Posnanski's 100 Greatest Players

[BeefMaster]

Joe Posnanski (my favorite baseball writer) is doing a list on his blog of the 100 greatest baseball players of all time, with a short blog post about each of them.  Today's was my favorite player of all time, Ryne Sandberg, and I figured I'd post the ones about RBIers here:

#77 Ozzie Smith
#78 Ryne Sandberg
#87 Nolan Ryan
#88 Tim Raines
#90 Mark McGwire
#97 Lou Whitaker

* Updated to add Ozzie Smith

[Gantry]

I'm sorry, but there's no way there weren't 100 players better than Lou Whitaker.  No way...

[BeefMaster]

Wins Above Replacement has Whitaker as the 6th-greatest second baseman of all time.  He was hugely underrated during his prime because one of his great skills was his ability to get on base (despite an ordinary career batting average), his defense was solid, and his home run totals don't look as great because he played in an era that didn't produce much offense.

[ultimate7]

* Updated to add Ozzie Smith

Reds' head just exploded

[Nacho]

Funny, I assumed Ozzie Smith had to be top 5 or so.

[ryno]

Ozzie smith is not a better player than sandberg.  Neither were better then Nolan Ryan. 


I don't know that I'd include sandberg in the top 100.  That's impressive company.   

[BDawk]

Ozzie smith is not a better player than sandberg.     

I think you could make the argument that Ozzie was better.  If you look at WAR, he's certainly better.

[ryno]

But its defensive war for the most part and that's a very sketchy stat

Very difficult to have good reliable defensivr stats. 

[Gantry]

I don't know that I'd include sandberg in the top 100.  That's impressive company.   

Dude, Lou Whitaker is in the top100.   One top10 MVP vote in his career and that was 8th.   

[BDawk]

But its defensive war for the most part and that's a very sketchy stat

Very difficult to have good reliable defensivr stats. 

I agree about DWAR, but Ozzie's offense was still good.  He got on base and stole a lot of bases with good success rate.  Sandberg was obviously a better offensive player, but Ozzie was valuable in his own right.  Defensively, there's no question that Ozzie was better, even without using defensive metrics.  Sandberg made his plays, but Ozzie had great range to take hits away.

[Gantry]

Anyone who thinks Ozzie Smith was a better overall baseball player than Ryne Sandberg needs to get their fucking head examined.  Seriously

[BDawk]

If you think that just because Ryne hit HRs he's a better player that YOU'RE the dumb one!

[Gantry]

Good day sir...

[ryno]

I like ozzie. Clear hall of famer.  Terrible offensive player at worst. Bad offensive player at best.  Would be shocked if he had a 85 ops+

[BDawk]

Yeah, you can't call him a terrible offensive player or even bad.  If he didn't have the steals and that success rate, I might agree. But he stole a lot of bases and was thrown way less than Sandberg. 

[Shooty]

Gantry is right.  Whitaker should not be on a top 100 list.   I don't think I would have Schilling in a top 100 list either.

But seeing who is on the list so far, I surpringly have very very complaints about where players are being slated.  Ozzie is too high though.

[ryno]

Ozzie 80 pct steal rate. 337 obp

Ryno 76 pct, 344 obp

I would have guessed a larger steal gap.  Would have expected Ozzie in 370 range on obp

[Nacho]

Did Sandburg steal many bases? I'd expect a pretty high percentage if you are sneaking an occasional base, catching teams by surprise, stealing off a guy with a slow delivery, etc.

[BeefMaster]

Did Sandburg steal many bases? I'd expect a pretty high percentage if you are sneaking an occasional base, catching teams by surprise, stealing off a guy with a slow delivery, etc.

Sandberg was a pretty good speed guy - led the league in triples in his MVP year (19!), stole 50 bases the next year, and was still good for 20 or more even in his bigger home run years.

[fknmclane]

Did Sandburg steal many bases? I'd expect a pretty high percentage if you are sneaking an occasional base, catching teams by surprise, stealing off a guy with a slow delivery, etc.

Sandberg was a pretty good speed guy - led the league in triples in his MVP year (19!), stole 50 bases the next year, and was still good for 20 or more even in his bigger home run years.

Holy shit that's a lot of triples.  Stephen Drew had a dozen three years in a row when he was here and it was pretty impressive.