Examining the Hall of Fame case for San Francisco Giants legend Bobby Bonds
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.
That rWAR is tied for 212th all-time. Among the modern Hall of Famers (players with the majority of their career after World War II), just above him are Yogi Berra (59.6), Vladimir Guerrero, Sr., Mike Piazza (both at 59.5), and Jim Bunning (59.4). Just below Bonds is Enos Slaughter (57.7), Willie Stargell (57.5), Whitey Ford (57.0), and Larry Doby (56.5).
All eight those Hall of Famers were, arguably, not as good as Bobby Bonds as they all played at least two more seasons than Bonds.
When you compare Bonds to Hall of Fame right fielders, his case gets stronger.
His 129 OPS+ is just below two modern Hall of Fame right fielders in Roberto Clemente and Dave Winfield, who both had a career OPS+ of 130. Four Hall of Fame right fielders have a career OPS+ below Bonds, including modern Hall of Famers Harold Baines (121) and the aforementioned Enos Slaughter (124).
His rWAR is 23rd all-time among right fielders. Here are the right fielders around him. Bold indicates a Hall of Famer
20) Ichiro, 60.0 WAR
21) Vladimir Guerrero, Sr. 59.5
22) Sammy Sosa, 58.6
23) Bonds, 57.9
24) Enos Slaughter, 57.7
25) Sam Rice, 54.4
26) Willie Keeler, 54.2
27) Harry Hooper, 53.5
Ichiro hasn’t been on a Hall of Fame ballot yet but will get in once he’s eligible. Sosa would be in if not for his PED suspicions.
WAR7 looks at a player’s WAR in their top 7 seasons and Bonds case gets stronger. His WAR7 is 19th all-time among right fielders at 41.1. Just above Bonds are Hall of Famers Tony Gwynn (41.3) and Guerrero (41.2). Just below Bonds are modern Hall of Famers Tony Oliva, Dave Winfield, and Slaughter.
JAWS balances both WAR and WAR7 and with that, Bonds is 22nd all-time among right fielders. Within 2.0 JAWS above Bonds are two modern Hall of Famers. Below Bonds, in general, are 10 Hall of Famers, including two modern HOFers.
The main issue for Bonds is that he had a very brief career. Of all Hall of Fame right fielders, no right fielder that played after 1930 has fewer than 16 MLB seasons. The only Hall of Fame right fielder to play after World War II and play in fewer games is Tony Oliva, who was just inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame this winter as part of the Class of 2022 via the Golden Days Era Committee.
Despite his short career, Bonds was able to be on 11 BBWAA Hall of Fame ballots but he fell off after his 11th ballot because he dropped below the requisite five percent to stay on. The highest percentage he ever had was 10.6 percent in 1993.
Bonds did, however, make one Era Committee ballot (then-named Veterans Committee) as he was on the ballot in 2007. He only received one vote, though. Since then, they have changed how people get on a ballot. For that 2007 ballot, Bonds was among 27 players on the ballot so getting one vote when 82 people voted (another change from the time) is not a good sign.
Sadly, Bonds died of lung cancer and a brain tumor at the age of 57 in 2003 so if the elder Bonds were to be inducted, it would likely be his son, Barry, or another family member that would make the induction speech.
Next. SF Giants legend Rick Reuschel's HOF case. dark
Bobby Bonds is far from a slam dunk for the Baseball Hall of Fame considering his short career but he is definitely someone that deserves another look in the future.