Jesse Barfield: The Greatest Ever?

It’s funny, you know. I didn’t even set out to dig into Jesse Barfield’s career. I was marveling at Colby Rasmus’s K-rate and wondered how it stood up against some of the all-time K-rates since 1903, when the American League came into existence. That eventually led to seeing Barry Bonds’ defensive numbers—yes, his defensive numbers—and wondering if they were the highest ever, or at least among the highest ever. They were, but that wasn’t the most intriguing discovery. Jesse Barfield’s were also among the best ever. It’s like MLB meets National Treasure: keep looking and you’ll find the treasure. “Wow” moments are awesome.

Jays’ fans have been treated to some good players since 1977. There’s not a single all-timer among them, but some of them were pretty darn good. Among those pretty good players have been some top-notch defenders, two of whom (Devon White; John Olerud) were champs. Others were only Jays briefly, such as Scott Rolen, Orlando Hudson and Omar Vizquel; still others were developed by and played the bulk of their careers with the Jays. Foremost among these were Vernon Wells, Tony Fernandez, Lloyd Moseby, and Jesse Barfield.

Perhaps you recall when Jesse patrolled right field for the Jays. He was one of the young trio of outfielders to be called up in the early ’80s, along with Lloyd Moseby and George Bell. They would become key players for the up-and-coming Blue Jays.

‘Shaker’ came up hitting well, running well, and playing a solid CF. He was more outspoken and flamboyant than most, but had the reputation of being a good teammate. George Bell was the most complete offensive player of the trio, but the least capable with the glove. He was also the most likely to say something ‘off colour’. Think ‘purple’. Jesse Barfield, on the other hand, was quiet and professional. When he put on his uniform he was adequate at the plate, but superlative in the field. How good was he? To tell the truth, surprisingly good.

James Gentile at Hardball Times wrote a piece earlier this year (Feb., 2013) in which he looked at the greatest defenders, position by position, since 1920. The following table is reproduced from that article:

#	Name	Years	Pos.	3 year defensive runs/150	3 year defensive runs
1	Jesse Barfield	1985-87	RF	23.05	68.7
2	Jesse Barfield	1986-88	RF	22.85	65.8
3	Jesse Barfield	1987-89	RF	21.28	60.3
4	Al Kaline	1956-58	RF	20.07	56.6
5	Tony Armas	1980-82	RF	20.03	52.6
6	Brian Jordan	1999-2001	RF	18.86	53.3
7	Jesse Barfield	1988-90	RF	17.98	50.7
8	Ichiro Suzuki	2003-05	RF	16.42	52.0
9	Bobby Abreu	1998-2000	RF	15.98	47.3
10	Roberto Clemente	1966-68	RF	15.91	45.5

Here’s what James Gentile said about his own discovery:

In right field, Jesse Barfield is a name I have not thought of in a long time. I remember Barfield as a respected, above-average outfielder with a strong arm that made up for a merely adequate bat, but I would not have expected him to have ranked as the greatest defensive right fielder of all time. His peak really ran five seasons, from 1985- 1989, and it establishes him as one of the best outfielders to play the game rather conclusively. Al Kaline, Tony Armas and Brian Jordan all make an appearance in the top 10, but none ever put Barfield in any danger. Ichiro, incidentally, fell to eighth best, despite his record-breaking season in 2004: (http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/who-was-best-at-playing-the-field/)

Based on the defensive runs statistics found at www.baseball-reference.com, Jesse Barfield produced the top three and four of the top seven defensive seasons in right field since 1920. Surprised? Me, too. I also found it surprising that Roberto Clemente and Ichiro made only one appearance on the list.

