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

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.

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