First base: Pujols, and then who?
By Bill Felber
MLB Network continues dive into best of expansion era
Was Albert Pujols a better first baseman than Miguel Cabrera, Willie McCovey or Frank Thomas MLB Network personalities Brian Kenny and Bob Costas agreed on Pujols’ superiority during the fourth installment of the network’s Top 10 Right Now Wednesday.
That episode included a segment on post-1969 first basemen.
The ranking is greatly influenced by whom you define as a first baseman. Almost all of the leading candidates spent considerable time at other positions … assuming you count DH as a position.
Related Story. Best catchers of the expansion era. light
Still, the matter of best first baseman of the expansion era appears to come down to this: Pujols, then who?
Before assessing how accurate the Kenny and Costas lists were, here are their respective top 10s:
| Brian Kenny | Bob Costas | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Albert Pujols | Albert Pujols |
| 2 | Willie McCovey | Frank Thomas |
| 3 | Willie Stargell | Miguel Cabrera |
| 4 | Miguel Cabrera | Jim Thome |
| 5 | Jeff Bagwell | Eddie Murray |
| 6 | Dick Allen | Willie Stargell |
| 7 | Frank Thomas | Mark McGwire |
| 8 | Jim Thome | Joey Votto |
| 9 | Keith Hernandez | Todd Helton |
| 10 | Fred McGriff | Jeff Bagwell |
Given the fundamentally offensive nature of the position, our four criteria for ranking first basemen are heavily weighted toward that aspect of their games. When all four categories are assessed, the player with the average ordinal score closest to a perfect rating of 1.0 is the winner.
For the most part, the players we’ve assessed played more games at first base than any other position. The exceptions – Frank Thomas, Dick Allen, Lance Berkman – were included by MLB Top Ten Right Now because they did not fit into any other category.
Alphabetically, the 30 nominees are: Dick Allen, Jeff Bagwell, Lance Berkman, Miguel Cabrera, Will Clark, Cecil Cooper, Freddie Freeman, Andres Galarraga, Steve Garvey, Paul Goldschmidt, Mark Grace, Pedro Guerrero, Todd Helton, Keith Hernandez, Ryan Howard, Don Mattingly, Willie McCovey, Fred McGriff, Mark McGwire, Eddie Murray, John Olerud, Rafael Palmeiro, Tony Perez, Albert Pujols, Willie Stargell, Mark Teixeira, Frank Thomas, Jim Thome, Mo Vaughn and Joey Votto.
The criteria are:
- Five-year peak performance with OPS+ as the yardstick
- Cumulative OPS+ over the course of their careers
- Career MVP shares
- Career Defensive Wins Above Replacement.