 | oscargamblesfro (80)
05/09/2008 |  Lynn's 1975, when he won both the MVP and Rookie of the Year award, was similar to Yastrzemski's 1967 in a lot of ways, though perhaps not quite at that level in terms of carrying a club. The tandem of Lynn and Rice has to be one of the greatest rookie 1-2 punches of all time. His 1979 season was also a great one, and he was generally good in other years when healthy. Could hit, hit for power, was a marvelous center fielder, and while he wasn't exactly speedy, he was mobile and a pretty smart baserunner. Pretty close to a 5 tool player really, seemed to be on a possible HOF track at one point. Left Boston after 1980 when he was still just 28 and went to the Angels in a bad trade for washed up Joe Rudi, a kid named Jim Dorsey who never amounted to much, and Frank Tanana, a once excellent left handed flamethrower whose arm was dead and who hadn't reinvented himself into a crafty pitcher yet. Lynn had a great playoff series in '82 with the Angels who lost to Milwaukee, and hit the first grand slam in All Star history the following year, but was never really the same after leaving Boston with the Angels and other clubs, in part because of injuries, the fact that he wasn't hitting in Fenway, aging, and other factors.
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