Cano continued to hit in Seattle, but his first positive test for an illegal substance caused him to miss half of the 2018 season. Rangers top 5 >, Braves: Marcus Giles, 2001-06Key fact: Giles .809 OPS ranks first among all Braves second basemen (min. Teams: St. Louis Cardinals, Toronto Blue Jays, Philadelphia Phillies, Detroit Tigers, Miami Marlins. Oh, Bill James and other respected historians will say there is a third part to the equation, Length of Career. 1. Hornsby led the pack in nearly every category and dominated in WAR. Jackie only played 11 professional seasons, including one with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro League, where he didnt debut until he was 26. His signature moment arrived during his 1984 NL MVP-winning season, when he hit two homers off Bruce Sutter in a five-hit, seven-RBI outburst to help the Cubs beat St. Louis. After that season, he was traded to the Mets. -- Schoenfield, Rogers Hornsby batted .424 in 1924. ALL-TIME #MLBRANK, Top 100: 100-91 | 90-81 | 80-71 | 70-61 | 60-51 | 50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 | 20-11 | 10-1, Insider analysis: 100-81 | 80-61 | 60-41 | 40-21 | 20-1, Top 10s: LHP | RHP | C | SS | 3B | 2B | 1B | LF | CF | RF, My Top 10: Kurkjian | Stark | Olney | Crasnick | Schoenfield, Stark: The perception of greatness in the Top 100, Szymborski: Who's in the future 100? Should a below-average offensive player be in the Hall of Fame at any position other than the pitcher's? 1. Coming back to the Cards was, you guessed it, Frankie Frisch. Oh, and he could hit, too, as his .316/.369/.432 slash line illustrates. However, we also adjust for era, integration and level of competition, and missed playing time due to factors beyond the control of the player. Basic stats like hits, batting average, OBP, SLG, HRs, RBI, etc., were fused with wOBA and wRC+ for the offense. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. Three times Hornsby hit over .400, including his .424 average in 1924. A broken finger finally forced him to wear a glove in 1896, and that year he fielded .978, a record fielding percentage for a second baseman until well into the 1900s. Eddie Collins debuted with the As just five seasons after Nap LaJoies jump. AND he was one of the best defensive second basemen ever. Hubbard played much of his career for those Atlanta Braves teams that had an overabundant amount of ground ball pitchers on their team. What to watch the rest of this MLB offseason, The biggest winners and losers of this MLB offseason. 11-20: Here is a list of 10 other second basemen that were in serious contention of taking this 10th spot away from Frisch. Teams: Milwaukee Brewers, Houston Astros, San Diego Padres, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers. Below are the six best to ever play the position in Major League Baseball history. In 1990, Oquendo recorded just three errors while playing in 150 games. As always, value-based metrics formed the core of the evaluation process, including WAR ratings from both Baseball-Reference and Fangraphs, which calculate it differently. Bottm line: Freddy Sanchez overcame physical adversity to become a professional athlete, having been born with a pigeon-toed left foot and a club right foot. Over that span, The Mechanical Man would lead the league in games four times; hits, runs, and doubles twice; and triples, stolen bases, and batting average once. Alomar was decorated with many honors during his career, including 12 all-star selections, four silver sluggers, and ten gold gloves. Cano won five silver sluggers and went to eight all-star games altogether, and even chipped in a couple of gold gloves. Jeff Reboulet (1990s) offensive rating: D. A defensive specialist. He's played half his innings at second base, and the rest at shortstop and various outfield positions. He also won rookie-of-the-year that season for the Twins. Hornsby got a taste of the show in 1915 and was a regular with the Cardinals the following season. Hell likely face heavy opposition when he eventually becomes eligible for Cooperstown. Welcome to All-Time #MLBRank, our ranking of the top 100 players in baseball history. There are three second basemen that often present themselves before me as should-be Hall-of-Fame second basemen. Dodgers top 5 >, Giants: Jeff Kent, 1997-2002Key fact: Hit 351 of his 377 career home runs as a second baseman, a Major League record for the positionKent played for six teams over his 17-year career, but he enjoyed his most prolific stretch during his tenure with the Giants. His long career puts him high in the record books among second basemen. He made it to four World Series with the club, winning the first three. We use bWAR. Hornsby began player-managing in 1925 with the Cards and continued to do so throughout most of his remaining career. Bid McPhee (1890s) offensive rating: A +, "McPhee never wore a glove until his last three seasons: he was one of the last players to play barehanded. