Top 10 Seasons by an Angels Second Baseman
Bobby Grich was the first 2Bman to lead a league in HRs and slugging since Rogers Hornsby
First base here, catcher (and intro) here.
This one's not so hard to guess, is it?
G AB R H HR RBI SB/CS BB AVG OBP SLG OPS+ WS AS? MVP
1) Bobby Grich, 1981
100 352 56 107 22 61 2/4 40 .304 .378 .543 164 30.8 14
2) Bobby Grich, 1979
153 534 78 157 30 101 1/0 59 .294 .365 .537 144 28.4 X 8
3) Billy Moran, 1962
160 659 90 186 17 74 5/1 39 .282 .324 .407 98 24.3 X 13
4) Bobby Grich, 1982
145 506 74 132 19 65 3/3 82 .261 .371 .449 125 21.2 X
5) Sandy Alomar, 1971
162 689 77 179 4 42 39/10 41 .260 .301 .321 82 21.1
6) Johnny Ray, 1988
153 602 75 184 6 83 4/1 36 .306 .345 .429 119 20.7 X
7) Bobby Grich, 1978
144 487 68 122 6 42 4/3 75 .251 .357 .329 98 20.4
8) Bobby Grich, 1983
120 387 65 113 16 62 2/4 76 .292 .414 .460 142 20.4
9) Bobby Grich, 1980
150 498 60 135 14 62 3/7 84 .271 .377 .408 118 19.8 X
10) Bobby Grich, 1985
144 479 74 116 13 53 3/5 81 .242 .355 .372 100 18.5And the winner is: My all-time favorite player, and the most deserving second baseman not currently in the Hall of Fame, Bobby Grich. Who, in his chart-topping 1981 season became the first 2B to lead a major league in homers and slugging percentage since Rogers Hornsby in 1925 (and Grich was just a wee bit better on the pivot than ol' Rogers). Like many of Grich's career accomplishments, his 1981 was much more impressive than it looks on first glance, because of the context -- in this case, a strike that erased 52 games from the schedule, and also the lowest scoring year in the American League between 1977 and 2006. His career is filled with stuff like that; his three best seasons according to Win Shares (1974, 1981, and 1976, in order) happen to be the three lowest-scoring AL seasons in the last 32 years. When offense spiked in the expansion year of 1977, he was 28 and should have dominated, but instead he tweaked his back changing his air conditioning unit and struggled with the bat for nearly two full seasons. He got it together in the next boom year of 1979, hitting 30 homers and driving in 101 while leading the Angels to their first trip to the postseason, but he retired just before the stat-padding season of 1987, and of course missed the 1990s explosion altogether. There aren't many great hitters with a lifetime BA of .266; because he walked a lot, hit with some power, and played in pitcher's parks during one of the most offensively depressed eras in history, he's one of 'em.
Since Bobby's been retired for 20 years now, and since some of you are younguns, maybe you don't have a feel for what the guy was like. Before he came to the Big A, Grich had a reputation as a slightly punchier 2B version of Davey Concepcion -- primarily a Gold Glove fielder (he won it every year from 1973-76), who could help out a little with the bat. But when we finally took a good look at him on the West Coast, we soon learned that he wasn't some fancy-footed whippet out there in the middle of the infield: He was a big, rangy dude, about 6'2" 190, with large square shoulders, a porn-star mustache, linebacker scowl, and entire buckets worth of eyeblack. And he turned the double play like no man I've seen before or since.
Think of your baseball cards, or Sports Illustrated covers; most 2Bmen are shown leaping over the oncoming runner, throwing sidearm, acting all nimble and clever. Bobby just stood there like Terry Bradshaw in the pocket against the Doomsday Defense (Grich was a quarterback at Wilson High in Long Beach), daring anyone to hit him too hard as he threw straight-overhand bullets in the general direction of their forehead. Oh, man. Because of his ability to turn two, his soft hands and smart positioning, Grich measures in as the second best defensive 2Bman of all time among those who played 12,000 innings, according to Win Shares, behind only some cat named Mazeroski. He was the only guy I've ever seen intimidate people from the 2B position. A total badass.
