by Jim Jividen

Created on: December 10, 2008   Last Updated: March 25, 2009

We've had 20 primary RF in SF; the years aren't the entirety of their Giants careers, only when they were the primary RF; however their WARP3 totals, in the parentheticals, are inclusive of their full SF tenures:

2008-06 Randy Winn (23.7)

2005 Moises Alou (10.1)

2004 Michael Tucker (5.2)

2003 Jose Cruz, Jr. (6.9 - his 2003 is the best season so far, working backward - until, you know, the fly ball in Miami. I was there. Pain. Pain. Pain. Okay. Moving on.)

2002 Reggie Sanders (5.4)

2001 Armando Rios (9.7)

2000-1999 Ellis Burks (16.0 - Burks had a 7.5 in 2000, your new leader in the clubhouse)

1998-97 Stan Javier (14.1)

1996-95 Glenallen Hill (7.1)

1994-92 Willie McGee (14.4)

1991-90 Kevin Bass (4.9) Most of our RF, to this point, working backward, were just vaguely disappointing -Winn, Alou, Tucker, Sanders were all just guys, filling the spot, not killing us or doing anything remarkable. You could win with any of their seasons if the strength of your club was elsewhere, like, say, the other corner OF. Cruz had a good year and Burks gave us two good years; Rios, Javier, and GHill weren't good baseball players; you'd put McGee at the end of the first group in his first Giants season and then with this last group the rest of his tenure. Actually, McGee and Javier were pretty similar Giants. McGee had two good years in his whole career and if he's smart, he's spending his retirement in St Louis reveling in both of them. But Kevin Bass was bad. Really, really bad. Cringeworthy bad.

1989-87 Candy Maldonado (16.1 - every 16 years a Giants RF has to botch a fly ball to take us out of the postseason. Pain. Pain. Pain. Moving on.)

1986-85 Chili Davis (34.3 - Davis put in 7 years; his 7.1 in '84 as a backup was what helped move Jack out of town, as will be discussed in a moment.)

1984-77 Jack Clark (46.5. Jack Clark's the 184th greatest player in the history of major league baseball.

When I was 14, I was skeptical, but didn't automatically hate the trade that sent Clark to the Cards for Green, Rajsich, LaPoint, and Uribe. As I started to write this, I was set to make the argument that Clark's treatment in San Francisco was an example of the "blame the best player" syndrome, where the club's superstar gets unwarranted blame when his team never wins anything.

Well - Clark was the club's superstar, and the Giants never won anything - but interestingly, Clark was only the best player on the Giants for one season, '78, his best year where he finished 5th in the NL MVP vote. Parker won that

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