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Getting us to the 2017 World Series

By Bill James

January 5, 2018

70. ‘S All Good

From 1978 to 1983, while there was no one dominant player at the position, almost every major league team had a quality second baseman. At least two of these players, Willie Randolph and Lou Whitaker, were of Hall of Fame or near-Hall of Fame quality. Davey Lopes had an outstanding career. Joe Morgan, while not the MVP-anytime-you-choose-to-focus-on-him player that he was from 1972 to 1976, was still an extremely effective player. Phil Garner was a good player. Paul Molitor and Bill Madlock, while we don’t remember them as second basemen, had good seasons while playing second base.

Frank White won eight Gold Gloves, had over 2,000 hits, twice hit 22 homers in a season, batted cleanup in the World Series for a World Championship team and was in double figures in stolen bases every season. He barely makes any of the lists. Manny Trillo was in the majors for 17 seasons, played in four All-Star games, won three Gold Gloves, hit .280 and better several times as a regular, had one of the best throwing arms I have ever seen at second base, and was the MVP of the National League Championship Series for a team that then won the World Series. I’m not sure if he ever makes a list.

Part of the problem for the long-time quality players like White and Trillo is that there were also several players who were really good for a period of two or three years and then vanished, like Bump Wills and Tony Bernazard. Dommo Garcia was pretty good, and Johnny Ray was, and Tommie Herr, and Phil Garner.

Randolph and Whitaker and Grich may have been good enough to have been dominant players with lesser competition. There was no dominant second baseman from 1960 to 1966, and there was no dominant second baseman from 1978 to 1983, but these eras are not the same. In 1961 and 1964 no second baseman rates at 18.00—a number which would indicate a weak All Star. In 1978 18.00 wouldn’t make the list of top second basemen; in several other years it would barely make the list.

Another point relating here is that the second basemen of this era are far better than the shortstops. The second basemen are great; the shortstops are weak. Probably related somehow.

YEAR	Rank	First	Last	HR	RBI	Avg	OBA	SPct	Value
1978	1	Willie	Randolph	3	42	.279	.381	.357	24.55
1978	2	Bill	Madlock	15	44	.309	.378	.481	23.82
1978	3	Joe	Morgan	13	75	.236	.347	.385	23.36
1978	4	Davey	Lopes	17	58	.278	.355	.421	22.75
1978	5	Bobby	Grich	6	42	.251	.357	.329	22.49
1978	6	Phil	Garner	10	66	.261	.345	.400	20.20
1978	7	Bump	Wills	9	57	.250	.331	.347	18.26
1978	8	Jorge	Orta	13	53	.274	.340	.421	18.11

1979	1	Bobby	Grich	30	101	.294	.365	.537	24.98
1979	2	Willie	Randolph	5	61	.270	.374	.368	24.55
1979	3	Paul	Molitor	9	62	.322	.372	.469	22.90
1979	4	Davey	Lopes	28	73	.265	.372	.464	22.19
1979	5	Joe	Morgan	9	32	.250	.379	.376	21.41
1979	6	Phil	Garner	11	59	.293	.359	.441	19.43
1979	7	Lou	Whitaker	3	42	.286	.395	.378	18.36
1979	8	Bump	Wills	5	46	.273	.340	.350	17.99

1980	1	Willie	Randolph	7	46	.294	.427	.407	26.97
1980	2	Bobby	Grich	14	62	.271	.377	.408	23.17
1980	3	Joe	Morgan	11	49	.243	.367	.373	22.20
1980	4	Paul	Molitor	9	37	.304	.372	.438	21.96
1980	5	Bump	Wills	5	58	.263	.322	.360	18.05
1980	6	Phil	Garner	5	58	.259	.315	.358	17.26
1980	7	Davey	Lopes	10	49	.251	.321	.344	17.01
1980	8	Jorge	Orta	10	64	.291	.379	.403	16.84

YEAR	Rank	First	Last	HR	RBI	Avg	OBA	SPct	Value
1981	1	Bobby	Grich	22	61	.304	.378	.543	24.83
1981	2	Joe	Morgan	8	31	.240	.371	.377	21.72
1981	3	Willie	Randolph	2	24	.232	.336	.305	18.78
1981	4	Lou	Whitaker	5	36	.263	.340	.373	18.22
1981	5	Rich	Dauer	4	38	.263	.317	.369	15.15
1981	6	Phil	Garner	1	26	.248	.326	.310	14.49
1981	7	Julio	Cruz	2	24	.256	.332	.324	14.47
1981	8	Tony	Bernazard	6	34	.276	.367	.380	13.95

1982	1	Joe	Morgan	14	61	.289	.400	.438	26.25
1982	2	Bobby	Grich	19	65	.261	.371	.449	22.71
1982	3	Lou	Whitaker	15	65	.286	.341	.434	21.97
1982	4	Willie	Randolph	3	36	.280	.368	.349	20.19
1982	5	Tony	Bernazard	11	56	.256	.337	.396	17.54
1982	6	Damaso	Garcia	5	42	.310	.338	.399	17.48
1982	7	Phil	Garner	13	83	.274	.320	.423	17.48
1982	8	Johnny	Ray	7	63	.281	.318	.382	16.71

1983	1	Lou	Whitaker	12	72	.320	.380	.457	25.79
1983	2	Bobby	Grich	16	62	.292	.414	.460	22.41
1983	3	Ryne	Sandberg	8	48	.261	.316	.351	21.71
1983	4	Joe	Morgan	16	59	.230	.370	.403	20.66
1983	5	Willie	Randolph	2	38	.279	.361	.348	19.36
1983	6	Johnny	Ray	5	53	.283	.323	.399	18.32
1983	7	Tom	Herr	2	31	.323	.403	.412	18.24
1983	8	Damaso	Garcia	3	38	.307	.336	.390	17.64

Joe Morgan is the dominant player at the position from 1969 to 1977—comparable to Lajoie, Collins, Hornsby or Gehringer—but also had off-peak seasons when he was the #1 man at the position four years BEFORE his peak (1965) and five years after (1982). I don’t know of any other player who did that. He ranked as the best second baseman in baseball for at least one season in the 60s, the 70s and the 80s.

71. The Sandberg Time

From 1984 to 1992 the best second baseman in baseball was Ryne Sandberg.

YEAR	Rank	First	Last	HR	RBI	Avg	OBA	SPct	Value
1984	1	Ryne	Sandberg	19	84	.314	.367	.520	30.36
1984	2	Lou	Whitaker	13	56	.289	.357	.407	24.32
1984	3	Juan	Samuel	15	69	.272	.307	.442	22.18
1984	4	Tom	Herr	4	49	.276	.335	.346	21.49
1984	5	Willie	Randolph	2	31	.287	.377	.348	21.28
1984	6	Johnny	Ray	6	67	.312	.354	.434	20.06
1984	7	Bobby	Grich	18	58	.256	.357	.452	19.76
1984	8	Frank	White	17	56	.271	.311	.445	18.82

1985	1	Ryne	Sandberg	26	83	.305	.364	.504	27.68
1985	2	Tom	Herr	8	110	.302	.379	.416	24.77
1985	3	Lou	Whitaker	21	73	.279	.362	.456	23.86
1985	4	Juan	Samuel	19	74	.264	.303	.436	22.63
1985	5	Willie	Randolph	5	40	.276	.382	.356	21.34
1985	6	Bill	Doran	14	59	.287	.362	.434	19.49
1985	7	Johnny	Ray	7	70	.274	.325	.375	18.67
1985	8	Tony	Bernazard	11	59	.274	.361	.404	17.89

1986	1	Steve	Sax	6	56	.332	.390	.441	24.13
1986	2	Ryne	Sandberg	14	76	.284	.330	.411	23.89
1986	3	Juan	Samuel	16	78	.266	.302	.448	23.19
1986	4	Lou	Whitaker	20	73	.269	.338	.437	21.63
1986	5	Willie	Randolph	5	50	.276	.393	.346	20.69
1986	6	Tom	Herr	2	61	.252	.342	.331	20.01
1986	7	Johnny	Ray	7	78	.301	.363	.394	19.15
1986	8	Tony	Bernazard	17	73	.301	.362	.456	18.97

YEAR	Rank	First	Last	HR	RBI	Avg	OBA	SPct	Value
1987	1	Ryne	Sandberg	16	59	.294	.367	.442	23.08
1987	2	Juan	Samuel	28	100	.272	.335	.502	23.07
1987	3	Willie	Randolph	7	67	.305	.411	.414	22.30
1987	4	Lou	Whitaker	16	59	.265	.341	.427	21.98
1987	5	Steve	Sax	6	46	.280	.331	.369	21.33
1987	6	Bill	Doran	16	79	.283	.365	.406	19.01
1987	7	Johnny	Ray	5	69	.289	.334	.374	18.22
1987	8	Tom	Herr	2	83	.263	.346	.331	17.63

