Sophomore slamming

Phil Gurnee ♦ October 3, 2017 ♦ Leave a comment

The two best players on the Los Angeles Dodgers are a 21-year-old 1st baseman and a 23-year-old shortstop. They will both be ROY winners, and they both will be leaned on very heavily to help the Dodgers move through October.

It seemed that Corey Seager had a very quiet sophomore season, but once the 162 games were done, and you looked back, you saw a season very similar to his outstanding 2016 ROY season.

There he is with a 5.7 fWAR season which I don’t understand. This is one case where the defensive eye test does not match the defensive metrics. Corey is a plus 12 defensively at Fangraphs while I felt his range was as limited as any SS I watched play in 2017.

In 2016 Corey had a 7.4 fWAR on the back of a 136 wRC+. In 2017 he had a 5.7 fWAR season on the back of a 127 wRC+.  The difference was his 136 wRC+ and 7.4 were the best in baseball in 2016 for a shortstop. In 2017 the competition was stiffer as Zack Cozart inexplicably put up a 141 wRC+ to lead all shortstops.  Corey was just a hair back from leading the league in fWAR for shortstops but Francisco Lindor edged him out at 5.9.

Either way, what you have in Corey Seager is one of the top three shortstops in baseball,

Using the table below which are the combined stats for shortstops since 2016:

• Seager is tied with Lindor for 2nd with 48 home runs
• Seager is 2nd in run scored at 190
• Seager is 2nd in hits at 352
• Seager is 3rd in doubles with 73
• Seager is 2nd in walks with 121
• Seager is 1st in batting average at .302
• Seagers is 2nd in OBP at .370
• Seager is 3rd in Slug% at .497
• Seager is 1st in OPS at .867

Player             OPS+ From   To   Age   PA   R   H 2B HR RBI  BB   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS
Carlos Correa       140 2016 2017 21-22 1141 158 291 61 44 180 128 .291 .373 .492 .866
Corey Seager        130 2016 2017 22-23 1300 190 352 73 48 149 121 .302 .370 .497 .867
Paul DeJong         121 2017 2017 23-23  443  55 119 26 25  65  21 .285 .325 .532 .857
Zack Cozart         116 2016 2017 30-31 1015 147 247 52 40 113  99 .274 .346 .484 .831
Aledmys Diaz        111 2016 2017 25-26  761 102 195 45 24  85  54 .283 .338 .461 .799
Francisco Lindor    111 2016 2017 22-23 1407 198 360 74 48 167 117 .287 .347 .472 .819
Elvis Andrus        109 2016 2017 27-28 1257 175 344 75 28 157  85 .299 .348 .457 .805
Xander Bogaerts     104 2016 2017 23-24 1354 209 348 66 31 151 114 .285 .350 .426 .776
Didi Gregorius      101 2016 2017 26-27 1167 141 308 59 45 157  44 .281 .311 .462 .773
Trevor Story        101 2016 2017 23-24  970 135 221 53 51 154  84 .253 .322 .504 .826

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 10/3/2017.

Just for fun, in just two years Corey Seager has more home runs as a Dodger shortstop than any LAD shortstop in history.

Player           OPS+ HR   Age   PA   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS
Corey Seager      133 52 21-23 1413 .305 .374 .502 .876
Bill Russell       83 46 20-37 8021 .263 .310 .338 .648
Rafael Furcal     100 44 28-33 2803 .283 .351 .406 .757
Hanley Ramirez    144 43 28-30 1120 .299 .368 .506 .874
Don Zimmer         69 22 27-32  813 .227 .294 .358 .651
Mariano Duncan     71 20 22-26 1439 .234 .284 .325 .609
Greg Gagne         83 19 34-35 1040 .253 .315 .359 .673
Maury Wills        87 17 26-39 6745 .281 .331 .332 .663
Jimmy Rollins      79 13 36-36  563 .224 .285 .358 .643

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 10/3/2017.

At 23 how does Corey Seager stack up with LAD history?

• Puig is still the best Age 23 and younger LAD in history but will his static stats hold off the future Bellinger stats?
• Seager ranks 3rd behind Puig and Bellinger and just in front of James Loney. We forget sometimes just how great the first two years were for James Loney.
• One home run behind Tommy Davis with 52
• Adrian Beltre had already amassed over 2500 plate appearances by the age of 23.

Player               OPS+ HR From   To   Age   PA   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS      Pos
Yasiel Puig           151 35 2013 2014 22-23 1072 .305 .386 .502 .888  *9/8H7D
Cody Bellinger        142 39 2017 2017 21-21  548 .267 .352 .581 .933 /*379H8D
Corey Seager          133 52 2015 2017 21-23 1413 .305 .374 .502 .876   *6/H5D
James Loney           132 19 2006 2007 22-23  486 .321 .372 .543 .915    *3/H9
Raul Mondesi          123 20 1993 1994 22-23  545 .304 .331 .512 .842   *9/87H
Mike Marshall         115 22 1981 1983 21-23  655 .274 .342 .429 .771  *9/3H75
Tommy Davis           115 53 1959 1962 20-23 1594 .308 .341 .471 .812  *785/9H
Ron Fairly            114 31 1958 1962 19-23 1245 .273 .373 .429 .803   93/H87
Matt Kemp             111 35 2006 2008 21-23 1134 .299 .342 .474 .816   *98/H7
Joc Pederson          110 26 2014 2015 22-23  623 .207 .347 .402 .748   *8/H97
Todd Hollandsworth    109 17 1995 1996 22-23  641 .281 .340 .430 .770   *7/8H9
Bill Sudakis          106 17 1968 1969 22-23  609 .240 .309 .397 .706     *5/H
Jim Lefebvre          106 12 1965 1965 23-23  631 .250 .337 .369 .706     *4/H
Willie Crawford       104 23 1964 1970 17-23 1025 .242 .323 .386 .709    7H9/8
Willie Davis          103 44 1960 1963 20-23 1695 .267 .313 .425 .738     *8/H
Frank Howard          102 25 1958 1960 21-23  540 .261 .312 .456 .768   *9/7H3
Russell Martin        101 10 2006 2006 23-23  468 .282 .355 .436 .792    *2/HD
Steve Garvey          100 17 1969 1972 20-23  669 .254 .304 .397 .701  *5/H364
Adrian Beltre          99 76 1998 2002 19-23 2553 .267 .327 .429 .756    *5/H6

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 10/3/2017.