#98 Ozzie Smith

Ozzie Smith
SS
1978-1996
15 Time All Star/13 Gold Gloves
Baseball Hall of Fame

Defense matters, and for damn near 20 years Ozzie Smith was the gold standard on defense at shortstop. He turned himself into a respectable offensive player as well ending with a career .262 average after being pretty much an out the first few years of his career and limping to the finish line a little. He also stole over 500 bags when the game was played that way. 

He won a World Series and played in 2 more for the Cardinals in the 80s and the Cardinals acquired him in one of the worst trades of the decade as they got him straight up for Gary Templeton.

On top of his obvious gifts, he was an incredibly intelligent player, saving mileage on his arm by 1 hopping throws on the turf of Busch Stadium and the other cookie cutter astroturf nightmares that populated the baseball landscape in the 80s. 

One of the most electrifying defensive players to ever walk the earth. Ozzie got his call from Cooperstown in 2002.



Anthony Leonelli is a 37 year old College Baseball Coach and amateur baseball arguer. If you wanna know how this list came together check here criteria. He thinks that George Brett winning batting titles in 3 decades is pretty awesome. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

#35 Miguel Cabrera

Image
Miguel Cabrera 1B/3B 2003- 11X All Star, 2X MVP Winner of 2012 Triple Crown Miguel Cabrera appeared seemingly fully formed in 2003 and helped the Florida Marlins to a World Series title at age 20. He has been among the best hitters in the game ever since and his career numbers are entering a staggering range. He is a lifetime to date .313 hitter. His lifetime OPS to date is .931. He is knocking on the door of 500 homers and 3,000 hits and he has won 4 batting titles. He is 24th all time in RBI at the time of this writing.  He has not won a title since that magical rookie year in Florida but still has 13 career post season home runs. If you're an advanced stats guy he's 3rd among active players in WAR for position players and he's second among active players in Hits, Homers, and RBI and first in career batting average. Someday soon Miggy is going to retire and a guy that we have maybe taken for granted for the last 18 summers will be gone. - in his wake will be a career of...
Read more

#37 Nolan Ryan

Image
Nolan Ryan P 1966-1993 5000 Strikeouts/300 Wins Baseball Hall of Fame Reach back and let it rip. Nolan Ryan was a big ol farmboy from Texas and he threw like it. Although he could throw 100+ in his day he also had a devastating curveball 12-6 style. His 300 wins cement his legacy as an all time great although his 292 losses somewhat complicate his legacy. No one ever was harder to square up in major league history. He has a .204 all time opponents batting average, that's a record. So are his 5714 strikeouts and 2795 career walks.  The man was named to 8 all star teams, was a member of the 1969 World Champion Mets, and had his number retired by 3 franchises.  He also threw SEVEN no hitters, 12 one hitters and 18 two hitters.  He's 60th all time in WAR and 20th among pitchers, He completed 222 of his career starts. and his 61 shutouts are good for 7 all time. At age 47 his final pitch of his career, one that tore a ligiment ending his season and h...
Read more

#14 Bob Feller

Image
  Bob Feller P 1936-1956 10x All Star, 7x Strikeout Champion, 1940 Pitcher Triple Crown Baseball Hall of Fame 1962 Bob Feller was in the Baseball Hall of Fame for more than half his life. That's remarkable. What's also remarkable is this. He won 266 games, was a 10 time all star, 2581 career strikeouts, and he missed 3 ENTIRE seasons and most of a fourth to the World War 2 at age 23, 24, 25, 26. While he was there he earend 6 campagin ribbons and 8 battle stars, but this is a baseball countdown not a war countdown.  To put this in perspective, let's look at the 3 years before he went in the Navy and the 2 full seasons when he got out. In that 5 year stretch he averaged 24.4 wins a year, lead the league in innings pitched all 5 of those seasons, lead the league in strikeouts ALL FIVE of those seasons (plus 1 before and 1 after for good measure) and he posted a 2.68 ERA.  So some of his stats don't reach the heights of some others, but he lost 4 seasons in the middle of h...
Read more