Saturday, January 15, 2022

Where Do Edgar Wesley And Ed Rile Rank Among Detroit First Basemen?

 

First baseman Edgar Wesley's 213 OPS+ in 1925 was the best in Detroit history. 

(Photo credit: Seamheads.com)


In recent posts, I have integrated Detroit Stars players into the all-time Detroit major league position lists: 

 

shortstops

center fielders


This week, I am looking at first basemen.  Before Negro League data was so conveniently available at Seamheads.com, I listed the top ten first basemen in Detroit Tigers history.  The two Stars first basemen with enough playing to merit consideration for the all Detroit top ten list are Edgar Wesley and Ed Riles.


Edgar Wesley was a big left-handed slugger and strong defensive first baseman and was considered the best all around player at his position in the early years of the Negro National League.  He was also known to be an aggressive base runner.  Indianapolis catcher Larry Brown recalled Wesley barreling into home plate so hard that he cut his chest protector: "My mask went one direction, my glove went the other and the ball went up to the stands" (Richard Bak, Turkey Stearnes and the Detroit Stars).


In seven years with the Stars, Wesley hit .323 with a 153 OPS+. He played with the Stars from 1920-1923, skipped to to Harrisburg Giants of the Eastern Colored League in 1924 and then back to the stars from 1925-1927. Negro Leaguer players made very little money and thus often moved from team to team looking for better deals.  Interestingly, they were more free to move around than white major leaguers who were subject to the reserve clause.    


Wesley led the league with 11 home runs in 1920, but his best year came in his second stint with the Stars.  The powerful first sacker  had a monster year in 1925 leading the league in batting (.404), slugging percentage (.715) and OPS+ (213).   He also hit 17 home runs in 264 plate appearances which was second to his legendary teammate Turkey Stearnes (19).  The lofty 213 OPS+ was the highest in Detroit history including Tigers batters.


Edward "Huck" Rile was a two-way player (first baseman and pitcher) who played for 11 teams over 14 seasons.  At six-feet-six-inches and 230 pounds, Rile was one of the biggest players in Negro Leagues history.  Huck excelled on both sides of the ball with a lifetime OPS+ of 122 and ERA+ of 110.      


The switch hitting Rile had a fantastic season as both a batter and pitcher for Detroit in 1927.  At the plate, he hit .389 with a .660 slugging average and finished second in the league with a 188 OPS+ in 297 plate appearances.  From the mound, he was second in the league with a 157 ERA+ in 141 innings.  He didn't pitch a lot in 1928, but continued to excel offensively batting .348 with a 147 OPS+. 


Wesley, whose 16 WAR translates to roughly 27 over 154 games, fits comfortably as Detroit's fifth best first baseman of all time between Rudy York and Cecil Fielder.  Rile had only three full-seasons with the Stars, but gets a boost for his pitching performance earning a #8 ranking.   


The rest of the list is shown below.


1. Hank Greenberg 1930-1946  54 WAR  418 ABR  161 OPS+
Baseball's first Jewish superstar, Greenberg was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1956.  The "Hebrew Hammer" won MVP awards in both 1935 and 1940 and played on all four Tigers World Series teams (1934, 1935, 1940, 1945) of the '30s and '40s.  He led the league in home runs four times and finished in the top five in OPS and slugging average seven times.  Other notable Greenberg feats include 58 home runs in 1938 and 184 RBI in 1937, both the highest single-season total in Tigers history.

2. Miguel Cabrera 2008-2018  51 WAR 405 ABR 155 OPS+
Acquired from the Marlins in an eight-player deal in 2007, Cabrera has dominated the American League for most of his tenure with the Tigers.  The Venezuelan slugger won the Triple Crown with a .330 batting average, 44 home runs and 139 RBI in 2012, but that might not have been his best season.  In 2013, he won the sabermetric triple crown with a .348/.442/.636 slash line.  He finished in the top five in the league in in Adjusted Batting Runs every year from 2009-2016 and led the league every year from 2010-2013.

3. Norm Cash 1960-1974  52 WAR  319 ABR  139 OPS+
"Stormin' Norman" had a monster season in 1961 batting .361/.487/.662 with a 201 OPS+.  His 85 Adjusted Batting Runs that year was the highest total in franchise history.  He has since admitted to using a corked bat that year which puts the legitimacy of those numbers in doubt.  His highest OPS+ otherwise was 149, but was 120+ every year from 1960-1973.  He had 12 seasons of 2+ WAR and 9 seasons of 3+ WAR.

4. Rudy York 1934-1945  32 WAR  175 ABR  128 OPS+
On August 4, 1937, the Tigers were stuck in a five game losing streak and suffering from a shortage of healthy players. With all their regular catchers injured, manager Mickey Cochrane decided to try Rudy York, the rookie without a position, as the starting catcher.  He proceeded to hit an amazing 18 homers with 49 RBI for the month.  Some 81 years after his big month of August, Big Rudy still holds the the American League record for most home runs in a month.  York eventually became the regular first baseman in 1940 when Greenberg was moved to left field.  He finished in the top five in home runs eight times and top ten in OPS five times.


