The 25 Center Fielders With the Best Careers

Here are the 25 center fielders who had the best careers during the 20 ^th century (as measured by the NEWS HOF Gauge).

For a center fielder, a NEWS score of 270 is required to say that he has obvious HOF numbers.There are eleven center fielders who posted these numbers.However, as I will explain below, there are two other center fielders who have HOF numbers by virtue of a short but great career.This means that there are thirteen center fielders with HOF numbers according to the NEWS Gauge.Keep in mind that a player may not have obvious HOF numbers but may still be a deserving Hall of Famer for other reasons.

All numbers include the 2007 season.

Bold print = Hall of Famer

Italic = active player in 2007

CWS = Career Win Shares

CV=Core Value (sum of win shares for 10 best seasons)

NEWS = Career Value=CV+.25(CWS – CV)

Here are the 13 center fielders with obvious Hall of Fame numbers.

How is it that Larry Doby and Kirby Puckett (who did not reach the 270 benchmark) are listed as having HOF numbers?It is because the NEWS Gauge recognizes that there are a fewposition players (very few) who had short but exceptional careers.Consider this: there are only eleven position playersin the 20 ^th century who achieved a NEWS score of 255 in a career of fewer than 1800 games – and every one of them is in the Hall of Fame.The NEWS Gauge says they definitely have HOF numbers.Doby and Puckett are two of these players.Here are the others: Joe DiMaggio, Emer Flick, Earl Averill, Hank Greenberg, Lou Boudreau, Bill Terry, Jackie Robinson, Mickey Cochrane and Bill Dickey.

Earlier we saw that all of the thirteen right fielders who had obvious HOF numbers are in fact in the Hall of Fame.Here we see that eleven of the thirteen center fielders with the numbers are in the Hall.And I feel confident in saying that Junior Griffey will be inducted easily when he is eligible.So, Jimmy Wynn seems to be the only center fielder with obvious HOF numbers who will not be in the Hall.

Are you surprised by Jimmy Wynn?I know I was.But take a look at his CV of 269.That means that for his ten best seasons he averaged almost 27 win shares per season.That is a very impressive feat.

Five of these players played the bulk of their games before 1950 and five played completely in the second half of the century.The other three; Snider, Ashburn and Doby more or less straddled the half century mark.

The top four center fielders (Ty Cobb, Willie Mays, Tris Speaker and Mickey Mantle) are among the top ten position players of all time.That is, of course, the most players from one position in the top ten.Since I am a life-long Willie Mays fan, I was hoping that he would turn out to be the top center fielder.But Ty Cobb’s numbers speak for themselves.(I would still take Willie any day!!)

Here are the numbers for the twelve other center fielders who had the best careers according to the NEWS Gauge.

I list the next center fielder here only because he is still active and has built a reputation as one of the best defensive center fielders ever.

Note how close Vada Pinson is to HOF numbers (with a NEWS score of 269).And, for some reason, I was surprised to see Bernie Williams come out this high.And how many fans have even heard of Tommy Leach or Wally Berger?

I am sure that there are more than a few fans who think that one or more of these players deserve to be in the Hall of Fame.In fact, Dale Murphy is still on the BBWAA ballot.But he only got 14% of the vote in 2008 so he does not appear to have a very good chance of being inducted.

Of course, Jim Edmonds and Andruw Jones are still playing.But I really do not see either of these players making the 270 benchmark.

Vada Pinson, Curt Flood and Al Oliver were all on the 2007 ballot for the Veteran’s Committee.They got 19.5%, 17.1% and 17.1% of the vote, respectively, so none of them seems to have any hope of being elected.Here are Flood’s numbers.

There are three center fielders who are in the Hall of Fame but who did not make our list of the top 25 center fielders.

That means that according to the NEWS HOF Gauge there are a total of four center fielders (these three and Edd Roush) who are in the Hall but who do not appear to have the numbers (a NEWS score of 270).Of course, there may be other reasons why they deserve to be there.

For more information on the NEWS HOF Gauge, see BASEBALL’S BEST: The TRUE Hall of Famers on this site.