Lucky Hall Of Famer Number 51 - Pie Traynor

Harold Joseph "Pie" Traynor was generally regarded as the dominant third baseman of his day, with some considering him the greatest of all time at the position until Brooks Robinson came into prominence. Traynor, a polite man and a leader on the Pirates back in his day, was a very good player, but was quite overrated. In fact, a case can be made that he shouldn't even be in the Hall of Fame. Let us examine his career more closely, and see just how good Traynor was. 

    Traynor was a Pirate for the entirety of his career (1920-1937), and was the most popular Pirate of his generation. While the Waner brothers were also local stars, they were often crass and impatient with fans, often unavailable to do small favors for them, like sign autographs. Traynor, on the other hand, was much more friendly toward the fans, often greeting them with a smile and an x. Generally regarded as the leader of the club, he led the team to two pennants, including a World Championship in 1925. He eventually took over as player-manager in 1934, piloting the club through 1939. As beloved for his nickname as for his play, Traynor often awed fans with clutch hits or acrobatic plays at the hot corner. Traynor was widely regarded as the best fielding third baseman of his generation, and his good reputation helped propel him to Cooperstown in 1948. 

    When taking a closer look at his numbers, however, Pie doesn't seem like one of the greatest players of his era. While he batted .320 for his career and had seven 100-RBI seasons, these numbers are only superficially impressive, largely the product of time and place; for what it's worth, he never finished higher than fifth in batting and only once finished in the top three in RBI's. His best season, statistically, was 1930 (.366 / .423 / .509, 119 RBI's), the year the entire National League batted .303. While Traynor's stats look impressive on paper, they need to be contextualized. 

    As for his defense, there are a lot of mixed reviews on how good a fielder Traynor actually was. Originally a shortstop, he was moved to third base in the minors. While his range was good, and he made many difficult looking plays ("A hitter doubled down the line and Pie Traynor threw him out"), Traynor's fielding percentage was merely average, and he led NL third basemen in errors five times. His arm was particularly wild; as contemporary second baseman Billy Herman once said, "You'd hit a shot at him, a play he could take his time on, and he'd catch it and throw it right quick, so that if his peg was wild, the first baseman had time to get off the bag, take the throw, and get back on again. It was the only way Traynor could throw; if he took his time, he was really wild." The numbers seem to back up Herman's claim; Traynor led the league in throwing errors three times between 1930 and 1933, the first years for which such error-type breakdowns are available. As I wrote in October 2021 (https://thecooperstownadvocate.blogspot.com/2021/10/a-couple-of-things-that-id-like-to-see.html), throwing errors are more costly than fielding errors, often leading to -1 out and +2 bases for the opposing team instead of -1 out and +1 base. While Traynor had some good defensive tools, his throwing was often a liability, and overall he was not the defender that a lot of his advocates like to say he was. 

My opinion: Pie Traynor is probably not a Hall of Famer.