This is part IV of my series on the greatest players of the last 50 years, which I have dubbed the "Dan Marks Era", as it aligns with the 50 years that I have been following baseball.
If you didn't read the introduction to the series, here are the prior entries:
Second Basemen - The Results
Did anyone just miss getting included due to the timeline cutoff?
Probably the best second basemen who I did see a little bit of, but not until the tail end of their careers, are Bill Mazeroski, Dick McAuliffe, and Ron Hunt. The midpoints of their careers are all pre-1970, although I did experience the "phenomenon" of Hunt's 50 hit-by-pitch season of 1971.
Any active players outside of the top 25 worth noting?
4 players who were active in 2019 made my top 25. Outside of the top 25, the top players include DJ LeMahieu, Howie Kendrick, Brian Dozier, Daniel Murphy, and Jason Kipnis. LeMahieu, who's coming off an excellent season, is probably the only one of those who is likely to move up enough to crash the top 25. Ozzie Albies has an exciting future, but he's only 375 games into his career, so too early to try and rank him. Ketel Marte is another exciting young player coming off a terrific season, but hell if I know where he's going to end up playing most of his career (SS? 2B? CF?).
Any surprise omissions?
Before collecting the data, I thought that maybe Bret Boone or Steve Sax would rank higher than they did (#34 and #35, respectively).
#25-Brian Roberts
Best category: WAR7 (21st)
Worst category: Games (55th)
When I hear the name Brian Roberts, I think of 2 things - stolen bases and doubles. Roberts hit 50 or doubles in a season 3 times (leading the league twice), and also stole 50 bases once (which also led the league). A good, solid player on a generally bad team.
My dataset for second basemen has 184 players in it. The highest rate of doubles per 600 plate appearances are:
|
Player
|
Doubles / 600 PA
|
|
Daniel Murphy
|
39.3
|
|
Robinson Cano
|
36.4
|
|
Jose Vidro
|
35.8
|
|
Jeff Kent
|
35.2
|
|
Brian Roberts
|
35.2
|
Are you ready for a junk stat? I took doubles per 600 PA and SB per 162 games and combined them into a kind of a faux annualized 2B/SB number (sort of like Bill's Power-Speed number, which summarizes two things into a single, harmonized mean type of figure). Here were the highest figures in my dataset. Yeah, I know it doesn't mean much....just fun to look at:
|
Name
|
2B/SB Number
|
|
Eric Young Sr.
|
34.1
|
|
Brian Roberts
|
33.8
|
|
Whit Merrifield
|
33.0
|
|
Jose Altuve
|
33.0
|
|
Chuck Knoblauch
|
31.8
|
#24-Bill Doran
Best category: Win Shares / 162 (18th)
Worst category: All Star games (82nd)
Doran never made an All Star team, so he's tied with a whole bunch of other players who never made one either. It's a shame, because he was certainly good enough to have been named to at least a couple of them. From 1983-1987, Doran was probably the 2nd best second baseman in the NL behind Ryne Sandberg (and ahead of the likes of Johnny Ray and Tom Herr). It just never quite worked out for him.
I remember being very excited when Doran, a native Cincinnatian, was traded to the Reds in August of 1990. He played well down the stretch (.373 over 17 games) but had back surgery late in the year and missed out on the playoffs and the World Series championship.
#23-Orlando Hudson
Best category: dWAR (12th)
Worst category: Games (64th)
Hudson was a decent hitter (.273 BA, .341 OBP, about 10 HR a year) but defense was his calling card, as he took home 4 Gold Gloves. I think one of the things working against Hudson's legacy is that it's hard to associate him with any single team. He had a pretty short career (11 seasons), and it was fragmented across 6 different teams. The longest he spent with any single franchise was 4 seasons (Toronto). One of his Gold Gloves was with Toronto, 2 with Arizona, and one with the Dodgers. He lacked a true team identity.
#22-Robby Thompson
Best category: WAR/162 (15th)
Worst category: Games (68th)
A short career, but a good one. Good power, good glove, considered a team leader on some good Giants teams from the late 1980's to the early 1990's.
Thompson played all 11 of his Major League seasons in a Giants uniform. Would Thompson be your choice for second baseman on a fictional all-time Giants' team? No, probably not, and he wouldn't be mine either....but he's certainly one of the top contenders. I think the top 4 candidates would be Thompson, Larry Doyle, Frankie Frisch, and Jeff Kent. Frisch is the Hall of Famer and probably the first instinct would be to go with him, but over half of Frisch's career was spent with the Cardinals.
If you go strictly by rWAR in a Giants' uniform, they stack up like this:
|
Player
|
Years with Giants
|
WAR
|
|
Larry Doyle
|
1907-1916,1918-1920
|
42.7
|
|
Frankie Frisch
|
1919-1926
|
37.8
|
|
Robby Thompson
|
1986-1996
|
33.9
|
|
Jeff Kent
|
1997-2002
|
31.5
|
I'd probably subjectively go Frisch, then Doyle, Kent, and Thompson....but Thompson is at least in the discussion.
