The Best 11 Second Basemen of All Time

In addition to this, he would have had roughly 147 WARP, placing him in our upper echelon.

Also it seem that we can immediately drop Nellie Fox, Bobby Lowe, and Bill Mazeroski. Joe Gordon has only 84 WARP over his career, but he missed all of '44 and '45 to WWII, and took a full season back to adjust. It is reasonable to suggest that had it not been for war, he would rank much higher, given that he was worth 11.2 WARP in his last full year before duty, and 7.6 in his first full year back. We should expect him to have picked up roughly 24 WARP in the interim, which would give him about 110 for his career.

So, with our excisions, and our inclusions, we have, as definite: Nap, Rogers, Collins, Morgan, Jackie, and Gheringer.

This leaves four spots in the top 10 available for the following players: Joe Gordon, Bobby Doerr, Robbie Alomar, Craig Biggio, Lou Whitaker, Bobby Grich, Ryne Sandberg. Three of these seven must be cut, and that is what we will deal with next.

When looking at these players, what is most striking is how similar in value they all were. Unfortunately, I have to cut Joe Gordon first. With players grouped this tightly, I can't quite give him full credit for the unknown production of the war years.

Next, as much as it pains me, I am going to cut Lou Whitaker. While he amassed excellent career totals, at his best he was not quite as good as the other five players listed alongside of him. His best five-year (not consecutive) WARP production was 41.3. This is fantastic, however, it is not up to par with our other five contestants, whose best five-year WARP are: Alomar (47.8), Biggio (49.6), Ryne (57.3), Doerr (55.6), and Grich (49.2).

One more player has to get cut. This is hard. Too hard, so hard in fact, that I am not going to do it.

How about that!

Now, my top ten: clearly, from these WARP stats, it appears as though the three pre-war players are far and away the best. I am bit leery of this, particularly with Nap, as it was far easier to dominate in the 19th century, and he didn't have to play against black people. Taking that into consideration:

 

1. Eddie Collins

Even with the aforementioned disclaimer, Collins has to be the best second basemen in baseball history. He's basically Joe Morgan if Joe hit .335 every year. A Gold Glove second baseman who ran fast and with great success, who hit for power (given the era in which he played), was always on base, and played gold-glove defense. I'm sure that if he were transported to the present day, he would be out-conditioned and outplayed by contemporary athletes, but no one dominated the position the way Collins did.

2. Rogers Hornsby

An indifferent defender. He was clearly the greatest offensive threat of all time at the position, and arguably the best right-handed hitter in baseball history.

3. Joe Morgan

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