The Forgotten Horsemen: Redefining Second Base

In 2005, Ryne Sandberg and Wade Boggs were selected to join baseball's elite fraternity, the Hall of Fame.

Sandberg, in particular, was heralded not only as the best second baseman of his era (Sandberg played from 1981 to 1997), but also as someone who redefined the position, stripping away the defense-first mantra of old and installing one consisting of first-rate offense and damn good defense to boot.

Sandberg indeed did do this, finishing his career with a batting line of .285/.344/.452, and an OPS+ of 114.

Sandberg broke into the top-10 of the MLB in OBP and SLG a total of six times in his career, and was in the top-10 in OPS+ a total of three times. 

In other, more comprehensive statistics, Sandberg was also very good. Ryne finished his career with an Equivalent Average (EqA, an all- encompassing metric that takes into account on-base abilities and the ability to hit for power and stolen bases, all the while being independent of league and park factors; it is scaled like batting average, with .260-.270 being average) of .284.

According to Wins Above Replacement Player (WARP, the number of wins a player contributed over a replacement-level player), Sandberg contributed 69.3 wins to his teams throughout the years, a very good mark, especially for a second-baseman at the time.

But was Sandberg really the best at redefining his position from a primarily defensive-minded one to one concentrated on superior offense? Was he even the first to do so?

The answer to the former will be discussed later, and the answer to the latter question is no, he was not.

Joe Morgan started his career in 1967 at the age of 19, and by the time of Sanberg's rookie season in 1981, Morgan had already played 18 years in the MLB and had managed to put together a batting line that Sandberg would never touch: .275/.395/.433 with an OPS+ of 134.

Morgan finished his career with a batting line of .271/.392/.427 and an OPS+ of 132.

Morgan also finished in the top-10 of the MLB in OBP and SLG a total of 15 times in his career, leading the league in either stat five times.

Joe also finished his career with more hits (2,517 to 2,386), doubles (449 to 403) and stolen bases (689 to 344) than Sandberg eventually would.

Morgan simply out-classed Sandberg in EqA and WARP, finshing his career with a .318 EqA and 124.2 WARP.

Clearly, Morgan redefined the second base position even before Sandberg came into the league, and even did it better than Sandberg is believed to have done in his time.

This is not to say that Sandberg wasn't good, rather that the accolade thrust upon him as the sole player that redefined the position of second base is not warranted and just not true.

Now, another accolade associated with Ryne Sandberg is that he was the best second baseman of his era. And indeed, this was the crux of many of arguments for Hall of Fame induction, as the player actually responsible for the redefinition of the position, Joe Morgan, was already in the Hall of Fame.

The truth is, though, that Sandberg was not the best second baseman of his era.

He was very good, to be sure, but he was not alone atop the league's second baseman, rather, there were three other players that had similar season-to-season abilities and career lines to Sandberg.

However for some reason, these other three horsemen have been forgotten by baseball and denied entrance into the Hall of Fame despite their similarities to Sandberg and, in some cases, their superiority to him.

Bobby Grich, Willie Randolph and Lou Whitaker are these forgotten players.

Willie Randolph was not the same type of player as Sandberg, being a more speedy player than a power-hitter, but he still beat Sandberg with a .373 OBP and had a similar OPS+ of 104, along with a career .276 EqA and 69 WARP, situating himself as a comparable player to Sandberg.

Bobby Grich finished his career with a line of .266/.371/.424 and an OPS+ of 125, edging out Sandberg in OBP and OPS+.

Bobby also finished his career with an EqA of .293 and an 82.7 WARP, besting Sandberg in both categories.

Finally, Lou Whitaker is probably the most similar to Sandberg of the three, finishing his career with a line of .276/.363/.426 and eerily similar marks to Sandberg in OPS+ (116 to 114), total bases (3,651 to 3,787), doubles (420 to 403), triples (65 to 73), EqA (.282 to .284) and WARP (74.5 to 69.3).

Defensively, these forgotten three were far superior to Sandberg, with Grich, Randolph and Whitaker posting career Fielding Runs Above Average (FRAA) of 129, 118 and 90, respectively, at second base.

Comparing those numbers with Sandberg's career FRAA at second of 40, we can see that these seemingly forgotten players were better defensively than Sandberg, on top of being similar and, at times, somewhat superior to Sandberg.

Yet, none of these three players are in the Hall of Fame, and they more than likely never will be, despite being similar to or better than Sandberg in comprehensive categories such as EqA, WARP, OBP, OPS+ and total bases and, in some cases, counting stat totals such as extra-base hits, stolen bases, etc.

So there you have it, Ryne Sanberg was not the only offensive-minded second baseman of his era, rather he was similar to (and sometimes bested by) Bobby Grich, Willie Randolph and Lou Whitaker both in the context of season-to-season production and career averages. 

It is important to know that the denial of entrance to the Hall of Fame of the three "forgotten horsemen" is not some sort of travesty in baseball.

Rather, it should serve as a learning point for most as to how favoritism still rules in the MLB, and the lauding of Ryne Sandberg and the complete disregard for Grich, Randolph and Whitaker is evidence of that fact.

-Jonathan Platek