Reviewing ESPN's 30 Over 30 at the Hot Corners

Last Monday we reviewed ESPN's 30 over 30 at Catcher and DH. ESPN is doing a mobile survey to determine who fans think are the best players by position in the ESPN Era of the past 30 years. The winners last week were Johnny Bench/Ivan Rodriguez and Edgar Martinez despite my opinion that Mike Piazza and Frank Thomas should have won. Let's move on to the categories for last week and this week: The Hot Corners.

 

First Base:

• Jeff Bagwell - .297/.408/.540, 9431 PA, 1517 runs, 2314 hits, 969 XBH, 449 HR, 1529 RBI, 1401 BB, 1558 SO, 149 OPS+
• Rod Carew - .314/.393/.392, 3570 PA, 474 runs, 968 hits, 180 XBH, 18 HR, 282 RBI, 405 BB, 312 SO, 119 OPS+
• Steve Garvey - .286/.319/.431, 4961 PA, 590 runs, 1333 hits, 377 XBH, 141 HR, 682 RBI, 230 BB, 513 SO, 109 OPS+
• Todd Helton - .328/.427/.571, 7505 PA, 1194 runs, 2064 hits, 864 XBH, 321 HR, 1176 RBI, 1091 BB, 861 SO, 141 OPS+
• Keith Hernandez - .303/.391/.441, 6599 PA, 867 runs, 1716 hits, 492 XBH, 126 HR, 848 RBI, 836 BB, 769 SO, 132 OPS+
• Don Mattingly - .307/.358/.471, 7003 PA, 1007 runs, 2153 hits, 684 XBH, 222 HR, 1099 RBI, 588 BB, 444 SO, 127 OPS+
• Mark McGwire - .263/.394/.588, 7660 PA, 1167 runs, 1626 hits, 841 XBH, 583 HR, 1414 RBI, 1317 BB, 1596 SO, 162 OPS+
• Albert Pujols - .334/.426/.629, 5807 PA, 1026 runs, 1642 hits, 731 XBH, 353 HR, 1068 RBI, 771 BB, 545 SO, 172 OPS+
• Pete Rose - .283/.365/.348, 4415 PA, 508 runs, 1092 hits, 208 XBH, 10 HR, 360 RBI, 481 BB, 244 SO, 98 OPS+

Let's do this a little out of order. Pete Rose was one of the greatest hitters in the history of the game, but by 1979 he had moved on to Philly (and on to first base) and after a great 1979 season, he wasn't really the same player (though he was great in a short stint back in Cincinnati in 1984). He averaged 167 hits and 74 walks with only 37 Ks per 162 games, but had no power to go along with it (as well as some betting thing).

Rod Carew also gets hit by the years as he moved in 1979 from Minnesota to California and although he would be productive until the end, he was not the same hitter who won the MVP in 1977 and had moved from second base to almost solely being a first baseman. His OPS over the ESPN era was 42nd among first basemen with 3000 or more PAs, just behind the immortals Greg Colbrunn, Paul Sorrento and Hal Morris. He's Jewish (as per Adam Sandler), so he gets extra points in my book, but not enough to put him over the top.

Steve Garvey was a fine player over his career, but this only spans half of it and misses out on his 1974 MVP season and his 2nd place finish in 1978. His OPS over this period ranks behind suck luminaries as Sid Bream, Rico Brogna, and Lee Stevens and his .319 OBP is worst among any first basemen with at least 3800 PAs.

Don Mattingly was one of my top 3 favorite players ever and one of the best defensive first basemen I've ever seen, but his bad back sent him out of the game at 34. I've always wondered what would have happened to that Yankee dynasty with a healthy Mattingly (and therefore minus Tino) as well as his Hall of Fame credentials. But that's all hypothetical. He averaged a very nice 40 2B, 20 HR, 100 RBI, 300 TB per 162 games, but that's not enough to finish first on this list.

Keith Hernandez was great defensively, won the NL MVP in 1979, and was awesome on Seinfeld, but he doesn't make it even if you do include his 5 years before 1979. Although his OPS was slightly higher than Mattingly's, I think Donnie Baseball may have been better overall during this time period. And both of their OPSs were below John Jaha, John Kruk and Paul Konerko.

Todd Helton has long been one of the more underrated and underappreciated players in the game. All the man does is hit. His power slowed down in 2005 (probably nothing to do with testing) but he continued to hit the ball well. He averages 30 HR and his .998 OPS is second among 1st basemen in the last 30 years. More impressively, his .427 OBP is 12th all time and first among active players. Some of his bump is due to Coors Field, but his .889 OPS on the road would put him above Rafael Palmeiro, Fred McGriff or Justin Morneau all by itself.

Jeff Bagwell one MVP award was in the strike-shortened 1994 season. "Bags" was hitting .368/.451/.750 with 39 HR and 116 RBI when the season was cancelled so we'll never know what he could have finished with. From 1994-2001, he averaged .306/.428/.589 with 41 HR and 132 RBI per 162 games. He also is the stolen base leader for first basemen in the ESPN Era with 202. The next closest guys are Gerald Perry at 142 and Andres Galarraga at 128.

