Giving Ventura His Due

It’s past due time to recognize former Sox third baseman Robin Ventura. Ventura manned the hot corner for the Sox for nine full seasons and part of another. During his 17 years in Major League baseball, he won six gold gloves in addition to hitting well above average for his position.

After a couple years as a utility player for the Dodgers, part of me hoped he’d sign on for the same role back in Chicago for ‘05 … for old time’s sake and also as veteran insurance in case Joe Crede again plays poorly. His left-handed bat would have also been valuable off the bench for a righty-dominated lineup.Instead of playing out the string or milking a few more years out of his body, Ventura decided earlier this winter to hang ‘em up.

He finished with 294 home runs, a .267 batting average and a very good .367 on-base percentage. His slugging percentage of .444 is also respectable, as is his raw OPS figure of .806. And it’s hard to overstate the great defense, with a career fielding percentage of .958 and a range factor of 2.66, compared to the 2.29 that was the league average during his playing years.

I think it’s a shame that Ventura doesn’t get more credit for being a borderline Hall of Fame candidate. That’s not to say I think he belongs, but to say I think he came a lot closer than most give him credit for.

Here’s a look at how Ventura compared to a number of his contemporaries at third base. To be considered a contemporary, players had to have careers with significant overlap. If that player is still active, that player had to look likely to be nearing the end of their run or already in decline (like Chipper Jones).

(NOTE: For those unfamiliar with this statistic, I’m using OPS+ from www.baseballreference.com because it adjusts for the league and ballpark. No Coors-inflated numbers around here, Vinny Castilla.)

CONTEMPORARIES

Player	Years	OPS
Robin Ventura	17	115
Greg Jeffries	14	106
Chipper Jones	11	141
Ken Caminiti	15	116
Todd Zeile	16	103
Travis Fryman	13	103
Vinny Castilla	14	96
Matt Williams	17	113
Jeff Cirillo	11	101
Bobby Bonilla	16	124
T Pendleton	15	91
Dave Magadan15	112
Dean Palmer	14	106

As you can see, the only guys that were better with the bat were led-gloved fielders like Chipper Jones and Bobby Bonilla. Both were so bad they were shifted to the outfield. In fact, Bonilla played more innings in the outfield than anywhere else, so it’s hard to believe we’re considering him at third base.

Jones, after his trip to the outfield, is back at third base. And he’s still playing it poorly… though maybe not as poorly as he played left field. And his OPS+ isn’t likely to stay that high, as he’s already begun the decline phase of his career. The Braves are on the hook for three more years of his huge contract, and he’ll probably bounce around as a part-time OF/DH for a few more years afterwards.

In case you’re wondering, Dave Magadan was also a poor fielder.

As for the glove men on this list, I don’t think any of them can match Ventura’s list of accomplishment in the field (the aforementioned gold gloves). And for sure none of them hit as well.

Ken Caminiti is an interesting case because he was as good of a hitter (without looking at the numbers, some might offhand think he was the MUCH BETTER hitter because of his huge 1996 season) and was generally considered a good fielder that made tough plays.

But career-wise, I still don’t see Caminiti coming close to the longevity and consistency Ventura provided for teams for 14 of his 17 seasons. In addition to a slow start, the end of Caminiti’s career was marred by steroid and drug abuse. That’s not supposed to take away from Caminiti, who died tragically this year from a drug overdose at age 41, but to point out that he had a bigger peak season and flamed out at the end.

I think we can safely say Ventura was the best of his generation of third basemen.

I’m still not trying to suggest that the best of each generation of players at each position should be elected to the HOF. Again I’m not advocating Ventura’s HOF candidacy. He doesn’t belong just because he was the best of a weak group, overall, any more than Jack Morris belongs just because he was the winningest pitcher of the 1980s.

But Morris has his supporters. And the only thing I’m really getting at is that Ventura was probably equally as good, if not better given the relative scarcity of third basemen in the HOF. (Ron Santo is still the best candidate among unselected third basemen.)

The 70s and 80s, the period right before Ventura’s career, could generally be considered the golden era of Major League third basemen. There were no fewer than four first-ballot HOFers during that time (Mike Schmidt, George Brett, Paul Molitor and Wade Boggs – though maybe its cheating to consider Molitor at the position).

This could be part of the reason Ventura doesn’t get his dues. If he had played 10 years earlier, he’d have only been the fifth-best third baseman in the game. He’s simply overshadowed by the era preceding him.

But how about the era that follows him? For fun, lets look at the current crop of third basemen and see how Ventura compares to those guys.

LATE CAREER

Player	Years	OPS+
Robin Ventura	16	115
Scott Rolen	9	132
Eric Chavez	7	123
A Rodriguez	11	143
A. Ramirez	7	101
Adrian Beltre	7	109
Mike Lowell	7	114
Corey Koskie	7	115
Edg. Alfonzo	10	109
Joe Randa	10	94

If Rodriguez stays at the hot corner, which isn’t a certainty at this point, he’s still on track for the HOF, but still has a long way to go to be as good as Mike Schmidt over his career (143 OPS+). He’ll have to avoid a decline to stay ahead of George Brett (135 OPS+). But those guys are probably the two best third basemen to ever play the game.

Adrian Beltre is only 25-years-old, so if he has a few more monster seasons like he had in 2004, he could climb this list, though probably not to the A-Rod/Schmidt/Brett stratosphere. Eric Chavez at 27 could climb, but right now with his problems against left-handed pitching, probably won’t go too much higher. By the end of his career, I would expect him to be a good comp for Ventura (great glove, good hitter).

Scott Rolen could also turn out to be a good comp for the former Sox/Mets/Yankees third baseman. He also has a great glove, and as his bat declines (which he showed no indication of in 2004, but still has a long way to go), he could also fit Ventura’s mold.

Everybody else would have to improve before they decline to be as good as Ventura, and some of them would have to improve by a pretty big margin to stave off the effects decline will have on their statistics.

So what does this say about Ventura? Well, that he was pretty good, and would be among the best two or three third basemen whenever he played, excepting the 70s-80s era that is unmatched in terms of hot-corner talent.