116.  The Jim Fregosi Era

              From 1964 to 1970 the best shortstop in baseball was Jim Fregosi.   Fregosi is a historically underrated player; people generally do not realize how good he was, and he was not a huge star even at the time, although he did play in the All Star game almost every year and was mentioned in the MVP voting every single year between 1963 and 1970.  I would say that there were six reasons that he was never fully appreciated, of which the third was probably the most important:

              1)  The Angels were not a particularly good team and were never in the World Series, unlike the Dodgers,

              2)  The Angels had no historic fan base, and had just so-so attendance,

              3)  When Fregosi was young, when he was 20-22, he was perceived by people in the know as a future superstar.   But he never took that step forward, so he was always thought of as a player who was supposed to be better than he was.  I would compare him to Kaline in this respect.

              4)  Fregosi did not have a colorful public persona.  He did not play his banjo on the tonight show or date movie stars, at least that anybody knew about.

              5)  The evaluation of players was not as sophisticated then as it is now.   A good on base percentage and more power than the other shortstops meant nothing to the average fan if you weren’t a .300 hitter and didn’t hit 25 homers a year. 

              6)  The shortstops of the 1961-1975 era were not as strong as the shortstops of the late 1940s/1950s (Reese, Rizzuto, Boudreau, Stephens, Banks, Groat) or the shortstops of the 1976-1990 era, when there were five Hall of Fame shortstops.  Wills ranked first at the position in 1961 with a rating figure of just 22.5, the lowest figure for a #1 shortstop since 1915.   Fregosi had higher figures than that, but he peaked at 26.7, whereas Vern Stephens had ranked third in 1949 with a rating figure of 27.3. 

              I would vote for Fregosi for the Hall of Fame before I would vote for Wills, and Fregosi has 20% more WAR than Wills in a slightly shorter career, but there are still people who advocate Wills for the Hall of Fame, and I don’t think there is any Jim Fregosi support group. 

First	Last	YEAR	HR	RBI	Avg	OBA	SPct	OPS	Value
Jim	Fregosi	1964	18	72	.277	.369	.463	.833	25.56
Ron	Hansen	1964	20	68	.261	.347	.419	.766	24.47
Maury	Wills	1964	2	34	.275	.318	.324	.641	23.82
Eddie	Bressoud	1964	15	55	.293	.372	.456	.828	21.32
Dick	Groat	1964	1	70	.292	.335	.371	.706	21.05
Dick	McAuliffe	1964	24	66	.241	.334	.427	.762	20.43
Jim	Fregosi	1965	15	64	.277	.337	.407	.744	25.36
Maury	Wills	1965	0	33	.286	.330	.329	.660	24.64
Zoilo	Versalles	1965	19	77	.273	.319	.462	.781	24.45
Dick	McAuliffe	1965	15	54	.260	.342	.433	.775	22.52
Leo	Cardenas	1965	11	57	.287	.355	.431	.786	19.43
Luis	Aparicio	1965	8	40	.225	.286	.339	.625	18.89
Jim	Fregosi	1966	13	67	.252	.325	.391	.716	26.12
Bert	Campaneris	1966	5	42	.267	.302	.379	.681	21.26
Maury	Wills	1966	1	39	.273	.314	.308	.622	19.86
Luis	Aparicio	1966	6	41	.276	.311	.366	.676	19.45
Gene	Alley	1966	7	43	.299	.334	.418	.752	18.79
Leo	Cardenas	1966	20	81	.255	.309	.419	.728	18.20
Jim	Fregosi	1967	9	56	.290	.349	.395	.744	26.68
Rico	Petrocelli	1967	17	66	.259	.330	.420	.750	22.27
Bert	Campaneris	1967	3	32	.248	.297	.331	.628	20.33
Gene	Alley	1967	6	55	.287	.337	.391	.728	18.55
Luis	Aparicio	1967	4	31	.233	.270	.313	.583	14.84
Ron	Hansen	1967	8	51	.233	.317	.321	.638	14.71
First	Last	YEAR	HR	RBI	Avg	OBA	SPct	OPS	Value
Jim	Fregosi	1968	9	49	.244	.315	.365	.680	25.22
Bert	Campaneris	1968	4	38	.276	.330	.361	.692	24.74
Rico	Petrocelli	1968	12	46	.234	.292	.374	.667	22.69
Luis	Aparicio	1968	4	36	.264	.302	.334	.636	18.16
Dal	Maxvill	1968	1	24	.253	.329	.298	.627	15.78
Gene	Alley	1968	4	39	.245	.307	.321	.628	15.55
Rico	Petrocelli	1969	40	97	.297	.403	.589	.992	30.30
Jim	Fregosi	1969	12	47	.260	.361	.381	.742	25.83
Bert	Campaneris	1969	2	25	.260	.302	.305	.608	21.15
Maury	Wills	1969	4	47	.274	.337	.335	.673	18.43
Don	Kessinger	1969	4	53	.273	.332	.366	.698	18.39
Luis	Aparicio	1969	5	51	.280	.352	.362	.714	18.22
Leo	Cardenas	1969	10	70	.280	.353	.388	.741	16.83
Mark	Belanger	1969	2	50	.287	.351	.345	.696	14.85
Jim	Fregosi	1970	22	82	.278	.353	.459	.812	26.43
Rico	Petrocelli	1970	29	103	.261	.334	.473	.807	25.91
Bert	Campaneris	1970	22	64	.279	.321	.448	.769	23.73
Don	Kessinger	1970	1	39	.266	.337	.349	.685	17.92
Luis	Aparicio	1970	5	43	.313	.372	.404	.776	17.31
Leo	Cardenas	1970	11	65	.247	.300	.374	.674	16.77
Maury	Wills	1970	0	34	.270	.333	.318	.651	15.70
Bud	Harrelson	1970	1	42	.243	.351	.309	.659	13.98