5. Edgar Wesley 1920-1927  16 WAR  112 ABR  153 OPS+ 

Profile posted above

6. Cecil Fielder 1990-1996  17 WAR  112 ABR  126 OPS+
In the Bill James Historical Abstract, James said that Cecil Fielder was "A big fat guy who hit home runs for a few years".  That was a reference to Fielder being overrated, but it was a bit harsh.  He was a productive hitter during those years and his 1990 season was one of the most memorable individual seasons I have seen.  He was signed as a low profile free agent in January, 1990 after returning from a season in Japan.  The big first baseman then surprised the baseball world by posting an OPS+ of 167 and leading the league with 51 home runs and 132 RBI.  He never replicated that season, but he had five more seasons of 30+ home runs including a league leading 44 in 1991.

7. Lu Blue 1921-1927  21 WAR  82 ABR  110 OPS+
Blue had four more WAR than Cecil Fielder, but that was largely because Fielder was penalized for being designated hitter for parts of seasons.  Because first base is mostly a hitting position, I decided to ignore that penalty.  Fielder was the better offensive player, so I moved him up a notch.  Blue was no slugger, but he was an on-base machine posting on-base percentages of .400 or better five times with the Tigers.  He was also a model of consistency with the following WAR totals from 1921-1926: 2.9, 3.6, 3.3, 3.3, 3.7, 2.8.


8. Ed Rile 1927-1930 10 WAR  76 ABR  150 OPS+

Profile posted above

9. Darrell Evans 1984-1988  15 WAR  61 ABR  121 OPS+
Everyone was surprised when tightwad GM Bill Campbell signed free agent Darrell Evans after the 1983 season.  It was the first time the Tigers had dipped into the free agent pool in a significant way and it paid off, although not right away.  He hit only 16 home runs with a 105 OPS+ during the 1984 championship season and it looked like he might be all done at age 37.  However, he went on to average 34 home runs over the next three seasons including a league-leading 40 in 1985.  His best season was 1987 when he had 4.9 WAR and a 135 OPS+ at age 40.

10. Tony Clark 1995-2001  12 WAR  62 ABR  121 OPS+
Tony Clark was the second overall pick in the 1990 amateur draft and played seven seasons for the Tigers.  He was regarded as a disappointment by many fans due to his advance billing and misfortune of being one of the better hitters on some very bad teams.  He posted an OPS+ of 120 or better five times and hit 30 or more round trippers three times.


Note: Most of the data for this post were abstract
ed from Baseball-Reference.com

Monday, January 10, 2022

Where Does Mule Riggins Fit Among Detroit's Top Shortstops?

Bill Riggins was a fixture at shortstop for seven years with the Detroit Stars.


In a recent post, I examined Detroit Stars' outfielders "Turkey" Stearnes and Pete Hill and compared them to the Tigers top center fielders throughout history.  I also discussed some of the challenges in evaluating Negro League players.  In this post, I will look at the Detroit shortstops


Before it was announced that Black baseball leagues would be recognized as major leagues and before Negro League data was so conveniently available at Seamheads.com, I listed the top ten shortstops in Detroit Tigers history.  The only Stars shortstop with enough playing to consider for the all Detroit top ten list is Bill "Mule" Riggins. 


There is some confusion about Riggins' real name.  It appears that he was named Arvell at birth, but it's often spelled Orville (Agatetype.typepad.com).  During his playing career, he went by the name Bill or "Mule".  Before his playing career, he worked in the coal mines of Southern Illinois.  Mule was a heavy drinker, but it didn't seem to affect his playing skills as his resume is fairly impressive. 


Riggins was regarded as an excellent fielder and baserunner who Bill James ranked as the fifth best shortstop in Negro League history (The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract).  The switch hitting shortstop played with the Stars from 1920-1926 batting .286 with a 102 OPS+ in 538 games.  


In 1926, Riggins batted .300, finished second in the league in stolen bases (25) and fifth in runs scored (80).  He also finished second in steals in 1925 with 26.  In both cases, the league leader was Cool Papa Bell, the fastest runner in Negro League history.


One of the big questions in ranking Riggins is just how good was his defense.  This same questions looms for all Negro League as well as white players who played prior to the availability of play-by play data.  According the Defensive Regression Analysis from Michael Humphreys (Wizardry), Riggins saved 34 runs with his glove in seven seasons.  That number can be found at Baseball-reference.com as RField.  It says that Riggins saved five runs per season or about nine runs over an equivalent 154 game season. 


Combining Mule's defense with his offense would yield 14 WAR (about 25 WAR with 154-game seasons).  Unlike 1930s Detroit Tiger shortstop Billy Rogell, who is shown to be a strong defender by multiple measures, we have only a single defensive metric for Riggins.  Thus, we have less confidence in his evaluation.        


As for the all-time rankings, Alan Trammell is the top Detroit shortstop by a wide margin followed by Dead-Ball era shortstop Donie Bush. The next tier includes Riggins, Billy Rogell, Carlos Guillen and Harvey Kuenn.  Riggins and Rogell are the better fielders while Guillen and Kuenn are the better hitters. 


