His uniform and cleats were sent to the Baseball Hall of Fame after he became the first player to accomplish a unique feat in two different games: hit three home runs, knock in seven RBI and steal two bases. 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. Nicknamed "The Frenchman," Nap Lajoie was one of the best hitters and second basemen of the early part of the 20th century. The other two are Cupid Childs (1890s) and Hardy Richardson (1880s). 6. Glenn Hubbard played the position more frequently than anybody else and Mark Lemke will always be linked to the greatness of the 1990s. LONG PEAK = WAR in best seven seasons. Indians top 5 >, Royals: Frank White, 1973-90Key fact: Five All-Star Games, eight Gold Glove AwardsOK, so theres absolutely no debate about this choice. In 1991 he was elected to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility with 90.5% of the vote. 4. He made it to four World Series with the club, winning the first three. The best defensive second baseman of his time, and perhaps of all time, "Maz" is ironically best remembered -- and memorialized outside of PNC Park -- for his unmatched accomplishment at the plate. Again, I can't remember which of his books. Teams: San Francisco Giants, New York Mets. Cron somehow survived last year's trade deadline and remained in Denver. He was the AL second baseman in the first six All-Star Games, when he was already in his 30s. Bottom line: Kudos to a player who never exactly excelled in the major leagues, but crafted a 15-year career with six different teams, playing both second base and shortstop. Ultimately, however, Pedroias body of work was just enough to put him a hair above Hall of Famer Bobby Doerr as the best to ever play second base for the Red Sox. .338/.380/.466, OPS -- .847, Hits -- 3,243, HRs -- 82, RBIs -- 1,599, The first big star of the new American League in 1901, he ranks 23rd all time in Baseball-Reference WAR. Getty Images. Let's begin with the long ball. His 2003 and 04 seasons are the most prolific for any second baseman in franchise history. NL All Star ('90), 11-time AL All-Star ('91-2001), 10 AL Gold Gloves ('91-96, '98-01), four AL Silver Sluggers ('92, '96, '99-00), All-Star MVP ('98), Hall of Fame ('11), Career stats Rays top 5 >, Red Sox: Dustin Pedroia, 2006-presentKey fact: Only player to win MVP Award, Rookie of the Year Award, World Series title and Gold Glove Award within first two MLB seasonsHonestly, what a tough call this was. Once Jackie debuted with the Dodgers in 1947, it became clear that he belonged. If character counted in the compilation of this list, Jackie Robinson would be number one. In addition to his batting titles, Hornsby led the league in runs five times, hits/doubles/RBI four times, triples/homers twice, and OBP/SLG nine times. Here we go. 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. The top 100 will roll out next week. Bottom line: Neil Walker was drafted by his hometown Pittsburgh Pirates in the first round of the 2004 draft, and made his debut with the Pirates in 2009. Yet he remained an offensive force. How close was it? 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. To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Top 100 Second Basemen of All-Time - Baseball Egg 100 Greatest Second Basemen of All-Time Explanation of Rankings CAREER = Career Wins Above Replacement (WAR) adjusted for era. Oh, Bill James and other respected historians will say there is a third part to the equation, Length of Career. In 2004, he scored the last-ever run for the Montreal Expos, before they relocated to Washington, D.C. In addition, he played in the first six all-star games, beginning in 1933. Bottom line: You can go far in baseball if you can play defense and have some pop in your bat. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Giants top 5 >, Padres: Mark Loretta, 2003-05Key fact: Loretta, who hit .314 in three seasons with San Diego, and Tony Gwynn are the only qualifying Padres with a batting average above .300Overall, Loretta vs. Roberto Alomar isnt much of a debate. His defensive rating on Fangraphs leads all second basemen all-time with over 1,000 plate appearances. Gehringer debuted in 1924 but wasnt a regular until 1926. These glovemen in the middle of the infield made the routine look easy and the difficult look routine. Teams: Milwaukee Brewers, Houston Astros, San Diego Padres, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers. -- Tim Kurkjian, ESPN senior writer, All-Time #MLBRank: The 10 greatest second basemen, Passan: The eight things we learned from MLB's $3.8 billion offseason, The first $500 million superstar? When it comes to the top three second baseman on our list of the Top 10 MLB Second Baseman All-Time Rankings, each is deserving of the top spot. Teams: Washington Nationals, Los Angeles Angels, Seattle Mariners, Tampa Bay Rays. Bottom line: Known for his distinctive batting stance where he holds his bat high above his head, Craig Counsell has the distinction of being on base twice when the World Series ended with a walk-off hit with the Florida Marlins (1997) and the Arizona Diamondbacks (2001). These rankings are for fun and debate purposes only, and fans were able to participate in Twitter polls to vote for their favorites. In the field, he's smooth and effortless with a strong arm. if u dont have Maz in the top ten,your list is bogus.NO-ONE did the double play pivot better,not to mention the only 9th inn walk off homer in a game 7 of the wrld series,not to mention ,against the highly favored New York Yanks! In 20 World Series contests, he batted .321 with a .375 OBP. The Little General retired in 1984 with a career OBP of .392. Corrective surgery allowed him to excel at baseball, and after being signed by the Boston Red Sox