Eric Chavez
Posted by Andy on May 20, 2009
News has come out that Chavez may be forced to retire due to his latest injury, a herniated disk.
From 2001 to 2005, Chavez was unarguably the best third baseman in baseball, leading all in HR and RBI:
Cnt Player **HR** From To Ages G PA AB R H 2B 3B RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Positions Teams +----+-----------------+-------+----+----+-----+----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+----+----+---+----+---+---+---+---+----+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+-----------+ 1 Eric Chavez 151 2001 2005 23-27 745 3182 2825 451 785 173 9 502 321 46 535 11 0 25 59 36 11 .278 .351 .506 .857 *5/D763 OAK 2 Aramis Ramirez 146 2001 2005 23-27 727 3007 2742 380 782 160 3 484 195 20 416 35 0 35 87 9 9 .285 .337 .505 .842 *5/D PIT-TOT-CHC 3 Troy Glaus 142 2001 2005 24-28 615 2622 2221 377 559 119 7 408 356 20 572 23 0 22 49 33 13 .252 .358 .503 .861 *5/D6 ANA-ARI 4 Adrian Beltre 124 2001 2005 22-26 755 3065 2822 352 765 146 12 423 193 24 476 21 4 25 69 32 14 .271 .320 .463 .783 *5/6D LAD-SEA 5 Scott Rolen 123 2001 2005 26-30 658 2793 2389 420 677 161 15 473 325 21 453 48 1 30 58 42 17 .283 .376 .518 .894 *5 PHI-TOT-STL 6 Tony Batista 114 2001 2004 27-30 635 2624 2431 312 582 113 10 383 136 19 400 24 4 29 56 28 15 .239 .283 .435 .718 *5/D6 TOT-BAL-MON 7 Mike Lowell 109 2001 2005 27-31 744 3077 2738 372 750 188 3 440 274 23 384 25 1 39 70 17 7 .274 .341 .464 .805 *5/4D FLA 8 Vinny Castilla 106 2001 2005 33-37 726 2934 2700 336 699 164 10 425 177 23 458 27 2 28 104 10 9 .259 .308 .445 .753 *5/6 TOT-ATL-COL-WSN 9 Corey Koskie 91 2001 2005 28-32 639 2679 2297 364 617 147 9 348 310 31 551 44 0 28 51 61 26 .269 .362 .459 .821 *5/D MIN-TOR 10 Hank Blalock 89 2002 2005 21-24 512 2205 1985 292 543 113 6 309 190 10 421 11 2 17 47 5 5 .274 .338 .471 .809 *5/4D TEX
A bit of a career oddity about Chavez: in 2004, he lead the AL with 95 walks despite playing in only 125 games, and also despite the fact that he generally walked only a moderate amount in his career, averaging 70 walks over a typical 162-game season.
In the 2004 season in which Chavez led the AL with 95 walks, Barry Bonds led the NL with (gulp) 232 walks. Chavez's total is the lowest to lead the AL since Dwight Evans' 85 in 1981, which doesn't really count since that was a shortened season. The real most recent season with a lower leading total is 1965, when Rocky Colavito led with 93 walks.
May 20th, 2009 at 9:30 am
Sure, as long as you don't consider defense.
May 20th, 2009 at 9:32 am
Yeah, I did mean best offensive 3rd-baseman.
May 20th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
It's not clear to me that Chavez was the best offensive third baseman for that period. (BTW, you refer to 2000 in your post, but the stats run from 2001.) Scott Rolen missed a lot of time in '05, but when healthy he may have been a better hitter than Chavez. His OPS+ was about 10 points higher.
And Wooden's comment is odd, as Chavez was a great fielder. But of course, Rolen probably has a slight edge there as well.
May 20th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
I thought Chavez was right in the mix for the MVP award in '04 until he got hurt and missed the end of the season.
May 20th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Thanks for the date correction, Johnny. I had to change it since Glaus hit 47 bombs in 2000.
May 20th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
Chavez won the Gold Glove every year from 2001-2006. I think his defense credentials are an argument for, not against, being the best 3rd baseman in that period.
That being said, I've watched a lot of A's games over the years, and I always thought his defensive numbers were good because he didn't try to make a lot of really hard plays.
May 20th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
That was exactly the knock against Chavez--he was great on balls hit to/near him but didn't have great range. I have no idea whether the numbers back this up--that was at least his reputation.
May 20th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
I've never heard that knock on Chavez, and I certainly didn't see him enough to know myself. But if he didn't try to make hard plays, that would only help his fielding %. Any modern, advanced fielding stat (not that they're perfect) counts plays made, not misplays made. Whether Chavez muffed a ball or didn't come near it shouldn't have any impact on his numbers. And to my knowledge, Chavez always rated quite well in the advanced stats. The TotalZone numbers right on this site show him as an excellent defender at his best.
May 20th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
The curse of Eddie Collins. The Athletics are the only franchise of the 16 that have been with us since 1901 to have no player with a career of 15 years or longer who played for no other franchise. Pete Suder (tied with pitcher Eddie Rommel) is the record-holder, as he played 13 seasons for the As, and never for any other franchise - Chavez is in his 12th season. Suder also holds the records for games, plate appearances, at-bats, and hits for As-only players, but Chavez has clear title to the HR leadership with 229 to 80 for Dick Green.
May 21st, 2009 at 8:53 am
As far as Bonds' 232 walks in 2004 go, 120 of them were intentional. His 112 non-intentional walks ranked him 4th, behind Bobby Abreu (117 non-IBB), J.D. Drew (116), and Lance Berkman (113). Still, 112 non-IBBs is pretty impressive considering he had less than 500 plate appearances in which he was not intentionally walked (497 non-IBB PA).
May 22nd, 2009 at 2:18 pm
He was *unarguably" the best??
To paraphrase Andre the Giant, I do not think that word means what you think it means.
May 22nd, 2009 at 2:23 pm
You know...my spell checker desperately wanted me to use that word even though I didn't think it was the right one. Odd.