Tim Raines vs. Kenny Lofton

There has been some discussion recently on whether or not Kenny Lofton should make the Hall of Fame. I am not going to try to figure that out. But it was pointed out that Lofton actually has a slight edge in WARP over Tim Raines, who, as many believe (including me), should be in.

But one thing I thought was interesting was how their relative values would change if we tried to estimate their offense based on their lineup slot (mostly leadoff).

A few years ago I estimated how many more runs various leadoff men were worth if you evaluated their stats based on their lineup position. Here is the link:

Evaluating Hitters Based on Their Lineup Slot.

Lofton was about 2.2 more runs better per season than his stats would indicated once you took the fact that he was a leadoff man into account. But Raines was 3.9 runs better. If you project that out over 16 seasons, Raines gains 27 runs relative to Lofton or about 2.7 wins.