Steven Kwan vs Rickey Henderson

Here is the second part of our Steven Kwan versus other famous leadoff hitters. This is a look at Kwan vs Rickey Henderson. But I decided to look only at their first three years since that’s all we have of Steven so far.

 

Here’s some data. Can you tell which is Kwan and which is Henderson? Note: Kwan’s third year numbers are current as of Wednesday, 7/10. All OBP and OPS numbers are calculated per www.baseball-reference.com, where the data was taken from.

 

AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	RC	RC/G EST
1365	249	410	53	14	16	114	215	161	0.300	0.396	0.395	0.791	241	6
1467	237	435	75	16	20	133	154	158	0.297	0.366	0.410	0.777	234	6.3

 

AB = At bats, R = runs, H = hits, 2B/3B/HR obvious, BA = batting average, OBP=on base percentage, OPS=on base + slugging, RC = Runs created, RC/G = Runs created per game if you had 9 of these players in a lineup.

Rickey Henderson background

Rickey Henderson is considered the greatest leadoff hitter in the history of baseball.  The self proclaimed “Man of Steal” was born in the back of a car in Chicago, Illinois. When his father moved to Oakland, Rickey stayed with his grandmother in Arkansas. They moved to Oakland later. 

 

Starring as a football player at Oakland Technical High School, his mother thought baseball would be better since football players have shorter careers. Drafted out of high school, Rickey spent four years in the minors until he received “THE CALL” to be on the Oakland A’s.

Michael Macor, the Chronicle

 

Sunday, June 24th, with the A’s in last place in the old AL West and sporting the worst record in baseball, Rickey Henderson settled into the leadoff position for the first time in his professional career. On that day, Henderson went 2 for 4 with a single and a double. He stole his first base, a milestone that would see him become the most prolific base stealer in MLB history!

(From the Smithsonianmag.com)

Rickey went on to win 2 World Series with the A’s and Toronto. Heck many forget he coaxed a walk from losing pitcher Mitch Williams to start the inning before Joe Carter’s blast.

 

He played for nine teams, notably the Oakland A’s and New York Yankees. His Hall of Fame career saw him grab one Gold Glove, be named the AL MVP in 1990, and became synonymous with stolen bases, being the greatest thief in MLB’s history!

 

 

But how does he compare with what Steven Kwan has done so far in roughly almost three years? Let’s check that out.

 

Kwany vs Rickey

 

So how did you do? Which of the two was Rickey? The top line. I removed the SB (stolen bases) number. I was fearful that would have given it away. Rickey’s SB were 189 to Kwan’s 44.

But notice the other pieces. All eerily similar!

 

Notice that Rickey’s OBP was higher due to more walks, but Kwan’s SLG (Slugging %) was higher. Strike outs, triples and home runs are about the same. Kwan’s RBIs are higher but that’s due to the more ABs.

 

Rickey’s batting average is just a tad higher, but the statistic I am warming up to is Runs Created (RC). This is a statistic created by Bill James, the baseball stats guru. Basically, RC is the measure of this player’s contribution to their team’s runs scored. In RC/G, imagine having 9 Steven Kwan’s in your lineup. This is the number of runs a team of nine would create. Remember, Kwan’s 2024 is still active so this number will fluctuate. As of the writing, it’s slightly better than Henderson’s (6.3 vs 6).

 

But if you are into Wins Above Replacement (WAR), then Rickey has Steven. For the first three years, Steven’s is 12.5. Henderson’s was 14.6. Again, Kwan’s numbers should go up.

 

Rickey only received one Gold Glove while Kwan boasts two. But Rickey is in the Hall of Fame. Steven has a LONG time to go for that!

 

Guardians Leadoff

 

So it seems that Cleveland has their leadoff hitter. The man to set the table, take pitches, or in short create havoc for the opposing pitchers and teams. All that’s left is to make him a Guardian for life.

 

And THAT is a story for a different day! But, if Steven really wants to be like Rickey, he needs to refer to himself in the third person like Rickey did.

 

From www.fanhospitality.com, here’s a gem! Henderson was looking for a chance very late in his career. So he called up the Padres GM at the time, and left this voicemail:

 

 “Kevin, this is Rickey, calling on behalf of Rickey. Rickey wants to play baseball.”

 

Who else should we compare Steven to? Please leave a comment.

 

Have a blessed day! Featured image from Getty Images.