OAKLAND, CA – JUNE 16: Scott Rolen of the St. Louis Cardinals bats during the game against the Oakland Athletics at the McAfee Coliseum in Oakland, California on June 16, 2007. The Cardinals defeated the Athletics 15-6. (Photo by Brad Mangin/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
Who are the St. Louis Cardinals’ best third basemen since 1967? In my opinion, these are the best five.
Why the five best Cardinal third baseman since 1967, and not the best five in their history? Because I have either seen in person or watched on TV every St. Louis Cardinals third baseman since 1967, when I became a fan.
Therefore, this list won’t include any third basemen before 1967, such as five-time Gold Glove winner and 1964 NL MVP, Ken Boyer, or five-time All-Star, Whitey Kurowski. Great third basemen, but both played in St. Louis before 1967.
In a piece earlier this year, Anne Rogers of MLB.com, picked her top five third basemen in Cardinal history, which includes Boyer and Kurowski.
I must say though, picking the five best Cardinal third basemen since 1967 was a more complicated process than I thought. Trying to measure offensive production vs defensive prowess and determine the weight each should play was a challenge.
Some of the third basemen since 1967 were standouts offensively but had some defensive shortcomings. At the same time, I found some who were solid on the defensive side but were not particularly great offensive weapons while they played for the Cardinals.
Only one really excelled both offensively and defensively. Accordingly, he makes the top of the list. The challenge was picking two through five.
I used Baseball Reference as my sabermetrics tool because it measures players as far back as 1967, not all sabermetric sites go as far back. As I said earlier, I’ve seen all these players on the field, so the eye test was my other tool.
So there it is, this will be a combination of sabermetrics and basically my own judgement call. Let’s get started.
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January 11, 2021 at 01:24AM
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Picking the five best St. Louis Cardinals third basemen since 1967 - Red Bird Rants
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