I hate losing, and no matter how I spin this one, I can’t put Cesar Geronimo over Chester Lemon. Despite being yet another Red’s gold glove fielder, Geronimo spent most of his seasons below an OPS+ of 100 then above it. In 1975, he had an equalized average of only .258, and a meager Batting Runs Above Replacement of 16. Toss in a pathetic slugging percentage of .363, and you get where I’m going. Geronimo was a slappy at the plate, and as good as he was defensively, Lemon was just as good. It’s just Lemon was whole lot better at the plate.

So let’s take a look at the tale of the tape:

Runs 69
Homeruns 6
RBIs 53
Average .257
OBP .327
Slg% .363
Runs Created 58
OPS+ 90
Batting Runs Above Replacement 16
Fielding Runs Above Replacement 46
Equalized Average .258
Wins Above Replacement Player 6.9

Other then FRAR, it’s a clean sweep, and that difference was marginal.

Scorecard – 1975 Reds 5, 1984 Tigers 2

Brian was nice enough to tell me that a generous reader bought us a copy of Diamond Mind. If you want to know why we’ve been looking to get it (and how we’re going about garnering the funds), click here. Brian told me that with the money he makes from the ads, he’ll now use to buy season discs, and maybe we can have some additional fun with that (like pitting the 1975 Reds against the 1976 Reds).

Also, you can read Brian’s analysis of Chet Lemon at Tigerblog when it’s completed. Apparantly he’s been working on some secret project, and might not get to it for a couple of days.

In the meantime, check out Reds Daily. JD Arney has done a fantastic look at the Red’s top 40 prospects. This is our future here.

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