Ben Zobrist — a generational expertise that modified the way in which the sport is performed within the trendy period, and a World Sequence MVP in 2016 with the Chicago Cubs — didn’t obtain a single vote for the Corridor of Fame. Personally, I really feel this simply additional cements that the Corridor of Fame voting course of is a sham and a humiliation.
Ian Malinowski
I very actually suppose Zobrist is extra a Corridor of Famer than the entire backside half of the poll. It’s a hipster choose however a legit one. Sure, with 42.7 fWAR, his mixture profession numbers are under most inductees, largely as a result of he didn’t full his first full main league season till he was 28. However even that quantity lies.
Zobrist was among the many greatest second basemen in baseball, and among the many greatest proper fielders in baseball. He additionally performed a completely competent shortstop, and will fill in wherever else as wanted. That flexibility helped his workforce, but it surely damage his stats. Think about for a second that he might solely play second base (a place with a +2.5 positional adjustment for fWAR) and by no means went to RF (a place with a -7.5 positional adjustment) or wherever else. Then prorate his profession innings everywehre else together with his second base UZR and and the second base positional adjustment and he positive factors 1.6 WAR on paper, with a lot of that coming throughout his peak.
No that’s not rather a lot but it surely takes him above Pedroia on the leaderboard and I’m petty.
Now contemplate the careers of Matt Joyce and Sean Rodriguez, who from 2010-2014 mixed for 16.4 fWAR. No, we don’t simply add that in full to Zobrist’s whole however that’s a 3 WAR platoon that the Rays had been solely ready to make use of as a result of additionally they had the Zobrist wildcard.
What can get misplaced in all of that is simply how good of a defender he actually was — he’s received a bit of little bit of the Andruw Jones factor HoF bugaboo happening however worse, in that a big portion of his worth was protection (at non-premium positions) and baserunning (however not big steals numbers).
If you happen to weren’t paying lots of consideration you most likely didn’t actually discover or care about this. But it surely was actual and spectacular, and people who did discover had been confirmed when Statcast fielding measurements debuted in 2016, as a result of it turned out that the 35 12 months outdated Zobrist, coming off a knee surgical procedure, had the twenty seventh quickest response in all of baseball. That was on par with prime Adam Eaton, and 23 12 months outdated Mookie Betts.
When Mookie eventially goes into the Corridor of Fame it’ll be as affirmation for the position Zobrist created.
Brian Menendez
There’ll by no means be one other Ben Zobrist.
It’s honest to say that his physique of labor could not stack as much as different HOFers, however he’s in the perfect to ever do it class for what he was, very like Mariano Rivera and Edgar Martinez. We wouldn’t contemplate closers of DHs for the corridor of it wasn’t for these two, and Zobrist did even have a HOF worthy peak.
Danny Russell
The main voice on HOF candidacy Jay Jaffe launched the case for Ben Zobrist by discouraging the main focus from being on his influence on the sport itself, as a substitute insisting the physique of labor deserves a candidacy unto itself:
Calling Ben Zobrist a utility participant — or perhaps a superutility participant, provided that he might play the outfield in addition to the infield — is like calling Citizen Kane a film a couple of sled.
But it surely can’t be dismissed both. Baseball is a unique recreation at the moment due to Zorilla.
Adam Sanford
The following ‘Ben Zobrist’
This time period is used rather a lot by folks hoping a participant developing by the system will have the ability to be a swiss military knife for his or her workforce and help the group any doable manner. The participant ought to have the ability to subject at an above common stage at mutliple positions. The participant ought to have the ability to hit above common in opposition to lefties and righties. The participant ought to have strong to above common velocity and have the ability to present worth operating the bases.
Nonetheless, since Ben Zobrist began the pattern of of being a profitable utility participant, nobody has come near being the following Ben Zobrist.
He was a one among a form participant.
General, Zobrist hit .266/.357/.426 with 167 HR and 116 SB, registering 116 wRC+ and accruing 42.7 fWAR over 1651 video games.
Throughout his prime from 2009 by 2016, Zobrist had the ninth highest fWAR (40.1) of anybody in baseball, whereas taking part in extra positions than anybody forward of him on that checklist. Over that stretch of time, Zobrist had 31 DRS in proper subject and 22 DRS as a second baseman; Zobrist additionally spent notable time at shortstop, left subject, and heart subject. There have been additionally instances through which Zobrist manned the new corners compently.In MLB historical past, amongst gamers to have performed each place moreover catcher, Zobrist ranks fifth in bWAR. Nonetheless, his profession was a lot shorter than these above him on the checklist and he truly charges higher than a few these gamers in bWAR accrued per recreation performed.
75.6 – Paul Molitor (.028 bWAR per recreation)
66.4 – Buddy Bell (.028 bWAR per recreation)
53.0 – Bert Campaneris (.023 bWAR per recreation)
50.9 – Tony Phillips (.024 bWAR per recreation)
44.5 – Ben Zobrist (.027 bWAR per recreation)
