Jim Rice vs Carlos Delgado

[Sockeye]

I'm going to run a series of polls with the winner advancing each time to face another opponent. Will leave each poll up for a week. I'll try to provide as much statistical information as possible. Hopefully we can get some lively insightful debates going and bring to light some overlooked players from yesteryear.
If you could pick between these two players to start your franchise with which would you pick? Please consider all relavent information. Their careers as a whole, peak performance, hitting, fielding, baserunning, positional value, league quality, etc.

Jim Rice

2089 games
9058 plate appearances
8225 at-bats
1249 runs
2452 hits
373 doubles
79 triples
382 home runs
1451 RBI
58 stolen bases
34 caught stealing
670 walks
1423 strikeouts
.298 AVG
.352 OBP
.502 SLG
.854 OPS
128 OPS+
4129 total bases
1384 runs created
6.0 RC/G
102 AIR
.628 OW%
.798 Total Average
.288 Secondary Average
278.5 Win Shares
128.1 WSAB
44.3 rWAR
56.1 fWAR
44.4 sWAR

Carlos Delgado

2035 games
8657 plate appearances
7283 at-bats
1241 runs
2038 hits
483 doubles
18 triples
473 home runs
1512 RBI
14 stolen bases
8 caught stealing
1109 walks
1745 strikeouts
.280 AVG
.383 OBP
.546 SLG
.929 OPS
138 OPS+
3976 total bases
1588 runs created
7.7 RC/G
110 AIR
.678 OW%
.974 Total Average
.419 Secondary Average
303.8 Win Shares
161.2 WSAB
40.4 rWAR
46.4 fWAR
40.7 sWAR

Previous results

Willie Montanez vs Dave Kingman
Dave Kingman vs Dante Bichette
Dave Kingman vs Jose Guillen
Dave Kingman vs Dave Philley
Dave Kingman vs Shano Collins
Dave Kingman vs Eric Karros
Dave Kingman vs Charlie Grimm
Charlie Grimm vs Juan Gonzalez
Juan Gonzalez vs Bill Buckner
Juan Gonzalez vs Ruben Sierra
Juan Gonzalez vs Gee Walker
Juan Gonzalez vs Patsy Donovan
Juan Gonzalez vs Joe Carter
Juan Gonzalez vs Tommy Davis
Juan Gonzalez vs Charlie Jamieson
Juan Gonzalez vs Jeff Conine
Juan Gonzalez vs Hal Chase
Juan Gonzalez vs Lee May
Juan Gonzalez vs Joe Kuhel
Juan Gonzalez vs Willie Horton
Juan Gonzalez vs Chris Chambliss
Juan Gonzalez vs Hal McRae
Juan Gonzalez vs Andres Galarraga
Juan Gonzalez vs George Hendrick
Juan Gonzalez vs Garret Anderson
Juan Gonzalez vs George Burns
Juan Gonzalez vs Wally Moses
Juan Gonzalez vs Del Ennis
Juan Gonzalez vs Don Baylor
Juan Gonzalez vs Shawn Green
Juan Gonzalez vs Stuffy McInnis
Juan Gonzalez vs Wally Pipp
Juan Gonzalez vs Gary Matthews
Juan Gonzalez vs Bobby Bonilla
Juan Gonzalez vs Mickey Vernon
Mickey Vernon vs Jose Canseco
Mickey Vernon vs Carlos Delgado
Carlos Delgado vs B.J. Surhoff
Carlos Delgado vs Ken Griffey Sr
Carlos Delgado vs Wally Joyner
Carlos Delgado vs Cecil Cooper
Carlos Delgado vs Jim Bottomley
Carlos Delgado vs Harold Baines
Carlos Delgado vs Chili Davis
Carlos Delgado vs Steve Garvey
Carlos Delgado vs Magglio Ordonez
Carlos Delgado vs Paul O'Neil
Carlos Delgado vs Dave Parker
Carlos Delgado vs Moises Alou
Carlos Delgado vs Jake Daubert
Carlos Delgado vs George J Burns
Carlos Delgado vs Felipe Alou
Carlos Delgado vs Don Mattingly
Carlos Delgado vs Hugh Duffy
Carlos Delgado vs Al Oliver
Carlos Delgado vs Dixie Walker
Carlos Delgado vs Fred Tenney
Carlos Delgado vs Chuck Klein
Carlos Delgado vs Heinie Manush
Carlos Delgado vs Rusty Staub
Carlos Delgado vs Joe Judge
Carlos Delgado vs Mark Grace
Carlos Delgado vs Ed Konetchy
Carlos Delgado vs Bobby Veach

[pheasant]

I'll take Delgado by a small margin, mainly due to a league quality adjustment.

[TomBodet]

I went with Jim Ed, but am hopelessly biased, he is a long time fave.

[Jackaroo Dave]

Rice wins it with his glove--a sentence I never expected to utter.

[chicagowhitesox1173]

I went with Delgado, close call but Delgado seemed to have a few more peak years than Rice.

[willshad]

I'm surprised to see it so close, especially with Rice being such a sabermetric whipping boy.

Delgado only has 40 WAR for his career, so he is apparently very underrated by saber stats as well.

[PVNICK]

I'll take Delgado by a small margin, mainly due to a league quality adjustment.

??? The AL was fully Integrated. In the 90s-00s there were four extra teams one could argue he played in a watered down league.

[Cowtipper]

Sockeye, please don't mind if I ask: What is the goal of these polls? What is the basic reason for running them? There is a pattern I've noticed: >2,000 hits (1,500?) and < 400 home run players vs. >=400 home run players. This isn't a loaded question and I'm not going to attack any answer you provide.

[Nerdlinger]

Sockeye, please don't mind if I ask: What is the goal of these polls? What is the basic reason for running them? There is a pattern I've noticed: >2,000 hits (1,500?) and < 400 home run players vs. >=400 home run players. This isn't a loaded question and I'm not going to attack any answer you provide.

I think it's to demonstrate how much one-dimensional power hitters (Kingman, Gonzalez, Canseco -- that one backfired -- and Delgado) are better than a selected assortment of players who aren't terrible but who are significantly worse than them overall. No offense, but that's what it appears to be.

[Cowtipper]

...I guess we'll never know.

[fenrir]

I went with Delgado, but it's closer than I originally thought.