So Very Bored

This blog's becoming one of TSM's hidden gems.

 

It took me awhile to see this, but I had to comment on this particular MVP race. It is my opinion that Ozzie Smith nearly deserved the MVP award. If not, he certainly ranks higher than sixth. It is easy to look at Ozzie's 1987 stats and dismiss them slightly. After all, there is little impressive about a .383 Slugging percentage. However, for an NL shortstop they are extremely good numbers. Of the twelve shortstops in the NL in 1987, Smith rates first in batting average and OBP, and third in slugging percentage. He rates second in OPS+ behind Hubie Brooks. And Ozzie rates first in steals among shortstops, with twice as many as his nearest competitor (Barry Larkin).

 

That's pretty good for an average fielding shortstop. Smith of course was not an average fielder. Every single defensive rating system ever devised ranks Ozzie among the greatest fielders in baseball history. When you have a shortstop making an enormous number of plays in the field and creating runs at the plate in a leadoff hitter fashion, that's every bit as valuable as a 40 home run guy. Tim Raines probably edged Smith, but the voters were closer to nailing his spot.

Thanks for the compliment.

 

To be honest when doing these redos I haven't given any real consideration to the position of the player and possibly I should. Thing about 1987 it was such a monster year for offense I just feel even with the high OBP Smith's defense can't make up for how his offensive numbers are dwarfed by the competition. The highest I could see putting him is 3rd.

Thanks for the compliment.

 

To be honest when doing these redos I haven't given any real consideration to the position of the player and possibly I should. Thing about 1987 it was such a monster year for offense I just feel even with the high OBP Smith's defense can't make up for how his offensive numbers are dwarfed by the competition. The highest I could see putting him is 3rd.

There probably isn't a player who deserves more credit for his defense than Ozzie Smith. The problem is that this is very hard to quantify. Just looking at range factors, Ozzie scores a full play per game better than league average. If we were to assume these were all singles, that would save about 18 runs a season beyond what an average shortstop would do. That's about two wins in the standings. Total Baseball scores Ozzie at 19 Fielding Runs, so my calculations are not off base. The question is how close that closes the gap regarding batting statistics. And to be honest, I don't have a good answer for that. Total Baseball sees Smith outside of the top three, but win shares places him second.