The WGOM

A few weeks ago, I read or heard somewhere that the Twins' record for home runs by a shortstop was 24 by Roy Smalley in 1979.

This got me thinking about the Twins' new shortstop, J.J. Hardy, who has managed to hit that many HRs twice in his career already (24 in 2007 and 26 in 2008), so it should not be a surprise if he sets the Twins' record this season or the next. It also got me thinking about Twins shortstops in general. I knew of Roy Smalley before he became a DH and Zoilo Versalles winning the MVP in 1965, but I couldn't remember many Twins that were known for their bat over their glove, or for being any good at all. So, I decided to do some research.

Looking at OPS+, it was no surprise to see it has been rare that the Twins have had an average or better hitter at shortstop (OPS+ of 100 or more). In fact, since Smalley was traded to the Yankees at the start of the 1982 season, the Twins have had one starting shortstop with an OPS+ in triple digits just once: Cristian Guzman in his amazing 2001 season, or rather half a season, since he completely collapsed in the second half after being an All-Star.

In fact, the Twins have had nine triple-digit OPS+ seasons from a starting shortstop just nine times in their history, and Smalley had five of them. The other four were Versalles twice and Leo Cardenas twice.  Hardy has a 99 OPS+ over the last three seasons, so he has a good chance to make it 10.

However, it should be no surprise that it is difficult to find a shortstop that is a league-average hitter, since it traditionally is one of the weakest hitting positions, so I also looked at how the Twins did as a team in sOPS+ at shortstop each year. (sOPS+ is a split statistic which compares the OPS of players at a specific split, in this case batting as a shortstop).

In their history, the Twins have gotten a 101 sOPS+ from their shortstops, which should probably be expected from a team that has had regular intervals of struggles, success and mediocrity over such a long period. However, looking from year-to-year, its apparent that the Twins have needed someone like Hardy for quite a while. The Twins had plenty of above-average production from their shortstops for the first 32 seasons, but have had quite a lot of below-average production since letting Greg Gagne leave via free agency.

Yes, even Gagne helped the Twins get better than average production from the shortstop position. His first four seasons, the Twins were in triple digits in sOPS+, followed by three in the low 90s before he left after 1992. Since then, the Twins have had three 100+ seasons from their shortstops in 17 seasons. Hardy has a 107 sOPS+ as a shortstop over the last three seasons, so it looks promising that he can reverse this trend.

The Twins started out with a tradition of quality-hitting shortstops starting with Versalles, then moving on to Cardenas, Danny Thompson, Smalley and Gagne. They got away from that and the results were pretty ugly for the most part. Here's hoping Hardy can bring back that tradition.

Notes

Some interesting facts I dug up while researching this:

Versalles doesn't have the Twins' record for OPS+ by a shortstop despite his MVP. That would be Smalley, at 122. But it wasn't in 1979. It was the year before. His OPS was only two points more in 1978, but his OPS+ was 12 points more, so 1978 must have been more of a pitchers' season.

The worst OPS by a starting Twins shortstop was 30 by some guy named Jackie Hernandez in 1968. However, the Twins' sOPS+ for shortstops that year was only 84. I'm sure Hernandez had plenty of days off while hitting like that, but still, that doesn't say much for the shortstops in the AL that season.

The worst sOPS+ for Twins shortstops was 59 in 1999. That was Guzman's rookie year when he had a 38 OPS+. Just two seasons later, he had a 110 OPS+, which was tied for the fourth best season by a shortstop in Twins' history. And it could have been the best if he hadn't hurt his shoulders.

Smalley's 1979 season was the only time a Twins shortstop hit at least 20. Hardy has averaged 20 over the last three seasons.

Pitchers and catchers report today! WOOHOO!

The Hot Stove season is over and the new season begins. Evaluation can finally begin. We can finally start to get first-hand reports on if he really is in the best shape of his life, or if he is finally healty, or ... well, you get the idea.