19th Century Top 10 Lists...
 

In the process of my last post and sifting through the sabermetric stats, I was able to come up with some 19th Century Top 10 lists (1871-1899).

These are my own findings and are based on non-counting stats (i.e. how much pop per plate appearance/inning did each of these players have in these categories over their career). This accounts for a player like Jake Stenzel being ranked higher than Cap Anson. Jake was fortunate to have a smaller sample size and thus has better numbers per plate appearance (NOTE: My cutoff was 2500 PA's for hitters/defenders and 2000 IP for pitchers).

These are mostly just interesting and to spark conversation, but here are my "super scientific" findings...

19th Century Top 10 Offense:

1. Ross Barnes
2. Ed Delahanty
3. Dan Brouthers
4. Sam Thompson
5. Joe Kelley
6. Willie Keeler
7. Cal McVey
8. Hugh Duffy
9. Jake Stenzel
10. Cap Anson


19th Century Top 10 Defense:

1. Germany Smith
2. Jack Glasscock
3. Bid McPhee
4. Charlie Bennett
5. Charles Zimmer
6. Arlie Latham
7. Ed Williamson
8. Lou Bierbauer
9. Lave Cross
10. Danny Richardson


19th Century Top 10 Pitchers:

1. Kid Nichols
2. Cy Young
3. John Clarkson
4. Tim Keefe
5. Amos Rusie
6. Old Hoss Radbourn
7. Tony Mullane
8. Jim McCormick
9. Al Spalding
10. Bob Caruthers

I think Jim Creighton should be considered for for the top 19th century pitchers list. The game was so different when he played that it's difficult to apply sabermetrics to his era.

I don’t disagree, but he doesn’t have any recorded stats. The range I used was from 1871-1899, which is as far back as it goes.

No Stovey for offense?

Not in the top 10, Stovey was right around #23 using my sabermetric approach.

Without breaking it down by category, here are my top 19th century sabermetric guys. Obviously I favor the pitchers, but I think correctly so for the 19th century as the top pitchers were in fact the most dominant and valuable players of the era.

I can't go with a pure "who was best per plate appearance" measure because then I'd have to pick some guy who went like 3 for 3 for his whole career.

1. Kid Nichols
2. Cy Young
3. John Clarkson
4. Tim Keefe
5. Dan Brouthers
6. Roger Connor
7. Cap Anson
8. Jim McCormick
9. Hoss Radbourn
10. Bob Caruthers
11. Amos Rusie
12. Al Spalding
13. Charlie Buffinton
14. Tommy Bond
15. George Davis
16. Ed Delahanty
17. Billy Hamilton
18. Tony Mullane

That's a great list! For mine I used a minimum of 2500 PA's for hitters and 2000 IP for pitchers to eliminate those "3 for 3" guys.