Clemente: Inner circle of the elite, or on his way?

[btcarfagno]

Originally Posted by rhettyeakley

I don’t really disagree that Clemente and Frank Robinson are fairly similar in value to their team. I personally would have much rather had Robinson on my team but my point was Clemente was a completely different type of player than Mays and Aaron, Robinson was more similar to them just without the overall statistics to measure up.

I like Clemente a lot but he was not Mays or Aaron and very few people in their time thought he was in that conversation. He was a great person and worthy of his fame, but like some other people in other walks of like the fact that he was taken before his time makes him feel more legendary than he perhaps was.

I think the reason he may have been mentioned in the same breath was his being the "third" outfielder of the 1960's in the National League. When you look at all star game starters (a good "old school" metric to see where people ranked "back in the day") during the 1960's, Mays started eight times, Aaron seven, and Clemente five. The only other NL outfielder with multiple appearances as a starter was Tommy Davis with two.

So I think that is the reason he would be mentioned with those two.