Mark McGwire gets dinged for steroids but the guy hit 583 HR over his career including back-to-back years of 65+ HR and 147 RBIs. Over 162 games, this guy averaged 50 HR! And despite the fact he didn't hit for average, his .982 OPS was really good and he never posted an OPS + of under 100 after his initial call-up to the bigs.

Albert Pujols is a machine no matter what he says. The guy is well on his way to his third MVP Award. Here are his MVP finishes in the majors: 4th (won ROY), 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, 1st, 2nd, 9th, and 1st. He's also really good around the bag. He's 1st in active batting average, 2nd in OBP, 1st in SLG (and 4th all time), 1st in OPS (and 4th all time), and 1st in adjusted OPS (7th all time). He compares very favorably so far in his career with Jimmie Foxx, Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, Lou Gerhig, Ken Griffey, Mickey Mantle, and Joe DiMaggio. Oh...and he's 29.

Missing from this list?/Special Mention: Neither one would win, but Jason Giambi and Carlos Delgado have each had very good careers with OPS over .928 and 400+ HR a piece and although the steroid cloud haunts him, Rafael Palmeiro did have 3020 hits and 569 HR.

My winners and runners up: My winner is Albert Pujols with Mark McGwire, Jeff Bagwell and Todd Helton coming in as runners up.

 

Third Base:

• Mike Schmidt - .275/.385/.543, 6231 PA, 941 runs, 1424 hits, 640 XBH, 358 HR, 1043 RBI, 938 BB, 1040 SO, 153 OPS+
• Alex Rodriguez - .304/.389/.576, 9367 PA, 1646 runs, 2462 hits, 1034 XBH, 572 HR, 1661 RBI, 1031 BB, 1689 SO, 147 OPS+
• George Brett - .305/.376/.500, 8510 PA, 1170 runs, 2284 hits, 846 XBH, 266 HR, 1242 RBI, 886 BB, 721 SO, 139 OPS+
• Chipper Jones - .310/.408/.545, 9041 PA, 1430 runs, 2363 hits, 923 XBH, 420 HR, 1422 RBI, 1303 BB, 1187 SO, 144 OPS+
• Wade Boggs - .328/.415/.443, 10740 PA, 1513 runs, 3010 hits, 757 XBH, 118 HR, 1014 RBI, 1412 BB, 745 SO, 130 OPS+

Michael Jack Schmidt (for some reason everyone calls him that) was probably the greatest hitting 3rd baseman ever. His biggest problem? He had 7 years under his belt when 1979 came around including 3 straight seasons where he led the NL in HRs. Still, his stats were great, but was it good enough to put him in first on my list?

A-Rod was only a third baseman less than 40% of the time, but in that time, he has the highest OPS of any of them over the past 30 years. He's also one of the best player of the past 30 years so his inclusion on here is easy...if you consider him a 3rd baseman. Still, he averages 44 HR and 128 RBIs per 162 games so whatever position you consider him, he should be on this list. He also has 289 SB which is not insignificant in the argument.

George Brett misses out on 6 years here and that's significant. In those 6 years he had two seasons he averaged 193 hits per 162 games. He was a great player but those missing years certainly take him out of the running.  

Chipper Jones has to be one of the most underrated players in the game. "Larry" (as he's known around Queens) has hit more than 20 HR every year and hasn't finished with an OPS+ of lower than 116 since his rookie year (where he was 108). He only won one MVP, but that wasn't because his value was low to his team. Since 1997, he's only had one season with an OBP less than .400.

Wade Boggs had a great career. Although he was solid throughout, his peak came 1983-1989. In those 7 seasons, he never has less than 200 hits or less than 100 runs. He also led the league twice in runs, once in hits, twice in doubles, twice in walks, 5 times in batting average, 6 times in OBP and twice in OPS. Despite only hitting double digits in HR twice in his ENTIRE career, he led the league in IBB from 1987-1992. I don't know, however, if he really compares to the A-Rod's and Chippers at the end of the day. It's tough to compare the pure hitters like Boggs to the power hitters, but I think that Boggs may come short especially when you consider his OPS was lower than Troy Glaus or Scott Rolen.

Missing from this list?/Special Mention: No one. This was the best list they made so far.

My winners and runners up: My winner is Alex Rodriguez with Chipper Jones and Mike Schmidt as the runners up.

 

Update: It ends up the actual winners were posted this afternoon. The fans voted for Albert Pujols and Pete Rose at first and Mike Schmidt and Alex Rodriguez at third. Pujols got 41.8% of the vote and Rose 24.5% (next closest was Mattingly at 8.5%). Schmidt got 40% of the vote and A-Rod 17.8% (George Brett at 17.3% and Chipper Jones at 15.6% just missed out). With the Bench and Rose votes so far, it seems like fans are ignoring the requirement that it be what the player has done over the last 30 years. But so far, not too bad.

Next one is 2B and SS...should be exciting!