Recent Standout World Series Games By SS
Posted by Steve Lombardi on November 2, 2010
I'm not sure what you would call this one. So, call it what you want. But, I ran a Play Index Game Finder query asking it to show shortstops in the World Series since 1995 who had a game where their WPA was greater than or equal to .2 (with no PA requirement).
Here's the result:
| Rk | Player | Year | #Matching | PA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | SH | SF | IBB | HBP | GDP | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tony Womack | 2001 | 1 | Ind. Games | 5 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .400 | .400 | .600 | 1.000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | Jose Vizcaino | 2005 | 1 | Ind. Games | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 2.000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | Edgar Renteria | 2004 | 1 | Ind. Games | 5 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .500 | .600 | .750 | 1.350 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | Edgar Renteria | 2010 | 1 | Ind. Games | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | .333 | .333 | 1.333 | 1.667 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 5 | Edgar Renteria | 1997 | 1 | Ind. Games | 6 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .600 | .667 | .800 | 1.467 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 | Derek Jeter | 2001 | 1 | Ind. Games | 5 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .200 | .200 | .800 | 1.000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | Alex Gonzalez | 2003 | 1 | Ind. Games | 5 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | .200 | .200 | .800 | 1.000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | David Eckstein | 2006 | 1 | Ind. Games | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | .800 | .800 | 1.400 | 2.200 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 | Rich Aurilia | 2002 | 1 | Ind. Games | 4 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .750 | .750 | 1.000 | 1.750 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
.
Edgar Renteria really owns this list, doesn't he?
November 2nd, 2010 at 10:34 am
Pretty cool that Renteria did this with three different teams, too.
November 2nd, 2010 at 11:01 am
Renteria does own the list but I bet Womack's is the highest WPA - a ringing double down the line off Mariano Rivera to tie the game in the bottom of the 9th in Game 7 will do that, especially if you could calculate the WPA over the course of the series. . . .
November 2nd, 2010 at 11:52 am
@2,
Unfortunately, WPA does not take into account that it was Game 7 NOR does it take into account it was Mariano Rivera. I don't think there are any stats that take things like that into account. So I think that would hurt Tony's WPA a little (compared to some of the other games on the list).
I would bet either Eckstein (with his 4-5 including driving in the go-ahead run with 2 outs in the bottom of the 8th) or Vizcaino (only 1 AB that tied the game in the top of the ninth) would have the highest WPA for the game out of this list.
November 2nd, 2010 at 12:15 pm
I don't know why the actual WPAs were cut out of the posted table, but the top ones are:
Eckstein '06 - .491
Womack '01 - .387
Renteria '97 - .364
Vizcaino '05 - .342
Of course those are for the entire game and not just the "big" hit.
November 2nd, 2010 at 1:09 pm
@3
I know that about WPA but it is possible to calculate WPA over the course of a series rather than just per game. You could even do it taking into account the quality of the pitcher although I don't think any version of it does that.
After I posted that I remembered an article I read awhile ago talking about calculating WPA over the course of a season rather than in each individual game. The problem was that the leaders were always players involved in a post-season race who happened to have big games the last couple games. PLayers on teams that coast in to the post-season wouldn't lead because their efforts made comparatively little difference to making the post-season and players who have big 1st halves but not the last week of the season won't have as high a WPA as the players who perform well right at thend since the difference swings so much right at the end.
I suppose the same would be true for a Series long WPA - the guy who gets a big hit at the end of a close series would come out well ahead of a guy who has a big game in a sweep.
November 2nd, 2010 at 1:22 pm
FYI -- For a deciding WS game by a SS, Womack (2001, .367) and Renteria (1997, .364) have the only WPA over 3. Renteria's performance last night ranks 6th at .256.
November 2nd, 2010 at 1:47 pm
Is Renteria a future Hall of Famer? I think a poll could bequite interesting.
My gut feeling is he's not considered a really great player but he's just a solid all rounder who's had some good moments. Most of his stats don't stand out but he has the potential to reach 3000 hits and already has 3 WS appearances (2 wins - .899 OPS in WS), 5 time All Star, 3 Silver Sluggers, 2 Gold Gloves, ROY runner up, 16th in career games at SS (although his stats aren't great).
His HOF monitor and standards are getting close but he has no black ink and very little gray ink. Only 1 HOFer in his similarity scores although names like Trammell and Larkin are high up there.
Is he a borderliner who has enough ticks in the right boxes (say he gets 3000 hits with a good post season record)? Or is he just plain not good enough?
November 2nd, 2010 at 1:57 pm
Renteria has a 0% chance of reaching 3000 hits.
November 2nd, 2010 at 1:57 pm
He is more likely to be out of MLB in two years.
November 2nd, 2010 at 2:00 pm
The problem was that the leaders were always players involved in a post-season race who happened to have big games the last couple games.
That's not a problem, that's the feature. That is what regular game WPA does as well. A 9th inning home run to win 1-0 is worth more WPA than a 1st inning HR to win 1-0.