1988	1	Ryne	Sandberg	19	69	.264	.322	.419	24.32
1988	2	Lou	Whitaker	12	55	.275	.376	.419	23.21
1988	3	Julio	Franco	10	54	.303	.361	.409	23.14
1988	4	Steve	Sax	5	57	.277	.325	.343	22.50
1988	5	Johnny	Ray	6	83	.306	.345	.429	20.14
1988	6	Juan	Samuel	12	67	.243	.298	.380	19.64
1988	7	Roberto	Alomar	9	41	.266	.328	.382	19.50
1988	8	Willie	Randolph	2	34	.230	.322	.300	18.55

1989	1	Ryne	Sandberg	30	76	.290	.356	.497	28.78
1989	2	Julio	Franco	13	92	.316	.386	.462	27.80
1989	3	Lou	Whitaker	28	85	.251	.361	.462	24.71
1989	4	Roberto	Alomar	7	56	.295	.347	.376	21.96
1989	5	Steve	Sax	5	63	.315	.364	.387	20.61
1989	6	Willie	Randolph	2	36	.282	.366	.326	19.76
1989	7	Robby	Thompson	13	50	.241	.321	.400	18.76
1989	8	Jody	Reed	3	40	.288	.376	.393	18.21

YEAR	Rank	First	Last	HR	RBI	Avg	OBA	SPct	Value
1990	1	Ryne	Sandberg	40	100	.306	.354	.559	33.03
1990	2	Julio	Franco	11	69	.296	.383	.402	26.80
1990	3	Paul	Molitor	12	45	.285	.343	.464	26.52
1990	4	Lou	Whitaker	18	60	.237	.338	.407	23.92
1990	5	Roberto	Alomar	6	60	.287	.340	.381	22.95
1990	6	Bip	Roberts	9	44	.309	.375	.433	20.61
1990	7	Gregg	Jefferies	15	68	.283	.337	.434	18.92
1990	8	Jody	Reed	5	51	.289	.371	.390	18.76

1991	1	Ryne	Sandberg	26	100	.291	.379	.485	34.03
1991	2	Lou	Whitaker	23	78	.279	.391	.489	26.23
1991	3	Roberto	Alomar	9	69	.295	.354	.436	26.22
1991	4	Julio	Franco	15	78	.341	.408	.474	25.70
1991	5	Carlos	Baerga	11	69	.288	.346	.398	20.23
1991	6	Willie	Randolph	0	54	.327	.424	.374	19.53
1991	7	Steve	Sax	10	56	.304	.345	.414	18.95
1991	8	Robby	Thompson	19	48	.262	.352	.447	18.88

1992	1	Ryne	Sandberg	26	87	.304	.371	.510	30.36
1992	2	Roberto	Alomar	8	76	.310	.405	.427	30.04
1992	3	Craig	Biggio	6	39	.277	.378	.369	28.07
1992	4	Lou	Whitaker	19	71	.278	.386	.461	24.99
1992	5	Carlos	Baerga	20	105	.312	.354	.455	24.52
1992	6	Tony	Phillips	10	64	.276	.387	.388	23.48
1992	7	Chuck	Knoblauch	2	56	.297	.384	.358	20.89
1992	8	Bip	Roberts	4	45	.323	.393	.432	19.65

72. The A and B options at Second Base

Craig Biggio came to the majors in 1988 as a catcher. As a catcher he was a mixed blessing, a singles-hitting catcher who ran exceptionally well for a C but couldn’t throw out Orrin Hatch stealing second base. He led the league in stolen bases allowed every season; in 1991 he led in passed balls as well. In 1992 he moved to second base. I was skeptical that this would work, but in his second season at second he hit 21 homers and 41 doubles, and emerged as one of the top second basemen in baseball.

Roberto Alomar also came to the majors in 1988, as a Padre. After the 1990 season he was traded to Toronto in a two-for-two trade of four players of near-Hall of Fame quality: Alomar, Joe Carter, Fred McGriff and Tony Fernandez. I am not sure there has ever been any other trade in major league history with four stars of that magnitude.

By 1993 Biggio and Alomar were the two best second basemen in baseball. Alomar would help the Blue Jays to two World Series championships. Craig Biggio was my favorite player in the years after the Royals ceased to be interesting and before I worked for the Red Sox, and this method shows Biggio to be the stronger of the two Hall of Famers. But I should also point out that Alomar had enormous impact on pennant races. I once did a study of pennant race impact which showed that the two position players who had the most impact on pennant races, post-1900, were Babe Ruth and Roberto Alomar. It is really not clear to me who was the greater player, Alomar or Biggio.

Note that Lou Whitaker, who was the #1 second baseman in baseball for a year before Sandberg, survived to be one of the top men at the start of the Alomar/Biggio era.

YEAR	Rank	First	Last	HR	RBI	Avg	OBA	SPct	Value
1993	1	Craig	Biggio	21	64	.287	.373	.474	28.05
1993	2	Roberto	Alomar	17	93	.326	.408	.492	27.90
1993	3	Carlos	Baerga	21	114	.321	.355	.486	24.97
1993	4	Lou	Whitaker	9	67	.290	.412	.449	21.42
1993	5	Ryne	Sandberg	9	45	.309	.359	.412	21.39
1993	6	Chuck	Knoblauch	2	41	.277	.354	.346	20.25
1993	7	Jeff	Blauser	15	73	.305	.401	.436	19.59
1993	8	Robby	Thompson	19	65	.312	.375	.496	17.76
1993	9	Delino	DeShields	2	29	.295	.389	.372	16.82

1994	1	Craig	Biggio	6	56	.318	.411	.483	30.46
1994	2	Chuck	Knoblauch	5	51	.312	.381	.461	24.60
1994	3	Roberto	Alomar	8	38	.306	.386	.452	22.37
1994	4	Carlos	Baerga	19	80	.314	.333	.525	22.34
1994	5	Jeff	Kent	14	68	.292	.341	.475	17.27
1994	6	Ryne	Sandberg	5	24	.238	.312	.390	15.27
1994	7	Lou	Whitaker	12	43	.301	.377	.491	14.65
1994	8	Bret	Boone	12	68	.320	.368	.491	14.60
1994	9	Jeff	Blauser	6	45	.258	.329	.382	14.38

1995	1	Craig	Biggio	22	77	.302	.406	.483	31.47
1995	2	Chuck	Knoblauch	11	63	.333	.424	.487	27.69
1995	3	Roberto	Alomar	13	66	.300	.354	.449	21.95
1995	4	Carlos	Baerga	15	90	.314	.355	.452	19.89
1995	5	Eric	Young	6	36	.317	.404	.473	17.47
1995	6	Mike	Lansing	10	62	.255	.299	.392	15.31
1995	7	Jeff	Kent	20	65	.278	.327	.464	15.13
1995	8	Joey	Cora	3	39	.297	.359	.372	14.80
1995	9	Bret	Boone	15	68	.267	.326	.429	14.69

YEAR	Rank	First	Last	HR	RBI	Avg	OBA	SPct	Value
1996	1	Craig	Biggio	15	75	.288	.386	.415	33.05
1996	2	Chuck	Knoblauch	13	72	.341	.448	.517	29.28
1996	3	Roberto	Alomar	22	94	.328	.411	.527	26.45
1996	4	Eric	Young	8	74	.324	.393	.421	19.44
1996	5	Mike	Lansing	11	53	.285	.341	.406	17.11
1996	6	Ray	Durham	10	65	.275	.350	.406	17.06
1996	7	Ryne	Sandberg	25	92	.244	.316	.444	16.69
1996	8	Joey	Cora	6	45	.291	.340	.417	16.17
1996	9	Carlos	Baerga	12	66	.254	.293	.381	15.20

1997	1	Craig	Biggio	22	81	.309	.415	.501	35.41
1997	2	Roberto	Alomar	14	60	.333	.390	.500	25.92
1997	3	Chuck	Knoblauch	9	58	.291	.390	.411	25.62
1997	4	John	Valentin	18	77	.306	.372	.499	21.52
1997	5	Jeff	Kent	29	121	.250	.316	.472	21.11
1997	6	Eric	Young	8	61	.280	.359	.397	19.02
1997	7	Tony	Phillips	8	57	.275	.392	.391	18.66
1997	8	Ray	Durham	11	53	.271	.337	.382	18.50
1997	9	Jeff	Blauser	17	70	.308	.405	.482	18.36

1998	1	Craig	Biggio	20	88	.325	.403	.503	33.26
1998	2	Jeff	Kent	31	128	.297	.359	.555	25.76
1998	3	Roberto	Alomar	14	56	.282	.347	.418	24.50
1998	4	Chuck	Knoblauch	17	64	.265	.361	.405	23.63
1998	5	Ray	Durham	19	67	.285	.363	.455	21.14
1998	6	Jose	Offerman	7	66	.315	.403	.438	20.28
1998	7	Damion	Easley	27	100	.271	.332	.478	19.49
1998	8	Eric	Young	8	43	.285	.355	.396	17.30
1998	9	Todd	Walker	12	62	.316	.372	.473	17.24
1998	10	Fernando	Vina	7	45	.311	.386	.427	16.88