#21-Placido Polanco
Best category: dWAR (4th)
Worst category: All Star games (36th)
In my opinion, one of the more memorable Bill James articles that he's written was the entry regarding what makes a player underrated (in the Darrell Evans profile from the New Bill James Historical Abstract). He felt that two of the primary characteristics contributing to players being underrated were 1) splitting their careers among multiple teams, and 2) splitting time across multiple positions. He felt that both of those, among several other things, contributed to working against a player's identity.
Both of those criteria apply to Polanco. He started off with 5 seasons in St. Louis, then went to Philadelphia for 4, then Detroit for 5, then back to Philly for 3 more, and then wrapped up with 1 in Miami. He was pretty much the same type of player wherever he went (although he hit for more power with the Phillies), and as such, it's difficult to really associate him with any of them. As far as defensively, Polanco, who was a very versatile infielder, was more 2nd baseman than anything, but played almost as much third base, and also had over 100 games at shortstop. He won 3 Gold Gloves after turning 30 years of age - two at second base, one at third base.
Polanco was a lifetime .297 hitter who came close to a batting title one year and was third in the AL in another year. A quality player, but one who, I think, gets a little underrated when we think back on his career.
#20-Julio Franco
Best category: Games (3rd)
Worst category: dWAR (166th)
Speaking of moving around a lot.....
Franco's categories, of course, need to be taken with huge grains of salt. For starters, as I've noted before, my database lists all games for each player, regardless of position. Franco is 3rd in games among the players listed as second basemen, but he's nowhere near the top in games played specifically at second base. He moved everywhere, he played for many teams, and he played forever.
He's at second base because I have to have him somewhere. Technically, he played more games at shortstop than anywhere, but his second base total is close, and I think his best years (including his only 3 All Star team selections) were the years he spent at second base with the Rangers, so second base is where I have him. He played 715 games at shortstop, 663 at second base, 508 at first base, and was a DH in 375 others. He played for 23 seasons in the Major Leagues, finally retiring from MLB at the ripe old age of 48.
I'm almost required by law (or at least by force of habit) that anytime Minnie Minoso or Julio Franco gets mentioned in virtually any context, that I include the chart of all players with 4,000 or more "professional" hits.
Source: www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/3,000_hit_club (if you scroll down the page a bit)
|
Name
|
Years
|
Major League Hits
|
Minor League Hits
|
Other Hits
|
Postseason Hits
|
Total Hits
|
Notes
|
|
Pete Rose
|
1960-1986
|
4,256
|
427
|
-
|
86
|
4,769
|
|
Ichiro Suzuki
|
1992-2019
|
3,089
|
-
|
1,278
|
27
|
4,394
|
1
|
|
Ty Cobb
|
1904-1928
|
4,189
|
166
|
7
|
17
|
4,379
|
2
|
|
Hank Aaron
|
1952-1976
|
3,771
|
324
|
125
|
25
|
4,245
|
3
|
|
Derek Jeter
|
1992-2014
|
3,465
|
554
|
-
|
200
|
4,219
|
|
Jigger Statz
|
1919-1942
|
737
|
3,356
|
-
|
-
|
4,093
|
|
Minnie Minoso
|
1945-1993
|
1,963
|
1,144
|
966
|
-
|
4,073
|
4
|
|
Julio Franco
|
1978-2014
|
2,586
|
980
|
442
|
22
|
4,030
|
5
|
|
Stan Musial
|
1938-1963
|
3,630
|
371
|
-
|
22
|
4,023
|
Explanation of "Notes" column from www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/3,000_hit_club:
1. Other hits are in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) but does not include 156 NPB minor league hits or NPB postseason hits
2. Other hits are in professional games in Cuba
3. Other hits include 84 in Puerto Rican League and 41 in Negro Leagues
4. Minor league hits include 715 in Mexican League; other hits include 838 in Cuban League and 128 in Negro Leagues
5. Minor league hits include 348 in Mexican League; other hits include 286 in Nippon Professional Baseball and 156 in the Korea Baseball Organization
Let me ask a serious question. Is there anything wrong with the notion of having someone like Julio Franco in the Hall of Fame? I mean, I know he only received 1% of the vote from the writers, and I can certainly understand that. But isn't someone like Franco in a different category? Instead of just asking ourselves where someone rates among the greats, how about recognizing someone who epitomizes perseverance, endurance, and obvious love for the game, regardless of where or when it's being played? Shouldn't the most memorable of those types of players be recognized as well? Maybe the BBWAA isn't the appropriate vehicle for such an honor, but how about some other mechanism? It seems to me that there could be a legitimate way to honor someone like a Julio Franco.
#19-Ray Durham
Best category: Games (13th)
Worst category: Games (177th)
Durham doesn't rate real well defensively, but he had a broad base of offensive skills that served him well. Good average, good on-base ability, good power for a 2nd baseman, good speed. He doesn't rate as elite in any of these, but he was a good across-the-board offensive player, was pretty consistent year after year. Was top 10 in the AL in runs scored 5 out of 6 years in the late 1990's to early 2000's, surpassing 100 runs scored each season from 1997-2002. 17th all-time in games played at second base, right in between Hall of Famers Bobby Doerr and Red Schoendienst.