November 2nd, 2010 at 3:07 pm
"Renteria has a 0% chance of reaching 3000 hits."
The clever and entertaining Mr. Twisto is engaging in a bit of hyperbole.
That statement may feel true right now, given that Renteria had just 67 hits in this, his age-33 season, and is 748 hits shy of 3,000.
However ... eighty-seven different players have amassed 748+ hits from age 34 onward, including 9 shortstops; Honus Wagner had almost twice that number.
Consider Rabbit Maranville. (And no, he doesn't belong in the HOF, but that's a separate issue.) At age 33, Maranville looked pretty well spent; he batted .233 in 75 games, with a grisly 53 OPS+, and got waived by the last-place Cubs at season's end. The next 2 years seemed to confirm the diagnosis; he had 55 hits in 78 games at age 34 (and was released again), and just 7 hits in 9 games at 35.
At 36, Maranville had a slight renaissance, playing 112 games and collecting 88 hits for the pennant-winning 1928 Cardinals. After that season, the Braves bought the 37-year-old SS, and he played over 140 games in each of the next 5 years. In those 5 years alone, Maranville amassed 700 hits.
And what about Omar Vizquel? He looked pretty done at 36, playing just 64 games and batting .244. Seven years and 817 hits later (and in defiance of all reason), Vizquel is still starting regularly.
I agree that the odds are heavily against Renteria reaching 3,000 hits; and without that marker, he's not getting into the Hall of Fame. But if he does pull it off, it would not be the biggest surprise in baseball history.
November 2nd, 2010 at 3:33 pm
Re: #7 - Is Renteria a future Hall of Famer?
Don't ask a Red Sox fan. 😉
November 2nd, 2010 at 3:38 pm
Maranville and Vizquel were also considered exceptional fielders who could keep playing SS throughout their 30s. Renteria is barely capable of playing the position anymore.
It was hyperbole in the sense that very few things have an actual nonexistent chance of occurring. I would put his chances well shy of 1%.
November 2nd, 2010 at 3:43 pm
OK, that was hyperbole too. But he's not a good defender, and once teams no longer feel comfortable playing him at short, he's finished.
November 2nd, 2010 at 3:53 pm
Fun with the Play Index. Highest WPA in the deciding game of a World Series, by position:
P — Dave McNally, Baltimore, 1969
C — Hal Smith, Pittsburgh, 1960
1B — High Pockets Kelly, N.Y. Giants, 1922
2B — Bucky Harris, Washington, 1924
3B — Whitey Kurowski, St. Louis (N), 1942
SS — Tony Womack, Arizona, 2001
LF — Bob Meusel, New York (A), 1923
CF — Earle Combs, New York (A), 1927
RF — Harry Hooper, Boston (A), 1915
DH — Hideki Matsui, New York (A), 2009
PH — Carson Bigbee, Pittsburgh, 1925
PR — Fernando Pérez, Tampa Bay, 2008
All these players' teams won the game (and the Series) except McNally and Pérez.
Hal Smith's .636, the highest figure ever, is solely attributable to his go-ahead, two-out, three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning of Game 7. It was his only at-bat of the game; he'd replaced Smoky Burgess in the top of the eighth. Harry Hooper's .621, second best, included two home runs, the second a one-out, go-ahead (and eventual game-winning) home run in the top of the ninth inning of Game 5. Joe Carter's .593, third best, includes a sacrifice fly and of course the famous three-run, Series-ending homer off Mitch Williams.
November 2nd, 2010 at 4:39 pm
Nice Tuna!
November 2nd, 2010 at 5:05 pm
What's the highest possible WPA situation? What pefect storm of events would get you the highest possible WPA in a single plate appearence?
November 2nd, 2010 at 5:44 pm
I would think that a two-out grand slam in the bottom of the ninth inning with your team trailing by three runs would come close to maximizing WPA for a single plate appearance. The only two players to do this in the past decade are Brian Giles and Adam Dunn. The WPA for their respective plate appearances was 90%.
November 2nd, 2010 at 6:05 pm
Doing it in Dodger Stadium in 1968 or something should increase the WPA even more.
November 3rd, 2010 at 12:16 am
Renteria is currently considering retirement. (Which would be admittedly a little odd after being named WS MVP.) He was hurt and inconsistent for most of the year. He's 34, but man, he looks and moves like a very old 34. As a Giants fan, I'd love to see him get in a little better shape and try to come back in 2011. But, I think Mr. Twisto is right. He'll likely be out of baseball before he gets anywhere near 3000 hits.
November 3rd, 2010 at 9:00 am
Following up on ##17-19, here's the only game between 1950 and 2010 that ended with a two-out grand slam in the bottom of an extra inning (the 11th) to wipe out a three-run deficit. A pinch-hit grand slam, no less. WPA: 90.6%.
November 3rd, 2010 at 1:24 pm
I did not remember Roger Freed. He hit 22 homers in his career; this was the next to last.
He died too soon, at age 49, in 1996.