6/29/2023 0 Comments Mets shortstop![]() Let’s take a step back and combine the numbers with the eye test to compare Lindor to his peers. Albert Pujols’ career total in this statistic has been in free fall for years now. He then played first base for eight seasons-and finished at 15.49. He played shortstop only through age 30 (eight qualifying seasons), accumulating 15.48 standard deviations above league average OBP and SLG. One of the greatest shortstops of all time was Ernie Banks. When measuring players in this manner, you must remember that players can go backward. On the other, you might say that he is virtually undistinguishable from many of his contemporaries, and isn’t clearly the cream of that crop. On one hand, you might say that Lindor is well on his way to jumping as high as third on the all-time shortstop list. Lindor is four years older than Tatis, one year older than Correa, the same age as Seager, and a year younger than Bogaerts, Turner and Story. All of the current greats at this position except for Tatis, who is already locked into a megadeal of his own, will be using Lindor’s deal as precedent in their own upcoming free agencies. 17 Trea Turner (3.80) fill three of the next four slots. You’ll notice Lindor and two of his contemporaries filling the last three spots. Wagner (53.66 combined standard deviations above average OBP and SLG).As you might imagine, shortstops don’t fare so well when compared straight up against players at more bat-oriented positions.Īmong all players who were exclusively regulars at shortstop, here are the top 13 in this statistic, going back to 1901: It’s all about offense, and doesn’t adjust for position or ballpark. It’s proven to be a reliable method of measuring the performance of truly excellent players throughout the game’s history. I’ve cultivated a database of all MLB regulars going back to 1901 and calculated the number of combined standard deviations above league average OBP and SLG for each player. Let’s open it up to all shortstops in the history of the game, and see what we have. Lindor’s bat (118 OPS+, 896 hits, 138 HR, 99 SB) is right there offensively with Jeter (123 OPS+, 99 HR, 135 SB) and Appling (110 OPS+, 902 H, 19 HR), and he’s light years ahead of them defensively. ![]() Vizquel isn’t in the same league, and Ozzie and Aparicio hadn’t learned to hit yet at that stage of their careers. ![]() Compare him to those five through six MLB seasons qualitatively, and Lindor compares favorably. So simply asking Lindor to survive at his position for the life of his contract is a high bar, one that would likely qualify him for the Hall.
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