there are certianly more accurate ways to judge players nowadays. im a fan of stats, etc. BUT when you have a case like this, where it sort of smells of over complicating the issue with #'s, sometimes being simple is the way to go.
off topic per trout, but tying in with the whole stat boys, put down your calculator for a minute thing- jim rice was ******* awesome. hes turned into a wildly underrated player becuase he hit into alot of dp's in his career. and really, the big dp seasons he had were in the early 80s when he had real burners like dave stapleton and wade boggs hitting in front of him. any player wouldve hit into alot of dps with those ******* sloths ahead of em in the lineup. then add in boggs .430+obp and those dps are gonna happen. jim rice was the ****.