Best Outfielder Comparison

Best Outfielders Comparison

So after a very long lay off, I’m back to finish my best players at each position (by my calculations at least), and we’re onto the Outfield. I was debating breaking this up to corner outfielders and centerfielders, but the long and short of it is, it’s Barry Bonds, Barry Bonds, more Barry Bonds and some more Barry Bonds. Of course, he is the individual who changed the way our beloved game was played. Aside from him there is an unbelievable amount of talent in the outfield and a lot of fun cards to be had.

The OG Showdown cards come out on top here with the top 3 charts on a run creation basis (reminder above on how it’s calculated), and 5 of the top 10 charts. Included up top is the legendary Richie Sexson card. I remember getting him at all of 8 years old and laughing at his name…and then proceeding to hit bombs with his heavy home run chart. We do have the rare occurrence of a 9 home run chart from the one and only Andre Dawson Classic Set card. You will notice the ever deadly Ken Griffey and Greg Vaughn cards that have 8s and a 9 OB while still providing monstrous charts. And look who’s down there as the 20^th best chart out there, period. Told you there would be a lot of him in this article. 

What’d I tell you? I decided to put the silliness of this card on full display here because of the importance it had to the game. Steroids or not, this man could HIT. Bonds has the top 5 best cards created (although two of them are 2001 cards, and not his official card), and two more in the top 12. Outfielders have 17 of the top 20 cards as well, only McGwire’s 1998, Cabrera’s 2013 and McGwire’s 1996 seasons crack that list. Trout is the tops to crack this list and has 3 in the top 25, two Yankees come in behind him with Judge’s monstrous 2017 first half and Babe Ruth’s dominant ’27 campaign. Then we have some more old school cards with Yaz and Mantle, both who terrorized opposing pitchers back in the day.  There’s so many awesome cards to choose from here, and I extended the list so you can see the top 50 best cards filtered only for outfielders-all 35 of them. I also wanted to include the 2001 Luis Gonzalez that's more appropriately made than Showdown's original take. I hate this man as a Yankees fan but boy did he put together an incredible 2001 season.

I think now you can get an idea of how absurd Bonds’ cards are. He is a clear outlier, and it makes you realize why WoC felt they had to adjust the way the game was played. The first highlighted players are Mike Trout’s 2018 card and Judge’s 2017AS card. Both are 11 OB, only 2 outs, 8 walks, a single + and a double. Judge homers at 17 to Trout’s 18, however Trout has additional speed, unbelievable fielding and an extra single. I think both cards are great choices, however the half season of Judge might make him unusable in some leagues. Number 2 is also a favorite card of mine in Josh Hamilton’s 2011 card. 10 OB with 18HR and 4 doubles as well as only 2 outs is an unreal chart. If he had been able to stay away from drug use we can only imagine what he could've been. Player 3 is someone I always loved watch hitting, although I was slightly biased to his later days on the Yankees. Justice’s ’97 card at only 380 points is great value with 10 OB, 18 HR and 15-17 double. He is a great card to add for low points to beef up your lineup if you’re not too worried about speed or fielding. Modern baseball theory says high OB, low outs and power production are what’s important so I would have no problems with Justice for a lower points power addition. Finally I had to point this guy out since he just sits so far below everyone else in terms of value, the one and only Glenallen Hill’s 2000PR card. With 6 home runs he’s got quite the monster card but with 4 outs and only 5 OB, he’s rarely going to be getting the advantage to use that chart. And for 440 points?! You’d have to be out of your mind to choose him when points are constrained. Here we can compare him to one of my favorite cards, that for only 60 points more you get +4OB, multiple (and better) fielding options, and overall what I would consider a far more appealing chart. 

                                            

Once again, looking at the bar graph you realize how far and away Bonds is from everyone else. The majority of cards fall in the 5.13-5.56 Runs Created, however the average is 4.29 runs created. This falls in line with the general showdown population runs created average which is right at 4 runs. I think Outfield is a position with enough depth you should be loading up on cards that are run creators, as there’s a lot of value to be had here. Which outfields are must haves on your roster? 

Glad to be back writing and my next project is to put together the best lineups possible, regardless of points for each MLB Team. I'm going to be doing this partly in comparison with Matt, but also to allow him to focus more on his card production and output. What team do you want to see done first?