Baseball 100: No. 47, Wade Boggs

[Mike Honcho 4,023]

These stories are so good, if you don't subscribe to The Athletic, you should...or at the very least after they get through all 100 stories, get a trial subscription.   An excerpt from the Wade Boggs one, more crazy stats.

 

For All His Totals, Wade Boggs Has Yet To Prove Himself In the Clutch.”

Ryan was pretty direct in his column.

“There is no evidence to suggest he is a man you want to send up there in the late innings with men in scoring position,” Ryan wrote. “In fact, some people are suggesting he is naught but a glorified Matty Alou. The immortal Matty was the greatest spacer-out of base hits of all time.”

Whether or not Ryan was fair to Alou, who hit .333 from 1967 to 1969 when more or less nobody hit for average, he just missed what everybody else missed. Boggs didn’t just hit for impossibly high averages. He also walked. He also played better defense than it looked. He also scored so many runs — 100-plus every year.

And the year Ryan criticized his ability to hit in the clutch? He hit .368 with runners in scoring position. He hit .373 in high-leverage situations. He hit .615 with the bases loaded.

To be fair to Ryan, everybody was saying stuff like that. Those stats were not accessible in 1982. The point is there was just something about Boggs that made people a little bit blind.

In 1984, he hit .325 with a .407 on-base percentage. Eh. Nobody noticed.

In 1985, he put up one of the great seasons of the 1980s by leading the league with a .368 batting average, 250 hits and a .450 on-base percentage while playing excellent defense. He was noticed — he finished fourth in MVP balloting. That was his high-water mark. He never finished in the top five in MVP voting again.

Isn’t that incredible? It’s one thing that Boggs never won an MVP award — other great players like Al Kaline, Eddie Murray, Tony Gwynn, David Ortiz and Derek Jeter never did either. But with Boggs, it goes deeper. He never once received a first-place MVP vote from anybody.   

In 1986, Boggs led the league with a .357 batting average and a .461 on-base percentage for the pennant-winning Red Sox. He also led the league in WAR that season (not that anyone knew that then). That year, teammate Jim Rice got four MVP votes despite not having nearly as good as a season (he did have more RBIs, though).

In 1987, Boggs led the league with a .363 batting average and a .461 on-base percentage. That was a juiced-ball year, so he added some home runs to the mix, 24 of them, more than he had hit the previous three years combined. He led the league in OPS and WAR and intentional walks. He did not get a first-place MVP vote.

In 1988, Boggs led the league with a .366 batting average and a .476 on-base percentage (the highest in almost 25 years) and was also first in doubles, runs and intentional walks — and he did not get a first-place MVP vote. That was the year José Canseco had a 40-homer, 40-stolen base season and he won the award unanimously.

In 1989, Boggs lost the batting title for the first time in five years by hitting a mere .330, but he still led the league in on-base percentage, runs and doubles, was second (barely) to Rickey Henderson in WAR, and, let’s say it again, he did not receive a first-place MVP vote. That time, because he didn’t win the batting title, he finished 21st in the voting behind, among others, teammate Nick Esasky.

Nobody in baseball history has had a run like that so widely overlooked.

[Mike Honcho 4,023]

Also to be fair to the writer, he said this before he started this countdown.

I will add this because I think it’s important to say: I don’t care much about the rankings. Yes, I spent many, many, many hours on them. I used the Tom Tango-inspired formula, added a bunch of wrinkles, did a bunch of research and made some hard judgments that I believe in.

But the point of this for me is not the ranking but the stories. Every one of these players has a fascinating story — about persistence, about confidence, about pure talent, about amazing moments, about the lengths people will go to become quote-unquote “great.” The stories are what inspired me to do this bonkers thing. And so, with very rare exceptions, I do not even mention the ranking in these essays. There are exceptions where the player’s ranking is part of the story.

1. I think today’s players tend to be underrated compared to those who came before them.

2. I lean toward players who were great at their peak, even if that peak only lasted a short time, and lean away from those who were consistently but not toweringly good for a long time.