#18-Brandon Phillips
Best category: Games (16th)
Worst category: Win Shares/162 (53rd)
I'd put Phillips as the third greatest second baseman in Reds' history after Hall of Famers Joe Morgan and Bid McPhee, although there might be some Lonny Frey fans out there that would disagree.
The Morgan trade from Houston before 1972 is a legendary steal in the annals of the franchise, of course, but the Phillips trade was pretty one-sided too. Montreal famously packaged Cliff Lee, Grady Sizemore, and Brandon Phillips in 2002 to Cleveland in exchange for Bartolo Colon, and that was an exceptional trade for the Indians, but it could have been even more so except that they didn't cash in on Phillips, trading him four years later to the Reds for next to nothing.
The Reds enjoyed 11 seasons out of Phillips as their primary second baseman, and he picked up 3 All Star nods and 4 Gold Gloves along the way. He was generally good for 15-20 homers a year (reaching 30 once), usually between .270-.300 average, around 20 steals or so a year. I don't know that you'd ever say that he was the best second baseman in the league, but he was consistently among the better ones in the NL for several years. 19th all-time in defensive games at second base, just behind the Doerr/Durham/Schoendienst group mentioned in the prior entry.
#17-Chuck Knoblauch
Best category: Win Shares 7 and WAR7 (11th)
Worst category: dWAR (42nd)
Knoblauch had a short career (12 seasons) that was also undermined by mid-career throwing issues as well as his inclusion on the Mitchell Report and subsequent admission to HGH usage.
There was definitely a wide chasm between Minnesota Chuck Knoblauch and New York Chuck Knoblauch. By rWAR, Knoblauch's top 6 seasons occurred as a member of the Twins. In his 7 seasons with Minnesota, Knoblauch slashed .304/.391/.416, with a 114 OPS+, made 4 All Star Teams, won the Rookie of the Year, led the league in doubles once, triples once, stole as many as 62 bases in a season, and took home a Gold Glove. If Roberto Alomar is the AL all-decade second baseman for the 1990's, then Knoblauch is probably #2.
#16-Ian Kinsler
Best category: dWAR (5th)
Worst category: MVP Points (24th)
Kinsler is pretty consistent across the board in the 11 measured categories. Aside from the best and worst mentioned above, he was between 10th and 19th in the other 9 categories.
Kinsler is part of a pretty exclusive group - players who have had multiple 30-30 seasons. It's pretty much a Bonds family gathering at the top, but here's the full list:
|
Name
|
# of Years with 30/30 HR/SB
|
|
Barry Bonds
|
5
|
|
Bobby Bonds
|
5
|
|
Alfonso Soriano
|
4
|
|
Howard Johnson
|
3
|
|
Ryan Braun
|
2
|
|
Ian Kinsler
|
2
|
|
Vladimir Guerrero
|
2
|
|
Bobby Abreu
|
2
|
|
Raul Mondesi
|
2
|
|
Jeff Bagwell
|
2
|
|
Sammy Sosa
|
2
|
|
Ron Gant
|
2
|
|
Willie Mays
|
2
|
Do you ever look at a player's rWAR figure and say to yourself, "that doesn't sound right"? You probably do it at least occasionally. Not saying it's right or wrong....I think it's a natural reaction we have when something contradicts your gut. It would foolish to think that any measure, no matter how good or poor it is, will always be consistent with our own subjective thoughts.
Anyway, Kinsler's career rWAR of 55.2 feels high to me. Again, that doesn't really mean squat....WAR isn't there to satisfy me or disappoint me. It's just trying to measure something. But Kinsler's always felt high to me.
I suppose it's because oftentimes a WAR of around 60 is often used as a informal threshold for Hall of Fame quality. Again, not everyone feels that way, and I don't think generally people use it completely as a pass/fail test....just that I think it tends to serve as a mental benchmark for many. And to me, Kinlser, despite being close to that 60.0 level, is nowhere near a Hall of Fame type of candidate in my book. I think he's a really good player - I have him #16 on my 2B list of the past 50 years, and, although I haven't done a formal analysis or methodology for all of baseball history, I suspect he would probably be in my top 30 or so all time at the position. He's a good player - I just don't think of him as an all-time great.
#15-Davey Lopes
Best category: Win Shares and Win Shares 7 (14th)
Worst category: dWAR (112th)
In addition to the above, Lopes is also 15th in All Star games and 16th in both WAR and WAA).
One of the true nemeses of my youth, Lopes hit .283 with a .366 OBP against my Reds in his career (as opposed to .263 and .349 career marks), and his 17 HR's against them were more than he hit against any other single team. I knew there was a reason I didn't like him at the time.....
Caught stealing (CS) became an official statistic in 1951. Since 1951, 20 players have stolen 500 or more bases in their careers. Among those "high volume" base stealers, Lopes ranks 3rd in stolen base %.