 

117.   Campaneris (and Aparicio)

              I don’t believe there are any other two players of quality in baseball history who are as statistically identical in a typical year as Luis Aparicio and Bert Campaneris. If you put all of their seasons together and mix them up, there literally is no way to tell which is an Aparicio season and which is a Campaneris season, except that Campy has a few more strikeouts and Campy had the one season when he hit 22 homers.   Aparicio hit .262 in his career with a .311 on base percentage, .342 slugging; Campaneris hit .259/.311/.343.   They had the same doubles-triples-homers ratio and about the same walk rate.   They would each steal 50-60 bases in their prime seasons, 30-40 in their lesser years.   They played head-to-head in the same league for more than ten years, and their typical seasons, except for a small tell in strikeouts, are completely indistinguishable.   Only players ever who are.   Frank Robinson has five-six seasons that could be Willie Mays years and a similar number that could be Henry Aaron years, but I’m talking about the whole career.

              Aparicio was a much bigger star than Campaneris.  If you had asked a random baseball fan anytime between 1958 and 1968 who was the best shortstop in baseball, it is not unlikely that he would have said "Aparicio".   Aparicio played in 13 All Star games, won 9 Gold Gloves, and was mentioned in the MVP voting in ten different seasons, finishing as high as second (1959).    He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1984, in his sixth year on the ballot.   Campaneris played in half as many All Star games (6), won no Gold Gloves, was mentioned in the MVP voting only eight times (although that is still a good total), but never finished higher than 10^th in the MVP voting.  Although he was the starting shortstop for three World Championship teams, he appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot only once, and was dropped after drawing only 3% of the vote. 

              My point is that Aparicio was always perceived as a much bigger star than Campaneris, despite substantially identical performance.   In terms of WAR, Campaneris had a career WAR of 53.1, Aparicio of 55.8, and Campaneris actually is a few notches ahead in terms of WAR relative to playing time. 

              In our system, however, Aparicio never reaches the #1 spot on the shortstop list, while Campaneris ranks first four times.  My task here is to explain this anomaly, or these two anomalies—that Aparicio was clearly perceived as being better although there is little evidence that he was, and that Campaneris rests for several years at the top of the list although Aparicio, who was thought to be better, never got there.  Several factors:

              1)  Aparicio was a native Venezuelan, and his father, Luis Aparicio Sr., was a mammoth figure in Venezuelan baseball history, believed to be the greatest shortstop the country had produced, but also much more than that. 