YEAR	Rank	First	Last	HR	RBI	Avg	OBA	SPct	Value
1999	1	Roberto	Alomar	24	120	.323	.422	.533	29.76
1999	2	Craig	Biggio	16	73	.294	.386	.457	29.56
1999	3	Jeff	Kent	23	101	.290	.366	.511	27.49
1999	4	Chuck	Knoblauch	18	68	.292	.393	.454	22.17
1999	5	Randy	Velarde	16	76	.317	.390	.455	21.08
1999	6	Ray	Durham	13	60	.296	.373	.435	20.36
1999	7	Jose	Offerman	8	69	.294	.391	.435	18.79
1999	8	Bret	Boone	20	63	.252	.310	.416	18.15
1999	9	Damion	Easley	20	65	.266	.346	.434	17.84
1999	10	Tony	Womack	4	41	.277	.332	.370	16.82

2000	1	Jeff	Kent	33	125	.334	.424	.596	32.16
2000	2	Roberto	Alomar	19	89	.310	.378	.475	25.49
2000	3	Craig	Biggio	8	35	.268	.388	.393	21.48
2000	4	Jose	Vidro	24	97	.330	.379	.540	21.00
2000	5	Ray	Durham	17	75	.280	.361	.450	20.84
2000	6	Bret	Boone	19	74	.251	.326	.421	20.67
2000	7	Eric	Young	6	47	.297	.367	.399	16.65
2000	8	Delino	DeShields	10	86	.296	.369	.444	16.31
2000	9	Damion	Easley	14	58	.259	.350	.416	15.87
2000	10	Tony	Womack	7	57	.271	.307	.384	15.69

2001	1	Roberto	Alomar	20	100	.336	.415	.541	29.15
2001	2	Jeff	Kent	22	106	.298	.369	.507	28.67
2001	3	Bret	Boone	37	141	.331	.372	.578	27.47
2001	4	Craig	Biggio	20	70	.292	.382	.455	22.35
2001	5	Jose	Vidro	15	59	.319	.371	.486	21.60
2001	6	Ray	Durham	20	65	.267	.337	.466	20.82
2001	7	Todd	Walker	17	75	.296	.355	.459	18.31
2001	8	Alfonso	Soriano	18	73	.268	.304	.432	17.33
2001	9	Fernando	Vina	9	56	.303	.357	.418	15.86
2001	10	Eric	Young	6	42	.279	.333	.393	15.77

73. Clark Kent’s Younger Brother

The Jeff Kent Era overlaps with the end of the Biggio/Alomar era. 2000 and 2001 you could put in either era:

YEAR	Rank	First	Last	HR	RBI	Avg	OBA	SPct	Value
2002	1	Jeff	Kent	37	108	.313	.368	.565	27.87
2002	2	Bret	Boone	24	107	.278	.339	.462	25.54
2002	3	Alfonso	Soriano	39	102	.300	.332	.547	23.88
2002	4	Jose	Vidro	19	96	.315	.378	.490	23.13
2002	5	Ray	Durham	15	70	.289	.374	.450	21.33
2002	6	Junior	Spivey	16	78	.301	.389	.476	19.87
2002	7	Roberto	Alomar	11	53	.266	.331	.376	19.39
2002	8	Todd	Walker	11	64	.299	.353	.431	18.96
2002	9	Craig	Biggio	15	58	.253	.330	.404	18.24
2002	10	Mark	Bellhorn	27	56	.258	.374	.512	17.18

2003	1	Jeff	Kent	22	93	.297	.351	.509	24.70
2003	2	Bret	Boone	35	117	.294	.366	.535	24.66
2003	3	Alfonso	Soriano	38	91	.290	.338	.525	24.08
2003	4	Marcus	Giles	21	69	.316	.390	.526	20.64
2003	5	Michael	Young	14	72	.306	.339	.446	20.47
2003	6	Jose	Vidro	15	65	.310	.397	.470	20.27
2003	7	Todd	Walker	13	85	.283	.333	.428	18.97
2003	8	Placido	Polanco	14	63	.289	.352	.447	18.48
2003	9	Ray	Durham	8	33	.285	.366	.441	18.43
2003	10	Luis	Castillo	6	39	.314	.381	.397	16.31

2004	1	Mark	Loretta	16	76	.335	.391	.495	26.49
2004	2	Jeff	Kent	27	107	.289	.348	.531	24.51
2004	3	Alfonso	Soriano	28	91	.280	.324	.484	20.40
2004	4	Ray	Durham	17	65	.282	.364	.484	19.70
2004	5	Marcus	Giles	8	48	.311	.378	.443	18.71
2004	6	Brian	Roberts	4	53	.273	.344	.376	18.01
2004	7	Placido	Polanco	17	55	.298	.345	.441	17.60
2004	8	Ron	Belliard	12	70	.282	.348	.426	17.32
2004	9	Jose	Vidro	14	60	.294	.367	.454	17.07
2004	10	Mark	Bellhorn	17	82	.264	.373	.444	16.99

2005	1	Jeff	Kent	29	105	.289	.377	.512	25.62
2005	2	Chase	Utley	28	105	.291	.376	.540	23.64
2005	3	Brian	Roberts	18	73	.314	.387	.515	21.71
2005	4	Mark	Loretta	3	38	.280	.360	.347	21.15
2005	5	Marcus	Giles	15	63	.291	.365	.461	20.09
2005	6	Alfonso	Soriano	36	104	.268	.309	.512	19.48
2005	7	Placido	Polanco	9	56	.331	.383	.447	18.57
2005	8	Ray	Durham	12	62	.290	.356	.429	18.16
2005	9	Ron	Belliard	17	78	.284	.325	.450	17.93
2005	10	Mark	Ellis	13	52	.316	.384	.477	17.14

Kent is the number one second baseman of all time, in terms of dominating the position, who is not in the Hall of Fame.

74. Utley

I would not vote for Jeff Kent for the Hall of Fame, but I might vote for Chase Utley—not that I have a Hall of Fame vote; I don’t, but if I did I might vote for Utley. We used to say about Craig Biggio that he had the best "little stats" in baseball history. There are stats like hit by pitch, caught stealing, sacrifice flies and grounding into a double play which don’t happen often enough, by themselves, to be major areas of the game like hitting homers and hitting for average, but which, if you add them all together, can be quite significant. One player is hit by a pitch 30 times and grounds into 2 double plays while the other reaches on a hit batsmen 2 times and grounds into 30 double plays, that’s a difference of 56 baserunners over the course of a season, which is comparable in impact to a difference of 100 points in batting average.

Biggio had the greatest "little stats" in baseball history, probably, and Utley was the heir to the Craig Biggio crown. He led the league in being hit with a pitch three straight years—25, 27, 24. In 2016 he made it through the entire season without grounding into double play, I believe the first regular since Biggio to do that, and I believe only the third player ever to do that. In 2009 he stole 23 bases without being caught, I believe the only player ever to do that (although Carlos Beltran was 28 for 28 in the National League in 2004, but was caught three times in the American League.) Utley is the major league record holder for career stolen base percentage, 100 or more steals.

In the years of Utley’s prime we were pushing out the envelope of things that we measured. Of course we have been doing that for 40 years, but those were active years. When we figured data on something that we had not studied before, most of the time Utley would turn out to be the best player in the majors at whatever. We would figure which players were best at going from first to third on a single; Utley would turn out to be the best player in the majors at going first to third on a single. We would figure which players were best at turning the double play, based on actual double play opportunities; it was Utley. This happened so often that we just started to assume that the #1 player at whatever we were trying to measure would be Utley.

He was the best offensive second baseman in baseball, he was the best defensive second baseman in baseball, he was the best baserunner in baseball. He led his team to five straight division championships and a World Championship.