Career Stolen Base %, Minimum 500 Stolen Bases:
|
Rank
|
Player
|
SB
|
CS
|
SB%
|
|
1
|
Tim Raines
|
808
|
146
|
84.7%
|
|
2
|
Willie Wilson
|
668
|
134
|
83.3%
|
|
3
|
Davey Lopes
|
557
|
114
|
83.0%
|
|
4
|
Ichiro Suzuki
|
509
|
117
|
81.3%
|
|
5
|
Joe Morgan
|
689
|
162
|
81.0%
|
|
6
|
Vince Coleman
|
752
|
177
|
80.9%
|
|
7
|
Rickey Henderson
|
1406
|
335
|
80.8%
|
|
8
|
Jose Reyes
|
517
|
127
|
80.3%
|
|
9
|
Ozzie Smith
|
580
|
148
|
79.7%
|
|
10
|
Kenny Lofton
|
622
|
160
|
79.5%
|
|
11
|
Paul Molitor
|
504
|
131
|
79.4%
|
|
12
|
Luis Aparicio
|
506
|
136
|
78.8%
|
|
13
|
Barry Bonds
|
514
|
141
|
78.5%
|
|
14
|
Otis Nixon
|
620
|
186
|
76.9%
|
|
15
|
Bert Campaneris
|
649
|
199
|
76.5%
|
|
16
|
Cesar Cedeno
|
550
|
179
|
75.4%
|
|
17
|
Lou Brock
|
938
|
307
|
75.3%
|
|
18
|
Juan Pierre
|
614
|
203
|
75.2%
|
|
19
|
Maury Wills
|
586
|
208
|
73.8%
|
|
20
|
Brett Butler
|
558
|
257
|
68.5%
|
I think that was a big part of Lopes' value. He was a good percentage player. He played smart. He stole bases frequently, but also stole them at a very successful rate. He didn't hit for a high average, but he knew how to work a walk. He wasn't a great power hitter in the overall scheme of things, but he did have good pop for a second baseman. He was a big key to the great Dodger teams of the '70's and really early '80's.
#14-Frank White
Best category: dWAR (1st - Of course!)
Worst category: Win Shares/162 (94th)
Every position so far has had one of these - Bob Boone at catcher, Mark Belanger at shortstop, and now White at second base.
White's claim to fame, of course, is defense, defense, and more defense. Well, there's more to it than that, but that's his calling card. He does also rank high in games (7th in my data set) and All Star games (11th). But, without the way I factored in dWAR as a separate category, White would have been lower down on the list, closer to 20th.
There's probably not a lot I can add to what you already know about White. He's an 8-time Gold Glove winner, he was a big part of the '85 World Champions, he developed a lot more power (both doubles and home runs) in his 30's as opposed to his 20's. He doesn't rate as a very good offensive player at all, and that's why I can't rank him any higher. But he was a fun player to watch.
#13-Jose Altuve
Best category: Win Shares/162 (2nd)
Worst category: dWAR (112th)
Whenever baseball does manage to return, Altuve (and how he does) will certainly be one of the more compelling story lines. Prior to the whole Astros scandal, he was pretty well beloved, with a resume shaping up as one that Hall of Fame voters love: 6 All Star games (in only 9 seasons), 1 MVP plus another 3rd place finish, 3 batting titles, four 200+ hit seasons, 13 postseason home runs in only 50 games, and one World Series championship. More than halfway to 3,000 hits.....and he's still only 29.
I've felt a connection to Altuve ever since I "discovered" him almost a decade ago. In my fantasy baseball league, we're allowed to keep minor leaguers as reserves on our roster over a period of multiple years, and every season we're allowed to claim minor leaguers during the season (one in each half) if we choose to do so. In 2011, I was researching the minors and came across this guy hitting over .400 at A Ball, and I thought, wow, who's that guy? Then I notice his height, and I started to look elsewhere. Fortunately, I decided to claim him anyway. To my surprise, he was up in the Majors before year's end, and by the next year he was an All Star. Much to my chagrin, however, the Astros moved to the AL the next year, and, since my league is NL-only, I lost the rights to him.
In any case, I've always felt a connection to him, superficial though that connection may be. Obviously, the whole Astros scandal has been disheartening, but there's still a part of me rooting for Altuve get back in the public's good graces. I realize I am probably in the minority.
I fully expect Altuve to continue moving up the ranking in the years to come.
#12-Jeff Kent
Best category: MVP Points (6th)
Worst category: dWAR (141st)
Also ranks high in Win Shares (7th) and Games (8th).
Kent's calling card is offense/power, and lots of it. Kent leads all second baseman in career home runs. In addition to his MVP award in 2000, he also had a 6th, and 8th, and a 9th place finish.
Where would Kent rank among all-time second basemen (not just the last 50 years, but all time) if you only considered offense? He'd have to be top 10, wouldn't he? I think Hornsby, Collins, Morgan, Lajoie, and Carew would be above him. Jackie too, once you adjust for his shortened career. Gehringer? Yes. Cano? Yeah, probably, but it's not a slam dunk. I'd probably put Alomar above him too.
