WHY I THINK VERN STEPHENS SHOULD BE IN COOPERSTOWN
By- Damien
Vern Stephens was one of the best hitting shortstops in the history of baseball. He batted .286 for his career and averaged 111 RBI’s for every 162 games in which he played. His defensive work was also very fine, and he was a pleasure to watch in the field, especially when he threw runners out with the strength of a cannon or helped his pitcher out with a nice tag on an attempted steal. Vern Stephens started his career with the St. Louis Browns in 1941 with a .500 batting average in three games. He batted .294 in 1942 and enjoyed his first 20-homer campaign in 1943. In 1944, he paced the AL in RBI’s and led the Browns to their only pennant. The Browns lost the Series to the Cardinals in six games, and the main reason for their defeat was the loss of Stephens’s usually potent bat, as he batted .227 with only one extra-base hit in the Series. He did, however, lead the league in homers in 1945 and bat .307 in 1946, and after a strong 1947 season he was traded to the Boston Red Sox. He was an instant hit in Boston, as he hit 29 homers and drove home 137 runs in his first season there. He enjoyed the two best years of his career in 1949 and 1950, when he batted a combined .2924 and averaged 34.5 homers and 151.5 RBI’s per season. After those two seasons he had another fine year in 1951, but failed to play in 100 games in a season until 1954, when he batted .285 in 101 games with the Baltimore Orioles, who made the change from the Browns just one year earlier. He played in 25 more games in 1955 before retiring. Vern Stephens was a phenomenal hitter and a fine fielder, who possessed such skills that were unparalleled by any shortstop since, not excluding Derek Jeter. Jeter made the Hall of Fame on his first ballot, so why should anyone think that Stephens is undeserving of that same honor?
LIFETIME STATISTICS
Games career: 1,720 season high: 155 in 1948 and 1949 led AL: 155 in 1948 and 1949
At Bats career: 6,497 season high: 635 in 1948
Hits career: 1,859 season high: 185 in 1950
Doubles career: 307 season high: 34 in 1950
Triples career: 42 season high: 8 in 1948
Home Runs career: 247 season high: 39 in 1949 led AL: 24 in 1945
Runs career: 1,001 season high: 125 in 1950
Runs Batted In career: 1,174 season high: 159 in 1949 led AL: 109 in 1944, 159 in 1949, 144 in 1950
Stolen Bases career: 25 season high: 8 in 1947
Walks career: 692 season high: 101 in 1949
Strikeouts career: 685 season high: 73 in 1949
Batting Average career: .286 season high: .307 in 1946
On Base Percentage career: .355 season high: .391 in 1949
Slugging Percentage career: .460 season high: .539 in 1949
Total Bases career: 2,991 season high: 329 in 1949
Sacrifice Hits career: 37 season high: 6 in 1944
Fielding Percentage career: .962 season high: .981 in 1950 led AL SS: .961 in 1945
Double Plays career: 921 season high: 128 in 1949 led AL SS: 128 in 1949
Putouts career: 2,732 season high: 290 in 1942
Assists career: 4,827 season high: 540 in 1948 led AL SS: 494 in 1947, 540 in 1948, 508 in 1949
DID YOU KNOW?
-nicknamed “Buster”, “Junior”, or “Little Slug”
-was an eight time all-star
-finished third in the AL MVP Award voting in 1944, fourth in 1942, 1948, and 1950, sixth in 1945, seventh in 1949, ninth in 1943, 19th in 1946, and 31st in 1947
-his 39 home runs in 1949 were the MLB record for a shortstop until Ernie Banks broke it in 1955
-was the first shortstop ever to hit 200 career homers
-was the only member of the 1944 Browns to later play for the Orioles
-led the AL in home run percentage (4.2) in 1945
-his 159 RBI’s in 1949 are the MLB record for a shortstop
-hit four home runs each off of Hall of Famers Early Wynn and Hal Newhouser, two off of Bob Lemon, and one off of Bob Feller, plus three more off of Hall of Fame snub Allie Reynolds
-also played 322 games at third base, 11 in the outfield, 61 as a pinch hitter, and two as a pinch runner
-was inducted into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2006
"if you want to get technical, he had a defensive WAR of -0.1 despite having a career fielding percentage five points above the league average (just one of my many criticisms for such “statistics”)"
ReplyDeleteA couple things about that.
1. His defensive WAR was not -1. That is compared to the average shortstop. His career defensive WAR was 9.1
2. Fielding percentage provides only a meager account of a player's defensive ability. Fielding percentage measures how many errors a player makes. The thing is, the job of a fielder is not to avoid errors. If it was, players would shy away from any difficult play to avoid getting any error. The job of a fielder is to make outs. Say there are 2 hypothetical players. One makes 50 more outs than the other, but 20 more errors, so the one with more range will have a significantly worse fielding% than the other. But in fact he will be a dramatically better fielder. The outs not made by the player with less range have the same impact as errors. So the one with less range (to sum it up) will have a much worse fielding %, but because he made more plays, will have been better by 50 outs.
According to Baseball Reference, Stephens's defensive WAR was indeed -0.1, and he was a great fielder. Just look above - he won a fielding title in 1945 and he led AL shortstops in double plays in 1949 and in assists three times. WAR is a made-up and inconsistent statistic, and I a simply implying to those who look at WAR as the only way to judge a player that there are better ways to judge a fielder's ability.
DeleteI definitely agree that WAR should not be used as the only way to rate players. No single statistic is perfect. But I do think it is useful, just because it is a comprehensive rating of a player, even if it sometimes has to be taken with a pinch of salt.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that I'd say it's "a made-up and inconsistent statistic", though. It is sometimes inconsistent, that is sure. For instance, Earl Wilson is rated as the best player in the AL in 1966. He had a very good year, with a 118 ERA+ and 7 homers. But to say that he was better than Frank Robinson, who win the triple crown that year is...questionable. There are other examples like that. But I do not think it is "made-up". WAR is made from the primary statistics, but it takes account of things like park factors, the league, etc. which are not apparent from the raw statistics.
A good article on the flaws in WAR is one Bill James actually wrote in the past week. He says how, because there are different variables in WAR which are estimates, it is possible that the value of a player can get completely thrown off course. I recommend it highly.
https://www.billjamesonline.com/the_real_problem_with_war/
Some of the reader comments are also helpful.