When you reminisce on the career of Kenny Lofton, you probably remember a fleet-footed mainstay of the powerhouse mid-90s Indians who bounced among nine teams in his last six years. But an accidental stumbling onto Lofton's stat sheet reminded me what a very valuable player he was.
Lofton was drafted by the Astros out of Arizona, where he was a star baseball and basketball player, backing up Steve Kerr on a Wildcat hoops team that reached the Final Four. In fact, Lofton is one of only two people (Tim Stoddard, the other) to play in a Final Four in college and a World Series professionally.
The YouTube video that would chronicle Kenny Lofton's defensive gems would speaks for itself, and feature the gravity-defying leap that robbed BJ Surhoff of a third-row dinger at the Jake in '96. The defensive metrics validate the view that Lofton, particularly in the Cleveland two-thirds of his career, was a superior defender in the one critical outfield position.
That's the icing on the cake though. The layered chocolate goodness that was his offensive contribution may have been severely under-rated. Lofton was probably one of the 10 or 15 best leadoff hitters of all-time, sporting a .372 OBP with 622 steals at an 80% rate. (A sabermetric review rates his 1994 performance the sixth best leadoff season since 1960. Remember, the 1994 season ended in August, with 50 games yet to play.) He led the league in steals five times and swiped 32 of 37 bases at age 39. It's no surprise that Lofton came around to score at least 90 times for 11 consecutive seasons.
Kenny Lofton never hit for power; reaching 15 homers in a season just once. But research shows that table setters who get on base, swipe bags and burn around the bases have an intangible value that has yet to be fully captured by the seamheads and their whiz-bang tools. Being a strong up-the-middle defender further enhances his value, though it might be difficult to capture as it whizzes around the basebpaths.
Lofton spent six years of his baseball dotage as a vagabond, seemingly dragging the baggage of post-season heart break with him. His '99 Tribe squad blew a 2-0 best-of-five lead to Baltimore; his '02 Giants succumbed to the Angels in the World Series despite a 5-0 eighth inning advantage in a potential clinching Game 6, his '04 Yankees famously coughed up a 3-0 ALCS series lead on Boston, and his '07 swan song in Cleveland was three straight ALCS losses to the Red Sox to fritter away a 3-1 series lead.
On the other hand, playing from 2002-2007 for the White Sox, Giants, Pirates, Cubs, Yankees, Phillies, Dodgers, Rangers and Indians, but never for more than 136 games, Lofton at least helped his clubs earn post-season berths. The itinerant second act to his career masked his continuing value, even as his prowess with the leather waned. In his final half season with Texas, he hit .303/.380/.438 and appropriated 21 of 25 bases before finally being shipped back to Ohio.
Lofton's not a Hall of Famer; he wasn't the best player on any of his teams or at his position; and he wasn't the best lead-off hitter any time during his career (thanks a lot, Rickey Henderson and Tim Raines.) But as a stellar center-fielder who wreaked havoc from the top of the order, he was an awfully useful player.
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