3. I lean toward players who did multiple things well over specialists (no matter how great) who basically did just one thing well.

4. I take a lot of care to make educated guesses about players whose careers were shortened by things beyond their control  — World War II, for example, or baseball’s tragic and infuriating color line. I don’t make the same adjustment for injuries. As Bill James has written, there’s a big difference. The years when Joe DiMaggio or Ted Williams or Bob Feller were at war, the years when Josh Gibson and Oscar Charleston played in the Negro Leagues, they were still the best players on earth. They just couldn’t play in the big leagues because of larger issues. When players get hurt — take Don Mattingly, for example, and his back problems — they stop being the best players in the world. I wish Donnie Baseball didn’t get hurt, we all do, but he did, and he was never quite the same player after that. That’s not the same as saying that Bob Feller lost four years when he was still the best pitcher on earth.

5. I have done a lot of research about the Negro Leagues to estimate the greatness of the players there. I try to be as unsentimental about this as I possibly can. I do not rank Satchel Paige based on dreamy views. He is exactly where I think he belongs on the list.

As for the rest: This list is a moving target. I have done it three times using different methods and the rankings are quite different. This is because there’s no significant difference between a player ranked 72 and 48 and 31. I could swap them, for the most part, without it changing much of anything. So if you believe a player ranked 97th should actually be 53rd, well, it might be that way the next time.

[edjr 5,562]

Fock Wade Boggs.

[TimmySmith 2,782]

Boggs could hit .350 in any era, and probably would have been a .400 guy in the 40's.  I remember an SI article in the 80's and the old time groundskeeper at Fenway who had been there since Ted, said Boggs hit it farther than any of them.

[edjr 5,562]

Just now, TimmySmith said:

Boggs could hit .350 in any era, and probably would have been a .400 guy in the 40's.  I remember an SI article in the 80's and the old time groundskeeper at Fenway who had been there since Ted, said Boggs hit it farther than any of them.

but was a slap hitter because he's a selfish fock

[TimmySmith 2,782]

1 minute ago, edjr said:

Fock Wade Boggs.

We could have edjr's all-time most hated athletes, but they would all tie for worst. 

[edjr 5,562]

2 minutes ago, TimmySmith said:

We could have edjr's all-time most hated athletes, but they would all tie for worst. 

Boggs wasn't the worst, he was selfish. Fock him

 

Bill Bergen is the worst and Pete Rose Jr is right there

[Mike Honcho 4,023]

4 minutes ago, edjr said:

Fock Wade Boggs.

Well then for you:

 

[TimmySmith 2,782]

8 minutes ago, edjr said:

Boggs wasn't the worst, he was selfish. Fock him

 

Bill Bergen is the worst and Pete Rose Jr is right there

Petey?  My goodness man. What he had to endure.

[RaiderHaters Revenge 3,579]

Second best pure hitter of our lifetimr

[TimmySmith 2,782]

7 minutes ago, RaiderHaters Revenge said:

Second best pure hitter of our lifetimr

Big 3 for me were Carew, Boggs, Gwynn.  Sure it's the same for most people.

[Mike Honcho 4,023]

11 minutes ago, TimmySmith said:

Big 3 for me were Carew, Boggs, Gwynn.  Sure it's the same for most people.

I would add Ichiro and maybe Molitor, but I'm not taking anyone off your list.

[edjr 5,562]

11 minutes ago, TimmySmith said:

Big 3 for me were Carew, Boggs, Gwynn.  Sure it's the same for most people.

Will Clark

[patweisers44 697]

11 minutes ago, TimmySmith said:

Big 3 for me were Carew, Boggs, Gwynn.  Sure it's the same for most people.

I would put Charles Focking Hustle on that list, but my lifetime is a bigger sample size than yours.

[TimmySmith 2,782]

1 minute ago, edjr said:

Will Clark

Will Clark and Keith Hernandez are nearly identical, so of course your list contains Hernandez, right? 