Riggins could be ranked as high as number three at the position, but there is not enough information for me to feel comfortable placing him that high.  I am ranking him fifth behind known defensive whiz Rogell and Guillen the best offensive player of this group.    

The rest of the list is shown below.


1. Alan Trammell (1977-1996  70.7 WAR 63.0 OWAR 110 OPS+)
I posted to this blog regularly for about 10 year and during that time I often discussed Alan Trammell's Hall of Fame credentials.   So, it is good to be able to refer to him as "Hall of Fame shortstop Alan Trammell".  Arguments which say that player X is in the Hall of Fame and player Y is better than player X are flawed because there is a chance that player Y is only better than one guy who doesn't really belong.  In Trammell's case, my argument was always that he was better than half the shortstops in the Hall of Fame.  He is 8th among 21 inducted shortstops in WAR, 9th in Wins Above Average (preferred by some for Hall of Fame discussions because it puts more weight on excellence and a little less on longevity than WAR), 9th in OWAR and 11th in OPS+.  So, now he's in and he's the only Tigers shortstop so honored.

2. Donie Bush (1908-1921  38.5 WAR 43.1 OWAR 92 OPS+)
According to the Biographical Encyclopedia of Baseball, Bush spent 65 years in organized ball as a player, manager, scout and owner.  That's a lot of baseball - from the first decade of the American League's existence to the early 1970's or from Ty Cobb to Marvin Lane.  This ranking is strictly based on his time as a player with the Tigers though.  He played more games at shortstop (1,867) than any Tiger other than Trammell and had some excellent individual seasons exceeding 5+ WAR five times.  His best year was his 2009 rookie campaign when he had 6.5 WAR, an OPS+ of 115 and a league leading 88 walks (one of five times he led the league in walks).


3. Billy Rogell (1930-1939  24.9 WAR 19.4 OWAR 89 OPS+)

Bill Rogell was one of the top defensive shortstops in the league in a Tigers career which spanned the the 1930s.  A long-time Detroit City Council member after his playing days, Billy Rogell teamed with Hall of Fame second baseman Charlie Gehringer as the keystone combo of the 1934-35 pennant winning teams.  He could hit pretty well for a middle infielder too averaging 5.1 WAR and a 101 OPS+ from 1933-1935.


4. Carlos Guillen (2004-2011  18.6 WAR 22.9 OWAR 121 OPS+)
Carlos Guillen was acquired from the Mariners before the 2004 season in what turned out to be one of the team's best trades ever.  He was an integral member  of a team that became a perennial contender after two decades of futility.  Guillen was neither durable nor a plus defender, but nobody questioned his offense.  His combined good on-base skills and solid middle infield power produced an OPS+ of 100 or more six times.  His 136 OPS+ and 6.0 WAR in 2006 made him probably the best player on a team that made the playoffs for the first time since the 1980's.


5. Bill Riggins (2020-2026 14.4 WAR 11.1 OWAR 102 OPS+)

See above for profile


6. Harvey Kuenn (1952-1959  21.0 WAR 25.6 OWAR 112 OPS+)

Kuenn's reputation and numbers as a defensive shortstop were very poor which is why he became an outfielder at age 27.  That hurts his his ranking at a position where defense is crucial.  He could hit though.  His best season was 1959 when he hit .353 to win the American League batting title.  Interestingly, he was traded to the Indians after the season for outfielder Rocky Colavito who led the league in home runs in 1959.  This trade also turned out great for the Tigers.

7. Topper Rigney (1922-1925  10.9 WAR 13.0 OWAR 105 OPS+
Topper Rigney played only three full seasons, but was one of the Tigers best offensive shortstops.  He posted an OPS+ of 108 from 1922-1924.

8. Jhonny Peralta (2010-2013  9.1 WAR 9.2 OWAR 106 OPS+)
Peralta always looked awkward and out of place at shortstop, but he consistently posted average numbers on defensive metrics and continued to do so when he joined the Cardinals in the National League.  He was certainly a solid hitter for a shortstop two times posting an OPS+ above 120.  He and Rigney are interchangeable on this list.  I chose Topper because I liked his name, but the odd spelling  of Jhonny's first name made this a a tough choice. 

9. Kid Elberfeld (1901-1903  8.1 WAR 8.0 OWAR 109 OPS+)
The  5'-7" 158 pound Elberfield was the the epitome of grit.  According to the Biographical Encyclopedia of Baseball, The Tobasco Kid was spiked often and when cut he would go back to the bench, cauterize his wound with whiskey and then continue playing.  He only played two full seasons for the Tigers, but was fourth among Tigers shortstops in OPS+.

10. Jose Iglesias (2013-2018  7.1 WAR 6.5 OWAR 83 OPS+)
Iglesias makes this list because we have run out of guys that could hit and he was a highlight reel at shortstop during his Tigers career.  Including good field no hit Eddie Brinkman of the 1970s Tigers would have allowed me to talk about another great Tigers trade, but his numbers didn't match up. 



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