Greatest ss of all time

Welcome to Bleacher Report's series of the 25 greatest players at each position in modern MLB history. Up first, the shortstop position. The first step in this exercise was to decide what "modern" means for the sake of this discussion, and we ultimately settled on everything from the season forward. That was the first year greatest ss of all time the "Divisional Era" when each league expanded from 10 to 12 teams and those teams were split into two divisions.

Welcome to another edition of Top Ten! This week, the shortstops are on tap. Before we get to the players, below is some background on how we compiled the list. The Criteria. Outside of catcher, shortstop is probably the most important defensive position on the diamond.

Greatest ss of all time

Earlier this week, Derek Jeter announced he will be retiring from baseball at the end of the season, his 20th, all of which have been spent with the New York Yankees. When an all-timer like Jeter says he's planning to call it quits, well, folks start putting things into all sorts of context. With that endeavor in mind, the task at hand is to rank the 10 best shortstops ever, which has been Jeter's position throughout his career. There are two ways to tackle this. We'll get to the second later, but the first approach is to evaluate the top 10 shortstops, purely as players. To help with that comparison and provide some perspective, here's a look at the career leaders in wins above replacement WAR among shortstops who have played since , according to both Baseball Reference and FanGraphs :. First, let's point out that there's no Alex Rodriguez or Ernie Banks on either list, because trying to determine the 10 best shortstops should be a focus on players who actually, you know, played shortstop. That means this considers only those who spent the majority of their career at the position. Rodriguez has played only 1, of 2, career games there, while Banks got in 1, of 2,—both check in just below 50 percent. That disqualifies them. Some other noteworthy names that aren't on either top WAR ranking? Each one has a compelling case for the back end of the top 10, but ultimately, they came up While Baseball Reference and FanGraphs don't calculate WAR the exact same way hence the slightly different numbers for each player , it's clear from the above table that the statistic does a good job of pointing out the very best shortstops. In fact, among the top 15 leaders from each 16 if you count the FanGraphs tie , 14 appear on both. Which of those will make the final cut into the top 10 shortstops of all time?

He played games that year, but would top just two more times in his career. In many ways, because he stood 6'4", greatest ss of all time, Ripken was also a game-changer, because his success as a two-time MVPhelped usher in an era of taller, bigger shortstops, a batch that included the likes of Garciaparra 6'0"Larkin 6'0" Jeter 6'3" and Rodriguez 6'3"who started his career at the position.

Shortstops don't get lots of MVP awards. They don't lead the league in many offensive categories. Most of them don't hit a lot of home runs. So why has this position remained such a key to winning games over the entire course of MLB history? Dynasties and decades have turned on this position. Franchises have risen and fallen because of this position.

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Greatest ss of all time

Shortstops don't get lots of MVP awards. They don't lead the league in many offensive categories. Most of them don't hit a lot of home runs. So why has this position remained such a key to winning games over the entire course of MLB history? Dynasties and decades have turned on this position. Franchises have risen and fallen because of this position. And this position has captured our imagination with that thing they do — a mix of athleticism and acrobatics unmatched in sports. If you were a Baltimore Orioles fan from the s through the s, you got to see some pretty amazing shortstop play. Belanger's brilliance on the diamond was largely lost to the ages because of Ripken's greatness, but Belanger retired with a.

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He won Rookie of the Year that season and never looked back. Shawon Dunston. Joe Cronin 5. He's not higher on this list for that reason — the same reason we left Miguel Tejada off altogether. He never matched those numbers again but was a model of consistency and even won a second MVP Award after moving to center field when he hurt his shoulder. Still, he'll be remembered as the most beloved Cub of all time. Rico Petrocelli. Wills, who was also a football star at Washington D. With An easy favorite to watch, but a weird bat-first rep in retrospect: just one homer and one homer season, no "black ink," but the one MVP award and the one World Series win. Wagner also finished with 3, hits, 1, runs scored, 1, RBI and generally has black ink all over his Baseball Reference page , meaning he led the league in something about a bajillion times. Greatest Hitters in Baseball History. His career accolades are numerous. Scott is a SoCal native who, after two decades of fighting L.

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New York Yankees. Xander Bogaerts And that's not even considering the hundreds of millions he made in salary and endorsements, or you know, his impressive resume off the diamond. Once Aparicio got on the basepaths, teams were toast. For a player to have fewer than career home runs and still be as impactful at the plate as Arky Vaughan was is no easy feat. Ripken performed well during the post-season, batting. As such, we put a bit more emphasis on defense than we did at first and second base. In playing 10 years with the Pittsburgh Pirates followed by four with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Vaughan made the All-Star team in nine consecutive seasons from through Vaughan led the league with a. In his first year with the Giants, he batted. Honus Wagner.