Unless you penalize him for steroid use, there’s no debate about who’s the most valuable left fielder of the Expansion Era. Barry Bonds is the obvious runaway choice.
MLB Network personalities Brian Kenny and Bob Costas split on that premise during the fourth installment of the network’s Top 10 Right Now Tuesday. That episode included a segment on picking the best post-1969 left fielder Monday.
Costas went with the data, placing Bonds first. Kenny slotted Bonds fourth, suggesting that his ranking was based largely or purely on the player’s pre-steroid years. He had Carl Yastrzemski, Rickey Henderson and Pete Rose in the first through third slots.
As will be demonstrated below, Bonds’ on-field credentials as the best left fielder of the expansion era are simply beyond comparison. So the real debate focuses on how much of his record, if any, to consider.
First, here are the respective top 10s of Kenny and Costas:
| Brian Kenny | Bob Costas |
|---|---|
| 1. Carl Yastrzemski | 1. Barry Bonds |
| 2. Rickey Henderson | 2. Rickey Henderson |
| 3. Pete Rose | 3. Pete Rose |
| 4. Barry Bonds | 4. Manny Ramirez |
| 5. Tim Raines | 5. Jim Rice |
| 6. Billy Williams | 6. Albert Belle |
| 7. Manny Ramirez | 7. Matt Holliday |
| 8. Jim Rice | 8. Tim Raines |
| 9. Ryan Braun | 9. Carl Yastrzemski |
| 10. George Foster | 10. Lou Brock |
Given the fundamentally offensive nature of the position, our five criteria for ranking a left fielder are heavily weighted toward that aspect of their games. Save for Rose, who was included by MLB Top 10 Right Now even though he played more games at first base than as a left fielder, the players we’ve assessed played more games at left field than any other position.
Each has received an ordinal score equal to their rank in each of the criteria.
Alphabetically, the 30 nominees are: Moises Alou, Dusty Baker, George Bell, Albert Belle, Barry Bonds, Ryan Braun, Lou Brock, Yoenis Cespedes, Vince Coleman, Jose Cruz, George Foster, Juan Gonzalez, Luis Gonzalez, Mike Greenwell, Rickey Henderson, Matt Holliday, Carlos Lee, Greg Luzinski, Kevin Mitchell, Marcell Ozuna, Tim Raines, Manny Ramirez, Jim Rice, Pete Rose, Joe Rudi, Lonnie Smith, Alfonso Soriano, Billy Williams, Carl Yastrzemski and Christian Yelich.
When all five categories are assessed, the player with the average ordinal score closest to a perfect rating of 1.0 is the winner.
The criteria:
- Five-year peak performance with OPS+ as the yardstick;
- Cumulative OPS+ over the course of their careers;
- Career MVP shares;
- Career Defensive Wins Above Replacement;
- Career baserunning runs.