Mr. Know-It-All examines the greatest seasons by shortstops and third basemen in Mariners’ history.
Mr. K-I-A’s introduction was in an earlier post and included his thoughts on the greatest seasons produced by catchers, first basemen and second basemen. In case you missed it, click here to read it.
Tomorrow: The outfielders.
Third Basemen
92 Edgar Martinez
3b 0.947
94 Edgar Martinez
3b 0.867
91 Edgar Martinez
3b 0.852
90 Edgar Martinez
3b 0.827
85 Jim Presley
3b 0.812
95 Mike Blowers
3b 0.811
2007 Adrian Beltre
3b 0.801
2006 Adrian Beltre
3b 0.784
Edgar would have had another year on this list for 1993, except
he was hurt. Which probably led him to the dh permanently in
2005. 1992 was a monster year. He had seven greater
years as a dh. Joe Posnanski has remarked and he is a
remarkably good analyst that Edgar was one of the best right handed
hitters ever, certainly top ten. The guy that kept him in the
minor leagues, Jim Presley chipped in with a nice year in
1985. Mike Blowers in the booth now without Dave Niehaus had
his career year in 1985, good for him I say as a kid from
Spanaway. Adrian Beltre playing in Yellowstone, otherwise
known as Safeco had two good but not great years. Playing in
Fenway Park in 2010 he had an incredible year, like he did in LA
before he came to Seattle. He should do well in Texas,
too.
As a general statement over thirty four years there should be more
players here. Particularly given the years in the
Kingdome. The rule in old school baseball is that you must
have power from the corners and defense up the middle to go with
your pitching to win. If you don’t have that power, then you
are in a deficit and must get it from one of the middle positions,
which is verra hard to do as those guys are scarce and you have to
pay them a lot. The Ms in Jellystone had no juice at third
base last year with Jose Lopez and will not this year with Chone
Figgins. Is there the prospect of power from ss, 2b, cf or
catcher this year? Maybe Olivo, nowhere else really.
Does that doom the Mariners? The team has finished last or
second to last in runs scored in every year except 2007 since
2003. They had winning records in 2007 and 2009. Is
there anything to draw on from those years? Well 2007 the
team had Ichiro in center, Jose Guillen in rf and Ibanez in lf,
Beltre and Sexson 3b and 1b and Jose Vidro as the dh. They
scored runs and won games more or less traditionally. In 2009
they had Jose Lopez’s career year at 2b which compensated for the
lack of production from Ichiro but they did not really score runs
at all finishing last in the league with 640 runs, which was 127
more than they did in 2010. But what does it mean? How can
you score less runs than anyone and win? Well, they defended
very well, especially in the outfield with Ichiro, Gutierrez, and
the gang in left field. Infield made plays.
Last year that did not happen, fewer balls get caught than year
before all over the place, outfield and infield. It can
happen again and it must if they are to win. In 2009 (see appendix
on UZR) the Mariners were the best defensive team in all of
baseball. There UZR was 85.3 a full 30 runs better than any
other team in baseball. They were the tenth best last
year. What happened? Two things seem bigger than anything
other factors. Franklin Gutierrez had a far less productive
defensive season, getting to far fewer balls in 2010 than the year
before. Figgins although possessed with greater range than
Lopez at second base made some errors. The catchers did not
throw as well as they had the year before. Beltre was better
at 3b than the year before. Josh Wilson is not an everyday
ss. It all adds up.
Shortstop
96 Alex Rodriguez
ss 1.046
2000 Alex Rodriguez
ss 1.027
99 Alex Rodriguez
ss 0.942
98 Alex Rodriguez
ss 0.913
97 Alex Rodriguez
ss 0.841
Five of the greatest offensive years a short stop has had in
baseball, let alone for the Mariners. His first five years in
the majors. He’s a professional hitter on target to hit 900
homers or so, barring injury before he’s through. Awfully
insecure guy, what with the steroids and stuff. I question
whether that started in Texas, but I have no evidence or anecdote
to suggest that it did not. The Mariners had another
shortstop who might squeak into the hall of fame for all of his
other work, including eleven gold gloves and that is Omar
Vizquel. The Mariners traded him for Felix Fermin, Reggie
Jefferson and cash. Felix showed up and was not good and got
hurt and was beat out by Luis Sojo until Alex took over. This
sort of is like the Tino Martinez trade. The guy finally
figures it out, starts to play at a high level and he got
dumped. Spike Owen was not as good as Omar, but the same
thing happened. After Alex, Carlos Guillen was a very good
short stop who was traded away to Detroit for a guy named Raymond
Santiago who the Ms released. Both are still with
Detroit. Carlos was thought to be a bad influence on Freddie
Garcia and was thrown away. Freddie was shipped off too, so
as not to pollute Felix’s world. Both Freddie and Carlos were
good to excellent major league players who participated in World
Series with their new teams after being dumped by Seattle.
Twenty seven hundred words before I suggest that the M’s have not
been to the World Series yet. That is wrong at so many
levels. But to sum it up, when he’s done Alex Rodriguez will
be in arguments about if he was the greatest player ever.
Deservedly so. That he was a Mariner will be a footnote not
discussed by many away from this fair state. Long term
contracts aside, we should have signed him.
As he slides into the last part of his career he’s better than any
three players the Mariners have had since 2003.
