A Love Song for Kenny Lofton

First off, I find the Hall of Fame to be much ado about nothing much important.  It is an honor bestowed on former players by, pretty much, the press.  This is not a very scientific way to figure out any award.  The assumption is that a voter, having covered baseball, understands what it means to be a great baseball player.  This is a group that does not even have a great definition for what makes a baseball player great with a great many different takes on what the guidelines mean.  If that was not bad, you also have voters than invent rules, such as refusing to vote for non-elite Hall of Famers with their first appearance on the ballot or utilizing incredibly poor evidence to classify people as cheaters who have never been caught while doing what they can to get other cheaters into the Hall.  Regardless, the existence or exclusion of a player in the Hall should not define that player.

Second thing, I have no love for Kenny Lofton.  It is somewhat fair to say that if you ignore the Twins, Lofton must have enjoyed facing the Orioles. 

I	Split	PA	H	HR	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	TB
	Houston Astros	271	88	6	15	10	.373	.442	.538	127
	Colorado Rockies	153	49	2	11	4	.360	.428	.515	70
	St. Louis Cardinals	183	52	4	7	2	.321	.396	.506	82
	Minnesota Twins	592	180	7	43	9	.347	.413	.484	251
	Cincinnati Reds	232	63	8	6	4	.312	.390	.490	99
	Baltimore Orioles	459	142	10	42	8	.339	.389	.489	205

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

As such, I have some underlying queasiness about lauding Lofton as a player.  I remember him as someone who tormented my team as I was growing up on the outskirts of the Baltimore metropolitan area.  As someone who really began to become engrossed in baseball during the early to mid 1990s, the Indians (not the Yankees, Red Sox, or Blue Jays) were the team that I recognized as our rivals.  Quite suitably, they were the ones who ended the Orioles 1997 playoff run (on a questionable called strike to Roberto Alomar), sending the Orioles off to 15 years lost in the wilderness.

Let us not forget that Lofton was also an exceptional defensive centerfielder.  He is the seventh best rated centerfielder based on runs saved with 104.  That roughly means that his defense alone made him worth 10 games won more than the average defender in centerfield.  Given how this is a premium defensive position, that is incredibly remarkable.

Rk	Player	Rfield
1	Andruw Jones	236
2	Willie Mays	183
3	Jim Piersall	175
4	Paul Blair	174
5	Devon White	135
6	Willie Wilson	108
7	Kenny Lofton	104
8	Willie Davis	104
9	Garry Maddox	101
10	Curt Flood	99

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used

Combining those sentiments, it utterly shocked me that Kenny Lofton earned 18 of 569 possible votes.  A number that removes him from consideration in next year's ballot.  If this does not show how ridiculous the voting process is then I do not know how better to represent it.  Below is a listing of some of the greatest center fielders who ever played.

Rk		WAR	WAR7	Yrs	ASG	H	HR	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS+
1	Willie Mays HOF	150.8	71.5	22	24	3283	660	338	103	.302	.384	.557	156
2	Ty Cobb HOF	144.9	67.3	24	0	4189	117	897	212	.366	.433	.512	168
3	Tris Speaker HOF	127.8	60.1	22	0	3514	117	436	157	.345	.428	.500	157
4	Mickey Mantle HOF	105.5	63.0	18	20	2415	536	153	38	.298	.421	.557	172
5	Ken Griffey	79.2	52.3	22	13	2781	630	184	69	.284	.370	.538	136
6	Joe DiMaggio HOF	75.1	49.1	13	13	2214	361	30	9	.325	.398	.579	155
7	Duke Snider HOF	63.1	48.1	18	8	2116	407	99	50	.295	.380	.540	140
	Avg of 18 HOFers at CF	67.1	42.5
8	Kenny Lofton	64.9	42.0	17	6	2428	130	622	160	.299	.372	.423	107
9	Andruw Jones	59.5	44.8	17	5	1933	434	152	59	.254	.337	.486	111
10	Richie Ashburn HOF	60.2	42.9	15	6	2574	29	234	92	.308	.396	.382	111
11	Billy Hamilton HOF	61.1	41.8	14	0	2164	40	914		.344	.455	.432	141
12	Carlos Beltran	62.3	40.4	15	7	2064	334	306	47	.282	.360	.496	122
13	Andre Dawson HOF	60.6	41.0	21	8	2774	438	314	109	.279	.323	.482	119
14	Jim Edmonds	57.3	41.0	17	4	1949	393	67	50	.284	.376	.527	132
15	Jim Wynn	53.1	42.0	15	3	1665	291	225	101	.250	.366	.436	129
16	Willie Davis	56.8	36.8	18	2	2561	182	398	131	.279	.311	.412	106
17	Cesar Cedeno	49.7	40.1	17	4	2087	199	550	179	.285	.347	.443	123
18	Vada Pinson	50.2	38.1	18	4	2757	256	305	122	.286	.327	.442	111
19	Chet Lemon	52.0	35.5	16	3	1875	215	58	76	.273	.355	.442	121
20	Larry Doby HOF	47.0	38.0	13	7	1515	253	47	36	.283	.386	.490	136
21	Kirby Puckett HOF	48.2	35.8	12	10	2304	207	134	76	.318	.360	.477	124
22	Johnny Damon	52.1	31.4	18	2	2769	235	408	103	.284	.352	.433	104
23	Max Carey HOF	51.1	32.2	20	0	2665	70	738	109	.285	.361	.386	108
24	Fred Lynn	46.7	36.5	17	9	1960	306	72	54	.283	.360	.484	129
25	Dale Murphy	42.6	39.0	18	7	2111	398	161	68	.265	.346	.469	121

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Lofton rates slightly below average against the average Hall of Fame centerfielder.  Again, a player whose value is roughly that of an average Hall of Fame centerfielder received 18 votes out of 569.  This is a problem not only for the traditional values voters, but also the new breed who embrace using advanced metrics.  Two darlings of the metrics crowd are Larry Walker and Tim Raines (who has gotten massive support for his election).

Player	WAR/pos	From	To	G	PA	H	2B	3B	HR	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG
Larry Walker	69.7	1989	2005	1988	8030	2160	471	62	383	230	76	.313	.400	.565
Tim Raines	66.2	1979	2002	2502	10359	2605	430	113	170	808	146	.294	.385	.425
Kenny Lofton	64.9	1991	2007	2103	9235	2428	383	116	130	622	160	.299	.372	.423

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used

I do not see much of a difference between these players.  Lofton's performance is in line with Raines, so I do not truly see the difference there.  Lofton played in the same era as Walker, which makes it questionable that the shadow of steroids affected Lofton for playing in this era.  Simply put, the voters forgot about how valuable Lofton was and illustrated how they fail to understand, at times, what makes a player exceptional.

Thus ends my love song for Kenny Lofton.  Let us never speak of this again.