YEAR	Rank	First	Last	HR	RBI	Avg	OBA	SPct	Value
2006	1	Chase	Utley	32	102	.309	.379	.527	26.75
2006	2	Jeff	Kent	14	68	.292	.385	.477	21.70
2006	3	Brian	Roberts	10	55	.286	.347	.410	20.55
2006	4	Robinson	Cano	15	78	.342	.365	.525	19.13
2006	5	Ray	Durham	26	93	.293	.360	.538	18.80
2006	6	Dan	Uggla	27	90	.282	.339	.480	18.80
2006	7	Freddy	Sanchez	6	85	.344	.378	.473	18.70
2006	8	Orlando	Hudson	15	67	.287	.354	.454	18.19
2006	9	Mark	Loretta	5	59	.285	.345	.361	17.82
2006	10	Placido	Polanco	4	52	.295	.329	.364	16.67

2007	1	Chase	Utley	22	103	.332	.410	.566	29.97
2007	2	Brian	Roberts	12	57	.290	.377	.432	22.28
2007	3	Dan	Uggla	31	88	.245	.326	.479	21.51
2007	4	Robinson	Cano	19	97	.306	.353	.488	19.78
2007	5	Placido	Polanco	9	67	.341	.388	.458	19.75
2007	6	Ian	Kinsler	20	61	.263	.355	.441	19.32
2007	7	Dustin	Pedroia	8	50	.317	.380	.442	18.42
2007	8	Freddy	Sanchez	11	81	.304	.343	.442	18.34
2007	9	Orlando	Hudson	10	63	.294	.376	.441	18.14
2007	10	Jeff	Kent	20	79	.302	.375	.500	17.89

2008	1	Chase	Utley	33	104	.292	.380	.535	30.46
2008	2	Ian	Kinsler	18	71	.319	.375	.517	24.04
2008	3	Dustin	Pedroia	17	83	.326	.376	.493	23.17
2008	4	Dan	Uggla	32	92	.260	.360	.514	22.91
2008	5	Brian	Roberts	9	57	.296	.378	.450	22.22
2008	6	Brandon	Phillips	21	78	.261	.312	.442	19.05
2008	7	Placido	Polanco	8	58	.307	.350	.417	18.85
2008	8	Jose	Lopez	17	89	.297	.322	.443	18.11
2008	9	Howie	Kendrick	3	37	.306	.333	.421	17.65
2008	10	Kelly	Johnson	12	69	.287	.349	.446	17.62

2009	1	Chase	Utley	31	93	.282	.397	.508	30.90
2009	2	Dustin	Pedroia	15	72	.296	.371	.447	23.77
2009	3	Ian	Kinsler	31	86	.253	.327	.488	23.74
2009	4	Ben	Zobrist	27	91	.297	.405	.543	23.60
2009	5	Dan	Uggla	31	90	.243	.354	.459	22.11
2009	6	Robinson	Cano	25	85	.320	.352	.520	21.15
2009	7	Brian	Roberts	16	79	.283	.356	.451	21.09
2009	8	Aaron	Hill	36	108	.286	.330	.499	20.55
2009	9	Brandon	Phillips	20	98	.276	.329	.447	19.57
2009	10	Howie	Kendrick	10	61	.291	.334	.444	18.73

75. Bringing Us Up to Date

From 2010 to 2014 the best second baseman in baseball was Robinson Cano:

YEAR	Rank	First	Last	HR	RBI	Avg	OBA	SPct	Value
2010	1	Robinson	Cano	29	109	.319	.381	.534	29.01
2010	2	Chase	Utley	16	65	.275	.387	.445	28.46
2010	3	Rickie Jr.	Weeks	29	83	.269	.366	.464	24.46
2010	4	Dan	Uggla	33	105	.287	.369	.508	22.69
2010	5	Dustin	Pedroia	12	41	.288	.367	.493	21.24
2010	6	Ian	Kinsler	9	45	.286	.382	.412	20.04
2010	7	Martin	Prado	15	66	.307	.350	.459	19.65
2010	8	Brandon	Phillips	18	59	.275	.332	.430	19.63
2010	9	Howie	Kendrick	10	75	.279	.313	.407	18.98
2010	10	Marco	Scutaro	11	56	.275	.333	.388	18.13

2011	1	Robinson	Cano	28	118	.302	.349	.533	30.97
2011	2	Ben	Zobrist	20	91	.269	.353	.469	27.01
2011	3	Dustin	Pedroia	21	91	.307	.387	.474	24.03
2011	4	Chase	Utley	11	44	.259	.344	.425	23.49
2011	5	Brandon	Phillips	18	82	.300	.352	.457	21.36
2011	6	Dan	Uggla	36	82	.233	.311	.453	20.72
2011	7	Rickie Jr.	Weeks	20	49	.269	.350	.468	20.65
2011	8	Ian	Kinsler	32	77	.255	.355	.477	20.53
2011	9	Starlin	Castro	10	66	.307	.341	.432	20.38
2011	10	Neil	Walker	12	83	.273	.334	.408	19.87

2012	1	Robinson	Cano	33	94	.313	.379	.550	33.70
2012	2	Neil	Walker	14	69	.280	.342	.426	22.39
2012	3	Jason	Kipnis	14	76	.257	.335	.379	21.45
2012	4	Dustin	Pedroia	15	65	.290	.347	.449	21.03
2012	5	Chase	Utley	11	45	.256	.365	.429	20.60
2012	6	Brandon	Phillips	18	77	.281	.321	.429	20.43
2012	7	Aaron	Hill	26	85	.302	.360	.522	20.39
2012	8	Starlin	Castro	14	78	.283	.323	.430	19.89
2012	9	Daniel	Murphy	6	65	.291	.332	.403	19.47
2012	10	Rickie Jr.	Weeks	21	63	.230	.328	.400	18.74

YEAR	Rank	First	Last	HR	RBI	Avg	OBA	SPct	Value
2013	1	Robinson	Cano	27	107	.314	.383	.516	33.37
2013	2	Ben	Zobrist	12	71	.275	.354	.402	25.01
2013	3	Jason	Kipnis	17	84	.284	.366	.452	23.55
2013	4	Dustin	Pedroia	9	84	.301	.372	.415	22.51
2013	5	Neil	Walker	16	53	.251	.339	.418	22.40
2013	6	Chase	Utley	18	69	.284	.348	.475	22.14
2013	7	Daniel	Murphy	13	78	.286	.319	.415	21.39
2013	8	Ian	Kinsler	13	72	.277	.344	.413	21.13
2013	9	Brandon	Phillips	18	103	.261	.310	.396	20.73
2013	10	Howie	Kendrick	13	54	.297	.335	.439	18.48

2014	1	Robinson	Cano	14	82	.314	.382	.454	31.90
2014	2	Jose	Altuve	7	59	.341	.377	.453	26.27
2014	3	Ian	Kinsler	17	92	.275	.307	.420	23.03
2014	4	Daniel	Murphy	9	57	.289	.332	.403	22.86
2014	5	Neil	Walker	23	76	.271	.342	.467	22.82
2014	6	Howie	Kendrick	7	75	.293	.347	.397	22.33
2014	7	Ben	Zobrist	10	52	.272	.354	.395	21.13
2014	8	Chase	Utley	11	78	.270	.339	.407	20.94
2014	9	Brian	Dozier	23	71	.242	.345	.416	19.86
2014	10	Dustin	Pedroia	7	53	.278	.337	.376	19.68

And since then, of course, it has been Jose Altuve:

YEAR	Rank	First	Last	HR	RBI	Avg	OBA	SPct	Value
2015	1	Jose	Altuve	15	66	.313	.353	.459	28.92
2015	2	Robinson	Cano	21	79	.287	.334	.446	26.09
2015	3	Daniel	Murphy	14	73	.281	.322	.449	24.19
2015	4	Brian	Dozier	28	77	.236	.307	.444	23.41
2015	5	Ian	Kinsler	11	73	.296	.342	.428	22.70
2015	6	Neil	Walker	16	71	.269	.328	.427	22.51
2015	7	Dee	Gordon	4	46	.333	.359	.418	22.22
2015	8	Jason	Kipnis	9	52	.303	.372	.451	20.48
2015	9	Howie	Kendrick	9	54	.295	.336	.409	19.65
2015	10	Ben	Zobrist	13	56	.276	.359	.450	19.30

2016	1	Jose	Altuve	24	96	.338	.396	.531	32.66
2016	2	Daniel	Murphy	25	104	.347	.390	.595	28.15
2016	3	Robinson	Cano	39	103	.298	.350	.533	25.62
2016	4	Ian	Kinsler	28	83	.288	.348	.484	23.84
2016	5	Brian	Dozier	42	99	.268	.340	.546	23.46
2016	6	Neil	Walker	23	55	.282	.347	.476	20.73
2016	7	Cesar	Hernandez	6	39	.294	.371	.393	20.62
2016	8	Dustin	Pedroia	15	74	.318	.376	.449	19.12
2016	9	Jean	Segura	20	64	.319	.368	.499	19.12
2016	10	DJ	LeMahieu	11	66	.348	.416	.495	19.06

2017	1	Jose	Altuve	24	81	.346	.410	.547	30.77
2017	2	Daniel	Murphy	23	93	.322	.384	.543	24.00
2017	3	Brian	Dozier	34	93	.269	.357	.496	22.89
2017	4	Jonathan	Schoop	32	105	.293	.338	.503	22.75
2017	5	Robinson	Cano	23	97	.280	.338	.453	21.04
2017	6	Jed	Lowrie	14	69	.277	.360	.448	19.38
2017	7	Whit	Merrifield	19	78	.288	.324	.460	18.65
2017	8	DJ	LeMahieu	8	64	.310	.374	.409	17.58
2017	9	Cesar	Hernandez	9	34	.294	.373	.421	16.79
2017	10	Neil	Walker	14	49	.265	.362	.439	15.99

76. Second Base Summary

There are 66 second basemen in history who have earned at least 20 points on the Years of Position Dominance Index. Hall of Famers highlighted.