              2)  Aparicio rode his father’s fame to his own at a very young age, playing shortstop on high-level teams at the age of 15.  He negotiated a bonus contract with the Cleveland Indians as a teenager, became annoyed with the Indians when they tried to weasel out on their agreement, and signed with the White Sox instead.  

              The White Sox had a Venezuelan shortstop, Chico Carrasquel, who was regarded as probably the best defensive shortstop in the American League, but Aparicio just took his job away from him (although Carrasquel was in no sense failing), because he was clearly better.   He was regarded, as a young player, as a defensive wonder.  He won the Rookie of the Year Award in 1956.   He led the league in stolen bases in 1956—and in 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962 , 1963 and 1964.   He won the first Gold Glove given to any American League shortstop in 1958, and then won it again in 1959, 1960.  ..well, almost every year for ten years after that.   

              This reputation was cemented in the public’s mind when Fox and Aparicio, the double play combination, led the Chicago White Sox to the 1959 American League pennant, with Fox and Aparicio finishing 1-2 in the MVP voting. 

              Campaneris’ early career wasn’t anything like that.   He came of age in Cuba, fled to the United States in comparative anonymity, and came to the majors with Kansas City, at that time the worst team in the American League.  While he sailed through the minor leagues quickly and easily and was immediately successful at the major league level, as Aparicio had been, he reached the majors before anyone knew what his defensive position was.   He had played a little shortstop in the minors, but mostly he had been an outfielder, and also he had been a pitcher and a first baseman. 

              Aparicio was a polished, high-level shortstop as a teenager.   Campaneris was essentially converted from an outfielder to a shortstop at the major league level.   He wasn’t a terrible shortstop, as a young player, but he wasn’t Aparicio.

              My best, most sophisticated effort to evaluate Aparicio and Campaneris as defensive players confirms this discrepancy.   Defensive skills often peak earlier (younger) than other skills, you know.   A defensive shortstop may have his best seasons when he is 22-24.   My best defensive analysis shows Aparicio as a historically brilliant defensive player in his early seasons, and shows him far, far ahead of Campaneris, as a defensive player, through the age of 26, which is 1960 for Aparicio and 1968 for Campaneris. 

              But the same method also shows that the difference disappears after that.   After Campaneris had a few hundred games at shortstop under his belt, there is no difference between Campaneris and Aparicio as defensive players.  Campaneris got better; Aparicio came down to normal human levels.   That is what my analysis shows; that is what I believe. 

              3)  When you ask people "who is the best shortstop in the American League", the first thing they think about is defense.   It’s that word "shortstop".   It focuses the discussion on the defensive position, and this brings defense to the forefront of the discussion.  In my opinion, that is why people thought that Aparicio was the best shortstop in the American League in his first ten years.  It’s like in the 1980s, if you asked people who the best shortstop was, a lot of people would have said "Ozzie".   Ozzie wasn’t really a better all-around player than Cal Ripken or Alan Trammell or Robin Yount, but he was a better shortstop. 

              I should apologize for something that I wrote earlier in this series.  Someone suggested. . .I don’t remember where this was or who it was. . .that some player may have been better than I rated him as being because he was a defensive genius, and defensive skill is difficult to document.  I took offense at this.  I should not have done so.  

              We have worked very, very hard for a long time to learn how to evaluate defensive players accurately.   We are not at the point of the discussion where we were 30 years ago, and where, frankly, most of you still are, where we’re kind of just guessing about defense.   You shouldn’t assume that because you don’t understand something, I don’t understand it, either.  I was offended by the suggestion, but I should not have been.   People should be allowed to say what they have to say without my taking offense—and it is always possible that they’re right.   Maybe we DO have Aparicio underrated because we have not given him adequate credit for his defense.   I don’t believe so, and I don’t think that you would think so either if you had been following the discussion more carefully, but. . . .we only know what we know. 

