He played for seven franchises but is best known for his stints with the Blue Jays, Orioles, and Indians. When the Hall of Famer retired in 1997, his .989 fielding percentage was a major league record. Thus, in addition to career WAR, we looked at WAR7 (seven best seasons), WAR/162 (Avg WAR per season), and the number of seasons the player was among the WAR leaders in the league. The top 100 will roll out next week. In college, Barney played on back-to-back championship teams at Oregon State University. But he was immediately fired, beaten over the head with wiffle ball bats and called names because of it. -- Christina Kahrl, ESPN.com MLB writer, Teams I remember reading something that Bill James had written about Jody Reed. Bottom line: Kudos to a player who never exactly excelled in the major leagues, but crafted a 15-year career with six different teams, playing both second base and shortstop. In 2004, he won the Silver Slugger Award and made his first of two appearances in the All-Star Game. Answer (1 of 30): I can't quibble with the other answers to this question, other than to offer the facts that 1. 10-time NL All Star (1966, '70, '72-79), All-Star MVP ('72), five NL Gold Gloves ('73-77), two-time NL MVP ('75-76), one NL Silver Slugger ('82), Hall of Fame ('90), Career stats* Espinal came to the Blue Jays from the Red Sox in trade for Steve Pearce back in July of 2018, one of those trades that worked out well for both teams. Once established, the Tigers wouldnt have to look for a second baseman until 1942. 11-20: Here is a list of 10 other second basemen that were in serious contention of taking this 10th spot away from Frisch. .271/.392/.427, OPS -- .819, Hits -- 2,517, HRs -- 268, RBIs -- 1,133, In 1975 and 1976, Joe Morgan towered over the National League, winning back-to-back MVP awards, with WAR totals of 10.9 and 9.6. This week, were on to the keystone as we take a look at the best second basemen of all time. Extrapolate that to an entire season, and you have an MVP candidate. While it's hard, if not impossible, to compare across eras, there is a lot of evidence that baseball players have been improving defensively over the years, so fairly recent players a. Brooks Robinson is generally regarded as the GOAT defensively at third. Gantner was famously feisty, often tangling with opponents on the field and sometimes in the bar. The Cardinals, Giants and Braves all got rid of him in a three-year span. That said: I don't buy the consensus that he's the best second baseman ever. And in 2013, he coached the Israeli national team in the World Baseball Classic. Buddy Bell and Adrian Beltre. 1 second baseman for every club, as chosen by MLB.com's beat reporters. Cano continued to hit in Seattle, but his first positive test for an illegal substance caused him to miss half of the 2018 season. The way it really is. Alomar won back-to-back World Series titles with Toronto in 1992 and 1993 but never made it back to the Fall Classic with the Orioles or Indians despite four playoff appearances. Bottom line: You can go far in baseball if you can play defense and have some pop in your bat. Alomars post-season totals are impressive: a .313 batting average, four HRs, 33 RBI, 32 runs, and 20 SBs in 58 games. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1937, with the second group of Cooperstown legends. Who is the best defensive catcher of all time? Despite his personal success, Carews Twins teams did not win much. In 2007, he won the Silver Slugger Award and was named to his first of two All-Star Game appearances. His 136 wRC+ last year would have placed him first out of all second basemen in 2021. He worked to toughen his hands, and felt that he was more sure handed without the leather. Philadelphia Phillies (1896-1900), Philadelphia A's ('01-02, '15-16), Cleveland Bronchos ('02), Cleveland Naps ('03-14), Honors Also in 2001, Counsell was named the MVP of the NLCS. Whites No. He was elected in 1939 to the Hall of Fame with the fourth set of illustrious entrants. It didnt matter where Lajoie played in the field; he was excellent everywhere. Teams: Milwaukee Brewers, Houston Astros, San Diego Padres, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers. During the 2012 season, Barney committed just two errors, and tied the major league record for consecutive errorless games at second base with 141. The next four seasons were magical for Morgan, especially 1975 and 1976. And hes been to the All-Star Game four times. His long career puts him high in the record books among second basemen. Jackie only played 11 professional seasons, including one with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro League, where he didnt debut until he was 26. Your email address will not be published. Rod Carew 5. He didn't reach the majors until he was 28, but hit .311/.409/.474 and was one of the most exciting players ever with his daring dashes on the bases. He was the all-time home run leader among second baseman until Jeff Kent passed him. By that time, Carew had shifted to first base, where he would remain for the second half of his career. Hornsby got a taste of the show in 1915 and was a regular with the Cardinals the following season. He