Rank	From	To	First	Last	1	2	3	4	5	YOPDI
1	1963	1984	Joe	Morgan	11	2	3	1	1	152
2	1906	1930	Eddie	Collins	11	3	4	0	0	147
3	1915	1937	Rogers	Hornsby	12	2	0	0	0	134
4	1896	1916	Nap	Lajoie	12	3	1	0	0	118
5	1988	2007	Craig	Biggio	6	2	2	2	1	106
6	1981	1997	Ryne	Sandberg	8	1	1	0	1	103
7	1988	2004	Roberto	Alomar	2	4	5	1	1	99
8	1924	1942	Charlie	Gehringer	8	0	3	1	2	96
9	1992	2008	Jeff	Kent	4	4	1	0	2	90
10	1977	1995	Lou	Whitaker	1	3	3	6	0	87

11	1970	1986	Bobby	Grich	3	4	3	0	1	86
11	2005	2017	Robinson	Cano	5	1	1	2	1	86
13	1888	1901	Cupid	Childs	7	1	1	0	0	81
14	1967	1985	Rod	Carew	3	4	1	1	0	80
14	1919	1937	Frankie	Frisch	3	6	1	1	2	80
16	1947	1965	Nellie	Fox	5	3	1	1	1	79
17	1937	1951	Bobby	Doerr	3	5	2	0	2	75
18	1975	1992	Willie	Randolph	2	1	2	2	4	74
19	2003	2017	Chase	Utley	4	2	0	1	1	72
20	1938	1950	Joe	Gordon	5	0	2	3	0	64

21	1931	1947	Billy	Herman	0	6	4	2	1	63
22	1879	1892	Hardy	Richardson	2	4	2	3	0	62
23	1880	1891	Fred	Dunlap	5	1	1	0	0	61
24	1947	1956	Jackie	Robinson	4	2	1	1	0	60
25	1907	1920	Larry	Doyle	0	6	2	1	2	54
26	1960	1975	Dick	McAuliffe	3	0	2	1	1	52
27	1991	2002	Chuck	Knoblauch	0	3	1	2	0	48
28	1943	1953	Eddie	Stanky	0	5	3	0	0	47
29	2000	2013	Michael	Young	1	1	2	1	3	45
30	1882	1899	Bid	McPhee	0	3	3	4	3	44

31	2006	2017	Ian	Kinsler	0	1	2	1	1	43
31	2006	2017	Dustin	Pedroia	0	1	2	2	1	43
33	1912	1924	Del	Pratt	0	2	6	1	2	42
33	2006	2017	Ben	Zobrist	1	2	1	1	0	42
35	1900	1915	Danny	Murphy	0	3	4	2	0	41
35	1945	1963	Red	Schoendienst	1	2	3	2	1	41
37	2011	2017	Jose	Altuve	3	1	0	0	0	38
37	1876	1891	Jack	Burdock	2	0	3	3	0	38
39	1926	1939	Tony	Lazzeri	0	4	1	2	1	37
40	1951	1960	Gil	McDougald	2	2	0	0	2	36

40	1982	1999	Tony	Phillips	0	0	1	2	2	36
42	1995	2008	Ray	Durham	0	0	0	1	4	35
42	1956	1972	Bill	Mazeroski	0	3	2	0	1	35
44	1956	1967	Jerry	Lumpe	3	0	0	1	0	34
44	1925	1941	Buddy	Myer	0	2	4	1	2	34
46	2001	2014	Brian	Roberts	0	1	2	0	1	33
47	1876	1884	Bob	Ferguson	1	2	1	1	2	32
47	2008	2017	Daniel	Murphy	0	2	1	1	0	32
47	2006	2015	Dan	Uggla	0	0	1	2	1	32
50	1882	1892	Yank	Robinson	2	1	1	0	0	31

51	1992	2005	Bret	Boone	0	2	1	0	0	30
52	1965	1978	Davey	Johnson	0	1	1	2	3	29
52	1972	1987	Davey	Lopes	0	1	0	3	1	29
52	1943	1952	Snuffy	Stirnweiss	2	1	0	1	0	29
55	1990	2005	Carlos	Baerga	0	0	1	2	2	28
55	1983	1998	Juan	Samuel	0	1	2	1	0	28
55	2009	2017	Neil	Walker	0	1	0	0	2	28
58	1879	1889	Jack	Farrell	0	3	1	1	0	27
59	1966	1973	Mike	Andrews	0	3	0	0	0	25
59	1995	2009	Mark	Loretta	1	1	0	1	0	25

59	1981	1994	Steve	Sax	1	0	0	1	2	25
62	1902	1929	Johnny	Evers	0	2	1	1	3	23
62	1920	1934	Marty	McManus	0	0	3	5	1	23
64	1973	1988	Phil	Garner	0	0	1	0	0	22
64	1997	2008	Jose	Vidro	0	0	0	2	1	22
66	1886	1892	Hub	Collins	1	1	1	0	0	21

And these are the top 50 second basemen by Peak Value, Hall of Famers in gold:

Rank	First	Last	YEAR	HR	RBI	Avg	OBA	SPct	OPS	Peak
1	Rogers	Hornsby	1922	42	152	.401	.459	.722	1.181	42.30
2	Joe	Morgan	1975	17	94	.327	.466	.508	.974	42.19
3	Eddie	Collins	1914	2	85	.344	.452	.452	.904	38.82
4	Nap	Lajoie	1901	14	125	.426	.463	.643	1.106	38.21
5	Craig	Biggio	1997	22	81	.309	.415	.501	.916	35.41
6	Jackie	Robinson	1951	19	88	.338	.429	.527	.957	35.08
7	Ryne	Sandberg	1991	26	100	.291	.379	.485	.865	34.03
8	Robinson	Cano	2012	33	94	.313	.379	.550	.929	33.70
9	Charlie	Gehringer	1934	11	127	.356	.450	.517	.967	33.32
10	Jose	Altuve	2016	24	96	.338	.396	.531	.928	32.66

11	Rod	Carew	1975	14	80	.359	.421	.497	.919	32.17
12	Jeff	Kent	2000	33	125	.334	.424	.596	1.021	32.16
13	Chase	Utley	2009	31	93	.282	.397	.508	.905	30.90
14	Bobby	Grich	1974	19	82	.263	.376	.431	.807	30.67
15	Roberto	Alomar	1992	8	76	.310	.405	.427	.832	30.04
16	Chuck	Knoblauch	1996	13	72	.341	.448	.517	.965	29.28
17	Snuffy	Stirnweiss	1944	8	43	.319	.389	.460	.849	29.05
18	Frankie	Frisch	1923	12	111	.348	.395	.485	.880	29.02
19	Billy	Herman	1936	5	93	.334	.392	.470	.862	28.30
20	Daniel	Murphy	2016	25	104	.347	.390	.595	.985	28.15

21	Larry	Doyle	1911	13	77	.310	.397	.527	.924	27.96
22	Julio	Franco	1989	13	92	.316	.386	.462	.848	27.80
23	Johnny	Evers	1908	0	37	.300	.402	.375	.777	27.74
24	Joe	Gordon	1942	18	103	.322	.409	.491	.900	27.72
25	Bret	Boone	2001	37	141	.331	.372	.578	.950	27.47
26	Nellie	Fox	1957	6	61	.317	.403	.415	.818	27.34
27	Buddy	Myer	1935	5	100	.349	.440	.468	.907	27.21
28	Dick	McAuliffe	1967	22	65	.239	.364	.411	.775	27.18
29	Bobby	Doerr	1944	15	81	.325	.399	.528	.927	27.10
30	Ben	Zobrist	2011	20	91	.269	.353	.469	.822	27.01

31	Willie	Randolph	1980	7	46	.294	.427	.407	.834	26.97
32	Duke	Kenworthy	1914	15	91	.317	.372	.525	.896	26.61
33	Paul	Molitor	1990	12	45	.285	.343	.464	.807	26.52
34	Mark	Loretta	2004	16	76	.335	.391	.495	.886	26.49
35	Tony	Lazzeri	1929	18	106	.354	.430	.561	.992	26.27
36	Lou	Whitaker	1991	23	78	.279	.391	.489	.881	26.23
37	Danny	Murphy	1904	7	77	.287	.320	.440	.760	26.17
38	Eddie	Stanky	1950	8	51	.300	.460	.412	.872	25.79
39	Pete	Rose	1966	16	70	.313	.351	.460	.811	25.36
40	Gil	McDougald	1955	13	53	.285	.361	.407	.768	24.98

41	Carlos	Baerga	1993	21	114	.321	.355	.486	.840	24.97
42	Tom	Daly	1899	5	88	.313	.409	.428	.837	24.92
43	Tom	Herr	1985	8	110	.302	.379	.416	.795	24.77
44	Frank	LaPorte	1914	4	107	.311	.361	.436	.797	24.73
45	Red	Schoendienst	1953	15	79	.342	.405	.502	.907	24.54
46	Rickie Jr.	Weeks	2010	29	83	.269	.366	.464	.830	24.46
47	Del	Pratt	1913	2	87	.296	.341	.402	.743	24.40
48	George	Grantham	1929	12	90	.307	.454	.533	.987	24.21
49	Steve	Sax	1986	6	56	.332	.390	.441	.830	24.13
50	Alfonso	Soriano	2003	38	91	.290	.338	.525	.863	24.08

We could say, in general terms and with some lack of precision, that the best second baseman in baseball in 1900 was Nap Lajoie, then Eddie Collins, then Rogers Hornsby, then Charlie Gehringer, then Joe Gordon, then Bobby Doerr, then Jackie Robinson, then Nellie Fox, then Bill Mazeroski, then Dick McAuliffe, then Joe Morgan, then Ryne Sandberg, then Craig Biggio or Robbie Alomar, then Jeff Kent, then Chase Utley, then Robinson Cano, and now Jose Altuve.