              4)  But while we may in fact underrate Aparicio’s defense, there is no doubt that his contemporaries overrated his offense.   In his time, he was thought to be a tremendous leadoff man.   His stolen bases were treated as proof of his greatness as a leadoff man, and no one paid any attention—any attention AT ALL—to his low on base percentages.  

              What we know now is that not only was he not a great leadoff man, he was not really a good leadoff man.   He never scored 100 runs in a season, and usually scored about 85.  Chico Carrasquel scored 100 runs once.   Dick Howser scored 100 runs twice.    Tommy Harper scored 126 runs, and Wade Boggs 128, and Pete Rose scored 130, and Maury Wills scored 130, and Willie Wilson scored 133.   Eddie Yost scored 115 runs in 1959, and Albie Pearson scored 115 in 1962.   A good leadoff man scores 100, regardless of who is coming up behind him.   We know now, we understand now, that Aparicio’s stolen bases weren’t really adding very much to the number of runs that he would score. 

              5)  Aparicio and Campaneris were the same offensively, but you have to remember that Campaneris and the A’s won their World Championships in a very low-run context, which increased the value of Campy’s runs.  The 1972 A’s scored only 287 runs in their home park, allowing only 210 (317 and 247 on the road).   In 1973 they scored only 313 at home—as opposed to 443 on the road—and allowed only 253 at home, as opposed to 362 on the road. 

              Yes, Aparicio also played in a low-run context in Chicago, but Campaneris’ career offensive context is lower.  In his career, Aparicio had a .674 OPS at home, .633 on the road, whereas Campy was .643 at home, .663 on the road.  Campy’s value as an offensive player relative to context is higher than Aparicio’s, and this offsets the advantage that Aparicio has in his defense as a young player.

              6)  But the real reason that Campaneris ranks at the top of the list and Aparicio does not is simply the poor quality of the shortstops of the early 1970s.   You remember that I said that Maury Wills ranked first in 1961 with a ranking score of just 22.5—the lowest ranking score for a #1 shortstop since 1915.   But Campaneris ranks first with ranking scores of 19.8 and 19.6.    These are the worst scores ever for a #1 shortstop, lower than any #1 ranked shortstop before or since. 

              Aparicio’s scores peaked at 20.3 in 1964—and he doesn’t make the list for 1964.   I remember reading sportswriters of the 1960s being aware of this disintegration of the quality of the shortstop position.   I remember a sportswriter reviewing the shortstops of a year, perhaps 1968, and concluding that probably Campaneris was the best of them, but that none of them was really very good.  I think this may have been in Street and Smith’s spring annual for 1969 or 1970; some source such as that.

              Aparicio peaked at 20.3; Campy had seasons at 22.1, 21.5 and 21.0.   His scores are a little ahead of Aparicio’s, but he was not only weakest #1 shortstop in one season, but the weakest ever in several seasons.   Other than Aparicio there is no Hall of Fame shortstop in this era, and really, there just isn’t one. 

              7)  When I was a young writer, I was not hesitant to argue with the experts, and this is how I was different from the other sportswriters of my youth, who were almost universally beholden to coaches and managers and scouts as to how players should be evaluated.   You were not supposed to evaluate players in a way that contradicted the managers and the players themselves; you were not allowed to.   You would be attacked and ridiculed by the other writers if you did—but I did, and this was one of the foundation stones of my career.

              But at the time, I was totally intimated by the mythical perception of Luis Aparicio—not the other overrated stars of the time, but Aparicio.  It’s been a long time; it’s been 40 years and more, and I can say now that Aparicio was not all that he was cracked up to be—but I didn’t say it at the time, and I wouldn’t say it at the time.

              That perception got Aparicio into the Hall of Fame.   I am not arguing that Campaneris should go in, too; I am more inclined to believe that neither one of them should be there.   But I do believe that, all things considered, Campaneris was Aparicio’s equal. 

