On Shortstop Anchors In Baseball

Craig Calcaterra on HardballTalk tries to remember Derek Jeter's predecessors in light of a Mike Vaccaro's New York Post article today about how the precense of Derek Jeter may have cost the Yankees on Cuban free agent Adeiny Hechevarria (Jason @ IIATMS has some more thoughts on the matter). Calcaterra concludes: "There are new prospects every year. Anchors at shortstop are pretty damn rare." I decided to check in on how rare "anchors" really are, and found out that, especially in the past twenty years, they're pretty damn rare.

Gone are the days where guys like Cal Ripken, Jr., Alan Trammell or Dave Concepcion manned shortstop for one team for so many years. I plugged into Baseball-Reference's Play Index any player who played 80% of their games at shortstop from 1989-2009 and played in at least 1200 games (which is basically 8 seasons). There were only 18 players who fit that criteria. Here are the results below sorted by Franchises Played For:

Rk	Player		G	From	To	Age	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos	Tm
1	Royce Clayton	11	2108	1991	2007	21-37	8164	7379	935	1904	363	55	110	723	565	34	1415	45	113	62	218	231	100	.258	.312	.367	.679	*6/5	SFG-STL-TEX-CHW-MIL-COL-ARI-WSN-CIN-TOR-BOS
2	Orlando Cabrera	6	1732	1997	2009	22-34	7241	6618	882	1818	410	32	114	761	469	26	635	26	51	77	165	197	49	.275	.322	.398	.720	*6/4D	MON-BOS-LAA-CHW-OAK-MIN
3	Edgar Renteria	6	1984	1996	2009	19-32	8466	7600	1140	2185	411	27	132	865	673	39	1074	30	91	72	226	287	106	.288	.345	.401	.746	*6/D3	FLA-STL-BOS-ATL-DET-SFG
4	Alex Gonzalez	6	1396	1994	2006	21-33	5528	4977	623	1209	274	27	137	536	392	12	1165	45	82	32	128	97	48	.243	.302	.391	.694	*65/D37	TOR-CHC-MON-SDP-TBD-PHI
5	Julio Lugo	5	1237	2000	2009	24-33	5026	4473	659	1213	234	32	80	452	420	4	815	35	58	40	76	193	62	.271	.336	.391	.727	*64/57D98	HOU-TBD-LAD-BOS-STL
6	Deivi Cruz	5	1234	1997	2005	24-32	4375	4124	442	1109	250	16	70	464	132	12	429	24	63	32	117	16	28	.269	.293	.388	.682	*6/45D3	DET-SDP-BAL-SFG-WSN
7	Omar Vizquel	4	2742	1989	2009	22-42	11277	9922	1378	2704	433	74	78	906	978	25	1007	47	244	86	192	389	156	.273	.338	.355	.693	*6/549	SEA-CLE-SFG-TEX
8	Mike Bordick	4	1720	1990	2003	24-37	6484	5770	676	1500	257	30	91	626	500	10	800	63	97	54	145	96	58	.260	.323	.362	.685	*64/5	OAK-BAL-NYM-TOR
9	Ozzie Guillen	4	1379	1989	2000	25-36	4833	4522	522	1189	197	42	23	449	168	18	331	2	98	43	71	104	79	.263	.287	.340	.627	*6/5347	CHW-BAL-ATL-TBD
10	Walt Weiss	4	1332	1989	2000	25-36	4975	4208	576	1082	161	28	22	346	621	37	600	31	80	35	66	91	29	.257	.354	.324	.679	*6	OAK-FLA-COL-ATL
11	Alex Gonzalez	3	1229	1998	2009	21-32	4776	4393	508	1087	256	26	114	521	236	45	879	68	43	36	99	26	19	.247	.294	.395	.689	*6	FLA-BOS-CIN
12	Miguel Tejada	3	1871	1997	2009	23-35	8012	7320	1116	2114	421	23	285	1185	505	64	952	107	17	63	245	78	34	.289	.341	.469	.810	*6/D	OAK-BAL-HOU
13	Greg Gagne	3	1230	1989	1997	27-35	4346	3982	472	1028	210	28	73	436	265	18	756	20	52	27	86	65	69	.258	.306	.380	.686	*6/8	MIN-KCR-LAD
14	Rafael Furcal	2	1300	2000	2009	22-31	5871	5249	880	1493	255	58	92	465	529	18	747	16	45	32	68	271	81	.284	.350	.408	.758	*6/4	ATL-LAD
15	Cristian Guzman	2	1302	1999	2009	21-31	5389	5017	679	1362	226	85	60	441	245	15	720	26	70	31	79	121	66	.271	.307	.386	.693	*6/D	MIN-WSN
16	Derek Jeter	1	2138	1995	2009	21-35	9809	8659	1574	2747	438	58	224	1068	885	33	1466	143	78	44	213	305	80	.317	.388	.459	.847	*6/D	NYY
17	Jimmy Rollins	1	1406	2000	2009	21-30	6512	5941	945	1629	350	95	146	621	470	35	765	32	33	36	82	326	69	.274	.329	.439	.768	*6/4	PHI
18	Barry Larkin	1	1863	1989	2004	25-40	7748	6751	1147	2014	389	66	171	842	853	59	720	42	44	58	161	310	64	.298	.378	.451	.829	*6/D	CIN

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 3/16/2010.

Only Derek Jeter, Jimmy Rollins, and Barry Larkin have done it with one franchise. Ozzie Guillen played in 1,743 games for the White Sox so he was an anchor for those 13 seasons (though only 1,129 games were played in the 1989-2009 time frame). Omar Vizquel played 1,478 games for Cleveland and he was certainly an anchor. So that's really 5 shortstops in the past 20 years who would be considered anchors*.

*Side Note: Nomar Garciaparra played in 966 games for Boston, Miguel Tejada played in 936 games for Oakland, Alex S Gonzalez played in 890 games for the Blue Jays, and the other Alex Gonzalez played in 896 games for the Marlins, but all busted out of town before they were 30 so they don't qualify. Greg Gagne played in 1,140 games for Minnesota so he qualifies as an anchor (albeit a no-hit anchor), but only 572 of those games were played in the 1989-2009 time-frame.

If you peel back the requirements just 5 years (to 1984), you add Jeff Blauser (played in 1,184 games for the Braves from 1987-1997), Ozzie Smith (in his St. Louis time), Ripken and Trammell as anchors, showing that the 90s and 00s were less kind to the shortstop anchor. Do you need a shortstop anchor to win it all? Despite the fact that the past two years were won by teams with shortstop anchors, the answer is certainly no. But seeing how rare it is to get a shortstop to man the position for a long time on one team, and seeing how hard a time teams like Boston have in finding good shortstops, you understand why the Mets will stick with Jose Reyes through tough times. And you defintely understand the dilemma across town facing the Yankees as they deal with Derek Jeter's impending free agency and increasing age.

Picture from the New York Post