Up at the plate, though, he was an entirely different character -- fretful, unsure of himself, physically inconsistent. He was always tinkering with his stance (open, closed); with his hands (up above his head, low below his waist); even with his posture (rigidly erect, all crouched over). The only thing he did no matter what was fidget nervously with his hands and feet, like he really needed to take a piss. Some years he would walk a ton and pull ground-ball doubles down the line; others he'd hit homer after homer in the right-centerfield bleachers, while weirdly cutting down on his strikeouts. The whole Woody Allen anxiety act was one of the most endearing things about him, from the standpoint of a fan whose teenage years spanned almost exactly Grich's Angel career.
I don't want to get too bogged down in Bobby's Hall of Fame case here, but I'll just note two things: 1) He was the best or second-best 2Bman in the AL for his first 10 full seasons at the position; this in a league with Rod Carew, Lou Whitaker, Willie Randolph, Frank White, and Paul Molitor. He was 3rd best in '83, 4th best in '84, 3rd best in '85; then he retired after '86. 2) All but one of his ranking Angel seasons listed above came after his 30th birthday (and he was great before it). I have him ranked somewhere between 12th and 15th on the all-time 2B list (there are 17 in the Hall of Fame); in a group with Billy Herman, Joe Gordon and Jeff Kent. I think he is significantly more deserving than such 'Famers and HoF favorites as Nellie Fox, Bobby Doerr, Johnny Evers, Tony Lazzeri, Red Schoendienst, Whitaker and Randolph.
He was the heart and soul of the Angels' first great era (1978-1986), and it's no accident that the team never quite recovered after he retired.
Conspicuous absence from the list: Adam Kennedy and Bobby Knoop, who rank second and third on the franchise list of games played at 2B (with more than 1600 between them). A.K.'s best season (2002) netted 17.1 Win Shares; B.K. snagged 18.1 in 1964. Both were solid players; it's just that second base has arguably been the team's strongest position over the years.
The hell's HE doing here?: Billy Moran, for sure. He'd been given a brief shot at replacing Bobby Avila for the Indians in the late '50s, but hit .226 in half a season so they gave up on him, eventually shipping him off to Toronto in the International League for a bucket of live crabs. The Angels took him on a flyer, and in his first real full season, 1962, at age 28, he proceeded to lead the league in chances and fielding percentage, while setting career highs in every offensive category except doubles. He made the All-Star team, deservedly, and finished 13th in the MVP voting. He was good for one more season, then fell off a cliff, was traded to make way for Knoop, and was out of the league by 1965.
2Bmen raised at home, made their name elsewhere: Jerry Remy, Mark McLemore, and Damion Easley.
Old soldiers who came here to die: Harold Reynolds and Jose Lind.
Win Share Seasons and Totals: For Grich, Kennedy, Knoop, Alomar, Ray, Moran and Remy.
XX: 01/02/03/04/05/06/07/08/09 (total)
BG: 31/28/21/20/20/20/18/16/11 (185)
AK: 17/17/14/13/11/08 (80)
BK: 18/18/16/15/11/01 (79)
SA: 21/17/16/11/09 (74)
JR: 21/18/10/02 (51)
BM: 24/17/03/03 (47)
JR: 17/15/14 (46)
Positional miscellania: Because of Bobby Grich's dominance, this list doesn't at all reflect what solid play the Angels have historically received from their 2Bmen. With the exception of the 1990s, second base has been the most stable position on the team. Sixteen times the starting 2B had 17 or more Win Shares; the only other position to match that is RF, which was a wasteland the club's first 15 years of existence. This should only continue in 2007 with the departure of Kennedy and the arrival of Howie Kendrick, who many observers have predicted could win multiple batting championships.
Originally appeared at mattwelch.com.