 

First	Last	YEAR	HR	RBI	Avg	OBA	SPct	OPS	Value
Bert	Campaneris	1971	5	47	.251	.287	.323	.611	19.76
Leo	Cardenas	1971	18	75	.264	.321	.421	.741	17.23
Jim	Fregosi	1971	5	33	.233	.317	.326	.643	16.97
Freddie	Patek	1971	6	36	.267	.323	.371	.693	16.89
Don	Kessinger	1971	2	38	.258	.318	.316	.634	16.85
Maury	Wills	1971	3	44	.281	.323	.329	.652	16.61
Chris	Speier	1971	8	46	.235	.307	.323	.630	14.87
Mark	Belanger	1971	0	35	.266	.365	.320	.685	13.93
Bobby	Grich	1972	12	50	.278	.358	.415	.773	22.83
Bert	Campaneris	1972	8	32	.240	.278	.325	.603	21.49
Chris	Speier	1972	15	71	.269	.361	.400	.761	19.69
Don	Kessinger	1972	1	39	.274	.351	.334	.685	16.86
Freddie	Patek	1972	0	32	.212	.280	.276	.556	15.11
Bill	Russell	1972	4	34	.272	.326	.366	.693	14.98
Danny	Thompson	1972	4	48	.276	.318	.356	.674	14.27
Jim	Fregosi	1972	5	32	.232	.311	.344	.655	13.33
Bert	Campaneris	1973	4	46	.250	.308	.318	.626	20.98
Chris	Speier	1973	11	71	.249	.332	.356	.688	18.33
Dave	Concepcion	1973	8	46	.287	.327	.433	.760	16.03
Freddie	Patek	1973	5	45	.234	.311	.321	.632	15.60
Don	Kessinger	1973	0	43	.262	.327	.310	.637	15.08
Bill	Russell	1973	4	56	.265	.301	.337	.638	15.04
Marty	Perez	1973	8	57	.250	.316	.347	.663	13.79
Roger	Metzger	1973	1	35	.250	.299	.322	.622	13.20
Bert	Campaneris	1974	2	41	.290	.347	.366	.713	22.12
Dave	Concepcion	1974	14	82	.281	.335	.397	.732	20.55
Chris	Speier	1974	9	53	.250	.336	.361	.697	17.83
Larry	Bowa	1974	1	36	.275	.298	.338	.636	16.00
Bill	Russell	1974	5	65	.269	.336	.351	.686	15.93
Don	Kessinger	1974	1	42	.259	.332	.321	.652	15.60
Freddie	Patek	1974	3	38	.225	.324	.298	.622	14.72
Marty	Perez	1974	2	34	.260	.314	.340	.654	13.81
Bert	Campaneris	1975	4	46	.265	.337	.330	.667	19.63
Dave	Concepcion	1975	5	49	.274	.326	.353	.679	19.58
Chris	Speier	1975	10	69	.271	.362	.415	.777	17.87
Larry	Bowa	1975	2	38	.305	.334	.377	.711	17.20
Rick	Burleson	1975	6	62	.252	.305	.329	.634	16.00
Freddie	Patek	1975	5	45	.228	.291	.308	.599	15.12
Don	Kessinger	1975	0	46	.243	.317	.319	.636	14.52
Bucky	Dent	1975	3	58	.264	.301	.341	.642	14.09

 

118.  Immaculate and Skinny

              Dave Concepcion was the best shortstop in baseball in the late 1970s.  When he was a rookie Concepcion was 6-foot-2 and weighed 155 pounds, which is still his listed weight in a lot of sources, although his mature weight was more like 185.   Anyway, Concepcion was removed from the lineup one day at the last minute.   Pete Rose asked what had happened to him, and was told that he had pulled a muscle.   Rose snorted.  "There is no way that man could pull a muscle," he said.

              Most-similar player ever to Dave Concepcion is Rabbit Maranville.   Most similar player to Concepcion from the 1900-1909 era is Bobby Wallace, 1910-1919 is Maranville, 1920s is Roger Peckinpaugh, 1930s is Dick Bartell, 1940s is Marty Marion, 1950s is Pee Wee Reese, 1960s is Aparicio, 1980s is Manny Trillo (second baseman), 1990s is Mike Bordick, 2000s is Chris Gomez (who was not as good as Concepcion or these other players, but was similar, as opposed to equal), most similar player now is J. J. Hardy.  Hardy is not highly similar to Concepcion; he is just as close as you can come in today’s game. 

