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Posted By: Gilbert Maines

One statistic which can be employed to determine how a good fielder from long ago compares with those good fielders of recent history, attempts to look at how dominant each fielder was, when compared to his peers. Although nothing is perfect, this statistic is called Most Seasons Leading League - 3rd Basemen. And it works out as follows:

Assists
AL - Brooks Robinson = 8
NL - Santo, Schmidt = 7

Chances
AL - Frank Baker, Brooks Robinson = 8
NL - Santo = 9

DPs
AL - Jimmy Austin, Ken Keltner, Frank Malzone = 5
NL - Heinie Groth, Ron Santo, Mike Schmidt = 6

PutOuts
AL - Eddie Yost = 8
NL - Willie Jones, Pie Traynor, Ron Santo = 7

Fielding Avg.
AL - B. Robinson = 11
NL - H. Groth, Ken Reitz = 6

So, if you want to determine how a specific individual stacks up, compare the seasons he has in which he led the league in these catagories, and you will have an idea regarding his actual overall performance.