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Born: J(Pittsfield, Massachusetts) Died: Oct. Players like Honus Wagner, Ernie Banks, and Cal Ripken set the stage for the offensive output the position has come to expect. These are the best shortstops of all time. Or even Ripken and Yount (and Trammell) in the more neutral 1980s.Much like second base and catcher, the shortstop is a position that has historically been a defense first position. But big numbers in the 90s isn’t as impressive as Wagner’s numbers in the frickin’ Dead Ball Era. Shortstop Base Top 5 Gold Glove Winners Ozzie Smith (13) Omar Vizquel (11) Luis Aparicio (9) Mark Belanger (8) Dave Concepcion (5) Derek Jeter (. Small parks, crappy pitching… roids are just one in a hundred factors that lead to an explosion of run scoring. There is Ozzy 'the wizard' Smith, Cal Ripken 'Iron Man' Jr. Not for roids, but because everyone had huge offensive numbers. There are alot, it just depends on who you look at really. A-Rod has huge offensive numbers, but you have to discount 1990s stats. Derek Jeter was one of the best shortstops to play the game It can be comfortably said that he is among the top 10 best shortstops of all time and can be argued to be in the top five. Ozzie was at least competent at the plate. Bates UW’s back-to-back Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year was. And for all of the guff Ozzie takes for his bat, Belanger was a truly awful hitter. This week, ESPN released its Greatest All-Time Softball Team a squad assembled using the results of a fan vote. Tejada was named to six All-Star teams and. Tejada played his big league career with the Oakland Athletics and Baltimore Orioles and played in 1,152 straight games. Prior to allegations of steroid dirtying the shortstop’s name, Tejada was considered one of the best at his position. Straight off of defense, it’s between Ozzie and Belanger. 25 Greatest Shortstops in Baseball History. Yount was a good defensive SS, but he wasn’t on the same planet as Ripken. And we still haven’t gotten to the exceptional defense versus a guy who had to move to the outfield. I’d take Ripken just off of that, but throw in the 431 to 251 HR gap, and the choice is easy. So Yount got more base hits, but Ripken had more power. Comparing him to Yount is like pretending defense doesn’t matter. Really, the only guy I think who has an argument over him is the immortal Honus Wagner. 279/.396/.410, All-Star) Reese was a 10-time All-Star who played on seven pennant-winning teams and finished top 10 in the MVP voting eight times.
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Ripken is among the best defensive shortstops ever AND he’s one of the best hitting SS ever. the all-time leaders at short? Ozzie 239 Belanger 238 Ripken 176 Aparacio 146 Vizquel 135 BTW – Jeter is in the negatives. Defensive metrics are pretty flawed, but Ripken does well in all of them, but Total Zone Runs was created to create a cumulative career fielding stat. When he set the fielding percentage record, only making 3 errors all season while also playing, well, every game, he lost the gold Glove to Ozzie Guillen.
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The thing is, Ripken had an amazing glove that was largely unappreciated for most of his career.