The Path to Cooperstown: Third Base

If you’re wondering what I was working on lately besides the division previews, my fifth annual Hall of Fame column is up today at The Hardball Times, and it’s on the third basemen.
UPDATE: I’ll have to post the full tables here when I get a chance, the plate appearance figures are crucial to the column, and it looks like the editors at THT removed them to save space. They took out the steals, caught stealing and GIDP data, too. Urk.
Charts below the fold:


The main table – I did have to shorten a few abbreviations, like the “Prime” and “Other” seasons, to fit the page:

Pr O Player Age Seas PA SB CS DP Avg Slg Obp Rate G-3B In?
11 5 Eddie Mathews 21-31 10.56 683 5 3 8 0.285 0.557 0.390 148.5 150 YES
9 3 Wade Boggs 25-33 9.00 705 2 3 16 0.338 0.481 0.425 144.1 151 YES
14 0 Mike Schmidt 24-37 13.66 656 12 7 10 0.267 0.572 0.375 140.4 141 YES
13 2 Chipper Jones 24-36 13.00 621 10 3 15 0.303 0.529 0.390 128.1 110 Act
11 7 George Brett 22-32 10.64 604 12 6 10 0.317 0.547 0.376 124.3 133 YES
11 1 Ron Santo 23-33 10.98 661 3 3 17 0.280 0.507 0.367 123.1 155 No
8 3 Stan Hack 26-33 7.63 713 15 0 6 0.293 0.436 0.374 116.5 153 No
10 1 Sal Bando 25-34 9.94 657 5 4 11 0.268 0.474 0.366 113.9 151 No
9 1 Ken Boyer 25-33 8.73 672 8 5 15 0.287 0.484 0.349 113.5 144 No
10 2 Bob Elliott 25-34 9.58 636 4 0 15 0.289 0.487 0.366 113.2 130 No
8 2 Scott Rolen 22-29 8.00 622 11 4 10 0.279 0.502 0.362 113.0 144 Act
8 3 Toby Harrah 26-33 7.62 654 20 6 11 0.272 0.450 0.376 110.6 108 No
10 2 Ron Cey 26-35 9.69 632 2 3 14 0.266 0.487 0.354 108.9 151 No
8 0 Ken Caminiti 28-35 7.60 604 9 4 13 0.284 0.495 0.355 106.3 142 No
11 1 Eddie Yost 23-33 10.49 673 6 5 9 0.257 0.403 0.385 104.4 145 No
8 4 Graig Nettles 26-33 7.94 658 3 3 12 0.260 0.477 0.332 104.1 157 No
9 2 Robin Ventura 23-31 8.60 623 2 3 13 0.277 0.464 0.358 103.7 142 No
12 1 Brooks Robinson 23-34 11.95 676 2 2 18 0.287 0.463 0.330 103.4 158 YES
8 6 Buddy Bell 27-34 7.65 638 3 4 18 0.287 0.452 0.349 100.7 145 No
10 6 Darrell Evans 26-35 9.69 629 8 4 8 0.248 0.449 0.355 100.0 117 No
10 1 Bill Madlock 23-32 9.64 561 16 8 15 0.310 0.484 0.365 99.2 111 No
8 1 George Kell 23-30 7.65 610 5 4 15 0.311 0.458 0.352 98.2 137 YES
11 0 Pie Traynor 24-34 10.46 660 13 14 15 0.290 0.444 0.331 97.0 151 YES
9 0 Troy Glaus 23-31 9.00 559 6 3 12 0.252 0.492 0.352 96.7 125 Act
10 0 Matt Williams 24-33 9.59 586 4 3 14 0.274 0.514 0.319 96.1 137 No
13 1 Buddy Bell 23-35 12.59 628 3 4 17 0.286 0.441 0.344 95.3 145 No
9 1 Tim Wallach 24-32 8.99 633 5 6 14 0.268 0.466 0.321 94.6 153 No
10 0 Ken Keltner 21*31 9.57 626 4 3 15 0.272 0.474 0.316 93.7 149 No
8 0 Mike Lowell 26-33 7.99 618 3 1 14 0.275 0.454 0.333 93.5 145 Act
11 2 Carney Lansford 22-32 10.67 587 17 7 13 0.297 0.446 0.346 90.7 127 No
16 0 Graig Nettles 25-40 15.59 589 2 2 11 0.254 0.460 0.332 89.9 142 No
10 0 Doug DeCinces 26-35 9.62 553 5 4 16 0.265 0.483 0.333 89.0 131 No

The short-prime guys:

Pr O Player Age Yrs PA SB CS DP Avg Slg Obp Rate G-3B In?
5 1 Al Rosen 26-30 4.75 680 7 6 19 0.295 0.561 0.374 142.6 146 No
6 8 Alex Rodriguez 28-33 6.00 654 20 4 15 0.292 0.549 0.389 139.6 145 Act
7 5 Ron Santo 23-29 7.02 685 3 4 16 0.289 0.530 0.378 137.6 160 No
5 0 David Wright 22-26 5.00 676 23 6 15 0.304 0.502 0.380 128.9 155 Act
5 4 Sal Bando 25-29 4.95 673 3 5 13 0.281 0.500 0.383 128.8 157 No
5 9 Tony Perez 25-29 5.01 675 4 2 16 0.288 0.527 0.345 122.7 152 YES
5 0 Howard Johnson 26-30 4.98 646 32 10 6 0.263 0.527 0.350 119.4 122 No
7 1 Harlond Clift 23-29 6.71 698 8 5 9 0.258 0.467 0.362 117.8 156 No
5 0 Jim Ray Hart 22-26 5.01 621 3 3 16 0.285 0.525 0.350 114.1 118 No
5 0 Whitey Kurowski 25-29 4.82 618 2 0 13 0.286 0.519 0.348 111.7 144 No
5 1 Fred Lindstrom 20-24 4.73 674 13 0 0 0.296 0.474 0.332 106.0 138 YES
7 0 Eric Chavez 22-28 6.99 619 6 2 12 0.267 0.479 0.342 101.4 144 Act
7 1 Aramis Ramirez 25-31 6.99 571 1 1 16 0.284 0.503 0.339 97.4 133 Act
6 3 Richie Hebner 21-26 5.96 527 1 2 8 0.290 0.503 0.354 93.8 126 No
6 0 Bill Melton 23-28 5.96 551 2 3 11 0.262 0.478 0.332 87.4 117 No
6 2 Bob Horner 20-25 5.64 481 2 2 12 0.272 0.542 0.329 85.8 108 No

The pre-1920 third basemen:

Pr O Player Age Yrs PA SB CS DP Avg Slg Obp Rate G-3B In?
6 0 Levi Meyerle 21-26 1.96 682 12 2 0 0.336 0.579 0.407 160.7 81 No
7 18 Cap Anson 19-25 2.36 760 18 10 0 0.326 0.511 0.409 158.7 88 YES
6 4 Frank Baker 23-28 5.70 667 30 21 0 0.322 0.574 0.362 138.7 156 YES
7 1 Denny Lyons 21-27 5.98 625 30 0 0 0.315 0.532 0.400 132.9 115 No
6 3 Heinie Groh 25-30 5.52 676 16 19 0 0.301 0.481 0.380 123.5 142 No
14 1 Ezra Sutton 20-34 6.67 681 17 12 0 0.294 0.468 0.357 113.7 122 No
10 0 Ned Williamson 21-30 6.48 667 35 0 0 0.256 0.459 0.361 110.4 93 No
6 0 Bill Bradley 22-27 5.37 650 20 0 0 0.296 0.502 0.337 109.7 151 No
8 0 Bill Joyce 24-32 7.72 537 34 0 0 0.269 0.502 0.396 106.9 95 No
9 1 Jimmy Collins 27-35 8.12 671 19 0 0 0.283 0.479 0.329 105.7 153 YES
7 11 Deacon White 34-40 4.91 657 12 0 0 0.301 0.438 0.362 104.3 130 No
9 0 John McGraw 20-28 7.67 550 53 0 0 0.306 0.441 0.428 104.0 99 YES
7 0 Red Smith 22-28 5.58 635 15 5 0 0.285 0.463 0.348 102.5 157 No
8 0 Heinie Zimmerman 24-31 7.49 610 20 17 0 0.300 0.509 0.327 101.5 106 No
7 4 Tommy Leach 24-30 6.54 632 27 0 0 0.276 0.470 0.324 96.2 109 No
6 1 Art Devlin 24-29 5.78 621 40 0 0 0.274 0.421 0.358 93.6 151 No
10 2 Larry Gardner 26-35 9.31 631 13 15 0 0.280 0.445 0.323 90.6 152 No

2 thoughts on “The Path to Cooperstown: Third Base”

  1. Great article and stats Crank. You are making me reconsider my view on Santo. I remember him and I honestly don’t remember him as a great player. Same with Bando. My view of him at the time waas more the guy who held the madhouse together, same with Tony Perez. I was shocked when Perez was voted in. I felt he was kind of a placebo for Rose. Brooks Robinson was the best 3B I remember, including the current crop, but old-timers have told me that Whitey Kurowski was better than Robinson.
    If I had to vote today for past players that should be in and current players that will be in I think the list would be short. Probably Santo and Kurowski from the past and A-Rod and Chipper from the current crop. The rest don’t deserve consideration. It is to early to tell on David Wright. Was last year what we can expect from him going forward or will he return to his previous form.

  2. I think David Wright is still very much on track for the HOF, but of course Scott Rolen looked essentially the same when he was Wright’s age.

Comments are closed.