First	Last	YEAR	HR	RBI	Avg	OBA	SPct	OPS	Value
Dave	Concepcion	1976	9	69	.281	.335	.401	.736	20.86
Rick	Burleson	1976	7	42	.291	.365	.383	.748	18.23
Bert	Campaneris	1976	1	52	.256	.331	.291	.622	18.13
Larry	Bowa	1976	0	49	.248	.283	.301	.584	16.85
Freddie	Patek	1976	1	43	.241	.318	.306	.624	16.05
Bill	Russell	1976	5	65	.274	.301	.343	.644	15.76
Chris	Speier	1976	3	40	.226	.311	.297	.608	14.84
Robin	Yount	1976	2	54	.252	.292	.301	.593	14.81
Dave	Concepcion	1977	8	64	.271	.322	.369	.691	19.67
Garry	Templeton	1977	8	79	.322	.336	.449	.786	19.42
Bobby	Grich	1977	7	23	.243	.369	.392	.762	19.13
Rick	Burleson	1977	3	52	.293	.338	.382	.720	17.97
Larry	Bowa	1977	4	41	.280	.313	.340	.652	17.32
Freddie	Patek	1977	5	60	.262	.320	.368	.688	16.66
Robin	Yount	1977	4	49	.288	.333	.377	.710	16.49
Roy Jr.	Smalley	1977	6	56	.231	.316	.315	.631	16.48
Dave	Concepcion	1978	6	67	.301	.357	.405	.763	21.37
Roy Jr.	Smalley	1978	19	77	.273	.362	.433	.796	20.77
Garry	Templeton	1978	2	47	.280	.303	.377	.680	20.33
Robin	Yount	1978	9	71	.293	.323	.428	.752	19.19
Ivan	DeJesus	1978	3	35	.278	.356	.354	.710	18.36
Ozzie	Smith	1978	1	46	.258	.311	.312	.623	17.52
Larry	Bowa	1978	3	43	.294	.319	.370	.689	17.30
Rick	Burleson	1978	5	49	.248	.295	.339	.633	17.17
Garry	Templeton	1979	9	62	.314	.331	.458	.790	21.97
Roy Jr.	Smalley	1979	24	95	.271	.353	.441	.794	21.48
Dave	Concepcion	1979	16	84	.281	.348	.415	.764	21.34
Robin	Yount	1979	8	51	.267	.308	.371	.679	18.67
Rick	Burleson	1979	5	60	.278	.315	.368	.683	17.82
Ivan	DeJesus	1979	5	52	.283	.345	.379	.724	17.41
Alan	Trammell	1979	6	50	.276	.335	.357	.691	15.24
Bill	Russell	1979	7	56	.271	.297	.359	.656	14.89

             

119.  The March of the Superstars Begins

              From 1944 to 1966, a period of 23 years, there were 8 shortstops elected as Most Valuable Player.   From 1967 to 1981, 15 years, there were none.

              From 1944 to 1966 there were 390 major league teams, and in that time there were 30 shortstops who had a ranking number of 25.0 or higher.   From 1967 to 1979 there were 310 major league teams, and there were only six shortstops who had a ranking number of 25.0 or higher.  From 1971 to 1979 there were none at all.  

              From 1944 to 1966 there were four Hall of Fame shortstops (Reese, Rizzuto, Boudreau and Banks), plus the first 63% of Luis Aparicio’s career and the last 26% of Luke Appling’s. From 1967 to 1979 there are basically no Hall of Fame shortstops, although we get the last 37% of Aparicio’s career and the beginnings of three Hall of Fame careers in the late 1970s.  The first of the three to reach Hall of Fame level was Robin Yount in 1980:

