Wasn't it Bill James that said that there are more fast left fielders than fast right fielders, but, overall, LFers are slower? I'll note that most of the bottom 5 moved to left or DH by their 30's.

I think the way James described it was, if you were very fast, and you had a good arm, you would be centerfielder, not a right fielder. If you had a bad arm, you would ordinarily not be in right, no matter how fast you were.

If you're fast and have a good arm: CF
If you're fast and have a bad arm: LF
If you're slow and have a good arm: RF
If you're slow and have a bad arm: LF.
If you're fast and have a good arm but your team has a faster guy with a better arm already in CF: RF

If you're fast and have a good arm: CF
If you're fast and have a bad arm: LF
If you're slow and have a good arm: RF
If you're slow and have a bad arm: LF.
If you're fast and have a good arm but your team has a faster guy with a better arm already in CF: RF

Precisefully.

All of which means that, as a group, RFs don't tend to be real fast.

You've got a few who were power/speed types like Bonds, Dawson, Mondesi, and Strawberry. Seeing speedy singles hitters like Puhl and Friffey Sr. on the list bring back memories of the days when I first collected baseball cards. Randy Winn is another I was thinking of, but he has split his time between all 3 OF spots so didn't have the 750 games to get into the query.

You've got a few who were power/speed types like Bonds, Dawson, Mondesi, and Strawberry.

I don't think Dawson should be there. Are you judging his speed score over his entire career, or just from his time as a RF? Because IIRC, he moved from CF to RF after his knees were shot and he lost a lot of his speed. IOW, he might have been fast overall, but he wasn't a particularly fast RF.

Bonds of course would have been a CF for any team other than the Giants.

Bonds of course would have been a CF for any team other than the Giants.

Yep. One of the ways in which coming up with the Giants was about the worst thing that could have happened to Bonds; the other being the constant unfair comparisons to Mays in which Bonds appeared as falling short, rather than being appreciated for the exceptional ballplayer he was.

Have Bonds come up with practically any other team, and he's a CF, and recognized as one of the best all-around CFs in the game.

Dawson as a CF:

SB - 39, 35, 34, 28, 26, 25
3B - 12, 10, 9, 8, 7, 7
GIDP - 14, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6

Dawson as a RF:

SB - 18, 16, 13, 13, 12, 11
3B - 8, 6, 6, 5, 4, 3
GIDP - 18, 16, 15, 15, 13, 13

Of course the exception is the Indians with Sizemore and Gutierrez for the years they played together. Surprised that wasn't more criticized at the time.

Of course the exception is the Indians with Sizemore and Gutierrez for the years they played together.

I'm sure there are plenty of other exceptions for the same reason. Sizemore was already the established starting CF before Gutierrez even started getting significant playing time. Teams rarely move starting players until they're older. It's not unheard of obviously but moving young superstar Grady Sizemore for a player who, at the time, looked like he might be the next (aargh! brain cramp, the only example I can think of is ...) Gary Pettis* would have caused a much bigger hubbub than putting the new kid in RF.

* the "problem" being that Pettis may have been the best defensive CF ever and no rookie should be comped to him for that reason. Anyway, some defensive specialist CF who can't hit and therefore is a part-timer most of his career. Corey Patterson might have been better.

Not enough hustle, skip.

I was looking at career speed scores, not just for games played in right field. With retrosheet, the later could be done, but not for a Sunday afternoon blogpost. I'm not really concerned whether Dawson ranks 10th or 27th, just wanted to show how much an outlier Ichiro was compared to players with a decent number of games in right.

Interesting you should bring up Pettis. His CF defense meant that another candidate for best defensive CF ever, Devon White, spend most of his rookie year in right.

And I should add that using the 1962-2009 time period cuts off the early part of Aaron's career. Normally, that would hurt his speed score, looking at ages 28 on, but in this case, he's probably helped. For example, as a 23 year old MVP in 1957, Aaron was probably as fast as he ever was, but only stole a single base. Almost nobody ran in the 1950's. He had 9 double digit steal years, 7 of which came after 1962.

Why the cutoff? Well, any cutoff is somewhat arbitrary, but at least there is a reason, I choose this because of Maury Wills. I believe James invented the speed scores with a certain style of play in mind, and had he intended it to be used for a 1950's style game, he would have had to come up with a different formula.