Who else? I have others like Sandberg and Grich and Biggio and Whitaker above Kent in the overall rankings, but I don't think any of them were clearly better hitters than Kent. I'd have Kent somewhere between #8-10 if we are only considering hitting.
Does Kent have a reasonable shot at the Hall of Fame? Yes, I believe he does. He treaded water for 6 years on the ballot, bouncing between 14-18% of support, but last year, on a ballot that was less crowded with top-notch candidates than prior years, Kent stepped up to 27.5%. That may not sound like a lot, but it may help him get some momentum going. He's probably got too much ground to make up in his 3 years remaining on the ballot, but if he continues to gain support, it may generate enough buzz and attention that he will get consideration on a veterans' committee ballot down the road. His story could end up being somewhat similar to Ted Simmons, who, in the end, was simply too good a hitter at a key defensive position to continue getting bypassed.
#11-Dustin Pedroia
Best category: WAR/162 (3rd)
Worst category: Games (42nd)
Our third straight player with an MVP on his resume....
As happens frequently in the rankings with this methodology, an active player (or one with a short career) does well in a rate category (like WAR/162) because he may not have yet experienced a true decline phase, but that is often offset by not doing well in a category (like games) that rewards longevity. That's the case with Pedroia.
I think it's a close call between Pedroia and Kent. Kent had a much longer career, of course (Pedroia's isn't officially over, but the last 2 years have basically been for naught), but I like Pedroia's overall game. He's not the hitter Kent is, but I like Pedroia better in the field and on the bases. If I could only choose one, I'd go with Pedroia.
#10-Willie Randolph
Best category: dWAR (2nd)
Worst category: MVP Points (24th)
We kick off the top 10 with a player who I think is very underrated in the context of baseball history. In some ways, he's a lot like Lou Whitaker. Not exactly in his skill set....that's not what I'm talking about, as Lou had a lot more power, and Randolph had better base stealing numbers. What I mean is, Randolph generally didn't do well in MVP balloting (much like Whitaker didn't) because neither one generally had big, attention-getting seasons. Randolph didn't post big numbers. But , like Whitaker, he had a real absence of bad seasons. He just kept posting 2, 3, and 4-WAR seasons, and bunches of them.
I wasn't a fan of the Yankees, but I liked Randolph a lot. He was smooth on the double play (3rd all-time at 2B in double plays turned behind Bill Mazeroski and Nellie Fox) , he was a good base stealer, he knew how to get on base, and he did his job in a quiet, professional manner.
#9-Craig Biggio
Best category: Games (1st)
Worst category: dWAR (162nd)
Biggio and Whitaker are really close in my rankings. I tried to not let the fact that Biggio is in the Hall of Fame and Whitaker isn't influence my ranking. Besides, I do think Whitaker will at some point be inducted into the Hall, so I think that distinction between the two will go away. Whitaker came out ahead in my methodology, and I'm sticking with that.
Biggio is #1 in games in my dataset, but, again, that is total games, not just games at second base. Biggio had over 400 games at catcher and more than 300 games in the outfield.
Biggio was awarded 4 Gold Gloves at second base, but he does not rate real well defensively according to dWAR, even if you exclude the years that he spent at other positions. I think Whitaker was better defensively, which is part of the reason I kept them in this sequence.
#8-Lou Whitaker
Best category: WAR (3rd)
Worst category: MVP Points (17th)
I've written enough about Whitaker over the years to fill several books, so I'm not sure there's a whole lot more for me to add. In short, I think his performance across the categories included in this methodology pretty well reflect how I think he should rate. Here's Whitaker's position in each of the 11 categories (out of 184 second basemen)
|
Category
|
Rank among 2B in Data Set
|
|
WAR
|
3
|
|
WAR162
|
8
|
|
WAR7
|
12
|
|
MVP Points
|
17
|
|
ASG
|
11
|
|
Games
|
5
|
|
WS
|
6
|
|
WS162
|
12
|
|
WS7
|
12
|
|
dWAR
|
9
|
|
WAA
|
4
|
Whitaker doesn't really have any "bad" categories. His best categories are WAR, WAA, Games, and Win Shares, all of which, at least to some degree, represent aggregation and longevity in addition to quality. In the "award" categories like All Star games and MVP voting, he doesn't rank quite as high, and the same goes for the "peak" categories such as WAR7 and Win Shares 7. That, I think is Whitaker, in a nutshell. He was a very good player for a very long time, but he generally didn't get a lot of recognition while he was active, and he didn't have as many eye-catching, big seasons as the players above him.
8th overall out of 184 is still pretty damn good. I just happen to prefer the remaining 7 who are ranked above him.
#7-Chase Utley
Best category: WAR7 and WAR/162 (4th)
Worst category: MVP Points (15th)
The only mark against Utley, in my opinion, is that his career totals (for example, fewr than 2,000 hits) aren't quite up to several of the other top candidates at this position. However, his peak was so strong, that he deserves to be well up the list. I used "best 7 seasons" for my measurement of peak years, but if you change it to 5 years, Utley's WAR-5 would be the 2nd highest of anyone in my 2B dataset, behind only Joe Morgan.