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Some will balk at Canos inclusion on the list, given his two suspensions for PED use. I remember reading something that Bill James had written about Jody Reed. A two-time Gold Glove winner best known for his defense, Kolten Wong quietly put together the best offensive season of his career in 2022. This didnt slow him down, though. He's an A + offensive second baseman, too. He went to four consecutive World Series with the club from 1921 through 1924, coming out a winner in the first two. He debuted with the Yankees in 2005 on a star-laden team and quickly made his presence felt, finishing second in the rookie-of-the-year voting. There it is. Morgan is the Reds all-time leader with 406 steals, and he led the league in on-base percentage four times with the Reds. He's one of the 20 best overall second basemen in the history of MLB when you mix his offense and his defense together. That said: I don't buy the consensus that he's the best second baseman ever. In total, he won seven batting titles and owns the third-highest lifetime batting average of any player who debuted after 1965, behind Tony Gwynn and Wade Boggs. Since committing 17 errors in his rookie season in 2005, Cano has never committed more than 13 errors in a season and 123 total errors in 2,124 career games. LeMahieus 877 games and 849 starts for the Rockies at second base were more than twice as many as the next player on the list (Eric Young, 413 and 389). Unfortunately for Carew, he wouldnt find much post-season success in Anaheim either. He ranks first in stolen bases; second in games played, plate appearances, triples, and runs; third in batting average; and sixth in RBI. The latest in the sports world, emailed daily. He bounced back and forth between playing shortstop and second base throughout his MLB career. That's more than Hall of Famers Ryne Sandberg . The reason that I'm telling you this is so YOU don't make the same mistake as that guy did. I will list them in order, from oldest to newest: Fred Dunlap (1880s), Nap Lajoie (1900s), Lonny Frey (1940s), Eddie Mayo (1940s), Gil McDougald (1950s), Jackie Robinson (1950s), Red Schoendienst (1950s), Fernando Vina (1990s), Craig Counsell (2000s)and Pokey Reese (2000s), 9. Grich played the final 10 years of his career with the Angels after spending seven seasons with the Orioles, as the Long Beach, Calif., native signed as a free agent with the Halos before the 77 season. Bottom line: In 2012, Darwin Barney won the Gold Glove Award the first by a Chicago Cubs second baseman since Ryne Sandberg won nine in a row (1983-91). Teams: Minnesota Twins, Los Angeles Dodgers, Washington Nationals. All-Star game appearances, MVP awards, and seasons where the player finished in the Top Ten in MVP voting covered the honors. Pedroia, who has played for Boston for all of his 14 years in the big leagues, helped raise the World Series trophy in 2007 and 2013. He was then forced to apologize, he was allowed to call his Mother (upon his request) and then he was re-hired. Because of how different eras of baseball have been played, it's difficult to nail down the best defensive catcher of all time. That's all there is, right? How close was it? Frisch went to four more World Series with St. Louis, this time coming out on top in the latter two. Whites No. Teams: Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, Toronto Blue Jays. Let's begin with the long ball. Kent, a career .290 hitter, holds the all-time record for most home runs by a second baseman with 351 (out of 377). Oh, offensively, Hubbard pretty much got the job done, but he was slightly below average. On top of his defense, Frisch was fast as lightning, leading the league in SBs three times. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Copyright 2023 Pitcher GIFS Inc. All Rights Reserved. Teams: Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs. As is always the case, we tried to balance the rankings between longevity and dominance to get a good cross-section. Extrapolate that to an entire season, and you have an MVP candidate. The top second basemen make the routine look easy and the difficult look routine. -- David Schoenfield, ESPN.com senior writer, Cano can do it all: He hits for both average and power, tied with Rogers Hornsby among second basemen for the most seasons (five) with at least a .300 batting average and 25 home runs. In 1991 he was elected to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility with 90.5% of the vote. Also, took HOF too long to put Lazzeri into HOF, 1991 by vets committee. He made his first of six consecutive MLB all-star games that season and led the league in stolen bases and batting average. He hit .400 three times, including .424 in 1924, and .358 lifetime. Hornsby retired from playing in 1937 and was elected to the Hall of Fame five years later in 1942. The 32-year-old posted a career-high 118 OPS+with. Sandberg went on to manage Philadelphia from 2013 to 2015. Defensively, Lajoie was also a standout player, leading the league in assists three times and putouts five times. Red Sox top 5 >, Yankees: Tony Lazzeri, 1926-37Key fact: Holds AL record for most RBIs in a single game (11 -- May 24, 1936)Inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame posthumously in 1991, Lazzeri was a feared clutch hitter with power who served as a key component alongside Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in the fabled Murderers Row lineups for the Yankees. This week, we bring you the Top 10 at each position. Minnesota Twins (1967-78), California Angels ('79-85), Honors -- Schoenfield, He won the inaugural Rookie of the Year award in 1947. Following his MLB career, Dauer spent 19 seasons as a pro coach and won the 2017 World Series with the Houston Astros as a first-base coach. Its a fair argument, but as we mentioned when discussing Roger Clemens, its hard to know who did what throughout the games history. After retiring, Loretta joined the San Diego Padres as a special assistant. Let's talk about who the best ever were at that position, defensively speaking. Matt Chapman /.9737/, 4. 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