[Loompa17]

THIRD BASEMEN

1) Buzzy Stevens * 2028 - 2046
Buzzy Stevens and Tyson Bacon may rank as the best 2 position players of all time. They are certainly two of the top five. Determining the better of the two is difficult. Buzzy Stevens ranks as the best third baseman in the league from 2030 through 2045 – an incredible 16 straight years. Not to be outdone, Tyson Bacon was the top third baseman from 2001 through 2016 – also 16 straight years. The next closest to this record is Bob Griffith with 11 straight years. In the end, what drives Stevens ahead of Bacon is that his power numbers and OPS are impressive even beyond Tyson Bacon’s stolen bases. (See table below).


2) Tyson Bacon * 2000 - 2022
One of the things I find fascinating about Tyson Bacon is his development as far as avoiding the strikeouts. Early in his career, with California, Bacon would strike out about 20% of his plate appearances. Right about the time he was traded to Colorado, his strikeouts per PA suddenly dropped down to about 5%. He went from striking out over 100 times a year to merely 25. I’d say it was a Colorado coaching advantage, but the other Ram batters of the era, Christopher Cortese, Hal Rehm, Antony Kissel, Oscar Oakley, would regularly strikeout 100 to 150 times each year.

3) Jose Chavero * 2022 - 2041
After selecting Chavero with the 7th overall pick in the 2021 draft, Chavero had 8 outstanding years for the Illinois Jethawks – including a Bacon Award in 2028 and two titles for the Jethawks in 2027 and 2028. In 2031, at the age of 29, Chavero suffered a devastating back injury that sidelined him for nine months. The Jethawks, seeking a rebuild, traded to Chavero to Louisiana in a controversial trade. Chavero would bounce back to win another Bacon Award in 2033 (this time in a Blaze uniform) and lead Louisiana to the playoffs for five straight years before being traded off to Idaho to finish his career. The number of wins for Chavero’s teams:
2022 (IL) - 72
2023 (IL) – 84
2024 (IL) – 96
2025 (IL) – 94
2026 (IL) – 94
2027 (IL) – 105
2028 (IL) – 114
2029 (IL) – 103
2030 (IL) – 107
2031 (LA) – 91
2032 (LA) – 112
2033 (LA) – 110
2034 (LA) – 100
2035 (LA) – 93
2036 (ID) – 105
2037 (ID) – 91
2038 (ID) – 72
2039 (ID) – 94
2040 (ID) – 88
Which averages to 96 wins a season. Only 2 losing seasons out of 19. I don’t know if that’s a record, but it’s got to be pretty close.

The Louisiana all-time team (player must play at least parts of 3 seasons for the Blaze to qualify):
C – Andrew Kegler (rank #9)
1B – Hank Carruthers (11)
2B – Blinky Crouch (7)
3B – Jose Chavero (3)
SS – Francisco Magana (27)
LF – Toshinobu Kashiwagi (18)
CF – Juan Cruz (56)
RF – Jeffrey Langston (13)
SP – Ralph Ives (28)
RP – Ben Stewart (16)

4) Sanford Powers * 2014 - 2032
Earlier (1B #6) I looked at the biggest fluke season. Looking over the year-by-year career of Sanford Powers, there is a case to be made for the 2nd overall pick in 2014. Actually, Powers does not enter the conversation for a single fluke season, but for a two year span, 2024 and 2025 are definitive outliers. For whatever reason, Powers suddenly and unexpectedly increased nearly every statistical category in those two years and pocketed the Bacon Award in both years. Then in 2026, Powers settled back into this normal self – which was undoubtedly impressive, but not other-worldly.

5) Cristián Morales 2050 - 2067
Cristian Morales was selected fifth overall in the 2047 draft. The 2047 was one of the deepest of all-time, with 14 players from the draft class making the top 75 list and 3 current Hall of Famers (Stone Nichols 1.02, Specs Galloway 1.17, & Mitsuoki Rin 1.21). Is it the best draft class? Probably not, but as with most things, it depends on how you want to measure it.


6) Christopher Stormes * 2006 - 2023
The Tennessee Hounds All-Time Team:
C – Jocko Garcia (Rank #1)
1B – Jacinto Leon (14)
2B – Ron Seldon (18)
3B – Christopher Stormes (6)
SS – Johnny Kapaun (18)
LF – Jerry Jorge (19)
CF - Wenjie Laverick (44)
RF – Luis Cordova (11)
SP – JJ Cobb (74)
RP – Arron Ledford (25)

7) Alex Orati 2042 - 2060
Orati was the first overall pick in 2042. He is one of only three third baseman to be drafted #1 overall. The others being Buzzy Stevens (ranked #1) in 2028 and Dacio Herrara (#57) in 2025. However, all of the top 10 third baseman were drafted in the first round (except Tyson Bacon who was created). In fact, you have to go down to player #18 Sergio Lopez to find a player that was NOT drafted in the first round. Player #25 Alex Orozco was an undrafted free agent who was scooped up by Hawaii. In all there are thirteen top 75 players that were undrafted free agents.


8 ) Donnie Bremer * 2017 - 2039
Top 75 players who have played 23 years or more and played for a single team


9) Carlos Otero 2063 - 2075
Active All-Team:


10) Taylor Dye 2036 - 2055
In 2042, the NPBL contracted by 4 teams with New York, Texas, Rhode Island and Kansas going extinct. The players of these organizations were placed into a contraction draft. Taylor Dye was 29 years old and had just finished his 7th straight year of hitting over .300 with the New York Barons. The Florida Bluefish made Dye the 17th overall player taken in that draft. In all there were 13 position players taken in the first round of the contraction draft.


With hindsight, I think the best position players, given what they had to contribute after 2042, were
1 Miguel Carrasco
2 Barrett Rowe
3 Gonzalo Molina
4 Taylor Dye
5 Matt Lancaster