Adrián Beltré’s recent 3000th career hit kicked off a conversation in my baseball circles about where he ranks in history among the game’s best third basemen. I took a statistical approach, looking at each player’s career WAR and using a positional adjustment for games they have actually played at their position.
For example, through August 2, 2017, Beltré has played 2667, or 96.1%, of his 2774 regular season games at third base. So I take his career WAR, 92.4, and multiplied it by 96.1% to come up with a positionally adjusted WAR of 88.8.
I know this isn’t ideal, because their value has not been equally distributed amongst games at different positions. Players may accumulate most of their value at one position and then slide over to another position late in their career and knock out a few less productive seasons before retiring, like Mickey Mantle, for example. But let’s just do the quick and dirty to get the conversation started.
Using this method, here are the top 10 third basemen in baseball history:
| Player | HOF? | Career WAR | G at Pos. | Total G | % at Pos. | Adjusted WAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mike Schmidt | HOF | 106.5 | 2212 | 2404 | 92.0% | 98.0 |
| Adrián Beltré | 92.4 | 2667 | 2774 | 96.1% | 88.8 | |
| Eddie Mathews | HOF | 96.4 | 2181 | 2391 | 91.2% | 87.9 |
| Wade Boggs | HOF | 91.1 | 2215 | 2440 | 90.8% | 82.7 |
| Brooks Robinson | HOF | 78.4 | 2870 | 2896 | 99.1% | 77.7 |
| Scott Rolen | 70.0 | 2023 | 2038 | 99.3% | 69.5 | |
| Chipper Jones | 85.0 | 1992 | 2499 | 79.7% | 67.8 | |
| Ron Santo | HOF | 70.4 | 2130 | 2243 | 95.0% | 66.9 |
| Home Run Baker | HOF | 62.8 | 1548 | 1575 | 98.3% | 61.7 |
| Graig Nettles | 68.0 | 2412 | 2700 | 89.3% | 60.7 |
Using this method, I went ahead and calculated the top 3 at each position:
| Pos. | Player | HOF? | Career WAR | G at Pos. | Total G | % at Pos. | Adjusted WAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C | Iván Rodríguez | HOF | 68.4 | 2427 | 2543 | 95.4% | 65.3 |
| C | Gary Carter | HOF | 69.9 | 2056 | 2296 | 89.5% | 62.6 |
| C | Carlton Fisk | HOF | 68.3 | 2226 | 2499 | 89.1% | 60.8 |
| 1B | Lou Gehrig | HOF | 112.4 | 2137 | 2164 | 98.8% | 111.0 |
| 1B | Cap Anson | HOF | 93.9 | 2152 | 2524 | 85.3% | 80.1 |
| 1B | Jimmie Foxx | HOF | 96.4 | 1919 | 2317 | 82.8% | 79.8 |
| 2B | Eddie Collins | HOF | 123.9 | 2650 | 2826 | 93.8% | 116.2 |
| 2B | Joe Morgan | HOF | 100.3 | 2527 | 2649 | 95.4% | 95.7 |
| 2B | Nap Lajoie | HOF | 107.4 | 2035 | 2480 | 82.1% | 88.1 |
| 3B | Mike Schmidt | HOF | 106.5 | 2212 | 2404 | 92.0% | 98.0 |
| 3B | Adrián Beltré | 92.4 | 2667 | 2774 | 96.1% | 88.8 | |
| 3B | Eddie Mathews | HOF | 96.4 | 2181 | 2391 | 91.2% | 87.9 |
| SS | Honus Wagner | HOF | 131.0 | 1887 | 2794 | 67.5% | 88.5 |
| SS | Ozzie Smith | HOF | 76.5 | 2511 | 2573 | 97.6% | 74.7 |
| SS | Cal Ripken | HOF | 95.5 | 2302 | 3001 | 76.7% | 73.3 |
| LF | Barry Bonds | 162.4 | 2715 | 2986 | 90.9% | 147.7 | |
| LF | Ted Williams | HOF | 123.1 | 1982 | 2292 | 86.5% | 106.5 |
| LF | Rickey Henderson | HOF | 110.8 | 2421 | 3081 | 78.6% | 87.1 |
| CF | Willie Mays | HOF | 156.2 | 2829 | 2992 | 94.6% | 147.7 |
| CF | Tris Speaker | HOF | 133.7 | 2691 | 2789 | 96.5% | 129.0 |
| CF | Ty Cobb | HOF | 151.0 | 2188 | 3034 | 72.1% | 108.9 |
| RF | Hank Aaron | HOF | 142.6 | 2174 | 3298 | 65.9% | 94.0 |
| RF | Roberto Clemente | HOF | 94.5 | 2305 | 2433 | 94.7% | 89.5 |
| RF | Mel Ott | HOF | 107.8 | 2161 | 2730 | 79.2% | 85.3 |
| SP | Cy Young | HOF | 170.3 | 815 | 906 | 90.0% | 153.2 |
| SP | Roger Clemens | 139.4 | 707 | 709 | 99.7% | 139.0 | |
| SP | Walter Johnson | HOF | 152.3 | 666 | 802 | 83.0% | 126.5 |
| RP | Mariano Rivera | 56.6 | 1105 | 1115 | 99.1% | 56.1 | |
| RP | Hoyt Wilhelm | HOF | 50.1 | 1018 | 1070 | 95.1% | 47.7 |
| RP | Dennis Eckersley | HOF | 62.5 | 710 | 1071 | 66.3% | 41.4 |
I guess it’s mostly who you’d expect. But some interesting things are revealed when you rank the players like this:
- Ruth and Musial get knocked down because they split their careers at different positions.
- Mantle was good but didn’t play as long as other centerfielders and also split time at other positions.
- Honus Wagner was incredible, despite having only played 67.5% of his games at SS. Similar situation for Hank Aaron in RF.
- Pete Rose is way down at every position because he played almost all of them.
- Roger Clemens had a better career than Pedro Martinez or Greg Maddux.
- Tom Gordon is somehow the 5th best relief pitcher ever.
- The only players on this list not in the Hall of Fame are suspected steroid users or those who are not eligible yet.
- Having Beltré listed with these guys goes to show how good he really is.
0 Comments