LA Angels player battles: Tim Salmon vs Garret Anderson

Tim Salmon vs Garret Anderson: Salmon was the more consistent player

So while Garret Anderson may hold many club records (records that are bound to be surpassed by Mike Trout sooner than later), Tim Salmon epitomizes what the Angels were about during that mid-90s through early 2000s.

His injuries in 2004 likely cost him three years of production that would have put no doubts into this debate. As it is, Salmon ranks 52nd all-time among right-fielders in terms of JAWS, a measurement that computes a player’s overall production against their best seven-year stretch to determine their Hall of Fame eligibility. Salmon’s score of 36.1 puts him far below the average cut-off of 57.2, but it also puts him among some very solid players from past and present generations.

Likewise, Garret Anderson was a solid player in his own right, and maybe he is a bit underrated in the grand scheme of things. His 24.2 JAWS score however paints a picture of a player whose consistency doesn’t rank on par with the all-time great left-fielders (average cutoff of 53.6) and has him in the same realm as another Angels’ great in Don Baylor.

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For what it is worth, it is hard imagining the Angels of that period as good as they were without either player, and they both played integral roles in the team’s only World Series championship in 2002. For that, Angels fans wouldn’t trade either for the world and it wouldn’t be hard to see that the only applicable answer here should be, “I’ll take both.”