this artcilke makes a case about mattingly, not that I agree with it, but the f*** are wion shares?
However, a detailed comparison of Mattingly and Rice would be a good transition to the outfielder on this years HOF ballot, and those who know me best understand that I am all about smooth transitions and sturdy scaffolding techniques. After all, the road to knowledge is built with the bricks made by the idiot who required an village to raise.
Total Win Shares
Rice 282
Mattingly 263
Rice has the advantage in career Win Shares, but both are under 300, so they would require a hell of a peak to get in. Let's look at five year peaks first:
Best Five Year Cumulative Win Shares
Rice 142
Mattingly 148
Both have rather impressive five year peaks, with Mattingly having a slight edge. However, things space out a bit over the ten year span.
Best Ten Year Cumulative Win Shares
Rice 227
Mattingly 241
While Mattingly's peak falls under the gray area of "Is it good enough?", Rice's is closer to proverbial line in the sand. The hair splitters can argue the exact coordinates of that line until the Reckoning, but preciseness really doesn't matter because Rice was an outfielder and Mattingly was a first basemen.
Most of the absolute elite position players in the Hall were outfielders. Guys like Mays, Cobb, Ruth, Williams, Musial, etc. walk stride for stride with the baseball gods. In fact, many would argue thay are the baseball gods. Let's look at the career Win shares of LFers in the Hall of Fame:
Win Shares
Stan Musial 604
Ted Williams 555
Carl Yastremski 488
Fred Clarke 400
Jesse Burkett 389
Zack Wheat 380
Al Simmons 375
Will Stargell 370
Ed Delahanty 355
Goose Goslin 355
Lou Brock 348
Billy Williams 347
Joe Medwick 312
Jim O'Rourke 305
Joe Kelley 305
Heine Manush 285
Jim Rice 282
Ralph Kiner 242
Chick Hafey 186
Monte Irvin 98
Average* 367
*excluding Irvin, who spent most of his career in the Negro Leagues
Manush and Hafey are dubious Veteran's Committee choices. Hafey might be the worst selection in the Hall, but that is a discussion for another day, as is Kiner's election. Kelly, O'Rourke and Medwick are VC choices also, but their inductions aren't affronts to decency. The player elected by the writers into the Hall other than Kiner with the lowest Win Share total is Billy Williams at 347, which is light years ahead of Rice.
Rice' peak doesn't exactly measure up to left fielders either. for instance, many would argue that Lou Brock is a borderline choice. However, his five year and ten year peaks are better than Rice's.
Total Win Shares Ten Year Five Year
Brock 348 253 143
Rice 282 227 142
When you get dusted by Lou Brock, you should realize you have to by a ticket to the Hall like all mortals. The only thing that Rice has going for him is five year peak, and that shrivels in the shadow of the LF HOFers.
Best Five Year Cumulative Win Shares
Ted Williams 221
Musial 207
Yaz 172
Delahanty 169
Simmons 165
Burkett 161
Medwick 157
Kiner 155
Stargell 153
B. Williams 143
Wheat 149
Clarke 147
Goslin 147
Kelley 144
Brock 143
Rice 142
Manush 139
Hafey 116
O'Rourke 110
Rice's five year peak amongst left fielders doesn't rank high enough to stand alone. Considering that Rice brings nothing else to a HOF discussion other than the clamoring of the Red Sox Nation, any attempt to justify his entry is either ignorance or homerism.