches the quality of excellence of Edmonds.

Jim Edmonds comes out slightly ahead of Duke Snider to take the lead in the “Wins Above Excellence” category, although Snider’s five-year peak was better, but not by a long shot, just two WAR. Let’s take a closer look at the 5-year peaks of Snider, newbie HoFer Dawson, and Edmonds.

Duke Snider

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	PA	RC	RC/G	BA	lgBA	OBP	lgOBP	SLG	lgSLG	OPS	lgOPS	OPS+	OWn%
1953	26	BRO	NL	680	154	9.8	.336	.278	.419	.349	.627	.433	1.046	.782	165	.786
1954	27	BRO	NL	679	158	10.3	.341	.279	.423	.351	.647	.431	1.071	.782	171	.803
1955	28	BRO	NL	653	145	9.7	.309	.270	.418	.342	.628	.428	1.046	.769	169	.793
1956	29	BRO	NL	652	128	8.3	.292	.274	.399	.342	.598	.433	.997	.775	155	.756
1957	30	BRO	NL	592	106	7.3	.274	.279	.368	.344	.587	.432	.955	.775	143	.695

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 1/9/2010.

Jim Edmonds

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	PA	RC	RC/G	BA	lgBA	OBP	lgOBP	SLG	lgSLG	OPS	lgOPS	OPS+	OWn%
2000	30	STL	NL	643	137	9.5	.295	.276	.411	.353	.583	.450	.994	.804	146	.741
2001	31	STL	NL	608	121	8.7	.304	.268	.410	.340	.564	.440	.974	.780	149	.732
2002	32	STL	NL	576	117	9.1	.311	.264	.420	.337	.561	.419	.981	.756	158	.762
2003	33	STL	NL	531	106	8.3	.275	.265	.385	.336	.617	.425	1.002	.762	160	.723
2004	34	STL	NL	612	144	10.6	.301	.270	.418	.341	.643	.437	1.061	.778	170	.798

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 1/9/2010.

Andre Dawson

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	PA	RC	RC/G	BA	lgBA	OBP	lgOBP	SLG	lgSLG	OPS	lgOPS	OPS+	OWn%
1979	24	MON	NL	684	91	5.0	.275	.268	.309	.333	.468	.397	.777	.730	111	.553
1980	25	MON	NL	638	105	6.6	.308	.267	.358	.329	.492	.387	.850	.716	136	.694
1981	26	MON	NL	441	83	7.8	.302	.264	.365	.329	.553	.378	.918	.707	157	.761
1982	27	MON	NL	660	106	6.3	.301	.268	.343	.331	.498	.389	.841	.721	132	.676
1983	28	MON	NL	698	113	6.2	.299	.262	.338	.330	.539	.388	.877	.719	141	.670

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 1/9/2010.

(OWn% is Offensive Winning Percentage, a Bill James creation. Offensive Winning Percentage equals the percentage of games a team would win with nine of that player in its lineup, given average pitching and defense. A .750 OWP will usually put you in the top five in your league in any given year.)

Edmonds won a Gold Glove each of the five years of his peak, Dawson won four of five.  The first Gold Gloves were given out in 1957, but according to Total Zone, Snider was worth 32 runs above average during that span, a very good number. Edmonds was good for 29 runs above average in his peak, Dawson had 36. (In 2005 Edmonds was +15, just throwing that out there.)

While Edmonds didn’t have Snider’s five-year peak, he’s pretty close, and you can argue that he displayed equal greatness on the ball diamond in his glory days, and he was definitely a more dominant player than Andre Dawson.  The Dwight Evans comparison doesn’t hold water, as it turns out. Edmonds is more than just a merely good player who had a long career. For a good while, he was one of the upper echelon players of his time. That’s the main part of what the Hall of Fame is about honoring, which is why I’m starting to bang the drum now.