Alex Rodriguez vs Rickie Henderson

[Fly]

Okay, in light of the recent ____________ vs Rickey Henderson threads that have been, in a word, silly, I decided to create this one which I feel is a much more fair comparison. I'm comparing their two careers, and leaving out whether or not Alex Rodriguez did steroids. So, who do you got?

[Jeffy25]

If I could have either player at the age of 19 and will be given their entire career from that point (money aside, and roids aside)

I've got to take 19 year-old A-Rod over 19 year-old Rickey, but it's closer than that probably sounds.

A-rod just had too much bat for a shortstop, and I would keep him at short for as long as he was mobile enough to handle the position.

Rickey was great, but he is a left fielder, and that takes away some of that high value.

They are close, but A-Rod has been better.

[The Thing]

Arod wins, no doubt about it. Though Rickey was great.

[bagwell368]

Interesting.

RH has 2356 more PA's in his career, and played very deep into his decline. AROD's clearly in his decline already, and he's signed for 5 more years. If he gets 2356 more PA's, then the hitting could be close.

Era adjusted slash, OPS+ and oWAR - career:

RH: .289/.412/.432 127 100.5

AR: .293/.376/.547 143 108.3

AROD cleans up on D, due to the positional corrections. RH turns out to be a better LF than AROD was a 3B/SS.

I'd take both of them, and move RH to CF (and make the cutof guy go about 40' deeper for him). RH leadoff. AROD around #5 or 6.

I suppose that the criticism that can be leveled at both is that they were not seen as ideal teammates. Funny that so many of the great players rank poorly that way.

[todu82]

This is close but I'm going with Rickey Henderson