All-Century Cheat Sheet: Infield

Last time, with some help from a reader, I outlined just how awry this All-Century Team voting is getting. After our look at the All-Century process and a quick rundown of the catcher position last time, here's a run through the infield, where even more stupidity awaits.

Let's begin with first base. For information on the stats I'm using here, see the above article.

FIRST BASE	Played	Adjusted Production	AP Rank	Total Player  Rating	TPR Rank
Lou Gehrig	1923-39	182	3	65.7	16
Jimmie Foxx	1925-45	161	11	54.0	20
Hank Greenberg	1930-47	157	12	30.0	86
Mark McGwire	1986-Present	157	14	30.5	82
Willie McCovey	1959-80	148	32	36.5	55
Harmon Killebrew	1954-75	142	46	26.4	115
Eddie Murray	1977-97	130	110	35.0	66
Bill Terry	1923-36	137	72	24.9	127
George Sisler	1915-30	124	150	22.7	146
Buck Leonard	1934-48	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

One local columnist here in Seattle noted that Lou Gehrig was one of the few no-brainers on the ballot, and I'd have to agree. After all, if you are a newspaper columnist and don't actually have much of a brain to use, these no-brainers come in real handy. Gehrig ranks among the best players of all time by any measure, and he tops this list by a fair margin. Next up is Jimmie Foxx, who could have been even better if he hadn't just fizzled out in his mid-30s.

After that, we get a bunch of guys who can produce at a prodigious rate; Greenberg and McGwire particularly. None of them, however, kept it up for long enough to accumulate the kind of career value (TPR) that Gehrig and Foxx did. McGwire may, but he hasn't achieved it quite yet.Another four seasons like the last two, and he'll be up there with Gehrig.

The inclusion of Terry and Sisler is puzzling. Decent producers, but hardly top-notch. As with the catching position, we have a top-rank Negro League contender, and as he and Josh Gibson were, for the most part, a tandem like Ruth and Gehrig, I'm choosing him to go along with Gibson on my team.

So, for first base, we have Gehrig and Leonard, with honorable mentions to Foxx, Greenberg and McGwire. Predictably, the fans are voting in Gehrig in a landslide, with McGwire a comfortable second over Foxx. Unfortunately, they're also asking, "Buck who?"

On so to second base.

SECOND BASE	Played	Adjusted Production	AP Rank	Total Player  Rating	TPR Rank
Rogers Hornsby	1915-37	176	4	81.1	9
Napoleon Lajoie	1896-1916	150	26	94.2	2
Eddie Collins	1906-30	142	44	69.8	14
Joe Morgan	1963-84	133	95	56.3	19
Charlie Gehringer	1924-42	123	150	44.4	29
Jackie Robinson	1947-56	131	100	31.8	75
Rod Carew	1967-85	131	100	31.7	76
Frankie Frisch	1919-37	110	500	39.0	49

Here's where some serious late-20th-century bias has come into play. From the table it's easy to see that three early century players lap the field entirely. Hornsby, Lajoie and Collins were nothing short of superstars. It's a credit to Joe Morgan that he compares so well with those guys, a respectable fourth behind them.

Gehringer, Robinson and Carew are definitely a notch below that, while Frankie Frisch is pretty much a longevity candidate -- barely above average for a long time. The same could be said of his Veterans Committee work for the Hall of Fame. It takes mediocrity to recognize it, I guess.

Jackie Robinson, of course, has a huge intangible going for him, and so the voting shows. I can't begrudge the fans this one at all. He leads the second base vote comfortably, while Hornsby is just managing to hold off Morgan. We inexplicably have Rod Carew next -- an obvious bias to recent name recognition. The voters do know mediocrity when they see it though, keeping Frisch firmly in last place.

Personally, put me down for Hornsby and Robinson, just like the fans.

Third base is the shortest of the ballots, and an odd one. For whatever reason, the ballot makers chose to leave off Wade Boggs, who hasn't exactly set the world on fire the last few years, but has had a very solid career -- marginally better than George Brett, as you can see from the table.