Utley's 5 year peak (2005-2009) is summarized below (per baseball-reference.com):
|
Years
|
G
|
AB
|
R
|
H
|
2B
|
3B
|
HR
|
RBI
|
SB
|
CS
|
BA
|
OBP
|
SLG
|
OPS+
|
|
2005-09
|
754
|
2,909
|
553
|
875
|
196
|
23
|
146
|
507
|
77
|
10
|
.301
|
.388
|
.535
|
135
|
|
Per Season
|
151
|
582
|
111
|
175
|
39
|
5
|
29
|
101
|
15
|
2
|
|
Per 162 Games
|
162
|
626
|
119
|
189
|
43
|
5
|
32
|
110
|
17
|
3
|
One of the real strengths of Utley's game was his ability to steal without getting thrown out. He wasn't a real prolific base stealer (usually he was in the 10-20 range in a year), but he has the highest SB% of any player in history (minimum 100 attempts) since caught stealing started getting tracked in 1951.
The top 10:
|
Rank
|
Player
|
SB
|
CS
|
SB%
|
|
1
|
Chase Utley
|
154
|
22
|
87.5%
|
|
2
|
Carlos Beltran
|
312
|
49
|
86.4%
|
|
3
|
Jayson Werth
|
132
|
23
|
85.2%
|
|
4
|
Jarrod Dyson
|
250
|
44
|
85.0%
|
|
5
|
Kazuo Matsui
|
102
|
18
|
85.0%
|
|
6
|
Eric Byrnes
|
129
|
23
|
84.9%
|
|
7
|
Jason Bay
|
95
|
17
|
84.8%
|
|
8
|
Mike Trout
|
200
|
36
|
84.7%
|
|
9
|
Nate McLouth
|
133
|
24
|
84.7%
|
|
10
|
Pokey Reese
|
144
|
26
|
84.7%
|
#6-Bobby Grich
Best category: WAR/162 (2nd)
Worst category: MVP Points (16th)
Grich also ranks high in WAA (3rd) and both WAR and Win Shares/162 (4th in both).
Grich and Utley are pretty similar across most of the 11 categories, as Grich's "worst" category is also MVP points (he had 2 top-10 MVP finishes). Utley's 7-year peak is a little higher, Grich's career value is a little higher, but they're pretty close.
I'm interested to see if anyone else had this impression of Grich, but did he strike you as kind of a "stiff" player? As opposed to someone like Alomar or Sandberg, both of whom always seemed kind of smooth to me, Grich always seemed to field his position rather stiffly. Maybe it was his build, and he did have back issues, so maybe that's just the way he was. He seemed similar when at bat too. He was highly effective of course....but that's just how he struck me.
One other thought....which players do you think were hurt the most by the 1981 strike? Grich was on track for what might have been his best season in 1981. Prorated to a full season, Grich was on track for 33 HR's, and he hit .304 while leading the abbreviated league in slugging and OPS+ (not that anyone was aware of that metric then). His prorated rWAR would have been around 8.2. Sure, being "on pace" for something doesn't guarantee anything, but Grich quite possibly missed out on his best season.
#5-Robinson Cano
Best category: WAR7 and Win Shares 7 (2nd)
Worst category: dWAR (23rd)
Cano also ranked high in Win Shares/162 (3rd) and MVP Points (4th, even though he never won one). Cano's strong performance in MVP points is driven by a 3rd place finish, a 4th, two 5ths, a 6th, and an 8th, all of which came in a 7-year stretch.
Cano, fairly or unfairly, has the you-know-what cloud hanging over him. Based strictly on performance, Cano has a strong case as a top-10 all-time second baseman.
Everyone is familiar with the great tradition of Yankees center fielders (Mantle, DiMaggio, Combs, B. Williams) and catchers (Berra, Dickey, Munson, Posada, Howard), but they're exceptionally deep in quality second basemen as well. Cano might very well be the best, but they also have had the luxury of Willie Randolph plus Hall of Famers Joe Gordon and Tony Lazzeri, not to mention the versatile Gil McDougald, who excelled at second, third, and short, but ended up with more games at 2B than anywhere else. A very deep and talented group. And Cano might just be the best of that group.
#4-Roberto Alomar
Best category: All Star games (2nd)
Worst category: dWAR (85th)
Outside of dWAR, Alomar really didn't have any weak categories. He was 12th in WAR/162, but 8th or better in all of the rest.
Is Alomar the greatest player who didn't play a large % of his seasons with any one team? Alomar split his time among Toronto (5 seasons), Cleveland, Baltimore, and San Diego (3 each), New York Mets and Chicago White Sox (2 each) and Arizona (1), so the highest one (Toronto) only represented 29% of his total seasons.
