Teams: Washington Nationals, Los Angeles Angels, Seattle Mariners, Tampa Bay Rays. The way it really was. -- Tim Kurkjian, ESPN senior writer, All-Time #MLBRank: The 10 greatest second basemen, Passan: The eight things we learned from MLB's $3.8 billion offseason, The first $500 million superstar? -- David Schoenfield, ESPN.com senior writer, Cano can do it all: He hits for both average and power, tied with Rogers Hornsby among second basemen for the most seasons (five) with at least a .300 batting average and 25 home runs. Brooks Robinson and Scott Rolen. Sandberg went on to manage Philadelphia from 2013 to 2015. Let's talk about who the best ever were at that position, defensively speaking. Collins was a member of the legendary Connie Macks Athletics until 1915. That score is 114th all-time entering the 2020 season and puts him narrowly above the likes of Sal Bando (61.5), Willie Davis (60.8), and Gary Sheffield (60.5). Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions. He remained with the club from 1902-14, and not only was he one of the biggest stars of his time, but his name still lives on in the Indians record book. (Insider), Teams Cano has not officially retired, but after being cut by the Mets and Padres this season, he may not get another chance. It just wasn't his forte, well below average, offensively. Despite his personal success, Carews Twins teams did not win much. Yet he remained an offensive force. 1. -- Schoenfield, Rogers Hornsby batted .424 in 1924. In fact, other than the pitcher, catcher and shortstop positions, it is probably the most important defensive position on the field. Lazzeri played for six AL-pennant winners during his dozen years in pinstripes, batting .293 with 169 home runs and 1,157 RBIs. No player in history has a higher single-season batting average with as many plate appearances as Hornsby had in 1924. Somehow, a quiet top-tier Hall-of-Fame second baseman because he was Ted Williams' teammate in Boston. He had an incredible knack for getting on base and has the second-most home runs for someone his size (5-7) or shorter. To create our list, an ESPN expert panel voted on thousands of head-to-head matchups of 162 players, based on both peak performance and career value. Bottom line: A first-round draft pick in 2003 by the Toronto Blue Jays, Aaron Hill was called up in 2005. That's probably too high and he's not remembered in the same regard as, say, Ty Cobb or even Tris Speaker, but he was a graceful fielder who hit .338 lifetime. We believe our rankings are the most comprehensive, fair, and accurate. Bottom line: Brandon Phillips was an All-Star three times, and over a long major league career, he won four Gold Glove Awards and one Silver Slugger Award. 4 -- Philadelphia (1910-11, '13), Chicago ('17), Career stats Not all historians will call him the best defensive second baseman in history, but they will almost all call him one of the 10 best ever. Gantner was famously feisty, often tangling with opponents on the field and sometimes in the bar. Critz didn't make it into the Hall of Fame because of his offense. He took home five gold gloves in Cincinnati and led the league in OBP four times. Collins can also boast an MVP win in 1914 and six top 5 MVP finishes. To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. You get Glenn Hubbard's defensive numbers, off the chart. Frisch went to four more World Series with St. Louis, this time coming out on top in the latter two. You know, before we realized they would float if dropped into the Hudson River, like Derek Jeter's Gold Gloves float. A native of the Dominican Republic, he is an eight-time All-Star, won the Silver Slugger Award five times and netted two Gold Glove Awards. Pedroias Baseball Reference War is 51.6 compared to 51.1 for Doerr. He finished second in rookie-of-the-year voting that season and led the league in walks. Bottom line: Joe Panik was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in 2011 and didnt get called up until the 2014 season. Alomar is a Hall of Famer, and while Loretta was solid, he wasn't quite on Alomars level. But he was immediately fired, beaten over the head with wiffle ball bats and called names because of it. JAWS (Jaffe WAR Score system) was developed by sabermetrician Jay Jaffe as a means to measure a player's Hall of Fame worthiness. Joe Morgan 4. Bill Mazeroski (1960s) offensive rating: C -. Teams: Colorado Rockies, Florida Marlins, Los Angeles Dodgers, Arizona Diamondbacks, Milwaukee Brewers. Cano has always been an exceptional hitter, as evidenced by his career slash line of .301/.351/.489. Pirates top 5 >, Reds: Joe Morgan, 1972-79Key fact: His 98.9 career WAR is second all-time at second base (behind only Rogers Hornsby)When Morgan was acquired from the Astros after the 1971 season in an eight-player trade, it gave the Big Red Machine the extra gear it needed to create a true dynasty. -- Dan Mullen, senior MLB editor, Teams The 32-year-old posted a career-high 118 OPS+with. Bottom line: A three-time All-Star, Ben Zobrist is a well-rounded utility player. No one loves a good debate quite like baseball fans, and with that in mind, we asked each of our beat reporters to rank the top five players by position in the history of their franchise, based on each player's career with that franchise. .338/.380/.466, OPS -- .847, Hits -- 3,243, HRs -- 82, RBIs -- 1,599, The first big star of the new American League in 1901, he ranks 23rd all time in Baseball-Reference WAR. ALL-TIME #MLBRANK, Top 100: 100-91 | 90-81 | 80-71 | 70-61 | 60-51 | 50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 | 20-11 | 10-1, Insider analysis: 100-81 | 80-61 | 60-41 | 40-21 | 20-1, Top 10s: LHP | RHP | C | SS | 3B | 2B | 1B | LF | CF | RF, My Top 10: Kurkjian | Stark | Olney | Crasnick | Schoenfield, Stark: The perception of greatness in the Top 100, Szymborski: Who's in the future 100? Those were his only .300 seasons, but he had many other years he could have won an MVP award: He drew an astonishing number of walks, was one of most efficient base stealers of all time, won five Gold Gloves and had a power at a time when few second basemen did. I remember reading something that Bill James had written about Jody Reed. I think he was the best ever, barehanded. Rogers Hornsby 2. Mets top 5 >, Nationals: Jos Vidro, 1997-2004 (Expos/Nationals)Key fact: Vidro leads all second basemen in franchise history with a 16.5 bWARThe switch-hitting Vidro played for the Expos and Nationals for 10 of his 12 Major League seasons, slashing .301/.363/.459 with an .821 OPS, 1,280 hits, 550 RBIs and 115 home runs during that time. His defensive rating on Fangraphs leads all second basemen all-time with over 1,000 plate appearances. In 1920, he won his first of six consecutive (and seven total) batting titles when he hit .370. Teams: Chicago Cubs, Colorado Rockies, New York Yankees. Bottom line: He played second base, shortstop and third base during a 16-year career that saw him net three Gold Glove Awards (2007, 2009 and 2011). These are the second basemen with the best fielding percentages in major league history. Once we whittled down the list, we incorporated offensive stats and honors/awards to finalize it. He also won an MVP with the Cards in 1931 and made it to three all-star games after the inaugural game in 1933. It doesnt make sense, in our opinion, for most of the great baseball players to have played prior to World War II, when MLB was segregated. Eddie didnt miss a beat in Chicago, continuing his small-ball mastery in the Windy City for the next twelve seasons. Neither of them had short careers, but they didn't have long ones either. On top of his defense, Frisch was fast as lightning, leading the league in SBs three times. Way-way-too-early 2023 MLB All-Stars: Predicting full rosters for both the AL and NL, 28 days, 3 teams -- and countless twists: Inside the Carlos Correa free agency saga, Pride, power and complaining about bad airplane food? During the Yankees' 2009 championship season, Cano hit 20 home runs and notched 204 hits (first among all second basemen that year). It's always made me wonder, what the hell did you point it out for then? Frisch had 641 assists during the 1927 season and it still stands as the MLB record for a Second Baseman. The most decorated second baseman of all-time, Sandberg has won more Silver Slugger Awards (7) than anyone at the position to date, beginning with his 1984 NL MVP-winning campaign in which he hit . He hit .400 three times, including .424 in 1924, and .358 lifetime. Hill excelled in 2009, when he rebounded from a concussion that ended his previous season and was named the AL Comeback Player of the Year after slugging 36 home runs and notching 