While I was listening to WEEI’s Baseball Show on Sunday a caller was talking about Dwight Evans and how come he isn’t a Hall of Famer. So I decided to take a look at some statistics and see how they support it.
When you go to the baseballreference.com and look up Dwight Evans one of the things they give you is the pages for similar hitters and for players who were comparable at the same age. With Evans being a rightfielder I compared him to outfielder’s, mostly right fielder’s, who are Hall members.
Dwight Evans:
20 years, 2606 G, 8996 AB, 1470 R, 2446 H, 483 2B, 73 3B, 385 HR, 1384 RBI, 1391 BB, 1697 K, .272 BA, .370 OBP, .470 SLG, averaged 24 HR, 86 RBI, 3 All-Star games, 8 Gold Gloves. 157 A, 59 E, .987 FLD as an OF.
The players we will look at when comparing Dwight will be:
Al Kaline:
22 years, 2834 G, 10116 AB, 1622 R, 3007 H, 498 2B, 75 3B, 399 HR,
1583 RBI, 1277 BB, 1020 K, .297 BA, .376 OBP, .480 SLG, averaged 23 HR, 90 RBI,
15 All-Star games, 10 Gold Gloves, 1 Batting Title. 170 A, 73 E, .986 FLD as an OF.
Billy Williams:
18 years, 2488 G, 9350 AB, 1410 R, 2711 H, 434 2B, 88 3B, 426 HR, 1475 RBI, 1045 BB, 1046 K, .290 BA, .361 OBP, .492 SLG, averaged 28 HR, 96 RBI, 6 All-Star games, 0 Gold Gloves, 1 Batting Title. 143 A, 101 E,
.973 FLD as an OF.
Carl Yastrzemski:
23 years, 3308 G, 11988 AB, 1816 R, 3419 H, 646 2B, 59 3B, 452 HR,
1844 RBI, 1845 BB, 1393 K, .285 BA, .379 OBP, .462 SLG, averaged 22 HR, 90 RBI, 18 All-star games, 7 Gold Gloves, 1 MVP, 1 Triple Crown, Batting Titles. 195 A, 82 E, .981 FLD as an OF.
Dave Winfield:
22 years, 2973 G, 11003 AB, 1669 R, 3110 H, 540 2B, 88 3B, 465 HR,
1833 RBI, 1216 BB, 1686 K, .283 BA, .353 OBP, .475 SLG, averaged 25 HR, 100 RBI, 12 All-Star teams, 7 Gold Gloves. 166 A, 95 E, .982 FLD as an OF.
Reggie Jackson:
21 years, 2820 G, 9864 AB, 1551 R, 2584 H, 463 2B, 49 3B, 563 HR, 1702 RBI, 1375 BB, 2597 K, .262 BA, .356 OBP, .490 SLG, averaged 32 HR, 98 RBI, 14 All-Star games, 1 MVP, 2 WS MVPs. 133 A, 142 E, .976 FLD as an OF.
Roberto Clemente:
18 years, 2433 G, 9454 AB, 1416 R, 3000 H, 440 2B, 166 3B, 240 HR,
1305 RBI, 621 BB, 1230 K, .317 BA, .359 OBP, .475 SLG, averaged 16 HR,
87 RBI, 12 All-Star teams, 1 MVP, 1 WS MVP, 12 Gold Gloves, 4 Batting Titles. 266 A, 140 E, .973 FLD as an OF.
As you can see Dwight’s numbers stand up pretty damn well. The player he was most compared to during his career, especially in the 1980’s, was Dave Winfield. Winfield played a few more years but in the 1980’s he and Evans were neck and neck stats wise. Evans also had more extra base hits in the 80’s than any other player in the decade. More than Winfield, Andre Dawson, Jack Clark, Dale Murphy or any of the other feared power guys that pop into your mind.
When compared to the Hall of Famers above he more than holds his own. He is only lacking in All-Star game appearances and he never won a batting title or a MVP. Defensively he is stacked against two of the best right fielders of all time, Kaline and Clemente. When you look at his numbers they are better than the Hall members for fielding percentage as an outfielder and he had by far the fewest amount of errors while playing in one of the toughest right fields in all of baseball.
My opinion is that Dwight Evans deserves to be in the Hall of Fame and the fact that one-year he got only six votes is a joke. The voters get all tangled up in where the numbers stand all-time when in fact they need to select Hall of Fame members based on how they performed within the era in which they played. They need to be compared to the players the played against or players who played at nearly the same time and not some ghost who came 50, 60 or 75 years before them.
