skyking162

Over the past few weeks, I’ve dissected the careers of two pairs of famously joined middle infielders — first Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker, then Ozzie Smith and Mark Belanger. Everyone except Belanger provided surprisingly similar career value, right at the point where most people make the cut-off for Hall of Fame election. As a comparison, and as a way to honor Fire Joe Morgan’s recent Scooby-Doo moment, here’s what the career of an all-time great, sure-fire Hall of Fame second baseman looks like.

The stathead cliche about Joe Morgan is that he himself doesn’t understand what made him a terrific player. His career batting average of .271 is pedestrian, he only hit 268 career homers with a seasonal high of 27, and he posted a 100 RBI season only once in 22 years.

But if you look at the new age stats, made famous in Billy Beane’s book Moneyball (available at your local library), the greatness comes to light:

• eight seasons with 100 walks and eight more with at least 80
• led the league in OBP four times and was second three times
• 689 stolen bases at an 81% success rate
• a career 132 OPS+
• a glove that was above-average through his peak years

Morgan’s best five consecutive seasons were from 1972 through 1976, when he posted at least 4.5 batting wins above average each season, topping off at 6.3 in his second consecutive MVP season in 1976. He finished in the top ten of MVP voting each of the first three seasons of that stretch as well. His typical AVG/OBP/SLG batting line was something like .300/.430/.500, good for a 165 OPS+, and he averaged +6 runs in the field per season.

Hell, here’s every season Morgan spent in the majors. (I’m giving Morgan no positional adjustment, like with second basemen in today’s game, but there might be an argument for giving pre-1980 second basemen a bonus. I just haven’t seen enough discussion of the topic.)

Year	PAs	Bat	Field	WAR
1963	30	0	-0.1	0.0
1964	43	-0.3	0.0	-0.2
1965	708	2.9	0.0	5.1
1966	528	2.5	-0.4	3.7
1967	580	2.4	-0.5	3.7
1968	27	0.2	-0.3	0.0
1969	657	1.2	-1.1	2.1
1970	658	1.5	-1.2	2.4
1971	689	1.6	1.4	5.1
1972	680	4.5	0.9	7.5
1973	698	4.8	1.1	8.0
1974	641	4.8	0.5	7.3
1975	639	5.8	1.5	9.3
1976	599	6.3	-0.2	7.9
1977	645	3.3	-1.2	4.1
1978	533	0.7	-1.2	1.1
1979	538	1	-0.7	2.0
1980	562	1.5	0.8	4.0
1981	378	1	-0.2	1.9
1982	554	2.7	0.3	4.7
1983	504	1.4	0.0	3.0
1984	438	0.6	-0.6	1.4

Outside of Morgan’s best five seasons, his career looks similar to Whitaker’s, Trammell’s, and Ozzie’s, a testament of the longevity of all four players. But those five seasons all dwarfed anything put up by the other three. In fact, Morgan’s 1976 was more valuable than ARod’s 2007. Morgan totalled 84 career wins above replacement, well ahead of Whitaker’s 66, Ozzie’s 59, or Trammell’s 55. For a low-average, no-power middle infielder, he sure knew how to play baseball.



By the way, did you know that Joe’s middle name is Leonard?

Popularity: 13% [?]