[All MLEs updated 7/4/18 to include (a) new 1938 and 1947 data (b) new baserunning-runs estimates(c) new, more objective playing-time estimates]
We return with Act III of our field guide to short fielders. This time we’ll talk about Hank Thompson, Dick Wallace, and Artie Wilson then wrap back to the beginning of the alphabet for someone we forgot previously. If you need something to take your mind off the woes of the world, we’d suggest Hungry, Hungry Hippos, but failing that you could spend weeks absorbed in the byzantine details of our Major League Equivalencies (MLEs) for Negro Leagues batters.
Hank Thompson
I got to be honest. I should have run Thompson with the third basemen, but I goofed, and he’s here with the shortstops. Please forgive me, dear reader….
They called him “Machine Gun,” and, in fact, Thompson packed heat wherever he went. Perhaps in self-defense, in 1948 he shot and killed a man named Jim Crow (you can’t make this stuff up!). Thompson was a tough. He grew up fast and mean in Dallas, coming out of a broken home, reform school, and a lot of truancy to somehow become a star ballplayer.
I strongly recommend reading Thompson’s SABR biography (link below). He had one interesting career and life. An alcoholic by age 17, the disease of addiction probably cost him his baseball career, his marriage, his freedom, and his life. He got sober in prison with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous and straightened out, but he only got three years on the outside before dying an untimely death at age 43 due to a sudden heart attack.
On the field Thompson had good speed, good power, and a good batting eye. He’d have thrived in the 1990s/early 2000s when take-and-rake was all the rage. He had a good glove and the ability to play nearly anywhere on the field without embarrassing himself. There’s a little Tony Phillips here.
All of that talent led him to be the third black player to take the field in the 20th Century, to earn a couple MVP votes, to three times hit 20 homers for the Giants over an eight year tenure with them.
Hank Thompson Negro Leagues Stats | Major Leagues Stats | Minor Leagues Stats | Bio Career: 1943–1957 Destination: NL 1946–1956 Missing data: 1947–1948 Year Age Lg Pos PA Rbat Rbaser Rdp Rfield Rpos RAA WAA Rrep RAR WAR ============================================================================= 1946 22 AL 2B 410 4 0 0 0 4 8 0.9 13 21 2.3 1947 23 AL 2B 510 7 0 0 0 5 12 1.4 16 28 3.1 1948 24 NL 2B 540 12 0 2 0 5 19 1.9 17 36 3.6 1949 25 NL 2B 610 16 1 2 -4 6 21 2.1 19 40 4.1 1950 26 NL 3B 604 19 0 1 9 0 29 2.9 21 50 5.1 1951 27 NL 3B 308 - 1 -1 -1 -1 0 - 4 -0.5 12 8 0.7 1952 28 NL CF/3B 484 11 2 2 3 -1 17 1.8 17 34 3.7 1953 29 NL 3B 454 27 -1 3 3 0 32 3.1 16 48 4.7 1954 30 NL 3B 557 19 3 1 4 1 28 2.8 19 47 4.8 1955 31 NL 3B 533 5 -1 1 3 1 9 0.9 18 27 2.8 1956 32 NL 3B 219 1 0 1 2 0 4 0.4 7 11 1.3 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5229 120 4 12 19 21 176 17.9 174 350 36.3 Hypothetical MLB Career Rankings (1871–1960) PA: 365th Rbat: 212th WAA: t-141st WAR: t-170th
In this MLE, we’re accounting for Thompson’s late-June mustering out of the service in 1946. We’re giving him a complete 1947 season. We’re also MLE’ing a complete 1949 season from his AAA and MLB numbers. We are not counting his brief stay in AAA in 1951 because it seems injury-rehab related.
Thompson was a very good ballplayer. If he’d been sober when he played, you wonder if he’d have had a very long career and one with a stronger peak. He coulda’ been a contenda’.
Dick Wallace
By the looks of it, a classic good-field/no-hit shortstop. Well, that was certainly true after age 33 when we have him racking up, er, down -143 batting runs. Before that, however, he was merely below average with only one truly bat season with the bat and a couple above-average campaigns. Wallace appears to have topped out as an All-Star level contributor but in his prime generally was in the three WAR zone. After age 32, he reached two WAR just twice before petering out.
