Monday, January 24, 2011

Baseball - The Best

Well, it's January and that means that I have been frequenting Fan Graphs and Baseball Reference quite a bit. I imagine that a few of us have been yearning for baseball to begin anew. (I have also supplemented my baseball fever with Ken Burns' series. Got it for Christmas. I'm on inning 9.)

I thought I'd throw out some Hot Stove discussions. The best at each position. First up, First Base. Do your research and share your decision and rational in the comments.

8 Comments:

Blogger dmh said...

I considered 3 guys. Albert Pujols, Jimmy Foxx and Lou Gehrig

Albert Pujols – He does not quite have the succession of monster years as the other two, but, man, is he consistently excellent. Honestly though, I need to see 6 or 7 more excellent years before I could name him the best of all time, but I think he might be on his way.

Foxx – I like Foxx and he is a sad story. Divorce and sinus problems and other injuries caused his performance to nose dive (pun intended) after 1941. I’m still not convinced that he would top Gehrig though if he was healthy.

Gehrig (my pick)– talk about health issues. I would like to see his numbers if he had a couple more seasons. Only a handful of players have great seasons late in their career, but Gehrig was on pace for that. There is a bit of “what if…” but really, even with a shorted career, no first baseman can touch his numbers and he was Lutheran.

In the future, I’m probably going to knock down pre-Robinson players a bit (5 or 10 %?) in comparison to post-1947 players because of watered down competition, but that wasn’t a factor is this case.

1/24/2011 11:54:00 AM  
Blogger Seriously said...

Rationally, I would pick the same people... maybe...Gehrig is numer uno. He easily cruises with the intangible and the very, very tangible.

Jimmie Foxx... yes. In and awesome.

Neither had to hit against Satchel. For realz.

I would throw a wild card.

Stan Le Man did technically play over a thousand games at first base. He played more at first base than Jesus. Ane he is the WAR leader. I don't understand WAR, but it is a real thing. It is a means of baseball grace.

That said... for the sake of pure baseball nerditry, the first baseman I select for my fantasy fantasy team is... Cap Anson. Because he has the highest WAR of any player who played when the baseball looked like a truffle, when the bats were made of solid fossilized trees, and when managers would still occasionally slip in the occasional African American player (see: Moses Fleetwood Walker).

That said, though this is a purely contrarian argument, it is curious that Cap Anson is the only player on the WAR list that existed in a completely different decade under COMPLETELY different circumstances.

1/24/2011 09:11:00 PM  
Blogger Seriously said...

I also just like the novelty of the awesome fact that Anson started his playing career six years after the end of the Civil War.

Though the fact the Wikipedia says he refused to play against Moses Fleetwood Walker kind of hurts that case.

1/25/2011 06:40:00 AM  
Blogger dmh said...

I originally considered Musial, but since he had almost twice as many at bats from the outfield I'm considering him in that category. I still think Gehrig beats Musial regardless of position though.

The person who this position thing perhaps most affects is ARod. It's hard for me to see him as a third baseman only. But if you consider him as a shortshop... well, it doesn't matter because it won't beat Wagner.

Yeah, Cap Anson is odd. He played for the White sox (then renamed the Colts?) so I hate him.

Roger Connor puzzles me as well. He hit the ball out of the park. in the dead ball era. The idea of the ball leaving the field baffled people. I love this quote: "He met it squarely and it soared up with the speed of a carrier pigeon. All eyes were turned on the tiny sphere as it soared over the head of Charlie Buffinton in right field." Ruth broke his HR record (138).

1/25/2011 09:54:00 PM  
Blogger dmh said...

Also, Gehrig's average from 1934-37 (his last healthy seasons, age 31-34) OBP.470/SLG .659/ OPS 1.129.

1/25/2011 10:05:00 PM  
Blogger Seriously said...

re: Connor... hitting the baall out of the park during the dead ball era could have also been letting the ball roll far enough in crappy ground... but he did it a lot more than anyone else.

My final answer is Gehrig.

1/25/2011 10:48:00 PM  
Blogger M said...

I have nothing to add to this except that I am thoroughly enjoying being an eFly on this iWall.

1/26/2011 05:44:00 AM  
Blogger dmh said...

Final thing about Gehrig. If not for some guy named Ruth, Gehrig would have nearly lead the league in OPS every season of his career:

On-Base Plus Slugging
1926 AL .969 (4th)
1927 AL 1.240 (2nd)
1928 AL 1.115 (2nd)
1929 AL 1.015 (4th)
1930 AL 1.194 (2nd)
1931 AL 1.108 (2nd)
1932 AL 1.072 (3rd)
1933 AL 1.030 (2nd)
1934 AL 1.172 (1st)
1935 AL 1.049 (2nd)
1936 AL 1.174 (1st)
1937 AL 1.116 (1st)
Career 1.080 (3rd)

You'll notice he had a couple bad seasons there, only 4th.

1/26/2011 03:08:00 PM  

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