MLB History: 11 Greatest Shortstops of All Time, Part 1

Honus Wagner (240), Alex Rodriguez (109), Derek Jeter (73), Allan Trammel (102), Ozzie Smith  (127), Omar Vizquel (72), Luke Appling (130), Ernie Banks (115), Lou Boudreau (108), Joe Cronin (120), George Davis(170), Pee Wee Reese (98), Phil Rizutto (75) , Joe Sewell (107), Arky Vaughan (134), Robin Yount (112), Barry Larkin (110), Cal Ripken Jr. (127), Joe Tinker (121), Dave Bancroft (116), Dave Concepcion (98), Luis Aparicio (91), Bert Campaneris (91), Bill Dahlen (180).

The first round: Clearly, there is one shortstop who is far and away ahead of the class, and that is Honus Wagner. According to WARP, Wagner was literally twice as valuable to his team as most of the rest of the list.

I included a number of these, not because I consider them in the Top 10, but more to prove a point. While I understand that shortstop has historically been a position of defensive specialists, all of the top contenders (with the arguable exception of Ozzie Smith), brought a fair amount of offense to the position as well.

Luis Aparicio, for example, really does not deserve the status he has been accorded as a baseball legend, and in fact, seems no more deserving than Bert Campaneris, or Dave Concepcion, other defensive minded speedsters who brought a great deal of value to their teams, if not enough to put them over the top.

Bill Dahlen and George Davis's stats are clearly less impressive than they appear, due to the conditions in which they played (less organized baseball, no black players, etc). Nevertheless, their numbers are impressive enough that they must be put into the Top 10.

Phil Rizzuto, I know he missed time due to war, but he still only had 75 WARP, Pee Wee missed the same years, and had 97 WARP. The Scooter was great, but not quite great enough.

Without thinking too much about it, I imagine we can all agree that the Top 10, beyond Wagner, Dahlen, and Davis, absolutely must include Ozzie Smith, Ernie Banks and Cal Ripken Jr. as well. The Same is true for Arky Vaughan, who has largely been forgotten by history, but who Bill James considered the second greatest shortstop (after Wagner), in the history of the game.

Omar Vizquel. Vizquel is absolutely not a candidate for Top 10 all time status, and I included him in the discussion mainly to illustrate the point that, comparisons between Vizquel and Ozzie Smith are entirely unfounded. Vizquel has saved 99 runs above average in his career, this is a fantastic total. He has also been 155 runs below average at the plate, (it is easy to forget, given his late '90's offensive contributions, that he was once labeled "Omar the outmaker").

Ozzie Smith was 33 runs above average at bat. This is not so impressive, but is, as you can easily figure out, 188 runs more than what Vizquel was able to produce. Ozzie stole more bases (by far), and did so with a much better success rate. Ozzie drew more walks, and produced a similar batting line in an era of much lighter offense.

Defensively, he saved an astonishing 268 runs over the average shortstop. This is an earth-shattering figure, and it absolutely blows Vizquel out of the water. Saying that Vizquel is comparable to Ozzie Smith is like saying Eddie Murray is just as good as Lou Gehrig.

They were both the best first basemen of their day, but that does not mean that they are equivalents.

This leaves us with 3 spots to be filled. The contenders for those 3 spots are as follows: Alex Rodriguez, Luke Appling, Alan Trammel, Derek Jeter, Barry Larkin, Lou Boudreau, Joe Cronin, Pee Wee Reese, Joe Sewell, Robin Yount, Joe Tinker, and Dave Bancroft.

Jeter gets cut first. He may eventually rank in the Top 10, but he is only 33, has probably 5-7 years ahead of him, and, lest we forget, is an absolutely brutal defensive shortstop, no matter what gold glove voters say. And before I hear any shit about how he is the cap'n of the Yankees, and a team leader, look who he is up against.

The others include Boudreau, who won the MVP as a player manager, Pee Wee Reese, who was unquestionably a team leader, Barry Larkin, and Ernie Banks ("let's play two!"). Shortstop is THE position for team leaders.

