Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
July 08, 2007
Lofty Lofton

Kenny Lofton reached base four times Sunday afternoon with a single, two walks and a home run and scored both Texas runs as they defeated the Orioles 2-1. He finishes the first half with a .386 OBA, fourteen points above his career average. At 40, he's in the top five in the American League in leadoff OBA. He's only had one truly bad year getting on base in his career, in 2001. While he's not a Hall of Famer, Lofton certainly ranks as one of the great leadoff men of his generation. He consistently gets on base, he consistently steals with a high percentage and he scores runs. It's too bad he didn't become a regular until he was 25, he might be among the all time leaders.


Posted by David Pinto at 08:39 PM | Players | TrackBack (0)
Comments

I remember watching Lofton growing up (1990's) when he was an Indian. He still moves around the bases and plays the outfield like he was hitting leadoff in a lineup that featured Albert Belle. I always thought he could have been a world class sprinter. I wonder what his 40 yard dash time was. His slap hitting style may have even inspired today's greats [in any little way possible] such as Ichiro. That's the only guy he reminds me of in terms of stolen base % and ability to cover ground in center field. The only thing Ichiro has over Lofton is that rocket arm. But, Ichiro never stole 70 bases [yet] in a season while Lofton has done it twice.

Posted by: James at July 10, 2007 02:35 AM

It's easy to admire the career that Lofton has had and it's quite possible that he may have gotten into the Hall had things broken differently for him. However, if you look at his career closely, it's not that he became a regular at 25 that's the major problem, but that he didn't always get on the field after he became a regular. Clearly he's a runs scoring machine but Lofton probably also had the skills to get to 3,000 hits. However, only twice in his 16-year career has he played in more than 150 games and only 5 times has he played in more than 140. Think of all the at-bats he missed over the years. With a career average around .300, it probably amounted to hundreds of hits that never were. That's probably the thing keeping him from the Hall.

Posted by: Brian at July 10, 2007 04:04 PM
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