Now I’ll throw some leather of my own at you. This table shows the top 20 defenders in MLB since 1903, regardless of position, with some offensive stats for perspective:

#	Player	wRC+	Fld	WAR
1	Brooks Robinson	105	294.0	80.8
2	Andruw Jones	111	278.8	67.8
3	Mark Belanger	71	241.0	35.3
4	Ozzie Smith	90	239.0	67.3
5	Roberto Clemente	129	204.0	80.8
6	Barry Bonds	172	189.6	163.6
7	Willie Mays	154	185.0	150.0
8	Carl Yastrzemski	130	185.0	94.9
9	Cal Ripken	112	181.0	92.5
10	Buddy Bell	108	176.0	61.7
11	Paul Blair	98	174.0	35.9
12	Joe Tinker	95	173.0	51.6
13	Adrian Beltre	111	167.7	60.7
14	Ivan Rodriguez	104	165.1	70.4
15	Jesse Barfield	117	162.0	39.1
16	Clete Boyer	86	158.0	29.6
17	Robin Ventura	114	156.7	57.1
18	Al Kaline	134	156.0	88.8
19	Jim Piersall	91	156.0	28.1
20	Scott Rolen	122	155.0	70.1

This info was adapted from: http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=np&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=y&type=8&season=2013&month=0&season1=1903&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&sort=19%2cd

As you can see, the numbers were prioritized according to ‘Fld’, the defensive metric used by www.fangraphs.com. According to www.fangraphs.com, Jesse Barfield is the 15^th greatest defender, 7^th best OF, and 2^nd best RF in MLB history since 1903. Here are some other tidbits to consider about this list of ‘greatest defenders ever’:

• Brooks Robinson is the greatest defender ever, regardless of position;
• these players run the gamut of offensive ability, from Belanger, Piersall, and Boyer to Mays and Bonds;
• there are some very familiar names in the top 20, but some notable absences (Mazeroski, Schmidt, Nettles, etc.);
• some others in the top 20 may not be as familiar, but they had good reputations that are borne out by the numbers (Belanger, Blair, Tinker, Piersall, etc.);
• the list favours players from the 1970s and afterwards, but previous generations are represented;
• Barfield is the only Blue Jay in the top 50, and 1 of only 2 in the top 300 MLB players (John Olerud);
• Barfield is one of 8 outfielders on the list: the other 7 have sterling reputations as defenders, and the numbers support—or, perhaps, exceed—their reputations;
• exceeding their ‘reputation’ is a reason why some of these players played after they outlived their usefulness at the plate.

Whether you agree, disagree, or are agnostic about Jesse Barfield being an all-time great defender is good: go ahead and wrestle with it. Two separate sites considered Jesse to be one of the top 2 defensive right fielders of all time. One considered him to be the best defensive right fielder to play MLB since 1920. Better than Clemente. Better than Ichiro. Better than, well, everybody. So, the Jays do have an all-timer in their history. It’s the kind of conclusion that makes you sit up quickly on your couch, perhaps upsetting your Doritos in the process.

As Gentile maintains, Jesse’s defensive peak lasted for 5 seasons and, in his interpretation, cemented Jesse’s position as the greatest right fielder since 1920. Jesse’s career was short, however, making his decline period brief. His 1,411 games were the fewest by any of the top 20; 9 others played at least 1,000 more games than he did. Balancing this is the reality that some of the others moved to other positions to take advantage of their glove, while accounting for decreased speed and range.

Jesse was called up for 25 games in 1981. He platooned with Dave Collins, Rick Leach, and others for the next three years. He became a full-time player in 1985 and, perhaps coincidentally but perhaps not, the Jays won their first division title.

He was the top defensive outfielder in the game for the next five years with two teams, according to www.baseball-reference.com. The Jays traded him to the New York Yankees on April 30, 1989 for LHP Al Leiter. Jesse’s final game in Major League Baseball was on June 17, 1992. Al Leiter was on his way to becoming a very good ML pitcher and the Jays were part way to their first World Series title. Jesse’s offensive deficiencies finally caught up with him, and he was finished at age 32.

One of the last memories I have of Jesse was a story that Joe Carter told. The affable Carter had been acquired by the Jays in a spectacular trade with the Padres and, in Toronto’s first visit to Yankee Stadium, Jesse was walking in one direction down the tunnel and Carter was walking in the other direction. Carter smiled and turned his jersey around to show Jesse that there was a new #29 patrolling the outfield for the Blue Jays.

The most frequent memories that I have are different. They consist of watching a fast outfielder ranging around right field, making throws with a cannon arm to any base with pinpoint accuracy. The numbers confirm that I haven’t lost my mind to mushy sentimentality. Jesse Barfield was better than I remembered him to be and I already thought he was good.

Wes Kepstro