THIRD BASE	Played	Adjusted Production	AP Rank	Total Player  Rating	TPR Rank
Mike Schmidt	1972-89	147	35	78.4	10
Eddie Mathews	1952-68	145	38	51.6	22
Wade Boggs **	1982-Present	134	86	44.6	27
George Brett	1973-93	135	78	39.0	47
Paul Molitor	1978-98	127	150	35.3	64
Pie Traynor	1920-37	107	1000	20.7	169
Brooks Robinson	1955-77	105	1000	19.8	181

** Not on ballot

Far ahead of the pack, though, is Mike Schmidt, the second-most famous man ever to be booed in Philadelphia. (The first, of course, is Santa Claus.) Schmidt's numbers are remarkable. Not far behind, and well ahead of the rest, is Eddie Mathews. Unfortunately, the world doesn't seem to remember Eddie very well, as he's languishing in fourth place behind Schmidt, Brett and the light-hitting Brooks Robinson.

As the table shows, Robinson and Traynor were barely better-than-league-average as hitters, and Brooks got a good chunk of his career value from the glove. Note that TPR includes fielding, so there is no hidden "gold glove" bonus to be added to these numbers. In fact, many analysts believe the fielding value part of TPR to be vastly inflated.

It's hard for me to think of Paul Molitor as a third baseman, but as there wasn't a ballot category for "weak hitting DH", I guess they needed to put him somewhere.

My votes go to Schmidt and Mathews, while those baby boomer fans who remember all those Brooks Robinson highlight plays are making him a close second behind Mike.

Finally, we get to shortstop. Once again, we have a very strong turn-of-the-century candidate in Honus Wagner, who is simply the best shortstop there ever was. Even A-Rod, Nomar and Derek won't have the chance to surpass him until well into the next century. Here's a shortstop who is 27th on the all time Production list and eighth in career value. The seven guys ahead of him are Ruth, Lajoie, Mays, Cobb, Aaron, Tris Speaker and Ted Williams. This guy flat out should be one of the choices.

SHORTSTOP	Played	Adjusted Production	AP Rank	Total Player  Rating	TPR Rank
Honus Wagner	1897-1917	150	27	81.2	8
Arky Vaughan **	1932-48	136	76	39.2	46
Lou Boudreau **	1938-52	121	325	41.3	38
Robin Yount	1974-93	115	450	43.1	33
Joe Cronin	1926-45	119	350	39.4	45
Cal Ripken Jr.	1981-Present	117	400	39.9	44
Luke Appling	1930-50	113	500	40.7	41
Ernie Banks	1953-71	122	300	25.9	120
Ozzie Smith	1978-96	88	2000	43.0	34
Luis Aparicio	1956-73	82	2000	12.4	250

** Not on ballot

After that, I was curious trying to figure out how come Arky Vaughan got left off the list in favor of Luis Aparicio. Even Lou Boudreau slots in ahead of everyone else. After that, the remainder of the candidates are pretty humdrum, offensively at least. Two of the candidates only spent half their careers playing short: Banks and Yount. Banks, the lovable "Mr. Cub," is one of the most overrated players on the ballot.

It's interesting to see just how bad offensively Ozzie Smith was - 12% below average for his career. Almost all of his TPR comes from the aforementioned dubious fielding runs. No doubt he was brilliant defensively, but this ballot is definitely an "I saw Ozzie play so I'm voting for him" kind of deal.

The voting is actually pretty tight, with Ripken leading and Banks and Smith in a tight scrap for second place. Wagner hangs in a close fourth, but not likely to break the top two (unless you vote now!)

My votes go to Wagner and Ripken -- the latter not so much for on-field prowess, but rather for his contribution to the revitalizing of baseball after the strike, especially as none of the other candidates after Wagner show anything special.

So there's the infield rundown. Next week: Pitchers and outfielders.

If you haven't already, you can vote online at: http://www.majorleaguebaseball.com/u/baseball/mlbcom/allcentury/ac_info.htm

Online voting ends September 14th

about the author

Dave Paisley is responsible for hacking into majorleaguebaseball.com and drawing mustaches on all the Cincinnati Reds. Let him know that Marge would like to "speak" with him about that at drdjp@strikethree.com.