First	Last	YEAR	HR	RBI	Avg	OBA	SPct	OPS	Value
Robin	Yount	1980	23	87	.293	.321	.519	.840	25.21
Roy Jr.	Smalley	1980	12	63	.278	.359	.405	.765	20.28
Dave	Concepcion	1980	5	77	.260	.300	.360	.660	19.60
Garry	Templeton	1980	4	43	.319	.342	.417	.759	19.47
Alan	Trammell	1980	9	65	.300	.376	.404	.779	18.96
Rick	Burleson	1980	8	51	.278	.341	.366	.708	16.75
U.L.	Washington	1980	6	53	.273	.336	.375	.711	15.71
Ivan	DeJesus	1980	3	33	.259	.327	.325	.653	15.34
Robin	Yount	1981	10	49	.273	.312	.419	.731	28.52
Alan	Trammell	1981	2	31	.258	.342	.327	.669	18.71
Dave	Concepcion	1981	5	67	.306	.358	.409	.767	18.19
Roy Jr.	Smalley	1981	7	22	.263	.375	.443	.818	15.63
Garry	Templeton	1981	1	33	.288	.315	.393	.709	15.05
U.L.	Washington	1981	2	29	.227	.310	.307	.616	13.57
Ozzie	Smith	1981	0	21	.222	.294	.256	.549	13.52
Rick	Burleson	1981	5	33	.293	.357	.372	.729	12.93
Robin	Yount	1982	29	114	.331	.379	.578	.957	34.70
Cal	Ripken	1982	28	93	.264	.317	.475	.792	23.51
Alan	Trammell	1982	9	57	.258	.325	.395	.720	20.05
Dickie	Thon	1982	3	36	.276	.327	.397	.724	19.92
Ozzie	Smith	1982	2	43	.248	.339	.314	.653	18.27
Roy Jr.	Smalley	1982	20	67	.255	.345	.413	.758	18.21
U.L.	Washington	1982	10	60	.286	.338	.412	.750	16.27
Dave	Concepcion	1982	5	53	.287	.337	.371	.707	15.64
Robin	Yount	1983	17	80	.308	.383	.503	.886	32.25
Cal	Ripken	1983	27	102	.318	.371	.517	.888	30.77
Dickie	Thon	1983	20	79	.286	.341	.457	.798	26.40
Alan	Trammell	1983	14	66	.319	.385	.471	.856	24.67
Ozzie	Smith	1983	3	50	.243	.321	.335	.657	19.09
Roy Jr.	Smalley	1983	18	62	.275	.357	.452	.810	17.90
Rafael	Ramirez	1983	7	58	.297	.337	.368	.705	16.00
Dale	Berra	1983	10	52	.251	.327	.358	.684	15.37

 

              When we get to the point of summing up the century, which will be in section 125 of the series, this unevenness of talent over time will play tricks with the numbers, causing the players from weak eras to be overrated. Robin Yount snapped the 16-year stretch of no shortstop MVPs in 1982, and then Ripken won the MVP Award in 1983.  By 1983 there are four Hall of Famers on the leaderboard—Yount, Ripken, Trammell and Ozzie—and then there’s Dickie Thon; we don’t know how good he would have been if he hadn’t gotten hurt.   In 1983 Ripken was the American League’s MVP, but still ranks second at shortstop.   Which is reasonable, actually; Yount had won the MVP in ’82, and was about as good as Ripken in ’83. 

 

120.  The Ripken-Trammell-Ozzie Era

              In 1985 Robin Yount moved to the outfield, but there were still three Hall of Fame shortstops in their prime:

