skyking162

In an earlier look at some historical fielding stats, I posted the following information about Ozzie Smith and Mark Belanger, the two best fielding shortstops of the past fifty years, and concluded that both players provided similar fielding value to their teams throughout their careers. Belanger did it with a higher peak and Ozzie did it with a longer peak. Of course, you could consider their entire careers one long mountain range of fielding peaks.

                     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)

There’s an easier way to make the same point, however. I simply sorted each of their fielding totals from best to worst and plotted their corresponding seasons.

Combined, these two players had ten seasons saving at least 25 runs above average, nineteen seasons saving at least 15 runs above average, and only once in 36 seasons was one of them worse than average. Adding to Belanger’s impressive totals is the fact that he played in 500 fewer games than Ozzie.

While Belanger and Ozzie had very similar careers with the glove, only one of them is in the Hall of Fame. Looking at their performances with the bat, it’s no wonder why. Ozzie’s career line is .262/.337/.328 (AVG/OBP/SLG) which translates to an 87 OPS+. Belanger has a career line of .228/.300/.280, good for a 68 OPS+. The fact that two players with such awful slugging percentages could play for almost 20 years is amazing, but Belanger is a huge step behind Ozzie with the bat. Baseball-Reference’s batting wins stat shows this comparison on a yearly basis, sorted from best to worst:

Combining offense with defense should give the complete picture of these two players’ career value:

Other than their top seasons coming out equal, Ozzie outpaces Belanger by a win and a half per season through their top nine seasons. Beyond that, Belanger was a replacement level player while Ozzie maintained a steady decline.

Finally, let’s see how these two fielding gods compare with Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker, two other players who share a common bond and who I recently wrote about.

What’s surprising is that Ozzie really isn’t any better than the Tiger’s double play duo. Ozzie’s seasons all fall between Trammell’s and Whitaker’s, except for his best two, which are lower than both the other guys’. Yet Ozzie’s the one in the Hall of Fame. There must be more to making the Hall than simply accumulating a lot of career value — a statement that is perhaps more obvious than it should be. Evidently fact that Ozzie could be considered the best fielder ever counts for more than just on-field value. I won’t pass judgment on that, but I think it’s important to realize Ozzie Smith provided similar value to Trammell and Whitaker. All four players, including Belanger, deserve celebration.

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