Go down the list of career rWAR leaders and you'll see how unusual this is. I went down the list I just did position players rather than pitchers), and the only ones with more career rWAR than Alomar who were even close were Johnny Mize (40%, Cardinals), Adrian Beltre (38%, Rangers), Bill Dahlen (38%, Cubs), and Carlos Beltran (35%, both for the Royals and Mets). Well, there was Dan Brouthers at 26% (5 of his 19 years were with Buffalo), but that's hardly apples to apples, given the volatility of franchises in the early days of the sport. Most players at that level on the WAR list accumulate at least half of their seasons with one franchise.
#3-Ryne Sandberg
Best category: MVP Points, All Star Games, Win Shares 7 (3rd in each)
Worst category: Games and dWAR (11th)
Sandberg, as you might expect, excels across the board, and does best in the 2 categories designed to capture "honors" (MVP points and All Star games). Sandberg was both well-liked and well-respected, and, even though I didn't include it in the methodology, you can add his 9 Gold Glove awards as further evidence of how well respected he was.
If you forced me to select a "most memorable performance" in my lifetime by a player in a regular season game, I might have to go with Sandberg's famous June 23, 1984 outing when he homered twice off of Bruce Sutter, who was in the middle of an otherwise amazing season (he had a 1.19 ERA heading into that game, and eventually ended up with a 1.54 mark for the season). That was the game that really put Sandberg, who was 24 at the time and an emerging young player on his way to winning the MVP, on the map. A wild game at Wrigley Field on national television on a Saturday afternoon, with the Cubs a game and a half back of the Mets in the NL East, in the middle of what was to be a memorable division championship season, Sandberg homered off Sutter in the 9th to tie the game, and then tied it again with a 2-run blast off Sutter again in the 10th. The Cubs eventually won 12-11. I can still hear Bob Costas' voice as he called those two shots. Sandberg finished 5 for 6 with the 2 home runs and 7 RBI. Outside of some isolated special Reds-related regular season memories, I can't think of anything that compares to that performance for me.
#2-Rod Carew
Best category: All Star Games (1st)
Worst category: dWAR (165th)
Technicalities, technicalities. Yes, Carew played slightly more games at 1B than he did at 2B. I know I'm supposed to be ranking guys at the position at which they played the most. Nevertheless, I'm keeping Carew with the second basemen. To me, that's what he was.
Outside of dWAR, Carew didn't have a bad category. He was 5th or better in 8 of the 11 categories.
If I calculated it correctly, Carew has the highest All Star team selection % in history among all players from the All Star game era (although with a qualifier). What do I mean by All Star selection %? Well, Carew played 19 seasons, and he made the All Star team 18 times (94.7%), missing out only in his final season. Other percentages among players with a large number of All Star game seasons:
Hank Aaron-91.3% (21 for 23)
Willie Mays & Stan Musial - 90.9% (20 for 22)
Cal Ripken Jr. - 90.5% (19 for 21)
Ted Williams - 89.5% (17 for 19)
Mickey Mantle - 88.9% (16 for 18)
What's the qualifier I alluded to earlier? Well, technically, Joe DiMaggio has the highest % - he was 13 for 13. Of course, his career was abbreviated by his 3 years that were lost to the War. They were in the middle of his career, and I assume he would likely have made all 3, which means you can reasonably project him as 16-for-16. Except, well, you can't. But you could.
Carew was a perfect 18-for-18....until his 19th and final season, when he wasn't selected. How did we miss that one? Where were the fans? Yeah, I know he wasn't the player he used to be by that final season, but he wasn't the year before either, and he was selected to that one. I'm surprised he didn't end up getting named to the team in that final season, even if for no other reason than sentimentality.
#1-Joe Mogan
Best category: "Little Joe" finished first in all categories except for All Star Games, Games, and dWAR.
Worst category: dWAR (75th)
An easy #1 pick. Joe's peak, whether you're using WAR7 or Win Shares 7, is at least 15-20% higher than the #2 man in both (Cano).
In the Robinson Cano entry, I referred to the exceptional depth of quality second basemen in the Yankees' history, but the Astros are very deep there as well. If you include Morgan, who was with the Astros for 10 years and had several very good (and vastly underrated seasons) before emerging as the best player in the game with the Reds, the Astros have had 4 excellent second baseman in their history - Morgan, Biggio, Altuve, and Doran. Considering the Astros have only been in existence since 1962, that's a pretty impressive group.
Here's an interesting research question - can you come up with any other players who followed Morgan's arc? I'm thinking specifically of it this way:
1) Came up and played well for 10 years or more seasons for one (or more) teams, a good enough player to make an All Star team or two
2) Went to another team
3) Played distinctly better for that team
I mean, you can kind of find cases with some similarity, and maybe you can with pitchers, but it seems rare to me, especially among position players. Adrian Beltre kind of fits that outline....he played a combined 12 seasons for the Dodgers and Mariners, but outside of one exceptional season with the Dodgers in '04, I think his image was that of a good player, but hardly someone who would be on a Hall of Fame path. He had never appeared in an All Star game up until that point, but beginning with Boston in 2010, and especially over the subsequent seasons with Texas, Beltre became a consistent All Star and the type of player who got a lot of recognition in MVP voting. I'm having trouble coming up with any other truly similar cases among "elite" position players.
