Ben Feldman of The Bleacher Report wrote an excellent article entitled The Best 11 Second Basemen of All Time last week (it's part of a series he's doing dealing with "The Best" at each—be sure to click the link here and check them all out—I highly recommend it).
Since I obviously did not write a column to tell you that, it’s safe to assume there are points of disagreement. Ben wrote:
“When looking at these players, what is most striking is how similar in value they all were. Unfortunately, I have to cut Joe Gordon first. With players grouped this tightly, I can't quite give him full credit for the unknown production of the war years.”
The two issues I have are:
1. If Bobby Doerr ranks eighth, then I cannot see the justification of Gordon missing the cut.
2. Using WARP (Wins Above Replacement Player). I have never liked using “replacement level” as a baseline for assessment. It’s based on an assumed criterion ("this is replacement level production"). I find league average preferable since it is a more tangible baseline and compares major leaguers to major leaguers rather than "the best Triple-A player available."
League average is easy to determine. There are some variations in calculating replacement level.
For myself, I cannot see how you can place Bobby Doerr and Joe Gordon side by side and say that Doerr was a better second baseman. They were contemporary players who allow us to examine their careers side by side. I will concede that Doerr was the better defender, but, according to eyewitness accounts, Gordon too was excellent defensively.
Robert Creamer (excerpted from Baseball In 1941) wrote, "It seems incredible to me now ... that the Yankees would consider mucking about with their great second baseman. I cannot fathom why McCarthy ever considered moving a fielder as good as Gordon out of a position as vitally important as second base."
It was often written back then that Gordon was “peerless” defensively at second. I think it’s safe to say that Gordon could flash some serious leather.
Let’s do a comparison based on both traditional and sabermetric measures. We'll use black type to indicate when Doerr was better that Gordon in a given category in each season when both played (hence 1944-45 aren't used):
From 1938-50:
Joe Gordon (5707 AB)
BA OBP SLG Runs 2B 3B HR RBI OPS+ RCAA BR
.268 .357 .466 83 24 7 25 97 108 -1 2.8
.284 .370 .506 92 32 5 28 111 123 28 18.5
.281 .340 .511 112 32 10 30 103 121 15 16.0
.276 .358 .466 104 26 7 24 87 117 13 13.7
.322 .409 .491 88 29 4 18 103 155 43 41.0
.249 .365 .413 82 28 5 17 69 126 21 21.0
Did not play
Did not play
.210 .308 .338 35 15 0 11 47 79 -15 -10.3
.272 .346 .496 89 27 6 29 93 135 27 23.7
.280 .371 .507 96 21 4 32 124 134 30 24.7
.251 .355 .407 74 18 3 20 84 103 1 1.7
.236 .340 .429 59 12 1 19 57 98 -1 -1.8
.268 .357 .466 914 264 52 253 975 120 161 151.1
Now, let's see how many times Doerr bettered him:
Bobby Doerr (6544 AB)
BA OBP SLG Runs 2B 3B HR RBI OPS+ RCAA BR
.289 .363 .397 70 26 7 5 80 86 -17 -11.4
.318 .365 .448 75 28 2 12 73 103 -12 1.6
.291 .353 .497 87 37 10 22 105 114 9 10.5
.282 .339 .450 74 28 4 16 93 105 2 2.0
.290 .369 .455 71 35 5 15 102 128 21 20.7
.270 .339 .412 78 32 3 16 75 117 10 12.4
.325 .399 .528 95 30 10 15 81 165 51 39.2
Did not play
.271 .346 .453 95 34 9 18 116 116 0 11.8
.258 .329 .426 79 23 10 17 95 103 -11 -0.4
.285 .386 .505 94 23 6 27 111 131 31 22.8
.309 .393 .497 91 30 9 18 109 128 16 21.1
.294 .367 .519 103 29 11 27 120 116 -1 10.5
.289 .362 .465 1012 355 86 208 1160 113 99 141.0
Of the 121 black ink opportunities, Doerr garnered 52--11 from 1946 when Gordon was shaking off two years of rust. Doerr captured 16 of the available 33 black ink in BA/OBP/SLG. Despite the differences in hitting environments, Doerr led in slugging only three times, one of which was 1946. During the years when both were active and Gordon was playing half his games in Yankee Stadium (1938-43, 1946), Doerr hit 104 homers while Gordon homered 153 times (despite having almost 250 fewer at-bats than Doerr).
In the adjusted stats section, Doerr could generate black ink in only 10 of 33 categories. In the seasons between 1938-48 when both were active, Gordon posted superior numbers in 23 of the 27 categories … three of the four times Doerr finished higher occurred in 1946.
