Quote:
Originally Posted by swampdragon
The PL had enough great players to be arguably better than the NL in 1890. The UA's designation as a major league is a quirk of history. The best player in the league was Fred Dunlap, who was just another solid regular in the NL before and after his UA season.
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Mr. Dunlap was far more than "just another solid regular" in the NL. From 1880 through 1885, he was the best 2B in the NL (by rWAR), except for a blip in 1883, when Jack Farrell was the best. The best 2B in his league for the first six years of his career (yes, including his crazy 1884 in the UA, but still, he was the best 2B in the league)? That's definitely better than a solid regular.
He formed one of the best early keystone combos with Jack Glasscock (yes tee-hee at the name and all that) on the Cleveland Blues and then the St. Louis Maroons. In fact, I'll go so far as to say, it's a damn shame he fell off a cliff after his age 27 season in 1886, or we might be talking about HoFer Fred Dunlap. He was on a HoF track over his first seven seasons, and unfortunately wasn't much from age 28 forward.
He finished his career with a 134 OPS+ and a 127 wRC+, which basically means he was anywhere from 27 to 34% above the average player offensively (i.e. very good), while playing (as far as we can tell from numbers from 130 years ago) excellent defense at an up the middle position. With a longer career (and I know, if ifs and buts were candies and nuts...), he could definitely have been in the HoF as a 2B. For reference, Robbie Cano has a 126 wRC+ so far and he was on a HoF track while with the Yankees. We'll see if he can get it back with the Mariners. 2014 was very good, 2015 not so much, but he was injured and ill for the first part of it and he played right through it, despite probably not helping his team much.