77. 19^th Century Third Basemen

The top third baseman of the 19^th century, as measured by the Years of Position Dominance Index, was Ezra Sutton:

From	To	First	Last	1	2	3	4	5	YOPDI
1876	1888	Ezra	Sutton	3	3	0	3	2	59
1878	1890	Ned	Williamson	2	4	2	0	0	56
1890	1898	Bill	Joyce	1	4	0	1	1	41
1876	1890	Deacon	White	3	1	0	1	2	41
1884	1898	Billy	Nash	2	1	1	4	1	40
1880	1909	Arlie	Latham	3	0	0	3	2	38
1891	1906	John	McGraw	2	0	4	0	0	36
1880	1892	Tom	Burns	0	0	5	0	1	21
1895	1908	Jimmy	Collins	1	1	0	1	0	19
1884	1893	George	Pinckney	0	2	0	0	1	15

Three Hall of Famers there. John McGraw was elected more as a manager than as a player, although he was a tremendously effective player in a short career. Jimmy Collins was still a young player at the end of the 19^th century. The only actual 19^th century third baseman in the Hall of Fame was Deacon White, who was not elected until 2013.

COMMENTS (38 Comments, most recent shown first)

bjames
dbutler69
I'd love to see that study of players' impact on pennant races.

I may have published it, and it may be here somewhere. The original study was done before I started BJOL. I think I went back and re-visited the issue, about 2009 or 2010.
2:23 PM Jan 10th

MarisFan61
An interesting little thing that Bill said, about the 1978-1983 middle infielders:

".....the second basemen of this era are far better than the shortstops. The second basemen are great; the shortstops are weak. Probably related somehow."

Anyone have any impression or guess about how they might be related, or (putting the same thing another way) why this may have been?

I don't, but I love things like that and I'd be very interesting in any ideas about it.

The onliest thing I can come up with is that maybe somehow for this little period, the method relatively underrates the shortstops as compared to the second basemen and that the actual difference in quality between them isn't as it appears. But this is just a stray thought. Don't put anything on it, because I'm not.
12:54 PM Jan 10th

Brock Hanke
Steven - Probably not. The whole "trayner" thing is listed as obsolete and rare, not to mention variant spellings. It's also without the "n" - the actual word is "trayer." I, of course looked under "trainer", with the "n", but there is no variant spelling listed, and the definitions are "someone who trains somebody" and "a person who pulls something along." A locomotive engine is the "trainer" for the whole "train." My experience is that, in cases like this, you go with the spelling that is missing one letter, hence what I posted up. If there had been even one variant "o" spelling of "trainer", I'd have gone with that, but it's ALWAYS spelled with the "iner."

There's also the problem with spelling in general. Technically, Shakespeare's language is called "early modern English." This essentially means "English far along in development that the dominant spellings and meanings of London are taking over the many, many variant meanings and spellings of early variants in different parts of England." Even in Shakespeare's time, spelling was haphazard. We have several "William Shakespeare" signatures, written by the man himself, and they are not all spelled the same.

Shakespeare himself used the word "tapster" most often, which, given spellings from other authors at the same time, implies that "tapster" had become the word used for this job by the time of Shakespeare. The reason the OED is so useful is that it is an etymological dictionary: it lists the definitions of words in the order they appeared in history, with the very first quote of its use anywhere in English. "Traynor", or any variant, seems to have had its primary use from about 1400-1550. Possible for Shakespeare, but not likely.
1:55 AM Jan 10th

Brock Hanke
BryanBM - THANKS! For once, my teenage sources got it right. What you've posted is exactly what I'd been taught - Sisler was elected before anyone knew how bad off poor Lou Gehrig really was. I actually thought they were inducted in the same ceremony, but it appears that Sisler was inducted before Gehrig was too. Whew! I always sweat it when I cite sources from my youth.
1:28 AM Jan 10th

dbutler69
I'd love to see that study of players' impact on pennant races.
2:32 PM Jan 9th

Steven Goldleaf
So that would make "Francis" in "Henry IV, part I," a traynor? He's "Frank Traynor"?
1:51 PM Jan 9th

BryanBM
Jan/Feb 1939 - Sisler elected (Feb 2, 1936 for Ruth's class)
April 30, 1939 - Gehrig's last game, still travels with team
Monday, June 12, 1939 - Sisler inducted
Wednesday, June 21, 1939 - Yankees announce Gehrig's retirement

Maybe Gehrig told the Yankees he was retiring before Sisler is inducted but the announcement was delayed to avoid casting a pall over the coverage of the Hall of Fame officially opening.

https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/past-inductions/1936-1939

After 20 more members were added to the Hall of Fame in the elections in 1937, 1938 and 1939 [includes Sisler], the first Induction Ceremony was held on June 12, 1939 – with all 11 living electees present in Cooperstown. Lou Gehrig is recognized as a member of the Class of 1939, but Gehrig was not elected until late in the year after it became clear that his playing career was over due to complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

m.mlb.com/cutfour/2014/12/07/103418240/its-been-75-years-since-the-bbwaa-held-a-special-election-to-vote-lou-gehrig-into-the-hall-of-fame</a>

With the ALS diagnosis cutting Gehrig's career -- and, ultimately, his life -- so short, the BBWAA agreed to make an exception for Gehrig. On Dec. 7, 1939, it voted to elect Henry Louis Gehrig into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

http://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/april-30-1939-lou-gehrig-plays-his-final-game-yankees

McCarthy, meanwhile penciled in 26-year-old Babe Dahlgren at first base, batting eighth on May 2. (The Yankees thumped the Tigers that day 22-2. Dahlgren went 2-for-5 with two RBI. It was one of three times that season the Yankees scored at least 20 runs.) Gehrig never played again, although he did travel with the team for a while.

On June 21, 1939, the Yankees announced Gehrig’s retirement. On July 4, they held Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day at Yankee Stadium.
9:45 AM Jan 9th

MarisFan61
Robinsong (nice to see you on here!) -- Thanks for that -- appreciate that info.

BTW maybe somebody can also set me straight on what Bill does about the games a player had at positions other than the one being considered. :-)
I don't think Bill has said. I did my best to infer. If I inferred right, I'd say it means that some of the rankings have been highly misleading -- which is why I keep asking about it.
1:01 AM Jan 9th

Brock Hanke
Steven - You have no way of knowing this, but I burned out a year and a dissertation from a Ph.D. in English, with a specialty in old theater. One of the side effects of this is that I have an Oxford English Dictionary (OED), and know how to use it. I started in on the many definitions of "tray", but none of them seemed like anything that would turn into a last name. Under "trainer", though, I found what is almost certainly it. "Traynor" is listed as an alternate spelling in the definition of "trainer" that means "tapster", someone who takes barrels of wine or other liquid, opens a hole, and installs something that works like a spigot, so that he can "draw" liquid from the barrel while still being able to stop before the barrel is empty. Etymologically, the word actually derives from "drawer" rather than "tapster." We still today use the phrase "draw a pint" or something like that. So, Pie Traynor's male-line ancestor was, essentially, a barkeeper. Last names are often a lot of fun if you have an OED.
12:21 AM Jan 9th

Robinsong
Marisfan-
You got Bill's method wrong. Alex Rodriguez will be rated at a shortstop, since that is where he had most vale and most games, but his 3rd base dominance will count towards his lifetime total. Also when he switched to 3rd his value as shortstop in earlier years count toward his value in the next couple of years. Bill assigns a player to the position with most game in that year - hence Musial sometimes appearing and sometimes not on the 1B rankings. But Musial rates #1 at 1b by counting his dominance in the outfield as well.
6:08 PM Jan 8th

