Let's Talk About Roy White

 By JT  

The modern baseball metrics love Roy White but back in the day he was known as a good but not really a great player. His traditional statistics were fine, but not eye-popping compared to other left fielders (Willie Stargell for instance) or even other outfielders such as Reggie Jackson or Yankee teammate Bobby Murcer. 

Here are his career stats—

He had a nice four-year run from 1970-73, and thanks to Baseball-Reference, we can see his for year average for that span.

White was known as an excellent field, based on the literature of the day and then in he 80s and 90s his defensive metrics were good but still, not terrific.  Then, in Wizardry: Baseball's All-Time Greatest Fielders Revealed by Michael Humphreys Roy White got a lot of cred in that he was named one of the top left-fielders ever. 

In dField, a metric found on Baseball-Reference.com White was credited with saving about 35 runs in his career. Bill James' metric, Win Shares tripled that amount. Buy Humphreys' metric DRA credited him with around 180 or so, including an average of 17.4 or so from 1968-77, a sensational number for a decade span. 

In that same 1968-77 decade, White hit .277 and averaged 16 home runs 70 RBI and 22 steals a season while drawing 88 walks per 162 games. 

In my 5-tool number which is loosely based on the Power-Speed number found on Baseball-Reference.com—

White also fares well. He totals 149.3 (Mays is best-ever 286.8, 17.0 average)

As we mentioned the metics love White, WAR, WARP, WAA, all of them. In 1970 White didn't make The Sporting News AL All-Star team or the AP or NEA All-MLB All-Star team, the was chosen for the MLB All-Star game at mid-season (in 1969, too). 

However, if WAR is used, White would be the ALl-MLB and All-AL left-fielder. And if Humphreys' DRA were the defensive metric used rather than dWAR he'd be the top outfielder in the game for that year. 

Here is 1971 based on the same WAR premise. In 1971 he did get a few votes on the NEA All-MLB All-Star team. 

This is 1972—

And 1973—

1975 brought more WAR honors—

And finally, 1976—

So, based on WAR, White was First- or Second-team All-American League six times include being First-team All-MLB in 1970 and First-team All-AL in 1970 and 1971. 

As per Baseball-Reference.com here are some of the categories White led the American League in. 

And again, via Baseball-Reference.com and the JAWS method—

White is ranked just behind HOFer Jim Rice...

Summation? White is much better than most of us remember. He was a great fielder, an average arm but a pretty good hitter (with a bow-legged stance) and a great eye who drew a ton of walks, some pop in his bat, and he ran the bases very well and could steal you a base and lay down a sacrifice bunt.

He played through the transition Yankee years (the mediocre teams from the early 1960s championships until the late 1970s championships) and was a contributor to the Yankee teams that won two World Series rings in 1977 and 1978. 

 And in today's game where the batters either strikeout, walk, or homer there should be room in the discussion for players like Roy White.