Anyway, just for fun, before saying goodbye, here is a rough projection of Derek Jeter's career numbers, assuming he lasts around, at least in part time duty until the age of 41, declining at a normal rate for a player of his caliber.

H-3403, D-557, T-78, HR-283, R-1992, RBI-1434, SB-374, BB-1099.

This would give him a career WARP of 106. Add in his postseason record, and he would certainly merit inclusion (although people will probably be trying to tell you that he was the best there ever was, which is clearly bullshit). It should also be noted, that this is a fairly modest projection, it is not hard to imagine Jeter breaking the 4000 hit barrier, scoring well over 2000 runs, etc. The more he is able to avoid injury, and the longer he wants to keep playing, he may end up very high on this list.

I'm sort of at a loss with what to do with A-Rod. He already has 109 career WARP, and will almost certainly end up with more than anyone on this list excepting Wagner…but he hasn't been a shortstop since 2003.

Giving proper regard to peak value, he is as good as anyone on the list, but still…I think, in a selfish attempt to make my own life easier, I am just going to pretend that he doesn't exist for now. When I update this lists in 2019 I will give him proper consideration.

Suffice to say, A-Rod will retire as one of the 10 best players in the history of the game, but it is unclear whether he will be chiefly remembered as a shortstop, third baseman, or even a first baseman. If he continues to play 3^rd for the rest of his career, he will have spent more time there than at short, so I'm leaving him out for now. Sorry.

Ok, that made things a little easier. Again, here are the career WARPs for the players we have left to fill these three spots:

Appling (130), Trammel (102), Larkin (110), Lou Boudreau (108), Cronin (119), Sewell (107), Bancroft (116), Tinker (121), Reese (98).

These are all pretty closely bunched together, Appling's is noticeably higher than the others, he's in.

Reese, obviously is the only one without 100 career WARP. However, as I have mentioned in previous articles, I do tend to give credit to time lost to war. If a player is productive the year before war, and the year after, it stands to reason he would have been productive during.

In 1942 Pee Wee Reese was worth 10.2 WARP- an MVP total. He missed all of 1943, 1944, and 1945. In 1946, he was worth 10.6. Even assuming that '42 and '46 would have been the best of these years, he would certainly have been worth between 8-10 wins a season in the war years, especially considering he was worth 10.6, 8.0, 9.2, and 9.5 in the four years after his return.

Give him credit for those 24-30 WARP, and his total shoots up to somewhere around 122-128.

He might have put up the following career line:

H-2618, D-403, T-98, HR-150, R-1578, RBI-1086, SB-270.

We have two spots left, and 8 players to fill those two spots. They are all between (giving Reese credit for time lost), 102-124 WARP, so let's look at their peak totals. What follows are the players best five years WARP totals, to see if anyone jumps way out, or falls way behind, the rest of the pack.

Trammel (45.9), Larkin (48.6), Boudreau (60.5!!!!!!), Cronin (58), Sewell (54), Bancroft (52.3), Joe Tinker (54.2), Reese (47.5)

This doesn't tell us very much. Trammel, Larkin and Reese have the lowest, but Reese is unfairly hurt by missing peak time to war, and Trammel and Larkin played a much more difficult version of the game than the other players.

Even so, I have to drop Trammel, who is distinctly inferior, if not by much, to his contemporary Barry Larkin.

I'm afraid I have to get rid of Reese as well. As much as I want to help him out, there is still some question as to how he would have performed, and I think he is probably in the 10-14 all time slot.

OK. Larkin, Boudreau, Cronin, Sewell, Bancroft and Tinker.

Alright, to hell with it; I'm doing a Top 11. Tinker, Bancroft and Sewell are gone, they don't quite match up to the other pre war stars (Cronin and Boudreau). Barry Larkin did have the lowest peak score, but he played in the 1980's and 1990's, against far better competition, and was one of those rare players (like Collins and Morgan in the second base category), who did everything perfectly, and its my list.

So there it is, the Top 10 (in no particular order), are Lou Boudreau, Barry Larkin, Joe Cronin, Honus Wagner, Arky Vaughan, Ernie Banks, Cal Ripken Jr. Ozzie Smith, Luke Appling, Bill Dahlen, and Gorgeous George Davis.