Top 25 Second Basemen of the Past 50 Years - Ranking/Points
|
Rank
|
Name
|
From
|
To
|
Points
|
|
1
|
Joe Morgan
|
1963
|
1984
|
87.8
|
|
2
|
Rod Carew
|
1967
|
1985
|
75.4
|
|
3
|
Ryne Sandberg
|
1981
|
1997
|
70.8
|
|
4
|
Roberto Alomar
|
1988
|
2004
|
66.7
|
|
5
|
Robinson Cano
|
2005
|
2019
|
65.8
|
|
6
|
Bobby Grich
|
1970
|
1986
|
65.4
|
|
7
|
Chase Utley
|
2003
|
2018
|
64.1
|
|
8
|
Lou Whitaker
|
1977
|
1995
|
62.3
|
|
9
|
Craig Biggio
|
1988
|
2007
|
60.4
|
|
10
|
Willie Randolph
|
1975
|
1992
|
59.9
|
|
11
|
Dustin Pedroia
|
2006
|
2019
|
57.0
|
|
12
|
Jeff Kent
|
1992
|
2008
|
53.6
|
|
13
|
Jose Altuve
|
2011
|
2019
|
50.1
|
|
14
|
Frank White
|
1973
|
1990
|
47.2
|
|
15
|
Davey Lopes
|
1972
|
1987
|
46.4
|
|
16
|
Ian Kinsler
|
2006
|
2019
|
46.0
|
|
17
|
Chuck Knoblauch
|
1991
|
2002
|
45.9
|
|
18
|
Brandon Phillips
|
2002
|
2018
|
40.2
|
|
19
|
Ray Durham
|
1995
|
2008
|
40.1
|
|
20
|
Julio Franco
|
1982
|
2007
|
39.7
|
|
21
|
Placido Polanco
|
1998
|
2013
|
38.8
|
|
22
|
Robby Thompson
|
1986
|
1996
|
38.6
|
|
23
|
Orlando Hudson
|
2002
|
2012
|
38.1
|
|
24
|
Bill Doran
|
1982
|
1993
|
36.1
|
|
25
|
Brian Roberts
|
2001
|
2014
|
34.9
|
Distribution of the top 25 by decade (using career mid-point):
|
Decade
|
Total
|
|
1970s
|
4
|
|
1980s
|
5
|
|
1990s
|
5
|
|
2000s
|
5
|
|
2010s
|
6
|
Hard to get much more representative than that.
In the first article (which also had the catcher rankings), a reader requested #26-50 as well (without commentary), so I've been including those as well, with the caveat that these are unadjusted rankings at this point, strictly based on how everyone outside of the top 25 did based on the raw methodology. So, no subjective adjustments on my part. Also note that any active players are very volatile and fluid in how they fare in the various categories, and the ones who are not at the ends of their careers will likely change considerably in the years ahead.
|
Rank
|
Name
|
From
|
To
|
Points
|
|
26
|
Phil Garner
|
1973
|
1988
|
34.8
|
|
27
|
Mark Ellis
|
2002
|
2014
|
34.7
|
|
28
|
DJ LeMahieu
|
2011
|
2019
|
34.5
|
|
29
|
Dave Cash
|
1969
|
1980
|
33.7
|
|
30
|
Davey Johnson
|
1965
|
1978
|
33.7
|
|
31
|
Howie Kendrick
|
2006
|
2019
|
33.2
|
|
32
|
Luis Castillo
|
1996
|
2010
|
33.1
|
|
33
|
Mark Grudzielanek
|
1995
|
2010
|
32.4
|
|
34
|
Bret Boone
|
1992
|
2005
|
32.2
|
|
35
|
Steve Sax
|
1981
|
1994
|
31.6
|
|
36
|
Brian Dozier
|
2012
|
2019
|
31.4
|
|
37
|
Craig Counsell
|
1995
|
2011
|
31.0
|
|
38
|
Johnny Ray
|
1981
|
1990
|
30.9
|
|
39
|
Tom Herr
|
1979
|
1991
|
30.8
|
|
40
|
Aaron Hill
|
2005
|
2017
|
29.7
|
|
41
|
Daniel Murphy
|
2008
|
2019
|
29.5
|
|
42
|
Jason Kipnis
|
2011
|
2019
|
28.9
|
|
43
|
Jim Gantner
|
1976
|
1992
|
28.7
|
|
44
|
Dan Uggla
|
2006
|
2015
|
28.3
|
|
45
|
Randy Velarde
|
1987
|
2002
|
28.1
|
|
46
|
Glenn Hubbard
|
1978
|
1989
|
27.8
|
|
47
|
Neil Walker
|
2009
|
2019
|
27.8
|
|
48
|
Delino DeShields
|
1990
|
2002
|
27.8
|
|
49
|
Carlos Baerga
|
1990
|
2005
|
27.2
|
|
50
|
Adam Kennedy
|
1999
|
2012
|
27.2
|
Next up in a few days (hopefully) : First Basemen
Thanks for reading.
Dan