Fun With Historical Fielding Numbers
Posted by: Sky in Baseball, tags: Fielding, history
On Tuesday I outlined a variety of a sources for historical fielding data. Yup, just by downloading a few files, you too can have access to how many runs any fielder saved* in any season back to 1957. I spent last night looking through the data and found some interesting stuff. Read on.
(* Well, a moderately accurate guess, at least.)
Ozzie vs. Mark Belanger
Growing up, I always took it for granted that Ozzie Smith was the best fielding shortstop of all time. After all, he’s a Hall of Famer with a decidedly mediocre bat. But the more I read about baseball prior to 1988 (Kirk Gibson’s World Series homerun is the first baseball event I remember watching in real time), the more I see the name Mark Belanger. He was the Orioles’ shortstop from 1966 through 1981. Who was better? Here are a few ways to look at their accomplishments:
Ozzie Smith Mark Belanger Best Single Season +24 (1980, 88-90) +34 (1975) Best Three Seasons +72 (24, 24, 24) +88 (34, 27, 27) Best Consec Five +20.4 (1988 - 1992) +26.2 (1974 - 1978) Best Dozen Seasons +19.1 (low: +13) +20.1 (low: +8) Career Total +268 (#1) +254 (#2)
From that, it appears Mark Belanger was a better shortstop at his peak, but Ozzie had a longer peak. Either way, saving over 250 runs in a career is ridiculous. Luis Aparicio’s the next closest shortstop, with “only” 142 career runs saved. The active leader is Omar Vizquel at +97.
The Derek Jeter Check
Yup, he’s still a bad fielder, checking in at -96 runs over his career for an average of -8 runs per season. In fact, he’s the worst fielder in career runs using the data available. Now, he actually has had some slightly above average years, but those are outweighed by some awful streaks. Here’s every season since 1996, his first full season in the big leagues:
On the Good Side
The Yankees have definitely had their share of excellent fielders, however. Clete Boyer fits the bill, preventing an average of 20.5 runs per season from 1960 through 1964 at the the hot corner. Graig Nettles’s best five year stretch wasn’t far off, averaging 16.5 runs saved from 1973 through 1977. Bucky Dent was the best fielding Yankees shortstop of the past 50 years, averaging 16 runs saved from 1977 through 1980. Since 1987, Paul O’Neil was the only right fielder to save more than 15 runs, totaling 60 throughout his Yankee days. In fact, over his career, he accumulated the third most runs saved of any right fielder, at +91.
Best of the Best
Here are the fielders who have saved and cost their teams the most runs over their entire careers, since 1957:
1B Keith Hernandez +115 Mo Vaughn -75
2B Lou Whitaker +113 Tony Taylor -71
3B Brooks Robinson +300 (seriously!?) Bobby Bonilla -104
LF Carl Yastrzemski +114 Manny Ramirez -135
CF Paul Blair +156 Matty Alou -87
RF Tony Gwynn +118 Jay Buhner -100
In the current game, shortstops are about five runs more valuable than third basemen per season, all else being equal. That puts Robinson behind Belanger and Ozzie, but he could very well be the third most valuable fielder of the past 50 years.
Is Ken Griffey Jr. Overrated?
Junior’s troubles in the field have been heavily discussed since he moved to Cincinnati, but the zone ratings don’tt give him a lot of credit even when he was with Seattle. Here are his runs saved totals in the 90s: +3, -5, -6, -2, -5, -9, -5, -6, -3, -8. That’s remarkably consistent, but not in a good way. Was Griffey a guy who’s grace and flash made people think he was a better fielder than he really was? Or are his zone ratings missing something that the Gold Glove voters didn’t?
Top Seasons By Position
1B Rod Carew +19
2B Jose Oquendo +30
3B Brooks Robinson +32
SS Mark Belanger +34
LF Carl Yastrzemski +25
CF Kirby Puckett +27
RF Al Kaline +22
(Not that all positions are created equal.)
Hall of Fame Candidates
Jim Rice was +40 runs in left over his first dozen seasons and -28 over his final two. Tim Raines was +27 over his entire career, with no single season more than nine runs better or worse than average. Andre Dawson was +7 runs per season as a center fielder and just about average as a right fielder. Dale Murphy’s fielding record is all over the place. In center, he had seasons of +16, +18, and -21. In right, he posted a +16, but also a -25. In total, he’s about average. Alan Trammel ranks surprisingly low, at only 65 career runs saved. That’s only three ahead of Adam Everett, who’s had a much shorter career. Of course, Trammel knew how to hit, as well. Mark McGwire finished his career at +9 runs total in the field. He did have a four-year stretch from 1989 to 1992 in when he averaged +8 runs per season, but I think there are more important things to figure out about McGwire than his fielding record.
Top Active Fielders In Career Runs
Scott Rolen 3B +153
Darin Erstad CF/1B +99
Omar Vizquel SS +97
Adrian Beltre 3B +87
Placido Polanco 2B/3B +86
Jeff Cirillo 3B +76
Mark Ellis 2B +76
(Not that all positions are created equal.)
The Bottom Two
There are two fielders who are far and away the worst of the worst in career runs saved. Well, at their level, we really should be using an antonym of “saved”. Believe it or not, neither name is Manny Ramirez — he’s third worst, only ten runs behind the pack.
The silver medal goes to Dante Bichette, at a whopping 150 runs below average. And because the number one guy on the list is far worse than Bichette, I’ll spare him more comment.
Number one was 104 runs below average as a third baseman, 26 runs below average as a first baseman, 60 runs below average as a right fielder, and a few runs below average in both left and center. That’s right, Mr. Bobby Bonilla cost his team 194 runs more than the average fielder. I’m not sure if I’m more amazed at Bonilla’s complete lack of fielding ability or his NL teams’ willingness to repeatedly sign him to play the field. This dude was born to DH.
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Sky is a baseball fan and racket sport afficianado living in upstate NY. His favorite color is orange and is just about ready to give up on his life-long dream to become the next Magnus ver Magnuson (World's Strongest Man). His favorite baseball teams are the Yankees and Red Sox, proving that there's hope in the Middle East.
January 17th, 2008 at 8:53 am
When you say “above average”, do you mean above that player’s league’s average, or above average across MLB as a whole?
And maybe more importantly, what time period is this average based on? Is there an average for each season?
January 17th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Ahh, that picture brings me back. I had a poster made out of that Ozzie shot with the words “The Wizard” overlayed on the bottom that had a home on a wall near my bed from about 1990-2002. I still have it somewhere, maybe this will inspire me to get it back up again.
January 17th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
The Tony Gwynn?
January 18th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
For the 1957 through 1986 data, positional average is calculated yearly across MLB. For 1987 through 2007, positional averages are calculated yearly, but the AL and NL are done separately. Ideally, I’d like to see some sort of rolling average using multi-year data with cutoffs for important changes in the game (mound lowered, ‘98 onward, etc.) But I don’t see it as a huge deal, just another couple runs on the error bars.