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We have a couple of hours before the first of today’s four games starts. Let’s throw in a poll.
Looking at the list, we really haven’t had many great left fielders.
- Al or Alvin Woods played 7 seasons for the Jays. He had one really good season, hitting .300/.364/.480. The rest of the time he was averageish....career .271/.326/.387. He hit for a decent average but didn’t have any power nor would he get on base much.
- Barry Bonnell was a Jay for 4 seasons. Hit .281/.331/.416. Had a good season in 1983, hitting .318/.369/.469.
- Dave Collins was part of one of the best trades in Jays history, coming from the Yankees with Fred McGriff and Mike Morgan for Tom Dodd (who wouldn’t play much in the MLB) and Dale Murray (a fairly average middle reliever). Collins played 2 seasons for the Jays. Hit .291/.355/.389 and stole 91 bases. He was a pretty great leadoff guy, but we had young outfielders George Bell, Lloyd Moesby and Jesse Barfield on the team.
- George Bell played 9 seasons for the Jays. Won an MVP (back in the days when leading the league in RBI was pretty much an automatic MVP). Hit .286/.325/.486 with 202 homers in 1181 games. He was pretty decent as an outfielder, until the turf ruined his knees.
- Candy Malonado had 3 seasons with the Jays (over two stints). Hit .272/.363/.462 with 34 homers in 250 games. I have some affection for him, he was a decent player when we had a crappy team, in the years after our World Series wins.
- Shannon Stewart played 10 seasons with the Jays, his first 9 seasons of his MLB career and then came back to finish his career as a Blue Jay. He hit .298/.365/.440 with 74 homers, 166 steals, and 34 triples. He’s another who had a great career going, until his knees were damaged by our turf. Before that, he was a base stealer, he had 51 steals in 1998. He was one of those guys who did everything well, had some power, got on base, could steal, played good defense.
- Reed Johnson had 5 seasons as a Blue Jays (mostly platooning with Frank Catalanotto. He had a great season, in 2006, hitting .319/.390/.479 with 12 home runs. In total he hit .281/.342/.410 with 42 home runs in 610 games.
- Frank Catalanotto was a Blue Jay for 4 seasons. He hit .299/.361/.445, often platooning with Johnson. He was a favorite.
- Fred Lewis maybe shouldn’t be on the list. Had 1 season with the Jays, hit .262/.332/.414. Started off great and then forgot how to hit as the season went on.
- Eric Thames....shouldn’t be on the list, but I wanted to make note of him. He came up as a Blue Jay, and had good moments. His defense was....interesting. He took the most inventive routes to fly balls. Hit .257/.306/.429 in 141 games.
- Rajai Davis was a Blue Jays for 3 seasons. Hit .252/.299/.369 with 125 steals. If he could have reached base more often......
- Melky Cabrera had two seasons with the Blue Jays, one that wasn’t good (but then he had a tumor in his back) and one that was good. Hit .293/.340/.421 in 227 games.
- Michael Saunders....had a great half season, made the All-Star game and then quit hitting.
- Ezequiel....well you know. 3 season with us (so far), hit .267/.336/.380 in 332 games, stole 19 bases. Baseball Reference has him at a -0.6 WAR as a Jay. As a fourth outfielder, he’s ok, but he plays too much. This past season was his best, hitting .282/.356/.408 and still BR has him at a -0.4 WAR (mostly from his bad defense, what’s amazing is that he was a defensive replacement many times).
Poll
Who was the Jay's best left fielder?
This poll is closed
-
0%
Al Woods
(3 votes) -
0%
Barry Bonnell
(3 votes) -
0%
Dave Collins
(6 votes) -
70%
George Bell
(1191 votes) -
0%
Candy Maldonado
(14 votes) -
15%
Shannon Stewart
(269 votes) -
1%
Reed Johnson
(24 votes) -
0%
Frank Catalanotto
(14 votes) -
0%
Fred Lewis
(3 votes) -
0%
Eric Thames
(5 votes) -
2%
Rajai Davis
(37 votes) -
2%
Melky Cabrera
(43 votes) -
1%
Michael Saunders
(23 votes) -
1%
Ezequiel Carrera
(27 votes) -
1%
Someone Else
(20 votes)