Dick Wallace Negro Leagues Stats | Bio Career: 1907–1921 Destination: NL 1907–1921 Year Age Lg Pos PA Rbat Rbaser Rfield Rpos RAA WAA Rrep RAR WAR ======================================================================= 1907 24 NL SS 370 1 0 4 5 11 1.4 12 22 2.9 1908 25 NL SS 580 - 4 0 7 9 11 1.4 18 29 3.7 1909 26 NL SS 600 - 8 0 7 9 7 0.8 19 25 3.1 1910 27 NL SS 610 - 2 0 7 9 13 1.5 19 32 3.7 1911 28 NL SS 580 - 6 0 6 8 8 0.9 18 26 2.8 1912 29 NL SS 620 - 16 0 7 9 - 1 -0.1 19 18 1.9 1913 30 NL SS 600 - 8 0 7 9 7 0.7 19 25 2.8 1914 31 NL SS 600 - 5 0 7 9 10 1.1 19 28 3.3 1915 32 NL SS 600 7 0 7 9 22 2.7 19 41 5.0 1916 33 NL SS 590 - 19 0 7 9 - 4 -0.5 18 15 1.9 1917 34 NL SS 550 - 15 0 6 8 - 1 -0.2 17 16 2.0 1918 35 NL SS 540 - 18 0 6 8 - 5 -0.6 17 12 1.5 1919 36 NL SS 320 - 17 0 4 5 - 9 -1.1 10 1 0.1 1920 37 NL SS 280 - 12 0 3 4 - 5 -0.6 9 3 0.4 1921 38 NL SS 270 - 33 0 3 4 -26 -2.8 8 -18 -1.9 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 7710 -155 -4 85 111 37 4.6 240 277 33.2 Hypothetical MLB Career Rankings (1871–1960) PA: 100th Rbat: D'ya have to ask? Rfield: 15th (SS only) WAA: 417th WAR: 201st
Dick Wallace looks like a complementary piece on a better team, not a core contributor. The MLE totals for Rbat, Rbaser, and Rfield you see above from age 24 to age 32 are near clones of J.J. Hardy’s totals in the exact same age range. After that, well….
Artie Wilson
History hasn’t been all that kind toward Artie Wilson. His major league trial with the Giants includes descriptions of how teams would bunch him on the left side because he couldn’t pull. How MLB turned its back on him for that reason, much like Silvio Garcia whom we met previously. Yet, Wilson had a long career in the PCL where he regularly hit .300 and was the same kind of player. AAA managers aren’t smart enough to align their defenses the same way that MLB managers did? Seriously? Nah.
In fact, Wilson appears to have had the same kind of game that Ichiro had in his prime. Slash the ball to the other side of the field, avoiding fly balls, using left-handedness and speed to beat out a lot of infield hits. Ichiro rarely pulled, despite the trope that “Ichiro could hit home runs…if he wanted to.” Didn’t hurt him too badly. Doesn’t seem much different that Rich Ashburn’s game either. The reality: He appeared just 19 times in 1951, receiving a mere 24 plate appearances. He pinch hit 11 times and started just two games, while making six other appearances in the field.
In other words, he didn’t get a full-on shot at a regular job.
Granted, he hit .182 (with two steals!), but I would bet that most players in the Hall of Fame had a stretch during their career where they went 4 for 22 or worse. That’s the nature of baseball! So Wilson didn’t make the very most of his chance, but he didn’t get much of a chance. The idea that he couldn’t pull may be true, but it’s unlikely to be the reason why he didn’t stick.
One reason that could be accurate? His glove. While the stats you see below show a good shortstop and a below-average keystone man, there’s some kind of transition between the two which I’m not at this time displaying. In which case, it’s possible his glove had eroded enough to warrant his not getting more of a chance. That’s possible. But is it likely? I can’t tell. Might could. James Riley says that Wilson was a “superior defensive shortstop who was a master at the double play,” but that doesn’t preclude a defensive collapse in his early thirties.
Artie Wilson Negro Leagues Stats | Major Leagues Stats | Minor League Stats | Bio Career: 1944–1962 Destination: NL 1944–1957 Missing data: 1947-1948 Year Age Lg Pos PA Rbat Rbaser Rdp Rfield Rpos RAA WAA Rrep RAR WAR ========================================================================== 1944 23 NL SS 300 8 1 0 1 4 15 1.6 9 24 2.6 1945 24 NL SS 570 5 2 0 2 8 18 1.8 18 35 3.7 1946 25 NL SS 550 9 2 0 2 8 21 2.3 17 38 4.3 1947 26 NL SS 560 0 2 0 2 8 12 1.2 17 30 3.1 1948 27 NL SS 550 3 2 1 2 8 16 1.7 17 34 3.5 1949 28 NL SS 590 2 2 1 2 8 16 1.6 18 34 3.6 1950 29 NL SS 590 - 8 2 1 2 8 6 0.6 18 24 2.5 1951 30 NL SS 490 -14 2 1 2 6 - 3 -0.3 15 13 1.3 1952 31 NL SS 580 3 2 1 2 8 17 1.8 18 35 3.8 1953 32 NL 2B 560 14 2 1 -5 5 17 1.7 17 35 3.5 1954 33 NL 2B 490 17 2 1 -4 4 19 1.9 15 35 3.5 1955 34 NL 2B 440 7 2 1 -4 3 9 1.0 14 23 2.4 1956 35 NL 2B 380 1 1 1 -3 3 3 0.4 12 15 1.7 1957 36 NL 2B 320 - 5 1 1 -3 2 - 3 -0.3 10 6 0.7 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6970 44 26 11 -1 83 164 17.0 217 381 40.2 Hypothetical MLB Career Rankings (1871–1960) PA: 155th Rbat: t-435th WAA: 148th WAR: t-143rd
I’m quite anxious to see what Wilson’s 1947 and 1948 Negro Leagues seasons look like. Ages 26 and 27 are typically peak-level seasons, and Wilson has had a reported .400 average in the latter. If they are, indeed, substantially better seasons than his career average, then his profile may jump considerably. Until then, he’s a pretty good player, if not a great one.