won the Triple Crown in 1922 and 25, won six of his seven batting titles with the Cardinals and won the first of his two MVP Awards in St. Louis. -- Schoenfield, Teams Teams: St Louis Cardinals, Minnesota Twins, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets, San Francisco Giants. In an era before awards, Lajoie led the league in key offensive categories several times during his 21-year career, including hits (4x), doubles (5x), RBI (3x), batting average (5x), SLG (4x), and HRs (1x). But Bill James presented this conclusion, Jody Reed is second all time in the history of MLB in defensive Win Shares per season for a second baseman, behind only Bill Mazeroski. He won rings in Toronto. AL Triple Crown (1901), Hall of Fame ('37), Career stats Playing for the Rockies from 2012 to 2018, he was a three-time Gold Glove winner (2014, 2017 and 2018), and was an All-Star pick in 2015 and 2017 but not in 2016, when he wound up as the NL batting champion. Mazeroski remains the only player in Major League history to hit a walk-off homer in Game 7 of the World Series, which he did to lead the Bucs . Lajoie retired following the 1916 season. He was ever so slightly below average. Bottom line: Joe Panik was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in 2011 and didnt get called up until the 2014 season. To illustrate how big Lajoie was in his day, the Bronchos renamed themselves The Naps after their leader in 1903. The 2007 AL Rookie of the Year has been a significant contributor to the modern-day success of the Red Sox. 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. In 2007, Phillips joined the 30-30 club 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases in one season. He hit .400 three times, including .424 in 1924, and .358 lifetime. Had Robinson played more seasons, he would have been towards the top of this list. Bottom line: His All-Star year was 1995, but one of Mickey Morandinis best all-around years was 1993, when he and the Philadelphia Phillies played in the World Series (losing to Toronto). The job description requires them to be nimble and quick in the field, with a good arm, range to pick up ground balls, and adept at turning double plays. .320/.404/.480, OPS -- .884, Hits -- 2,839, HRs -- 184, RBIs -- 1,427, They called him The Mechanical Man, a tribute to his consistency. He won rookie-of-the-year that season, finished fifth in the MVP voting, and led the league in stolen bases. Bottom line: Robinson Cano won a World Series title with the New York Yankees (2009) during his nine-year run with the Yanks. He won 10 Gold Gloves while, oh by the way, hitting .300 with speed AND power. (His older brother, Josh, is a rookie third baseman with the Rangers . With catchers and first basemen in the books, next up is second base. They include All-Stars, World Series champions, Hall of Famers and baseball legends. Santiago Espinal turned 28 last November. St. Louis Cardinals (1915-26, '33), New York Giants ('27), Boston Braves ('28); Chicago Cubs ('29-32), St. Louis Browns ('33-37), Honors I will list them in order, from oldest to newest: Fred Dunlap (1880s), Nap Lajoie (1900s), Lonny Frey (1940s), Eddie Mayo (1940s), Gil McDougald (1950s), Jackie Robinson (1950s), Red Schoendienst (1950s), Fernando Vina (1990s), Craig Counsell (2000s)and Pokey Reese (2000s), 9. Let's talk about who the best ever were at that position, defensively speaking. Here we go. Based upon Gold Gloves won, Ivan Rodriguez is the clear victor, while based upon fielding percentage, numerous players who spent more than 10 seasons in the Majors have a . In summary, Max Muncy rakes, and he turns it up a notch higher come playoff time. That puts him in a class with the game's all-time greats. Rookie of the Year (1947), MVP ('49), six-time All Star ('49-54), Hall of Fame ('62), Career stats -- Scott Lauber, ESPN.com Red Sox reporter, Second basemen aren't supposed to be great. His defensive rating on Fangraphs leads all second basemen all-time with over 1,000 plate appearances. Much of his career came in the low-scoring 1970s, and he won seven batting titles, hit .328 lifetime and chased .400 in 1977, when he finished at .388. In the field, he's . I got sidetracked there. Because we adjust for timeline and era, our rankings have fewer players from before 1941 than many other baseball player lists. Nolan Arenado /.9718/, 5. Teams The way it really was. 8) MLB Power Rankings: Trade candidate C.J. The only question these days is will he make the National Baseball Hall of Fame? The only knock on Muncy is defense, as he rates below average at the position, and he's coming off Tommy John. He ranks second in all-time WAR-162 and sixth in WAR7 among second basemen, representing his dominance. If you want to know how bad things got, over Kilian's first nine starts in Iowa, he went 2-0 with a 2.06 ERA. Teams: St. Louis Cardinals, Toronto Blue Jays, Philadelphia Phillies, Detroit Tigers, Miami Marlins. At that point, he was in his 40s and starting to show his age. He was a three-time All-Star, won three consecutive Gold Glove Awards and was part of the franchise's two World Series championship teams. 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