Posted By:
harryI looked up what Bill James thought of these two second basemen in comparison with other second basemen. While I do not always agree with James' opinions, I do find them interesting.
Believe it or not, he ranks these two as the 29th and 30th best second baseman of all-time. Not exactly HOF material. James also takes fielding into consideration and even goes as far giving Maz the most defensive points of all second basemen in his calculations and calling McPhee the finest defensive second baseman of the 19th century.
I enjoy Fabers' works as well but from what I remember some of his findings seem to be quite a bit of a stretch. For example, I think that he found Nap Lajoie to be the greatest player of all-time.
I think that defense is often overlooked in the analysis of a great player, but I feel that Faber gives too much emphasis on it. I think that he gives an equal weight to both, which is how he can rank someone like Bobby Doerr highter than Roberto Clemente, Mel Ott, Joe Morgan or Johnny Bench.
Also, I believe that he found Ozzie Smith to be the best fielder ever for any position, quite a bit ahead (in terms of his "points") of the rest of the field.
It is all very subjective but still very intersting to talk about.