Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Bonds vs. Aaron...in a different way

I was watching Tim Lincecum bat (not pretty) and they showed Bonds sitting in the dugout chewing sunflower seeds. I wondered whether he saw a guy like Lincecum at the plate and laughed, or whether he has seen so much that it really doesn't affect him. Somehow, that segued into me wondering whether Barry ever sat in the dugout and enjoyed a teammate's at-bat, and from there, whether Barry every really played with any hitter he could admire. Only Jeff Kent immediately came to mind, and more slowly, Bobby Bonilla.

I decided to make a chart of the best players Barry played with as a teammate, with the same for Hank Aaron. I had the impression that neither player had a lot of talent surrounding him. I've ranked them based on nothing more than my own impressions...I have not verified the rankings via Win Shares, WARP or any other system.

Hitter List

# Bonds Aaron
1. W.Clark Mathews
2. Kent J. Torre
3. Strawberry Cepeda
4. E. Davis Adcock
5. M. Alou D. Baker
6. Bonilla Slaughter
7. K. Gibson D. Evans
8. Burks F. Alou
9. M. Williams Carty
10. Van Slyke B. Thomson
11. Galarraga D. Johnson



Pitcher List

# Bonds Aaron
1. R. Reuschel Spahn
2. Nen P. Niekro
3. Hershiser Wilhelm
4. Nathan Pappas
5. R. Beck S. Miller
6. Righetti Antonelli
7. Reuss


Fielder List

# Bonds Aaron
1. Vizquel Schoendienst
2. J.T. Snow McMillan
3. D. Lewis Logan
4. Grissom


Barry's hitting teammate list is a little better than expected. Still, there's only one probable Hall of Famer (Kent) and a couple of borderline guys (Clark and Vizquel), one of whom is there for defense alone. Nobody for Barry to "admire" since he and Kent didn't do a lot of admiring of each other. Barry's pitching teammates were not impressive, although Nen and Nathan were/are outstanding.

Aaron's hitting list is much better. Mathews is one of the best hitters in history and Slaughter is also in the Hall of Fame. Torre and Cepeda probably should be. Many have also argued for Darrell Evans' inclusion. Until you get to #9 on the list, Barry's teammates don't win the battle.

Aaron also wins the pitching list, with three bona fide Hall of Famers. I'd say Aaron's teammates win 1 through 6. Barry's defensive stalwarts might be better, though this could be because I'm less familiar with the defensive reputation of players in the 50s and 60s.

Interesting side note: Aaron played with a ton of future managers: Torre, LaRussa, Oates, Davey Johnson, Dusty Baker, Felipe Alou, Gaston, Dark, Deron Johnson, Billy Martin, Joe Morgan, Red Schoendienst and Chuck Tanner, as well as two of the most prominent hitting coaches in the last 30 years, Charlie Lau and Walt Hriniak (neither of whom could hit). And those are the just the guys whose names I recognized as managers.