[edjr 5,562]

Just now, TimmySmith said:

Will Clark and Keith Hernandez are nearly identical, so of course your list contains Hernandez, right? 

List of what? Overrated bums?  Clark's swing was pure, effortless, perfect.

[TimmySmith 2,782]

Just now, edjr said:

List of what? Overrated bums?  Clark's swing was pure, effortless, perfect.

And yet he wasn't a pimple on the arse of Carew, Boggs, or Gwynn.  

[edjr 5,562]

5 minutes ago, TimmySmith said:

And yet he wasn't a pimple on the arse of Carew, Boggs, or Gwynn.  

Swing wise? sure he was. He just didn't have the career they did.

[TimmySmith 2,782]

Just now, edjr said:

Swing wise? sure he was. He just didn't have the career they did.

He had a pretty swing, but it was no different than Griffey Jr, or Raffy Palmeiro.  Both of whom were better than Clark.

[edjr 5,562]

2 minutes ago, TimmySmith said:

He had a pretty swing, but it was no different than Griffey Jr, or Raffy Palmeiro.  Both of whom were better than Clark.

No doubt. I am judging him only on his swing, he had some great years.  from 87 to 91 he was as good as there was 4 top 5 MVPS. he just didn't have the career of those other guys.

[RaiderHaters Revenge 3,579]

I loved Will's swing for sure, but as pretty as it was there was so much swing and miss in it

Gwynn

Boggs

Ichiro

Carew

Molitor

 

[edjr 5,562]

Did fatty gwynn, or selfish boggs or fu man chu ever take on 4 players alone, in a basebrawl?

When baseball was a real sport. Take that motherfucker OUT at 2nd base

 

 

[TimmySmith 2,782]

6 minutes ago, RaiderHaters Revenge said:

I loved Will's swing for sure, but as pretty as it was there was so much swing and miss in it

Gwynn

Boggs

Ichiro

Carew

Molitor

 

You nailed my next 2.  Amazing that our top 5 are identical. 

[RaiderHaters Revenge 3,579]

5 minutes ago, TimmySmith said:

You nailed my next 2.  Amazing that our top 5 are identical. 

I could argue any of the 4 could fit behind Gwynn.  Molitor might be a little low, but is the lone right handed hitter that we think of

the only other righties I think could sniff it are Kirby and Edgar

I wish Ichiro had his whole career here, would have loved to seen him knock Pete from his perch

 

 

[edjr 5,562]

1 minute ago, RaiderHaters Revenge said:

I could argue any of the 4 could fit behind Gwynn.  Molitor might be a little low, but is the lone right handed hitter that we think of

the only other righties I think could sniff it are Kirby and Edgar

 

 

Nomah was better than them all.   did any of them hit .372 with a 1.022 OPS

[RaiderHaters Revenge 3,579]

4 minutes ago, edjr said:

Nomah was better than them all.   did any of them hit .372 with a 1.022 OPS

Nomah was a solid addition as well.  He had a pretty great career, but hes not a HOF, and Nomar's run was coincidentally from 98-03, and only had 6 seasons with 600+ PAs

 

but hey we could also add Barry, whose better than anyone mentioned

 

[TimmySmith 2,782]

11 minutes ago, edjr said:

Nomah was better than them all.   did any of them hit .372 with a 1.022 OPS

It was actually 1.033.  BUT, Piazza hit .362 with 1.070.   I'll take Piazza's 5 year run over Nomah's.

[edjr 5,562]

Just now, TimmySmith said:

It was actually 1.033.  BUT, Piazza hit .362 with 1.070.   I'll take Piazza's 5 year run over Nomah's.

Oh, he's in the HOF so he DEFINITELY 100% didn't do steroids   

[TimmySmith 2,782]

22 minutes ago, edjr said:

Oh, he's in the HOF so he DEFINITELY 100% didn't do steroids   

Maybe just a couple.  

[Hardcore troubadour 12,631]

Worked out a huge walk against the braves in game 4 1996, 10th inning. Last guy on the bench, Torre had no choice.