A Pair of Hall of Fame Hitters
Hank Aaron—May 2, 1963
"“Surely one of the greatest hitters in baseball today. Can hit late with power, – good wrists. But in spite of his hitting records and admitted power ability, one cannot help think that Aaron is a frequent guess hitter. Will take three strikes down the middle and in fact, frequently acts frozen on pitches. For years I have believed, and I still believe that Aaron has more trouble with the breaking stuff. He stands close enough to the plate to pull the outside ball and does pull it. However, he is a foot length further from the plate than Frank Robinson of Cincinnati.”—Branch Rickey"
Aaron was in the tenth of his 23 years in the major leagues and had already been an all-star eight times when Branch Rickey made this report. By the end of the season, he would have 342 of his 755 career home runs and a career batting line of .320/.375/.572. Aaron may have been a guess hitter who had trouble with the breaking stuff, but it worked out just fine. It must have been those good wrists.
Roberto Clemente—January 25, 1955
"“I would guess him to be at least 6’ tall, weight about 175 pounds, right-hand hitter, very young. I have been told very often from many sources about his running speed. I was sorely disappointed with it. His running form is bad, definitely bad, and based upon what I saw tonight, he has only a bit above average major league running speed. He has a beautiful throwing arm. He throws the ball down, and it really goes places. However, he runs with the ball every time he makes a throw, and that’s bad.”—Branch Rickey"
This report was from a game in Puerto Rico in January the winter before Clemente’s first major league season. He would play with the Pirates as a 20-year-old in 1955. Later in the report, Branch Rickey wrote that Clemente wouldn’t “do a major league club any good in 1955” and it would be better if he spent the year in a Class B or C league. Clemente hit .255/.284/.382 as a rookie in 1955 in what would be his only negative WAR season. We all know that Clemente would be much better the following year and for many years after.
As Branch Rickey points out in his report, Clemente’s running form was not ideal. He sprinted around the bases with arms flailing to the side and was not a prolific base stealer. In 18 seasons, he stole 83 bases and was caught 46 times. Rickey also wrote that Clemente had “no adventure on the bases” and did not see him “as even a prospective home run hitter.”
Among the 996 players with 5,000 or more plate appearances, Clemente ranks 385th all-time in Base Running Runs Above Average (BsR), which includes steals and caught stealing; extra bases were taken, outs on the bases, and avoiding double plays. And for as great a hitter as he was, he only had three seasons with 20 or more home runs in his career.