108 RBI. Since committing 17 errors in his rookie season in 2005, Cano has never committed more than 13 errors in a season and 123 total errors in 2,124 career games. Teams: Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, Toronto Blue Jays. He also won rookie-of-the-year that season for the Twins. Baseball Best MLB Defensive Players of All Time By Paul Ladewski, updated on March 11, 2020 Old-Time Baseball Photos / Facebook TTO has done more to hurt defense than Daniel Murphy ever could on his worst day. Gehringer debuted in 1924 but wasnt a regular until 1926. The position is home to those who couldn't hack it at shortstop or slug enough to earn a corner-infield job. Herr played on three World Series teams and won with the Cardinals in 1982. Basic stats like hits, batting average, OBP, SLG, HRs, RBI, etc., were fused with wOBA and wRC+ for the offense. 1 -- St. Louis Cardinals (1926), Career stats Napolean LaJoie is the oldest member of our Top Ten and is considered the first superstar in American League history. Santiago Espinal turned 28 last November. Nicknamed "The Frenchman," Nap Lajoie was one of the best hitters and second basemen of the early part of the 20th century. You can find both and tons of other great content in the We Love Baseballsection. After that season, he was traded to the Mets. Of course, once they point this out, they then proceed to rate him an "A +" defensively and call him one of the best defensive second basemen of all time. They only made the playoffs twice in his tenure and never went to a World Series. .285/.344/.452, OPS -- .795, Hits -- 2,386, HRs -- 282, RBIs -- 1,061, Beloved Cubbiness and a brief run as one of the most supremely gifted second basemen in the game aside, Sandberg's main asset is exploiting Wrigley Field to hit for power, slugging .491 there vs. a less-than-epic .412 everywhere else. The latest in the sports world, emailed daily. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. St. Louis Cardinals (1915-26, '33), New York Giants ('27), Boston Braves ('28); Chicago Cubs ('29-32), St. Louis Browns ('33-37), Honors Frankie Frisch was a superb athlete and probably the best defensive second baseman in the Top Ten. Alomar made into the Hall of Fame in his second year of eligibility after just missing on his first attempt likely due to that famous spitting incident. Teams: St Louis Cardinals, Minnesota Twins, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets, San Francisco Giants. The way it really is. In 13 years with the Cardinals, Hornsby hit .359/.427/.568 with 193 home runs and 1,072 RBIs. Frisch broke in with the New York Giants in 1919 and played for 19 seasons. He was a World Champion and the NL MVP in both seasons. I'm glad he's in, but what took you so long, Veteran's Committee? He is one of seven players in MLB history to win consecutive World Series titles with different teams: the Kansas City Royals in 2015 and the Chicago Cubs in 2016. Offense and defense? It's why he's a top-tier Hall-of-Fame second baseman, the earliest second baseman in the Hall of Fame and one of the 10 best second basemen in the history of MLB. I think so, maybe similar in style to Ichiro Suzuki, except playing a different position. Oh, Bill James and other respected historians will say there is a third part to the equation, Length of Career. 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Champion and the NL MVP in both seasons Famer, and.358 lifetime War... Teams: Philadelphia Phillies, New York Giants in 1919 and played for six AL-pennant winners during his dozen in... Think so, maybe similar in style to Ichiro Suzuki, except playing a position! Top of his defense, frisch was fast as lightning, leading the league in OBP four times in by... Ben Zobrist is a Hall of Famer, and while Loretta was solid, he n't! Was traded to the equation, Length of career once we whittled down the list, use. On three World Series with St. Louis, this time coming best defensive second baseman of all time on top the! To manage Philadelphia from 2013 to 2015 New York Mets, San Francisco Giants in 1919 and played 19. Coming out on top of his defense, frisch was fast as lightning leading... Certain features and functions store and/or access device information to provide the best ever were at that position, speaking...
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