All Star Teams

[ericd7633]

Nah, you just miss Jeter. Don't lie.

Not really, while Jeter was great, the last 2 years he wasn't any good. I just miss the days of shortstops actually being good at hitting.

This was the All-Star production in 2002 at the end of the first half:

A-Rod: .305/.401/.607/1.008; 27 HR's
Miguel Tejada: .294/.334./.472/.806; 15 HR's
Derek Jeter: .312/.385/.456/.841; 12 HR's
Nomar: .312/.354/.529/.833; 11 HR's

Now we have:

Alcides Escobar: .282/.323/.367/.690; 2 HR's
Jose Iglesias: .319/.370/.378./.748 2 HR's

Shortstop used to be a premium position, with offensive production. It's pretty sad the best hitting SS in the A.L. has played less than 30 games, which is all it took to better than guys who have played more than 70 games.

 

[soxfan1468927]

Not really, while Jeter was great, the last 2 years he wasn't any good. I just miss the days of shortstops actually being good at hitting.

This was the All-Star production in 2002 at the end of the first half:

A-Rod: .305/.401/.607/1.008; 27 HR's
Miguel Tejada: .294/.334./.472/.806; 15 HR's
Derek Jeter: .312/.385/.456/.841; 12 HR's
Nomar: .312/.354/.529/.833; 11 HR's

Now we have:

Alcides Escobar: .282/.323/.367/.690; 2 HR's
Jose Iglesias: .319/.370/.378./.748 2 HR's

Shortstop used to be a premium position, with offensive production. It's pretty sad the best hitting SS in the A.L. has played less than 30 games, which is all it took to better than guys who have played more than 70 games.

Ebbs and flows. The 70s saw pretty minimal offensive production out of shortstops as well. The best offensive shortstop for that whole decade was probably Toby Harrah

 

[Darkstone42]

Not really, while Jeter was great, the last 2 years he wasn't any good. I just miss the days of shortstops actually being good at hitting.

This was the All-Star production in 2002 at the end of the first half:

A-Rod: .305/.401/.607/1.008; 27 HR's
Miguel Tejada: .294/.334./.472/.806; 15 HR's
Derek Jeter: .312/.385/.456/.841; 12 HR's
Nomar: .312/.354/.529/.833; 11 HR's

Now we have:

Alcides Escobar: .282/.323/.367/.690; 2 HR's
Jose Iglesias: .319/.370/.378./.748 2 HR's

Shortstop used to be a premium position, with offensive production. It's pretty sad the best hitting SS in the A.L. has played less than 30 games, which is all it took to better than guys who have played more than 70 games.

A couple major points:

1. Offense is down now from the early 2000s across the whole league. Runs are at a premium in the current environment, as the quality of bullpen arms improves, more and more pitchers throw harder and harder, it's just harder to hit right now. It naturally follows that shortstop numbers would also be down.

2. 2002 was freakish historically, as shortstops were almost average offensively. Throughout the whole of MLB history, shortstops have been glove-first players. Wendy Thurm wrote a great research piece on this subject for Fangraphs.

An Unchanging Truth: Positional Offense Through History | FanGraphs Baseball

A relevant exerpt:

Those poor shortstops. The defensive wizards haven’t produced an above-average wRC+ in either the American League or the National League in the last 101 seasons. Not one time.

Even in 2002, shortstops across the league were, on average, below league average hitters. At no point in history, even with the four guys you mentioned at the heights of their abilities at the position, has shortstop been a premium offensive position.