So you have to be a current SS to be considered the best evah?

No, but you need to play the vast majority of your career at SS. Cal Ripken played a little third but still played something like 95% of his career at SS. Ernie Banks played half his career at first. So while he also played SS, he isn't really included in the SS rankings.

What is a vast majority? Give me a percentage.

Posted by toddcommish on 6/8/2012 1:55:00 PM (view original):
If you want to say Jeter is the best hitting 2B who played SS for all of his career...  I'd agree

I believe Hornsby played 2nd!!

Ripken actually only played about 77% of his career at SS. Among those who played at least 95% of their career at SS, the only contenders are Jeter, Ozzie Smith, and Barry Larkin.

If a player doesn't play the vast majority of his career at one position, is he disqualified from any positional ranking? Guys like Musial, Carew, Banks, Rose, and Yount. Are they out?

Posted by 1899_spiders on 6/8/2012 4:13:00 PM (view original):
Ripken actually only played about 77% of his career at SS. Among those who played at least 95% of their career at SS, the only contenders are Jeter, Ozzie Smith, and Barry Larkin.

If a player doesn't play the vast majority of his career at one position, is he disqualified from any positional ranking? Guys like Musial, Carew, Banks, Rose, and Yount. Are they out?

So 95% is too high a standard.  But Banks only played 46% of his career at SS.  To consider him a SS in a positional ranking is a stretch.  Arod is at about 53% SS right now but that goes down every game he plays at third.  Counting him as a SS is also a stretch.

Biggio was pretty fast for a catcher, right?

95% is far too high but 75-80% sounds about right.

And, yes, that sucks for Carew, Rose, Yount, etc, etc because they're being "punished" for versatility and/or sucking so bad at one position that they had to move to an easier one.

I just rank players at the first position that comes to mind when I think of that player. For Banks, that's shortstop.

Best players who played their entire career at one position. No DHing. Infield only, because it becomes useless in the separate outfield positions.

C Bill Dickey
1B Dolph Camilli
2B Bobby Doerr
3B Scott Rolen
SS Ozzie Smith

Catcher and shortstop were easy. The rest have Jake Daubert, Larry Doyle, and Home Run Baker as alternatives.

Banks played more games at first than he did at short.  If you are going to rank players by position, including him as a shortstop is not only unfair to shortstops but also pointless.  Where does Mike Schmidt rank on the all time shortstop list?  He did play parts of 24 games at short.  His OPS+ is head and shoulders better than Jeter, Schmidt probably ranks up there with Honus Wagner.

Is Hank Aaron the greatest offensive second baseman of all time?

Gotta go Cal.

I'd rank Wagner ahead of Schmidt, and Hornsby as the greatest offensive second baseman even if Aaron qualified at second. Through the rank them at the position they played the most games at system, here's how I have the first basemen since 1901, when the AL started.

1. Stan Musial
2. Lou Gehrig
3. Albert Pujols
4. Jimmie Foxx
5. Jeff Bagwell
6. Johnny Mize (5 and 6 are interchangeable)
7. Rod Carew
8. Hank Greenberg
9. Willie McCovey
10. Ernie Banks

Honorable Mention: Harmon Killebrew

I'm not going to defend it, because any argument I make will set off a war between sabermetrics fans and traditionalists. Feel free to call me a moron anyway. I'm comfortable with my list.

Moron.

I wondered who would be the first to call me that. Congrats.

1. Honus
2. Hughie Jennings
3. Appling
4. Ripken
5. Jeter

If he could field he would beat Ripken and maybe even Appling...

New poll:

How should we place players when ranking them by position?

1. Where they played the most games
2. First position that comes to mind when you think of that player
3. It's a pointless endeavor
4. Nachos!