Call to the pen
Fansided

Examining the Hall of Fame case for San Francisco Giants legend Bobby Bonds

By Noah Yingling

LOS ANGELES - OCTOBER 2: Coach Bobby Bonds #16 stands next to his son outfielder Barry Bonds #25 of the San Francisco Giants during a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodgers Stadium on October 2, 1993 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Bernstein Associates/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES - OCTOBER 2: Coach Bobby Bonds #16 stands next to his son outfielder Barry Bonds #25 of the San Francisco Giants during a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodgers Stadium on October 2, 1993 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Bernstein Associates/Getty Images) /
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Former SF Giants outfielder Bobby Bonds
SAN DIEGO, CA – MAY 4, 1995: (FILE PHOTO) Coach Bobby Bonds of the San Francisco Giants gives instructions to his players during a game against the San Diego Padres at Jack Murphy Stadium May 4, 1995 in San Diego, California. The Giants won the game 5-2. Bonds, who had been suffering from a brain tumor and lung cancer, died at the age of 57 August 23, 2003. He was a three-time All-Star and the 1973 game MVP. Bonds hit 332 home runes and stole 461 bases with the Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Texas, Cleveland, St. Louis, California Angels, Giants and New York Yankees. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images) /

San Francisco Giants legend Bobby Bonds was, probably, best known for being the father of Barry Bonds, who is the controversial all-time MLB home run king and seven-time NL MVP winner. The younger Bonds will have a hard time getting into the Baseball Hall of Fame due to his PED suspicions but his late father was an excellent MLB outfielder and, arguably, has a Hall of Fame career himself.

San Francisco Giants legend Bobby Bonds has a good case for the Baseball Hall of Fame

Bobby Bonds spent parts of 14 seasons in the majors from 1968 through 1981, spending seven of those seasons with the San Francisco Giants. At his peak in the late 1960s to mid-1970s, he was one of the top players in the game.

Bonds was a three-time All-Star and a three-time Gold Glove winner. He also received MVP votes in five seasons, including two top four finishes in 1971 and 1973. In his career, he hit .268/.353/.471 with an OPS+ of 129.

He had nine seasons with 25+ homers, eight seasons with 80+ RBI, and nine seasons with an OPS+ of 120 or higher. For the homers, he was in the top ten in his league seven times. Bonds was also known as a great base stealer as well, as he had 461 stolen bases in his career, which included 11 seasons of 25+ stolen bases and seven seasons with 40+ stolen bases.

In the history of baseball, there are only two people to ever have five seasons with 30 homers and 30 stolen bases. There are also only two people with 300 career homers and 400 career stolen bases. The two people are the same for both categories and they are father and son: Bobby and Barry Bonds.

Defensively, Bobby Bonds was a great outfielder. Using Total Zone Runs (the predecessor to Defensive Runs Saved), Bonds had 59 TZ in his career, or an average of slightly more than 4 TZ per season.

Compile everything together and Bonds has a career rWAR of 57.9, which despite his relatively short career, is well within Hall of Fame territory.

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