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Rank the all time outfielders - espn

Moose Milligan

By Moose Milligan
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DrungoHazewood

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No. And it's not close. Ichiro doesn't have the power, and even his OBP is nothing special by these standards.

Offhand I would guess that Ichiro has trouble cracking the Top 25.

Actually, in a major league career that didn't begin until age 27 Ichiro has amassed 55 wins above replacement. That's 58th of all time among outfielders, about tied with HOFers Joe Medwick and Joe Kelley, ahead of Enos Slaughter.

If you just look at outfielders from age 27-on, Ichiro is 15th all time in WAR, and he's far from done. Last year he was still a 4.5 win player, and if he managers to total another 15 WAR before he's done he'll be about the 8th best outfielder of all time from age 27-on.

While maybe you can't give him full credit for his nine seasons in Japan, I think you have to assume he was at least a very good major league player during that period. I'd guess he could have been worth 25-30 wins, very conservatively, up to his 27th birthday. Possibly much more. 30 wins would put him at 85 for his career, or already more than Griffey, DiMaggio, or Clemente.

I'm fairly comfortable saying Ichiro is one of the top 15 or 20 outfielders of all time. And I might be convinced to go higher.

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