Top 10 Seasons by an Angels Center Fielder

The team coulda had uninterrupted good-to-great CF play, if they hadn’t made bad trades

Previously, on mattwelch.com -- Catcher (w/ intro), 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, and LF.

G    AB   R  H   HR RBI SB/CS BB  BA   OBP  SLG OPS+  WS AS? MVP  
1) Albie Pearson, 1963
154  578  92 176  6  47 17/10 92 .304 .402 .398 132 28.1  X   14
2) Jim Edmonds, 1998
154  599 115 184 25  91  7/5  57 .307 .368 .506 124 23.9  
3) Jim Edmonds, 1995
141  558 120 162 33 107  1/4  51 .290 .352 .536 128 23.6  X   14
4) Ken Berry, 1972
119  409  41 118  5  39  5/3  35 .289 .347 .377 122 23.0  
5) Mickey Rivers, 1975
155  616  70 175  1  53 70/14 43 .284 .331 .359 102 22.1
6) Albie Pearson, 1962
160  614 115 160  5  42 15/6  95 .261 .360 .352  96 21.5  
7) Fred Lynn, 1982
138  472  89 141 21  86  7/8  58 .299 .374 .517 143 20.7  X
8) Jose Cardenal, 1966
154  561  67 155 16  48 24/11 34 .276 .320 .399 109 20.1  
9) Jim Edmonds, 1997
133  502  82 146 26  80  5/7  60 .291 .368 .500 124 18.7
10) Gary Pettis, 1986
154  539  93 139  5  58 50/13 69 .258 .339 .343  88 17.9

And the winner is: The shortest Rookie of the Year in baseball history, Pacific Coast League legend, pro-golfer wannabe, bible-thumping, gospel-singing 140-pound hellcat from Alhambra, Albie Pearson. One of the favorite characters on the character-stacked expansion Angels; for an idea of why, note that the #8 Google search result on "Albie Pearson" is a link called Jump For Jesus (The Gene Sullivan story), which you really need to click on right now, unless you are some kind of communist.

Lil' Albie was signed as a teenager by the Boston Red Sox, and he was well-regarded enough to be traded for Pete Runnels, who went on to win a couple of batting titles in Fenway. He hit .275 as a 23-year-old rookie for Washington in 1958, good enough to beat out Ryne Duren and Gary Bell for Rookie of the Year. But then he hit .188 the first month of his sophomore season, got traded to Baltimore for Lenny Green, and was held to just 82 ABs in 1960. The Angels plucked him in the expansion draft, batted him leadoff, and watched him post OBPs of .420 (4th in the league), .360 and .402 (2nd) the next three seasons; leading the AL in runs scored in 1962, coming second in 1963; and cracking the top 10 in walks, stolen bases, hits, batting average, runs created, and sacrifice bunts. His back crapped out on him, so he was out of baseball by age 31, after which he tried his hand at just about anything, settling in on radio evangelist in Nevada. He was like a center-field version of David Eckstein, only even shorter ... and better.

Conspicuous absence: Darin Erstad and Garret Anderson. Between them they've played five full seasons out in center, but the closest they came to the list was Erstad's 2002 (17.0), built largely on the strength of his marvelous defense. Anderson's 35-homer, 117-RBI 2000 merited only a 15.2, largely because his OBP of .307 was way below the league average of .352.

The hell's HE doing here? Ken Berry's 1972. Must have been his work in F-Troop.

Other Weirdnesses: I know you're surprised to learn that Jose Cardenal was an Angel centerfielder before his long and productive career elsewhere, but can you believe Jay Johnstone was, too?

CFs raised at home, made famous elsewhere: Mickey Rivers, Ken Landreaux, Devon White. Those three had careers that overlapped almost perfectly, providing everyday CF play from 1974 to 1999. Only five of those seasons were with the Angels however, because Rivers was traded with Ed Figueroa to the Yankees for Bobby Bonds; Landreaux was the best of four Angels traded for Rod Carew, and White was dumped for Junior Felix and Luis Sojo. So instead of having just three guys providing quality play for 20 years, bridging the gap between Ken Berry and Jim Edmonds, the Angels watched their homegrown talent make four All-Star games and play in seven World Series, winning six ... while the big field in the Big A was patrolled by the likes of Rusty Torres, Gil Flores, Rick Miller, Dave Gallagher and Chad Curtis.

In fact, if you add Albie Pearson, Jose Cardenal (traded when he was 24 for 34-year-old Chuck Hinton, who hit .195 and was traded for 34-year-old Lou Johnson, who hit .203 and then retired), plus Jim Edmonds (traded for Adam Kennedy), and you could have conceivably had just six centerfielders for four and a half decades:

1961-1964: Pearson (for ages 26-29)
1965-1973: Cardenal (21-29)
1974-1979: Rivers (25-30)
1980-1986: Landreaux (25-31)
1987-1993: White (24-30)
1994-2005: Edmonds (24-35)

And then just hand the keys over to Chone Figgins....

Old soldiers who came here to die: Jimmy Piersall, Willie Davis, Ruppert Jones.

Win Share Seasons and Totals: For Edmonds, Rivers, Pearson, Pettis, Lynn, Cardenal, Berry, Miller, Erstad, White, Johnstone and Curtis.

XX: 01/02/03/04/05/06 (total)
JE: 24/24/19/18/05 (90)
MR: 22/16/09/07/02/01 (57)
AP: 28/22/05 (55)
GP: 18/17/10/05/03 (53)
GA: 16/15/15 (46)
FL: 21/16/08 (45)
JC: 20/14/08 (42)
KB: 23/10/06 (39)
RM: 14/13/11 (38)
DE: 17/14/03/03 (37)
DW: 14/11/07 (32)
JJ: 17/10/03/02 (32)
CC: 14/11 (25)

Positional Miscellania: The Angels have enjoyed remarkably good defensive play in center field in my lifetime. Gary Pettis was the best my naked eye has seen, and that list has included multiple Gold Glovers like Freddie Lynn, Devon White, Jim Edmonds and Darin Erstad. How does defensive Win Shares rank the 10 best Angel CF seasons?

8.2 Erstad 2002
7.8 Erstad 2001
6.2 White 1989
6.0 Pettis 1986
6.0 Edmonds 1995
5.8 Edmonds 1998
5.6 Edmonds 1996
5.4 Curtis 1993
5.3 Pearson 1962
5.1 Cardenal 1965

To give you some perspective, no CF has had as many as 7.8 defensive Win Shares in any of the last three years.

Originally appeared at mattwelch.com.