Billy Hamilton or....Billy Hamilton?

Amazing defensive outfielder. Terror on the basepaths. Not a power hitter. Does this sound familiar? Billy Hamilton fits the mold. Billy Hamilton also fits the mold. Both Billy Hamiltons...well they fit the mold.

When baseball fans hear the name Billy Hamilton, they think of the Royals, and former Reds, centerfielder. Hamilton is currently roaming centerfield, making amazing defensive plays due to his blazing speed. He also is one of the most dangerous on the basepaths today, quickly coming up on 300 stolen bases for his career.

The other Billy Hamilton fits into many of the classifications the present Billy Hamilton does. The old Billy Hamilton has 914 stolen bases, near the top of the stolen base leaderboard. Old Hamilton was 56 fielding runs above average, but that is using the defensive metrics from the 19th century that are notoriously unreliable. He does, however, have a higher fielding percentage and range factor than league average, for what it is worth.

Old Billy Hamilton was a much better hitter than current Billy Hamilton. The old Hamilton posted a 141 OPS+, with a 0.455 OBP and walking 1,189 times to only 362 strikeouts. The current Billy Hamilton has a career 69 OPS+ and an OBP lower than 0.300. He is 72 points underneath past Billy Hamilton. Both posted relatively low slugging percentages, while old Hamilton’s 0.432 is far better than current Hamilton’s 0.329 slugging. Both used their speed to hit many triples, outnumbering their home run count (Editor's Note: !!!).

It is incredibly rare that players share the same name. It is even more rare that both players share the same name, more than a hundred years apart. Most uniquely, they are the same mold of player.

May your pennants fly forever.

-Prentiss

Trying to Steal Rickey Henderson from the Hall of Fame

When many of us think about Rickey Henderson, we think of the blazing speedster who is the Stolen Base King of the MLB. He is often, deservedly so, called the greatest leadoff man of all time. Leadoff men historically have been base stealers, and Henderson is one of, if not the best base thief of all time. If we removed any ability to steal bases for Henderson, what would he be as a player?

He would still be a first ballot Hall of Famer. While many look at Rickey Henderson as a mere base stealer, he was an extremely well rounded player who does not get his respect.

Henderson posted an OPS+ of 127 over 13,346 plate appearances. His longevity and durability is matched only by a few in history: Hank Aaron, Pete Rose and Carl Yastrzemski being the only players with more plate appearances. Although hitting wise he does not stack up with greats like Aaron and Barry Bonds, he still fits comfortably in the next tier of OPS+, surrounded by players such as Eddie Murray and Yastrzemski, who admittedly took a hit in career averages due to playing a long time past their peak.

Henderson’s slash line was .279/.401/.419/.820. Extending this line over the length of his career, he racks up over 3,000 hits and has over 500 doubles and just shy of 300 home runs. Although Henderson is in the top 25 all time for singles, he had deceptive power delivered from his frame and batting stance.

As illustrated in this picture of him while on the Blue Jays, his stance shrunk his strike zone. The resulting smaller zone and potential for an extra base hit off of Henderson led to him getting walked 2,190 times, second behind steroid user healthy breakfast-eater Bonds. Although Henderson had some power, he was not as feared of a hitter as those surrounding him on the all time walk list, sluggers such as Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Mel Ott, Frank Thomas and Jim Thome. When you add in the fact the fact that pitchers did not want to give Henderson a free base due to his stealing abilities, his total becomes even more impressive.

Henderson’s defense is generally unheralded as well. He has 65 career Total Zone Runs, which although they do not balance out the 97 lost due to his playing of left for the most part, is still really impressive. At the tail end of his career, he was certainly less mobile than his younger self that saved 13 runs in CF in 1985, but was still adequate. He was a poor fielder, but the glove was balanced out by his bat and base running. Being able to field a position, especially heading into his 40s, granted the Mariners, Mets, Padres, Red Sox and Dodgers far more versatility compared to penciling him in at DH due to no speed.

Speed was a major part of Henderson’s game, racking up an incredible 144 runs gained from base running according to Baseball-Reference. This gave him 14.4 more wins, assuming a 10 Runs-1 win ratio. Henderson’s career Wins Above Average is 69.0, at aand WAR ofis 111.2. Lets conveniently subtract any runs gained from his baserunning. That calculation leads to a WAA of 54.2, and a WAR of 96.8. These are comfortably above hall averages. Now although Henderson would most likely not hold the record for career runs once his steals are removed, he still is an insanely valuable player even without stealing a base.

May your pennantly fly forever.

-Prentiss