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I got in a discussion on this on another thread, and I think it is quite clear than in his Oakland years, Reggie could be classified as a five tooler, or the "total package". This may seem surprising to many of you, because Reggie has the image of a "strikeout 150 times and bat .230" type player. Well, really Reggie's BA numbers were greatly diluted when he did become the "strikeout 150 times and bat .230" type player. In his younger years, he was truly a complete player. I will start by giving you Reggie's relative BAs in some of his good Oakland years (the years I'm claiming he was the total package):
1969-110
1971-109
1972-110
1973-115
1974-115
So, as you can clearly see, Reggie was in fact a very decent contact hitter at one point. 15% above league average is very, very solid, but not spectacular. Certainly enough to consider him a good contact hitter.
I don't think anyone's going to debate that Reggie was always a very good power hitter, so I'll talk about the other three tools-running, fielding, and throwing arm.
Running-Reggie also seems to today have an image of a slow player, and that is again because of his decline years. The prime Reggie was very fast. He stole 20 bases almost regularly and was considered a good baserunner. If you don't believe the stats, then I point you to the fact Reggie was recruited heavily as a running back at Arizona State before he got into baseball. Can you imagine ASU recruiting a slow running halfback? It's not likely.
Fielding-Reggie did have good range in his younger years, which is evidenced by his range factors. He was always significantly above league average for an OFer, which is even more impressive because he played the corners, which obviously have lower RFs. He did have a high error rate, but I don't think that makes much of a difference here. How important is it, really? It's only about 3 plays a year that can change a bad error rate to a good one. Really, error rates aren't great to rate OFers. It's only based on like 2 or 3 plays a year.
Throwing Arm-This is one where you won't find much debate on either. Reggie snapped hard throws to the infield consistently in his day, and his assist totals show that. When he was younger, he had four years of double digit assists. He was second in the AL is assists in 1968, fourth in 1969. There isn't much question the young Reggie had a very good arm.
So, all things considered it is fairly clear to me the young Reggie was certainly the "total package". But, for some reason his image doesn't portray that. What do you think, was Reggie ever the "total package", or not?
1969-110
1971-109
1972-110
1973-115
1974-115
So, as you can clearly see, Reggie was in fact a very decent contact hitter at one point. 15% above league average is very, very solid, but not spectacular. Certainly enough to consider him a good contact hitter.
I don't think anyone's going to debate that Reggie was always a very good power hitter, so I'll talk about the other three tools-running, fielding, and throwing arm.
Running-Reggie also seems to today have an image of a slow player, and that is again because of his decline years. The prime Reggie was very fast. He stole 20 bases almost regularly and was considered a good baserunner. If you don't believe the stats, then I point you to the fact Reggie was recruited heavily as a running back at Arizona State before he got into baseball. Can you imagine ASU recruiting a slow running halfback? It's not likely.
Fielding-Reggie did have good range in his younger years, which is evidenced by his range factors. He was always significantly above league average for an OFer, which is even more impressive because he played the corners, which obviously have lower RFs. He did have a high error rate, but I don't think that makes much of a difference here. How important is it, really? It's only about 3 plays a year that can change a bad error rate to a good one. Really, error rates aren't great to rate OFers. It's only based on like 2 or 3 plays a year.
Throwing Arm-This is one where you won't find much debate on either. Reggie snapped hard throws to the infield consistently in his day, and his assist totals show that. When he was younger, he had four years of double digit assists. He was second in the AL is assists in 1968, fourth in 1969. There isn't much question the young Reggie had a very good arm.
So, all things considered it is fairly clear to me the young Reggie was certainly the "total package". But, for some reason his image doesn't portray that. What do you think, was Reggie ever the "total package", or not?
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