Valuable utility players
Posted by Andy on August 12, 2009
Here are all the players to have an OPS+ of at least 100 while playing at least 10 games at each infield position:
Cnt Player **OPS+** Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Positions +----+-----------------+--------+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+ 1 Mark Bellhorn 133 2002 27 CHC NL 146 529 445 86 115 24 4 27 56 76 3 144 6 2 0 6 7 5 .258 .374 .512 .886 *4536/7 2 Rich Aurilia 115 2006 34 CIN NL 122 481 440 61 132 25 1 23 70 34 1 51 1 2 4 10 3 0 .300 .349 .518 .867 5364/D 3 Mark Loretta 112 1998 26 MIL NL 140 491 434 55 137 29 0 6 54 42 1 47 7 4 4 14 9 6 .316 .382 .424 .806 *3654/7 4 Dave Stapleton 109 1981 27 BOS AL 93 382 355 45 101 17 1 10 42 21 1 22 1 3 2 11 0 4 .285 .325 .423 .748 6543/D 5 John Kelleher 105 1921 27 CHC NL 95 341 301 31 93 11 7 4 47 16 0 16 1 23 0 0 2 5 .309 .346 .432 .778 5463/7 6 Jose Oquendo 102 1988 24 STL NL 148 518 451 36 125 10 1 7 46 52 7 40 0 12 3 8 4 6 .277 .350 .350 .700 4563/98721 7 Jeff Reboulet 101 1995 31 MIN AL 87 246 216 39 63 11 0 4 23 27 0 34 1 2 0 3 1 2 .292 .373 .398 .771 6534/2 8 Scott Sheldon 100 2000 31 TEX AL 58 138 124 21 35 11 0 4 19 10 0 37 1 1 2 2 0 0 .282 .336 .468 .804 6543/27981
Mark Bellhorn had only two very good years in his career: 2004 and the above 2002 season with the Cubs. It's pretty incredible that he posted a 133 OPS+ over 146 games while playing 77 games at 2B, 36 games at 3B, 22 games at 1B, 12 games at SS, and one game in the outfield.
Since turning 30, Rich Aurelia hasn't been nearly the offensive player he was earlier in his career, but he has extended that career by displaying great defensive utility. He's played multiple infield positions every year since 2004.
August 12th, 2009 at 8:44 am
Andy: I think you meant, "...77 games at second base..."
Also, utility men often don't get to play first base when the team has a stud regular first baseman. When the stud needs a day off, they'll put an outfielder there, or shift their corner men, play the DH at first, etc. Perhaps you could change the parameters to just the middle infield positions plus third base, or perhaps just count anyone with four positions played (counting OF as only one position)?
I had Dave Stapleton on my fantasy league team back then. His career most closely resembled a ski slope - starting high but going all downhill. (Actually, he had a very small mogul in slugging - and thus OPS - right before the end of his career, in 1985.)
Jose Oquendo's (also on my FL team) natural position was SS, but he became a utility player when he was traded to St. Louis - he wasn't going to displace the Wizard of Oz (Ozzie Smith). His nickname became "the secret weapon" because of his valuable offense and defensive versitility; he was above average anywwhere on the field. From 1991 to 1993 they made him their regular second baseman, though he'd move to SS when Ozzie needed a day off. He also played every position on the field - including pitching - in 1988, though not in the same game.
August 12th, 2009 at 8:48 am
Correct. Thanks Tom.
August 12th, 2009 at 10:05 am
@Tomepp: They had fantasy leagues in 1981?
August 12th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
I think the first Rotisserie League formed in like '79 or '80 (the one with Daniel Okrent et al). Of course Strat-o-Matic and the like existed before that. And there were games in which people would try to predict the top guys in various statistics each season -- I know my dad ran one in the '70s.
Well, here's some background via Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotisserie_sports#Early_history_-_pre-.22rotisserie.22
August 13th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Yes, they had fantasy leagues dating back to at least the early 1970's, I suspect that some go back much further than that. The famous "Rotisserie League", which popularized the hobby with the publication of their rules in book form, was founded in 1980 (at least, that's the copyright date on the first Official Constitution of the Rotisserie League), but other forms pre-date that league. I was involved in several leagues from the mid-1970’s on, including card-and-dice leagues (Strat-O-Matic and its competitors), stat-collection leagues (Rotisserie Leagues and their kind), and more recently computer-based simulations (Diamond Mind, etc.).
I had both Stapleton and Oquendo on my team in a keeper Strat-O-Matic league that was started in 1979 (with 8 teams) and continues to this day (with 20 teams), though I left that league over a decade ago due mostly to time and transportation issues. (It is a face-to-face league “headquartered” about 30 miles from my current residence; too far to go on a weekly basis for a “game”.) I started in fantasy baseball with a 10 team stat-collection league back in 1974 or ’75. Though we initially only counted HRs for hitters and Ws for pitchers, we added additional stats – mostly counting stats like RBI, H, SB, L, Sv, etc. – in subsequent years. Instead of giving points for positional standing in each category (10 points for first, 9 points for second, etc.), we pro-rated the stats themselves. If memory serves, a HR was 3 points, an RBI was 1 point, a pitcher’s win was 5 points, etc. (I forget all of the values, and some of them were changed between years if we decided that it was too unbalanced).