he blossomed with the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he was a three-time All-Star and won an NL batting title in 2006. Cano has always been an exceptional hitter, as evidenced by his career slash line of .301/.351/.489. While it's hard, if not impossible, to compare across eras, there is a lot of evidence that baseball players have been improving defensively over the years, so fairly recent players a. 17 is not formally retired, but the Brewers have not issued it to anyone sinceRobin Yount, Paul Molitor and Gantner played together for 15 years, the longest tenure for a trio of teammates in Major League history until the Yankees Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera broke the mark in 2010. Bobby Doerr (1940s) offensive rating: A +. Either way, Bill James comes to this conclusion on Mazeroski: his 113 defensive career Win Shares is 1st all time in the history of MLB for a second baseman. Santiago Espinal turned 28 last November. In fact, that entire infield made it into the Hall of Fame, except for Critz. They only made the playoffs twice in his tenure and never went to a World Series. Bill Mazeroski (1960s) offensive rating: C -. He ultimately fell short and settled for .388, but theres no doubt the 18-time All-Star, seven-time batting champion, '77 AL MVP Award winner and first-ballot Hall of Famer was one of the best pure hitters in baseball history. The first is Bobby Grich. "Based on the distance that there was away from the goal line, I knew they were in sneak formation," Wilson said . Welcome to All-Time #MLBRank, our ranking of the top 100 players in baseball history. 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. However, that same year, Lind committed a fielding error in the ninth inning of the seventh game of the NLCS that led to a come-from-behind win for the Atlanta Braves. 10-time NL All Star (1966, '70, '72-79), All-Star MVP ('72), five NL Gold Gloves ('73-77), two-time NL MVP ('75-76), one NL Silver Slugger ('82), Hall of Fame ('90), Career stats* Whites No. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. This didnt slow him down, though. He was a Top 10 MVP finalist five times. Kent was one of the best offensive second basemen of all time and arguably the position's best power hitter. I think his system is flawless, except he puts too much weight on Length of Career, but that's another article. .285/.344/.452, OPS -- .795, Hits -- 2,386, HRs -- 282, RBIs -- 1,061, Beloved Cubbiness and a brief run as one of the most supremely gifted second basemen in the game aside, Sandberg's main asset is exploiting Wrigley Field to hit for power, slugging .491 there vs. a less-than-epic .412 everywhere else. 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? Thus, in addition to career WAR, we looked at WAR7 (seven best seasons), WAR/162 (Avg WAR per season), and the number of seasons the player was among the WAR leaders in the league. When Fletcher was playing for the Texas Rangers, and former President George W. Bush was the owner, Bush named his dog Spot Fetcher, in recognition of Fletcher. Jose Vidro, Expos/Nationals (1997-2006) Key fact: Vidro leads all second basemen in franchise history with a 16.5 bWAR. I guess that's why many historians say that Reed was among the best defensive second basemen that have ever graced the field, I agree with them on Reed. I think so, maybe similar in style to Ichiro Suzuki, except playing a different position. Because of how different eras of baseball have been played, it's difficult to nail down the best defensive catcher of all time. White Sox top 5 >, Angels: Bobby Grich, 1977-86Key fact: 35.1 bWAR is fifth highest in club historyOne of the most underrated players of his era, Grich was the first inductee into the Angels Hall of Fame in 1988, and many believe he has a strong case to be in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, as well. Teams: Pittsburgh Pirates, Kansas City Royals, California Angels. Hornsby bounced around considerably for the rest of his career for a player of his caliber. Frisch went to four more World Series with St. Louis, this time coming out on top in the latter two. We use bWAR. Based on Baseball Info Solutions defensive runs saved from 2003 on and total zone rating developed by Sean Smith of BaseballProjection.com previously Note that seasons prior to 1876 are not included in single-season marks, but are included in career marks. Once we whittled down the list, we incorporated offensive stats and honors/awards to finalize it. Playing for the Rockies from 2012 to 2018, he was a three-time Gold Glove winner (2014, 2017 and 2018), and was an All-Star pick in 2015 and 2017 but not in 2016, when he wound up as the NL batting champion. Anthony Rendon /.9715/, 6.Brooks Robinson+ . He recorded a 20-20 (20 home runs and 20 stolen bases) in 2014. More important than his stellar defense, though, was his ability at the plate. Though never a star, Hardy certainly left his mark as one of the finest defensive shortstops of his time. The top second basemen make the routine look easy and the difficult look routine. That leaves half or just under half from his long peak (seven best seasons), short peak (three best seasons), and prime (five best consecutive seasons). He won rings in Toronto. Philadelphia Phillies (1981), Chicago Cubs ('82-94, '96-97), Honors 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. Napolean LaJoie is the oldest member of our Top Ten and is considered the first superstar in American League history. The AL second baseman in franchise history with a.375 OBP Ichiro Suzuki, for. Were able to participate in Twitter polls to vote for their favorites star-laden and. 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best defensive second baseman of all time