The best Garys and the best Carters of all time

Here’s a quick look at the best MLB players named “Gary” or “Carter”.

Highest Wins Above Replacement:

1. Gary Carter (66.3)
2. Gary Sheffield (63.3)
3. Gary Gaetti (37.8)
4. Garry Maddox (33.8)
5. Gary Matthews (30.5)
6. Gary Nolan (26.0)
7. Gary Peters (25.4)
8. Garry Templeton (25.2)
9. Gary Lavelle (18.9)
10. Gary Pettis (18.2)
11. Gary Redus (17.8)
12. Joe Carter (16.5)
13. Gary Ward (15.4)
14. Gary Roenicke (15.0)
15. Gary Bell (11.6)
16. Gary Matthews Jr. (9.9)
17. Gary Disarcina (9.6)
18. Gary Geiger (9.2)
19. Gary Gentry (9.0)
20. Gary Thomasson (6.9)
21. Gary Lucas (5.4)
22. Lance Carter (2.6)
23. Gary Waslewski (2.6)
24. Gary Ross (2.2)
25. Gary Wayne (1.6)
26. Gary Allenson (1.2)
27. Gary Serum (1.2)

Any other Garys or Carters you can think of had less than 1.0 WAR. Any don’t even talk about Gary Thurman.

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Dr. Doom

12 years ago

I knew the senior Gary Matthews was a better player than the junior. I didn’t know by how much. Wow.

Greg

12 years ago

Wow — hard hitting stuff.

12 years ago

The link for Gary Matthews Sr. is wrong. It goes to his son.

And I still want to see a Gary Sheffield HOF discussion. Maybe we can top the Lou Brock thread for # of comments???

topper009

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

I don’t care how bad you are at defense, 140 OPS+ over 10,000 PAs is good enough for the HOF. There are only 21 members of this club.

Editor

John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to topper009

I’m inclined to agree. But if there is to be a test case of that standard, Sheff’s the man for the job. His defensive WAR is about 3 times worse than any of the other 19 players to meet that 140/10,000 standard.

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

I think there are issues beyond defense. 1) I’m pretty sure there were steroid allegations re:Sheffield. 2) He was a known malcontent and teams were eager to get rid of him. As Bill James once said, teams generally aren’t eager to get rid of HOF players. BTW, he admitted to purposely committing errors so that Milwaukee would get rid of him. That’s the sort of person he was/is. 3) I think he also suffers from a perception issue. I don’t think he was really perceived as a HOFer during his career. That may be unfair but I think it will… Read more »

topper009

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

Everyone in Milwaukee hates Gary Sheffield, he was booed there his entire career, but I still support his HOF status.

Baseball is about hitting, it is a nice bonus if you are fast or good at fielding, but I don’t care about that very much. The only thing that is easy to do in baseball is running, and that is like 80% of outfield defense. So basically, Gary Sheffield was not fast and was not lucky enough to play in the Almost (baseball) League where he could have DH’d.

Dr. Doom

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

Yup – topper’s right. Everyone in Milwaukee hates Gary Sheffield. He burned us bad, and we were ready to love him. He was, after all, supposed to be the next Robin Yount; he was going to man shortstop for two decades. But he didn’t have the glove nor the arm for it. The fans were cruel, include some completely inappropriate racial comments which were not deserved. Then he said some things about Milwaukee which led to the city hating him. Frankly, though, that wasn’t the last bridge he burned. I think, like Bonds, he was just a difficult person thrown… Read more »

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

In response to Topper: Come on man, you can’t dismiss fielding and baserunning because they don’t support the conclusion you want to reach. Sure there not as important as hitting but they do have an impact on winning and losing. As for the DH issue…a few points: 1) He did play 9 years in the AL (2 of those years he was a DH) and he was the one who forced his initial trade away from the AL. 2) It’s not clear to me that he would have agreed to playing DH in his earlier years even if the option… Read more »

topper009

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

I am trying to respond to post #Robin Yount. ( I really don’t like this method of mixing up the posts, that Lou Brock was so difficult to follow I just gave up. Also it would be nice to just get an email notification when my specific posts are replied to) I am talking about the HOF, not overall value. The hardest thing to do in any sport is to have a high slugging %. Those are the best players. If I am making a team, I would just choose the players with the highest WAR no matter how they… Read more »

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Andy

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

Thanks. Link fixed.

I wrote a Sheffield draft at B-R blog and was unhappy with it. I guess I can take another crack at it. I already promised that Dale Murphy was next….

12 years ago

Reply to Andy

Yeah, I remember you saying you were working on a Sheffield one and then it never materialized.

Dr. Remulak

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

I pretty sure Sheffield holds the all-time record for foul-ball homeruns. Man, would he hit some rockets outside the left-field pole. He’d be a cricket legend.

Lawrence Azrin

12 years ago

Reply to Dr. Remulak

Speaking of foul-ball HRs down the LF line – Carlton Fisk would give Sheffield a run for it, at least if he’d stayed at Fenway his whole career. It seemed like he hit at least one of those every game he played in Fenway (that Game 6, inning 12/’75 WS HR was no fluke).

Timmy Pea

12 years ago

Many prayers for Gary Carter and his family. Have you ever noticed that Gary Carter and Joe Carter have almost identical hitting stats?

DaveR

12 years ago

Reply to Timmy Pea

Why, no. I haven’t. Do tell.

Editor

John Autin

12 years ago

FYI, there’s a major malfunction with B-R’s Play Index right now — don’t rely on any results you might get.

The basic Search field also isn’t working.

Andy

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Yeah Neil is aware so I presume it’s being worked on.

Editor

John Autin

12 years ago

Carter Bradley Hogg (ace of the 1918 Phillies), 1.8 career WAR.

topper009

12 years ago

Most HRs during the Carter Administration:

Rk Player HR ▾ From To PA
1 Mike Schmidt 152 1977 1980 2610
2 Jim Rice 148 1977 1980 2686
3 George Foster 147 1977 1980 2489
4 Reggie Jackson 129 1977 1980 2325
5 Dave Kingman 120 1977 1980 1798
6 Gorman Thomas 115 1978 1980 1901
7 Greg Luzinski 111 1977 1980 2263
8 Eddie Murray 111 1977 1980 2726
9 Ron Cey 109 1977 1980 2545
10 Ben Oglivie 109 1977 1980 2256

Dr. Remulak

12 years ago

Reply to topper009

But Jimmy committed the most errors during that period.

Tmckelv

12 years ago

Reply to topper009

Gary Carter is #14 on that list with 102 HR during the Carter Administration.

Morten Jonsson

12 years ago

Reply to Tmckelv

Gary was in fact the only Carter to hit a home run during the Carter administration. A little surprising, actually. And along those lines– The first major leaguer to hit a home run during his namesake’s administration was Elmer Cleveland, who hit all 4 of his career homers during the first Cleveland administration. He left baseball a few months before Cleveland was elected again. Bad timing. Chief Wilson hit 25 home runs during the Wilson administration. Art Wilson hit 21. Squanto Wilson didn’t hit any, but I couldn’t leave him out–he was called Squanto Wilson. John Kennedy hit his first… Read more »

birtelcom

12 years ago

Reply to topper009

LOL. You inspired me to check others. Jimmie Foxx had 353 homers during Franklin Roosevelt’s administration and Junior Griffey had 351 during Bill Clinton’s adminstration. I’m pretty sure no other hitter/President combos have close to those numbers.

JSC

12 years ago

Reply to birtelcom

I think Alex Rodriguez during GWB’s administration beats both of them….