In Professional Baseball, Size Isn't Everything

These two Hall of Famers have a similar Career WAR. Compared to his contemporaries, Brouthers was 71% better at hitting, but was actually a liability on defense. In contrast, Smith is the greatest defensive infielder in history, but was about 13% worse than average with a bat.

For my sabermetricians, 'Batting Compared to Contemporaries' is OPS+
Table: Ben Elliott // @obverter Source: Baseball Reference Get the data