Now Doerr is a legit Hall of Famer, but was helped immeasurably as a hitter by Fenway Park. When examining the above numbers (especially power), understand that being a right-handed hitter in Yankee Stadium/Municipal Stadium was a great deal different from being a right-handed hitter in Fenway Park. A right-handed hitter in Gordon's day was aiming at a target whimsically referred to as "Death Valley," where the dimensions were 402 feet to left center, 457 to deep left center, and 461 to straightaway center.
On the other hand, Doerr had the Green Monster to shoot at, the same wall that is making Jim Rice a popular Cooperstown candidate. The aggregate park factor for Gordon's career was 98 (ranging from 96-101); Doerr's was 104 (ranging from 99-110). In short, Gordon was shooting at the most difficult part of "The House That Ruth Built" during his time in pinstripes whereas Doerr had a career full of at bats aiming at the Monster.
A few years ago I wrote a comparison among Gordon, Doerr and contemporary second sackers using an Olympic format (I originally wrote it in an Olympic year). Put another way, in each year I noted when either player finished first (gold), second (silver) and third (bronze) in five events: OPS, OPS+, Offensive Winning Percentage (OWP), Runs Created against Position (RCAP) and Runs Created Per 27 outs (RC/27). Since Gordon played in 11 seasons and there were five categories, that made 55 “events” in my dweebish Olympiad.
Then I broke it down using four comparisons—Gordon vs. the AL, Doerr vs. the AL; Gordon vs. MLB and Doerr vs. MLB (again, I used only other second basemen).
Here were the results (I'll spare you the cheesy charts):
Joe Gordon vs. all major league second basemen: Over the course of Gordon’s career, out of 55 possible categories (11 years x five statistical evaluations), Gordon has 15 first place entries, including sweeps in 1941 and 1942 (he won the AL MVP in 1942). He had 17 second place finishes and four third place finishes. So, in 55 dweebish Olympic events, Gordon copped 15 gold medals, 17 silver, four bronze, for a total of 36 medals out of a possible 55 "events." So, how did Bobby Doerr do in this round?
Bobby Doerr vs. all major league second basemen: Bobby Doerr, in a possible 55 "events" won a total of 26 medals (six gold, 13 silver, seven bronze). Now let us narrow our focus and put Gordon and Doerr head-to-head by tossing the National Leaguers out of the equation …
Joe Gordon vs. all AL second basemen: Therefore, competing strictly against his AL counterparts, Gordon (out of 55 "events") copped 21 gold, 14 silver, and four bronze--for a total of 39. He almost swept the year before he went into the service (four gold, one silver), and in 1947 (four gold, one silver). His struggles in 1946 could be easily dismissed as simple rustiness. How did Doerr fare?
Bobby Doerr vs. all AL second basemen: Doerr finished with 10 gold medals, 22 silver, 10 bronze--for a total of 42. Interestingly, over the course of Gordon's career (excluding 1944 and 1945 when he was in the service), the only year in which Doerr was a superior offensive player was 1948.
During the time Doerr and Gordon were active, contemporaneous accounts viewed Gordon as superior. He was selected to The Sporting News all star team six out of a possible seven times, finished in the top 10 in MVP voting five times to Doerr’s two (top 10 finishes). Gordon was an All-Star in nine of his 11 seasons, Doerr nine of his 14 seasons.
What a great many people didn't know was that Joe Gordon, for decades, was the greatest home run-hitting second baseman in baseball history. Despite playing half of his games in good pitchers' parks, Gordon enjoyed the greatest home run percentage (6,000 plate appearance qualifier) of any second baseman of any era (4.43). He is fifth all time in total homers from the position (with just 5,707 AB) behind Rogers Hornsby (8,173 AB), Ryne Sandberg (8,385 AB), Joe Morgan (9,277 AB) and Jeff Kent (8,058 AB). Nevertheless, nobody popped them out more frequently than Joe Gordon.
Doerr may have played longer, but I don't think he played better than Joe Gordon. Gordon's teams went to six World Series, winning five. Doerr's copped a single flag, but fell in the Fall Classic. It's a minor point, but it does count.
If I had to pick a second baseman and my choices were Gordon and Doerr, I'd take Gordon.
Totally radical compadre...
I realize that I’m a fair bit older than the guys at Drunk Jays Fans. I thought it would be nice to give them a real taste of the 1980’s (dons mullet wig, pushes up sleeves on sports jacket and removes socks and puts shoes back on … checks mirror to insure that there’s enough scruff on the ol’ visage).
Perfect … Geez, I look like an idiot. [space reserved for wisecracks--once again, please be creative]
Now, let’s get totally retro gnarly dudes and dudettes and without further ado, to handle the sign off I have pop duo Milli Vanilli. Take ‘er away guys…
D'oh!!! (smacks palm to forehead)
(sigh)
I'd forgotten about that. That's the worst thing about middle age--your memory starts to go. At least Britney had a tape recorder; these idiots didn't even do that. Oh well...
Best Regards
John
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