Avelino Cañizares
According to James Riley, this Cuban was considered by contemporary observers to be one of the three important young shortstops of the mid-1940s along with Artie Wilson and Jackie Robinson. They may well have been right, though Cañizares seems clearly third among them.
Cañizares didn’t have any thunder in his bat at all, much like a right-handed Artie Wilson. But he appears to have walked enough to get himself within shouting distance of league average at the bat. He also had above-average speed. The hard question to answer is what his glove was like. Riley says nothing. The few online sources about him say nothing. With no information to go on, I’ve made him an exactly average fielder.
Avelino Cañizares Negro Leagues Stats | Minor League Stats | Bio Career: 1942–1964 Destination: NL 1944–1958 Missing data: 1942-1943, 1949-1953, 1955-1956 Honors: Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame Year Age Lg Pos PA Rbat Rbaser Rdp Rfield Rpos RAA WAA Rrep RAR WAR ========================================================================== 1944 23 NL SS 550 5 1 0 0 8 14 1.5 17 31 3.4 1945 24 NL SS 580 10 1 0 0 8 19 1.9 18 37 3.8 1946 25 NL SS 590 11 1 0 0 8 21 2.3 18 39 4.4 1947 26 NL SS 560 2 1 0 0 8 11 1.1 18 29 3.0 1948 27 NL SS 600 - 3 1 0 0 8 7 0.7 19 26 2.7 1949 28 NL SS 580 - 5 1 0 0 8 5 0.5 18 23 2.4 1950 29 NL SS 590 - 5 1 0 0 8 4 0.5 18 23 2.3 1951 30 NL SS 580 - 5 1 0 0 8 4 0.4 18 22 2.3 1952 31 NL SS 390 - 4 1 0 0 5 2 0.2 12 14 1.6 1953 32 NL SS 580 - 8 1 0 0 8 1 0.1 18 20 2.0 1954 33 NL SS 630 -17 1 0 0 8 - 7 -0.8 20 12 1.3 1955 34 NL SS 570 - 8 1 0 0 7 0 0.1 18 18 1.9 1956 35 NL SS 550 - 7 1 0 0 7 1 0.1 17 18 2.0 1957 36 NL SS 500 -10 1 0 0 6 - 3 -0.3 16 13 1.4 1958 37 NL SS 420 - 8 1 0 0 5 - 2 -0.2 13 11 1.2 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8300 -51 16 2 0 110 77 8.2 259 336 35.8 Hypothetical MLB Career Rankings (1871–1960) PA: 74th Rbat: well... WAA: 293rd WAR: t-174th
As you might imagine, much of the value we are estimating for Cañizares stems from an ability to play an average shortstop so that he could accumulate positional value. While that may sound like a bit of a backdoor way of looking at value, being able to do better than fake a key defensive position does have tremendous value to a team trying to round out a competitive roster.
Now there’s two crosscutting variables in play here, in addition to the question of fielding. First is that I’m not entirely sure I believe that Cañizares would have lasted for 8,300 PAs. I’m guessing more like 6,500 to 7,500. However, it’s really hard to say because the statistical guts of his late-twenties and early thirties aren’t there. We either don’t have a record of where he played his summer ball, or we have incomplete minor league records. So at this point, I have to leave well enough alone. I’ve gotten as far as I can go without more data.
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Next week, we’re going to take a look at an advancement (I hope) in estimating MLE baserunning. Then we’ll do the bump with Jose Muñoz, Don Newcombe, and Juan Padrón.
Waiting with baited breath for Don Newcombe 🙂
Thanks Eric!
Posted by Ryan | May 9, 2018, 9:23 am