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Tons and
tons of baseball fans dispute over whether or not Ron Santo belongs in the
Stan
Hack? Yes, Stan Hack.
He always seems to get overlooked for some reason. He was only the best third
basemen of the thirties and forties. He was also one of the best table setters
during that time, if not he was THE best. So, why does no one seem to care
about Stan? Did he play for bad teams?
Not really. He and his team went to the World Series 4 times. They lost all 4
times, but made it nonetheless. Was he a bad fielding third baseman? No, he had
a FA+ of 11. So why is it then? I’ll tell you why. He didn’t have those gaudy
homerun and RBI totals that writers love to overrate.
Stan
wasn’t a power hitter by any means. He never hit more than 8 homeruns and never
drove in more than 78. However, that wasn’t Hack’s job. Hack was a leadoff
hitter. As leadoff man, your job is to get on base and score runs, which was
Stan’s specialty. Hack scored 100+ runs 7 times and had an OBP of .400 or more
7 times. However, does this mean Hack was better than Santo? Well let’s take a
quick look at them.
|
AB |
Runs |
Hits |
HR |
RBI |
BB |
BA |
OBP |
SA |
Hack |
7278 |
1239 |
2193 |
57 |
642 |
1092 |
.301 |
.394 |
.397 |
Santo |
8143 |
1138 |
2254 |
342 |
1331 |
1108 |
.277 |
.366 |
.464 |
If you
were to take their numbers at face value, Santo would probably get the nod over
Hack. However, these two players played 30 years apart. So to take their
numbers at face value would be silly. We must look at their numbers in context
to the era they played in.
|
BA+ |
OBP+ |
SA+ |
OPS+ |
Hack |
110 |
116 |
103 |
119 |
Santo |
103 |
108 |
116 |
124 |
Santo
clearly has an advantage in SA+. However, is 13 relative SA points more
valuable than 8 relative OBP points and 7 relative batting points? Not when
their OPS+ are similar. Anyway, however you look at it, Hack was a better all
around hitter. He hit for better average and got on base more. Santo drew more
walks, but only 8 more in almost 1,000 more at bats.
We now
know that Hack was the better hitter, but who was a better run producer?
Santo created 1,379 runs in his
career, and Hack created 1,241. However, Hack created 6.35 runs a game while
Santo created 5.92. If you prefer career totals, than Santo is your guy. If
look at it game by game then Hack is the one for you. I’m going to give the
edge to Santo; simply because Santo didn’t just hang around to create the extra
runs. He was a productive player up until his second to last season of his
career.
Now,
let’s look at the other side of the ball, defense. Santo was an excellent
defensive player, but Hack was no slouch. Santo won 5 consecutive gold gloves
from 1964-1968. Hack never won any because there were no gold gloves awarded
when he played. However, Bill James credits Hack with 3 gold gloves in 34, 37,
and 38. I usually don’t trust defensive metrics, but they’re more trustworthy
than gold gloves.
Fielding Win Shares |
FWS per season |
FA+ |
Fielding Runs |
RG/Arm |
|
Santo |
68 |
4.9 |
5 |
169 |
110/116 |
Hack |
66 |
5.5 |
11 |
-3 |
98/90 |
For you
Bill James fans out there, Santo had two more Defensive Win Shares, but Hack
averaged more per season. Fielding Runs
is where Santo really pulls ahead. Santo had 169 fielding runs. This means that
over Santo’s career, he saved 169 more runs from scoring than the average third
baseman. Hack actually let three more runs score than the average third
baseman. Santo’s Range and Arm is much better than Hack’s. For my money, Santo was the better fielder,
but not by much.
Hack was
the better hitter, but not by too much. Santo was the better fielder, but again
not by too much. So who was the better all around player? Neither, it’s a tie.
If you’d like to choose Santo, there’s no argument. The same goes for Hack. I
personally would take Hack; only because a really good leadoff man is harder to
find than a really good number three or four hitter.
Tony’s Top 10 Third Baseman