First	Last	YEAR	HR	RBI	Avg	OBA	SPct	OPS	Value
Cal	Ripken	1984	27	86	.304	.374	.510	.884	32.78
Robin	Yount	1984	16	80	.298	.362	.441	.803	27.92
Alan	Trammell	1984	14	69	.314	.382	.468	.851	26.60
Ozzie	Smith	1984	1	44	.257	.347	.337	.684	21.81
Julio	Franco	1984	3	79	.286	.331	.348	.679	15.51
Tony	Phillips	1984	4	37	.266	.325	.359	.685	14.26
Rafael	Ramirez	1984	2	48	.266	.295	.327	.621	13.64
Garry	Templeton	1984	2	35	.258	.312	.320	.633	13.58
Cal	Ripken	1985	26	110	.282	.347	.469	.816	27.96
Ozzie	Smith	1985	6	54	.276	.355	.361	.716	24.57
Alan	Trammell	1985	13	57	.258	.312	.380	.692	23.36
Tony	Fernandez	1985	2	51	.289	.340	.390	.730	17.58
Julio	Franco	1985	6	90	.288	.343	.381	.723	16.38
Alfredo	Griffin	1985	2	64	.270	.290	.332	.622	15.32
Garry	Templeton	1985	6	55	.282	.332	.377	.709	14.94
Scott	Fletcher	1985	2	31	.256	.332	.309	.641	13.43
Alan	Trammell	1986	21	75	.277	.347	.469	.816	27.08
Cal	Ripken	1986	25	81	.282	.355	.461	.816	26.69
Ozzie	Smith	1986	0	54	.280	.376	.333	.709	25.37
Tony	Fernandez	1986	10	65	.310	.338	.428	.766	20.84
Julio	Franco	1986	10	74	.306	.338	.422	.760	18.03
Scott	Fletcher	1986	3	50	.300	.360	.400	.760	16.88
Alfredo	Griffin	1986	4	51	.285	.323	.364	.687	15.41
Dick Jr.	Schofield	1986	13	57	.249	.321	.397	.719	15.28
First	Last	YEAR	HR	RBI	Avg	OBA	SPct	OPS	Value
Alan	Trammell	1987	28	105	.343	.402	.551	.953	29.78
Ozzie	Smith	1987	0	75	.303	.392	.383	.775	28.28
Cal	Ripken	1987	27	98	.252	.333	.436	.769	23.10
Tony	Fernandez	1987	5	67	.322	.379	.426	.805	21.50
Julio	Franco	1987	8	52	.319	.389	.428	.818	18.88
Dale	Sveum	1987	25	95	.252	.303	.454	.757	17.27
Scott	Fletcher	1987	5	63	.287	.358	.374	.732	16.92
Greg	Gagne	1987	10	40	.265	.310	.430	.740	15.89
Alan	Trammell	1988	15	69	.311	.373	.464	.836	26.59
Cal	Ripken	1988	23	81	.264	.372	.431	.803	24.21
Barry	Larkin	1988	12	56	.296	.347	.429	.776	23.68
Ozzie	Smith	1988	3	51	.270	.350	.336	.686	23.31
Tony	Fernandez	1988	5	70	.287	.335	.386	.721	21.38
Greg	Gagne	1988	14	48	.236	.288	.397	.685	16.76
Shawon	Dunston	1988	9	56	.249	.271	.357	.627	16.43
Scott	Fletcher	1988	0	47	.276	.364	.328	.692	16.34
Cal	Ripken	1989	21	93	.257	.317	.401	.718	25.03
Barry	Larkin	1989	4	36	.342	.375	.446	.821	22.63
Alan	Trammell	1989	5	43	.243	.314	.334	.648	21.70
Ozzie	Smith	1989	2	50	.273	.335	.361	.696	20.97
Tony	Fernandez	1989	11	64	.257	.291	.389	.680	19.91
Shawon	Dunston	1989	9	60	.278	.320	.403	.724	17.45
Dickie	Thon	1989	15	60	.271	.321	.434	.755	17.34
Greg	Gagne	1989	9	48	.272	.298	.424	.721	17.02

 

              None of these players won the MVP Award in this time frame, although Ripken won one before this era started and one after it ended.  In 1987 George Bell won the American League MVP Award over Alan Trammell.  This became a battleground in the long-running war between analysts and traditional thinkers; we all thought Trammell was the MVP, but the voters chose Bell, albeit by a fairly thin margin. 

              To my way of thinking, the NL MVP vote that year was probably even worse, and again, I would have voted for a shortstop, Ozzie Smith.   Trammell led the American League in Win Shares, 35, while Bell was selected MVP with 26.   In the NL, Ozzie Smith had 33 Win Shares, while the MVP, Andre Dawson, had just 20.   Bell and Dawson had led the league in RBI.   Both Smith and Trammell finished second in the voting, and both had a good many first-place votes.  Tim Raines also had 34 Win Shares in 1987; he also would have been a good selection.