My parents grew up in Boston so naturally they were Red Sox fans. Some of their favorite players from the 80’s were Dwight Evans, Marty Barrett, Jim Rice, Spaceman Lee, you get the idea. Out of those 4 players only one of them is a Hall of Famer, Jim Rice. I am not saying that Jim Rice is not a Hall of Famer. He definitely earned his plaque. But Dwight Evans is hands down, no questions asked, obviously a Hall of Famer. Today I am going to compare him to his Teammate of 18 season, the aforementioned Jim Rice. These two were cornerstones of the Red Sox outfield for the very successful teams of the 1970’s and 80’s. The team made it to a World Series each decade and took both of the series to seven games, against the Reds in 1975 and the Mets in 1986.

In Rices’ best season in 1978 he was an All Star and won the MVP hitting .315 with 46 home runs and 139 runs batted in. But he only walked 58 times 7 of which were intentional, therefore only having a .370 OBP or on-base percentage. In Evans’ best season in 1987 he ranked 7th in the MVP voting and won a gold glove for his outstanding defense in Fenway Parks cavernous right field. He hit .305 with 34 home runs and 123 runs batted in. Much less than Jim Rices’ totals, Rice has 12 more homers and 13 more runs batted in. But Evans walked 106 times, 6 of which were intentional for a .417 OBP. Despite Rice having the edge in traditional stats like homers and runs batted in, Evans had the edge in OBP with 47 more points.

Another thing that sets these two apart is their defense. Evans was a 8 time gold glove winner of his 20 year career while Rice never won a gold glove. Rice has -8.0 defensive wins above replacement or dWAR while Evans has -3.8, Evans also played first at an average rate late in his career hurting his numbers. Now lets talk about the prime years. Evans was known for having a very late prime being at his best from age 29 to age 37. While Rice started hot at 22 and was basically done by age 34, his prime was from age 22 until 30 which is right in line with the average for an MLB player. During Evans’ prime he hit .281 with a .388 OBP, 238 home runs and 840 runs batted in. During Rices’ prime he hit .306 with a .357 OBP, 275 home runs and 875 runs batted in. Again Rice has the edge in traditional stats while Evans has much better on base rates.

In the stat of WAR, Rice has 37.6 over his prime years with an average of 4.2 per season whereas Evans has 39.2 with and average of 4.4, so Evans is a little better there. I am not saying that Jim Rice doesn’t deserve to be in the Hall of Fame, I just think that Dwight Evans should have a plaque in Cooperstown as well. Thanks for reading, check back tomorrow for another post