Steven Goldleaf
Just playing, Brock. I knew you knew how to spell the name--I just think it's a very funny name, even spelled right.
6:04 AM Jan 8th

Brock Hanke
"Trainer" turns out to be an autocorrect flaw. I very carefully typed T-R-A-Y-N-O-R into my previous comment, and it was changed immediately to "trainer." Possibly useful for later commenters.
1:48 AM Jan 8th

Brock Hanke
Steven - Thanks for the fun typo-catch on Trainer. I have no idea whether I just types it or it got autocorrected, but that was a good response.

briangunn - Thanks to you, too, for the catch. Somehow, I "learned" that Sisler was elected before Gehrig was forced to retire. No idea what the source of that was. I didn't fact check it because I don't have any real idea of exactly when, in 1939, everyone agreed that Gehrig's career was over. Nor the exact date when the voters elected Sisler. I might be able to solve the first of those by looking up Gehrig's death date, but maybe not, and I still would not know when, exactly, the normal election took place that elected Sisler. If you DO know that info, please post it up. I'd strongly prefer to get that info straight, if for no other reason than that George Sisler was my father's favorite player. (I inherited my dad's collection of baseball cards. They are all from 1922. Dad was born in 1911.)
1:46 AM Jan 8th

shthar
PUT PIE HERE.
1:17 AM Jan 8th

briangunn
Fun stuff, Brock Hanke - thanks - but a quick question: what do you mean that the voters "didn't know about Gehrig yet" when they elected George Sisler to the Hall of Fame? Sisler was elected in 1939 alongside Gehrig himself (Gehrig's career ended in April of that year, and the committee waived the usual waiting period on account of his ALS).
3:25 PM Jan 7th

KaiserD2
MarisFan: As I have mentioned previously I compute WAA using DRA for fielding and dropping position adjustments, thus getting somewhat different figures from baseball-reference.com. I thought I would give my result for Mantle in 1962.

On another front: I neglected to mention that I also show Utley with 3 seasons of 4 WAA or more. That makes him a serious HOF candidate based on history but a very arguable one. Sorry for the omission.

DK

9:06 AM Jan 7th

Steven Goldleaf
The other thing that impresses me about Pie Trainer is his ability to train pies. I’ve tried for years to get mine to perform several simple tricks, “turn over,” “beg,” “give me paw,” etc. but so far I’ve only been able to train them to do one trick, “play dead.”
8:46 AM Jan 7th

Brock Hanke
The 19th century third baseman thing is, if anything, even weirder than Bill makes it out to be. Deacon White did not start his career as a 3B; he started as a catcher, and was clearly the best catcher in all the years of the National Association, from 1871-1875. Later in his career, as the schedule lengths started to get serious, he was pulled out from behind the plate to keep his bat in the lineup, the result of which is that he played more games at 3B than at C. But in terms of seasons, if you don't discard the NA, Deacon White was the first great catcher in professional league baseball.

McGraw, as noted, was elected more as a manager than as a player, although his player credentials are pretty good.

Jimmy Collins was elected for two reasons: 1) He invented what we call modern 3B play. He was the first guy to figure out that, if you played in when you expected a bunt, as opposed to sitting on the base, you'd throw a lot more bunters out. This, at the time, completely revolutionalized how 3B was played. Also, 2) Here's a trick I use when I'm trying to figure out how good an old player is. Check his place in the New Historical Abstract list at his position. Jimmy Collins is ranked #17 at 3B. But now, go up the line, toward #1, looking for 3B who outranked Collins and who played earlier than he did. There aren't any. When Collins was playing, he was the best 3B in the history of the game. Then it was Home Run Baker. Also, if you check Pie Trainer, who slots in at #15, the only player who outranks him and who played before him is Baker. That probably has a lot to do with how those guys got into the Hall.

George Sisler is another one. At 1B, he's ranked 24th. But, ahead of him and playing earlier, there are only Anson, Brouthers, and Connor, all 19th century guys. The committee that elected George Sisler was simply electing the best 1B of the 20th century who had retired (they didn't know about Gehrig yet, and they weren't allowed to consider the 19th century).

FUN NOTE: There are, as best I can find, exactly three 19th century catchers who were at least good with the glove, but who got moved out from behind the plate to get their bats in the lineup. One per decade of the 19th century. Deacon White is the first. Next, in the 1880s, is Buck Ewing, who was certainly the best overall catcher of the 19th century, and very likely the best DEFENSIVE catcher of the 1880s, but who just plain hit too well to miss playing time. The third, in the 1890s, is Tom Daly. Daly played 4 years at catcher, hit well and had a decent glove, but got pulled out to 3B and then to 2B, where he had his actual career.
2:52 AM Jan 7th

MarisFan61
Kaiser: Not sure what's your point about 1962. I recognized that Mantle did have the amount that you gave as the benchmark.

Maybe your point is that I said a wrong number.
The number I gave is what is shown on baseball-reference.com.
If you're using a source that shows slightly different numbers, fine.
It doesn't matter.

BTW, I'm not annoyed, just not understanding what your point was there.
8:55 PM Jan 6th

KaiserD2
MarisFan:

1962 Yanks have Mantle whom I show at 4.8 WAA, best position player in the league.

On the 1963 Yanks you are right--they didn't have such a player. Tresh was their MVP with 3 WAA; Maris and Mantle performed at that level while they were in the lineup but both missed a lot of time. They could just as easily have lost in 1963 to the Twins, who had Bob Allison (6 WAA, the best player in the league) and Camilo Pascual (5, third best, behind Yaz.) And you are also right about the 1996 Yankees.

Overall I show that from 1901 through 1968, only 19 out of 126 pennant winners did not have a player with 4 WAA or more. From 1969 through 1993 we have 48 division winners, and only 16 of them did not have one. After that it becomes easier to reach the playoffs without one but most teams still have one. Based on those figures I concluded that 4 WAA is a fair fair measure of a "yes" answer to the question, if this guy were the best player on your team, could you win the pennant.

DK

8:39 PM Jan 6th

MarisFan61
BTW, to be clear about how these last couple of comments do or don't apply to this series by Bill:

I think it's a mixed thing, although we can't be sure because there's been a semi-major thing that I don't think Bill has addressed. (Please somebody correct this if it's wrong.)

Bill clearly doesn't count seasons in which a player didn't have some meaningful amount of time at the given position. Therefore, I guess, none of Alex Rodriguez's years at shortstop will count toward his ranking at third base, and vice versa.

However, as far as I've been able to tell, we don't know exactly what Bill does with it when a guy divides his time between or among positions in a season.
I raised this about Mike Grady, and unless I missed something, Bill never answered it, maybe because I was the one raising it. :-)

From the Grady example, it appears to me that Bill counts all of a guy's games as though they were at a player's major position or at whatever position Bill is regarding the guy. (Granting that my vision about such things isn't necessarily 20-20, it looks to me like that's the only way Grady could have come out with such rankings. I also offered the view that in view of Grady's actual time at catcher, those rankings were highly misleading.)
7:03 PM Jan 6th

MarisFan61
Following up on that by Steven:

I don't think there's any single solution -- there are various possible decent ways to do it -- and I think that whichever way it's done, there are aspects where we'll look at it and we'll feel that for ourselves, we don't really see it that way.

For example, when we get to third base, if Alex Rodriguez is ranked among the top few, maybe even #1 all time, my eye will just skip ahead to the next guy, for more reasons than one, but mainly because of essentially the kind of thing that Steven wrote about: I don't really consider him "a third baseman." (BTW/FWIW, he had slightly more games and innings at shortstop but I'd be saying the same even if it were the reverse.) Similarly to what Steven said about what his comment isn't intended to be, I don't mean this as any lobbying for A-Rod not to be ranked as a third baseman, just giving this as an example. And, more in line with what Steven said, if A-Rod is ranked as a shortstop and if his years at third base are included in his data, I won't really count that either.

