BtB reader and Rangers' fan philkid3 has a cool post up at LSB about the best players in Rangers history (well, since 1955, at least). He included pitchers via a different method, which you can tackle if interested, but here's how to come up with a neat list of the best position players for your own team. As always, feel free to throw links to your own post in the comments of this one.
- Jot down 25 or so names that you think might be in the top 10. Don't skimp on slick fielders, 2B/SS/CA, or people born before you. For some help, generate a list of the top OPS+ in franchise history using B-Ref's PI tool.
- Look up those 25ish players in Sean Smith's historical WAR database. Why use this source? Because Sean accounts for basically all significant aspects of a player's context-neutral on-field production: hitting, baserunning, GIDPs, range, position, turning DPs, catcher defense, etc.
- Add up their WAR for all seasons as a member of your team. These players did the most to help your team win games since 1955.
- Add up the WAR of their best five consecutive seasons for your team and divide by five. This is one way find the average production of a player's peak.
- Add up the WAR of their best three season for your team and divide by three. This is another way to find the average production of a player at his peak.
- Rank the players you looked up by any or all of the three metrics outline in points 3 to 5 above. Maybe think about only presenting the top ten and provide some interesting words about each, such as where they derived most of their value (offense, defense, baserunning, whatever -- Sean lists it all at his site.)
- Don't do any of the above, and wait for Sean to create leader boards for his WAR data. ETA: anywhere from one day to one year.
Update: Brew Crew Ball is taking this position by position, which is even cooler.