Just yesterday I wrote a post that attempted to define which players were "Good at Everything". My original goal of the post was lost a bit with the title I chose. The plan was to find all players that were positive in every Rally WAR component. I did that. But I made it sound like it was a definitive list of who was "Good at Everything". It really wasn't.
Luckily, Beyond the Box Score has some fantastic commenters and they helped me out. So, I've got a new list of guys. This list should come closer to capturing guys who were "Good at everything".
Again, here's the original criteria I used:
- Batting runs, Baserunning runs, Total Zone runs, and Positional Adjustment runs are all greater than 0.
- GIDP runs, Reach on Error runs, Infield DP runs, Outfield Arm runs, and Catcher runs are all greater than or equal to 0 (this is because some older players only have a 0 for their career because there isn't any data available for these categories).
Simply running this search yielded 49 players in the history of the game.
[...] batting runs is a pretty broad skill. We can break that up into individual skills. So, I went with the two OPS components—on base percentage (for patience) and slugging percentage (for power). I cut out any players below league average for their careers in either of these categories.
In this second version, I added these criteria:
- Instead of requiring both Total Zone and Position to be above zero, I required the combination of both to be above zero. However, I excluded players with negative Total Zone who still managed to get a positive TZ+Pos.
- I ignored the "Reached on Error" category.
- I cut off the list at a 25 WAR minimum. You gotta put in some time to be good at everything. This seemed to be a good cutoff, right after Hall of Famers Freddie Lindstrom and George Wright.
The new list features 40 players:
Name | PlApp | Bat | ROE | BSrun | DP | TZ | IFDP | OFarm | catcher | Pos | WAR | Pos+TZ |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Barry Bonds | 12511 | 1213 | -6 | 45 | 6 | 153 | 0 | 36 | 0 | -129 | 171.8 | 24 |
Honus Wagner | 11518 | 699 | 0 | 45 | 0 | 66 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 104 | 134.5 | 170 |
Tris Speaker | 11679 | 845 | 0 | 14 | 0 | 92 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -72 | 133.0 | 20 |
Nap Lajoie | 10239 | 581 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 62 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 104.2 | 68 |
George Davis | 9976 | 380 | 0 | 28 | 0 | 143 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 87 | 90.7 | 230 |
Joe DiMaggio | 7657 | 579 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 49 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -19 | 83.6 | 30 |
Charlie Gehringer | 10096 | 391 | 0 | 38 | 0 | 30 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 74 | 80.9 | 104 |
Bill Dahlen | 10235 | 188 | 0 | 25 | 0 | 139 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 140 | 75.9 | 279 |
Frankie Frisch | 9871 | 195 | 0 | 63 | 0 | 115 | 25 | 0 | 0 | 73 | 74.8 | 188 |
Lou Whitaker | 9787 | 209 | -10 | 33 | 17 | 70 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 51 | 69.7 | 121 |
Alan Trammell | 9175 | 124 | 12 | 21 | 19 | 59 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 118 | 66.9 | 177 |
Frank Baker | 6507 | 285 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 35 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 52 | 63.7 | 87 |
Jackie Robinson | 5689 | 276 | 7 | 39 | 1 | 51 | 28 | 2 | 0 | 20 | 63.2 | 71 |
Sal Bando | 8166 | 208 | 17 | 11 | 5 | 28 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 38 | 60.6 | 66 |
Jack Glasscock | 7531 | 116 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 149 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 108 | 58.7 | 257 |
Bid McPhee | 9359 | 150 | 0 | 37 | 0 | 154 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 42 | 57.9 | 196 |
Billy Herman | 8470 | 167 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 37 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 65 | 55.6 | 102 |
Stan Hack | 8391 | 240 | 0 | 24 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 54.8 | 17 |
Carlos Beltran | 6790 | 178 | 11 | 52 | 14 | 67 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 18 | 54.7 | 85 |
Buck Ewing | 5764 | 231 | 0 | 43 | 0 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 58 | 35 | 51.8 | 51 |
Tommy Leach | 8811 | 114 | 0 | 43 | 0 | 67 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 50.9 | 72 |
Ichiro Suzuki | 6555 | 148 | 3 | 45 | 40 | 93 | 0 | 34 | 0 | -52 | 50.7 | 41 |
Max Carey | 10480 | 97 | 0 | 106 | 0 | 86 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -84 | 50.6 | 2 |
Frank Chance | 4988 | 252 | 0 | 33 | 0 | 47 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -25 | 49.5 | 22 |
John McGraw | 4894 | 337 | 0 | 24 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 34 | 49.3 | 37 |
Hughie Jennings | 5538 | 225 | 0 | 20 | 0 | 60 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 51 | 48.0 | 111 |
Heinie Groh | 6853 | 157 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 35 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 44 | 46.4 | 79 |
Gil McDougald | 5271 | 94 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 83 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 42 | 40.0 | 125 |
Eric Chavez | 5242 | 108 | -5 | 5 | 4 | 61 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 36.2 | 73 |
Dan McGann | 5881 | 159 | 0 | 14 | 0 | 37 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -34 | 36.2 | 3 |
Don Buford | 5266 | 111 | -1 | 10 | 12 | 58 | 0 | 4 | 0 | -10 | 35.5 | 48 |
Fred Dunlap | 4264 | 147 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 80 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 34.7 | 99 |
Harlond Clift | 6841 | 141 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 34.7 | 21 |
Chase Utley | 3777 | 140 | 1 | 20 | 13 | 49 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 34.5 | 64 |
Ross Barnes | 2506 | 252 | 0 | 15 | 0 | 57 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 33.1 | 72 |
Joe Mauer | 2959 | 162 | -6 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 41 | 31 | 33.1 | 31 |
Dom DiMaggio | 6421 | 111 | 0 | 25 | 0 | 37 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -11 | 31.9 | 26 |
Robby Thompson | 5117 | 43 | 18 | 18 | 5 | 18 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 28 | 31.0 | 46 |
Freddie Lindstrom | 5958 | 79 | 0 | 14 | 0 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 29.2 | 31 |
George Wright | 2942 | 128 | 0 | 16 | 0 | 75 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 35 | 28.5 | 110 |
New faces on the list:
- Barry Bonds: gets on there despite a huge positional adjustment hit thanks to amazing total zone numbers.
- Tris Speaker: his total zone was also enough to overcome the positional adjustment.
- Joe DiMaggio: had only a minor positional adjustment hit that was easily overcome.
- Lou Whitaker: so glad to see him on here—was only left off because of ROE.
- Ichiro: easily overcomes his positional hit with awesome range. He's another active player for the list.
- Max Carey: HOFer's range beats out positional adjustment by two runs.
- Frank Chance: slick-fielding first basemen CAN make this list!
- Eric Chavez: betchya didn't see THAT coming—only missed the first time because of ROE.
- Dan McGann: turn of the century slick-fielding first bagger makes that two.
- Don Buford: call him "slightly above average at everything"—makes up for a minor positional hit.
- Joe Mauer: only ROE held him back the first time.
- Dom DiMaggio: when one DiMaggio isn't enough.
I'm more comfortable with this list. Are you?