You can't make everybody happy when you do a system; you just do the system how you best see fit, and it is what it is. If someone came up with a metric system to rank presidents (and they probably do have those), there might not be anybody except the maker of the system who would nod at all the results, and maybe not even him. Especially if the metric also included the presidents' value as actor or real estate guy or haberdasher. :-)

And even about the "multi-position" thing: That's problematic too. It's a comparison among a whole lot of different apples and oranges. To me, the only reasonable meaning for "multi-position" and the only meaningful rankings would be if it meant the kinds of players that Shthar mentioned, the Zobrist-Tony Phillips kind of guys. Killebrew got around the diamond enough that I think he could truly be described as multi-position, but that's not the same kind of "multi-position," is it? It's more like just the same phrase being used in different ways. And when the term is applied to guys who just played first base and the outfield, or worse yet when it's applied to guys who just played different outfield positions (yeah, I've seen that done), come on. :-)

Again, no criticism intended for how it's being done here, just pointing out that inevitably there are issues.
6:53 PM Jan 6th

Steven Goldleaf
Which brings up a slight semantic problem, or a logistical problem, or some kind of problem, which is "Can you have a designation as the best, or second-best, player at a position when he earned a goodly number points in years NOT playing that position?" Musial, for example, played other positions that get folded into his ranking at 1B--can we really call him the fifth best (or whatever--didn't look it up) 1Bman when he didn't accrue so many of his points at 1B? I guess I'm asking (ASKING, Bill, not telling you that you screwed up in making this executive decision). if a purer way to do this would be to do what you did in the Historical Abstract, designating players like Rose and Killebrew (and I'd add Musial and Banks and Carew and Yount and so many others) as multi-positional stars rather than force them into a position that they didn't play a huge chunk of their careers? That creates other problems, maybe worse ones, but it seems odd to make Musial an infielder to me. Problem only gets worse when we get to the OF, where guys got shuttled around depending on their managers' whims, their teammates in a given year, their ability to handle CF (loss of speed, or RF, loss of throwing ability). I wonder who is hardest to place at any one OF position. Also wondering if these charts can be fairly compared to each other--that is, to make a master chart regardless of position, or if there's some factor that prevents a non-positional ranking.
3:34 PM Jan 6th

shthar
I'm waiting for the article about guys like Tony Phillips, Gil McDougald and Zobrist.
2:00 PM Jan 6th

MarisFan61
I don't think it's particularly a principle that a team needs at least 1 player with WAA of 4 to be a pennant winner.
BTW I don't mean just that it isn't 100% true; I mean that I don't think it's a useful guide. (I wouldn't doubt, though, that most pennant teams have such a player.)

I looked at some pennant teams that I wondered about; granted, it's 'cherry picking' in that I chose teams that I thought there was reason to doubt there was such a player, and it wasn't hard to find ones that didn't.

First team I looked at was the '62 Yanks, since I knew that Mantle missed about 40 games (still won the MVP).
Well, Mick still had a WAA of 4.4, despite missing all those games.
The next year, though -- both he and Maris missed a lot of the year, and the highest WAA for any Yankee was Elston Howard's 3.6. (Next highest: 2.5, Maris)

And I've got even better. I was surprised to find how much better.
The '96 Yanks were famous for having "no stars," which I don't consider true, but it was a well enough balanced team that I figured they might well not have had any player with a WAA of 4.
The highest WAA was 1.9. (Bernie Williams)

2000 Yankees: Posada, 3.3
2001 Yankees: Bernie, 3.0

Again, I don't disagree that most pennant teams have a 4 WAA player. But I don't think this is much of a useful guidepost when looking for characteristics of pennant winning teams.
11:27 AM Jan 6th

KaiserD2
With rare exceptions, the players I have found to have 5 seasons of 4 WAA or more (superstar seasons) are in the Hall of Fame. Many players with 4 such season are in, many are not.

Among the relatively recent second basemen:

Carew 5
Morgan 5
Sandberg 5
Grich 4
Cano 4
Alomar 3
Brett Boone 2
Ian Kinsler 2
Kent 2

Grich and Cano, in y opinion, definitely belong in teh Hall of Fame.

Neither Randolph, Whitaker or White ever had any such seasons.

4 WAA, by the way, is the numerical answer to Bill's great question in the Keltner test, "If this guy were the best player on your team, could you win the pennant?" Very few teams have won pennants without one player that good.

DK

8:45 AM Jan 6th

hotstatrat
Thanks, Maris, for the look up. As you gathered, I meant "obnoxious" flippantly - didn't even remember it was Tommy John. McAuliffe was not only a hero on "my team", but he was from my home state: Connecticut. So, naturally, he was in the right - even though I knew it was wrong and childish to hit somebody. (Although, it became impossible to defend Denny McLain's actions.) In fact, McAuliffe's nephew was a high school classmate - and he was a little obnoxious. But then, so was I in a different way, I'm sure.
10:32 PM Jan 5th

MarisFan61
About Pedroia coming in at #31:
It's fun to take the Win Share figures of recent players and see where they 'slot in' in Bill's rankings in the New Historical Abstract, by the method that he uses in the book.
(i.e. combined consideration of career total Win Shares, best 3 years, and best 5-yr run)
Usually it's not hard to get a pretty good idea of where they fall.

Taking into account that there are some other recent players who would be sneaking in there, it looks like Pedroia's ranking by that system would be higher than #31 but not far from it. Ignoring the other recent players, I think he'd be around #24; with them in there, probably somewhere between 25 and 27.
BTW Kinsler shows similarly to him by this. You could argue for either one; I'd put Pedroia as the higher one.
FYI here are the numbers for Pedroia. (Not official, just by my 'eyeballing' and you know how accurate that is :-) ....I'd welcome anyone to check on it. I'm using the data that's on this site.)
Career total Win Shares so far: 216
Best 3 years: 27, 26, 25
Best 5-yr run: 107
9:59 PM Jan 5th

MarisFan61
Hotstatrat: About "obnoxious," I don't know.... :-)
Not characteristically about that guy anyway.

That thing you said about McAuliffe and the "obnoxious opposing player," I had to 'Tracer' it, and it wasn't hard to find out what and who it was.

Here's the story: (the link might not work directly; if not, I think copy/paste will work)
https://www.detroitathletic.com/blog/2015/04/08/the-night-dick-mcauliffe-separated-tommy-johns-shoulder/

It was Tommy John.
9:17 PM Jan 5th

tampabob
Speaking of sparkplugs, Pedroia's 31st ranking surprised me. I wouldn't have expected him to be grouped with Kinsler and Michael Young, and far behind Cano. I guess the MVP award, Gold Gloves, All Star and post season appearances, along with his old school approach, elevate perceptions above the pure metrics.
8:59 PM Jan 5th

wovenstrap
Also I would add that (as in life), Whitaker got a little lost in there somewhere. He's got to be the best player who didn't make Bill's summary list at the end there. He was hovering around the top for quite a while there, between Morgan and Sandberg....
12:59 PM Jan 5th

wovenstrap
Just wanted to echo what ksclacktc said. It's quite amazing that a player as good as Frank White could just barely crack these lists. I was 15 years old in 1985, so maybe I was late to the party, but he was one of those guys who, especially in the second half of his career, would just impress you all the time. And also very often with a smile on his face.

I just googled him to check on something and was pleased to learn that he's done well in Kansas politics since retirement. He is the Jackson County Executive. Good for him.
12:53 PM Jan 5th

chuck
I was also looking for Frank White's name to appear somewhere. Bad timing to be playing when so many fine 2nd basemen were playing- or, good timing for Maz.
Bill, you've made the comparison between White and Mazeroski previously; what is the average Value number for each?
9:57 AM Jan 5th

hotstatrat
Dick McAuliffe was also outstanding at avoiding the double play - he tied what was in his day the record for a regular avoiding it.

In those days, sportswriters pronounced the term "sparkplug" upon the scrappiest speediest player on a auccessful team. No one on the '68 champion Tigers was speedy, but McAuliffe was clearly their sparkplug. In August of that season, McAuliffe was suspended four or five days for punching an obnoxious opposing player. Detroit was 81-45 at the time - on pace for 104 wins. Without their sparkplug, they stuttered to a four game losing streak - the worse of their season. They immediately came back to their dominating ways when McAuliffe returned.
9:43 AM Jan 5th

jaybracken
Always felt so bad for Utley, having two teammates win the MVP in back-to-back years, when Utley was better than them each year. (Pujols probably should have won both years anyway, but that's a whole other thing)
8:24 AM Jan 5th

ksclacktc
I'm completely shocked at the fact that Frank White is almost completely absent!
7:47 AM Jan 5th

tigerlily
I'm enjoying this series Bill; but, I want to respond to a comment you made regarding Chase Utley. You mentioned Utley's season when he stole 23 bases without being caught and said you believe he's the only player ever to do that. In reading that, I dimly remembered that Kevin McReynolds had a season when stole 20 some odd bases without a CS. With that in mind I went to the Play Index at Baseball-Reference and found that there are 5 players from 1960-2017 who have had a season with 20 or more SB and 0 CS. Here's the list;

Alicedes Escobar KCR 2013 22 SB 0 CS Age 26 Career SB/CS = 146/42

Quinton Berry 2012 21 SB 0 CS Age 27 Career SB/CS = 29/2 (I'd never heard of Quinton Berry before this)

Chase Utley PHI 2009 23 SB 0 CS Age 30 Career SB/CS = 151/21

Paul Molitor TOR 1994 20 SB 0 CS Age 37 (!) Career SB/CS = 504/131

Kevin McReynolds NYM 1988 21 SB 0 CS Age 28 Career SB/CS = 93/32
6:24 AM Jan 5th

3for3
Is the study about pennants with Ruth /Alomar published?
6:21 AM Jan 5th

Getting us to the 2017 World Series

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