The 100 Greatest in 100 Days: #90 Brooks Robinson

Cleaning up the list at #90 is “The Human Vacuum Cleaner” Brooks Robinson. It’s hard to argue that Robinson isn’t just the greatest defensive third baseman of all time, but the greatest defensive player of all time regardless of position. Playing the hot corner, Robinson amassed an astounding 39.1 defensive WAR. He finished among the top-8 in dWAR a remarkable 14 seasons. Among third basemen, he’s the all-time leader in games, assists, putouts, double plays turned, total zone runs, and range factor per game. He led the league in fielding percentage at third base 11 times which is three more than any player from any other position in history. His 16 gold gloves are also the most for any position player in history. There’s no question that Robinson was superior with the glove, but the fact that he’s 13th all-time in sacrifice flies and produced a minuscule 8.4 career strikeout percentage shows he was skilled with the bat as well. Although he led the American League in RBIs in 1964 and finished in the top 10 in RBIs eight times, Robinson was at his best in the postseason. When merely equaling regular season rates is considered impressive, Robinson elevated his batting average 36 points and his OPS 62 points in the playoffs on his way to helping the Orioles win two World Series titles in four World Series appearances. After winning the World Series MVP in 1970, he joined teammate Frank Robinson as the only two players in history to win a regular-season MVP, a World Series MVP, and an All-Star game MVP.

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Hi (hopefully) awesome reader! I welcome your comments. However, please be aware that I make all of my arguments using facts, statistics, and logic. Unfortunately, the average comment on a top-100 list goes something like this:

"UR StooPid. (Insert player) is trash. I've watched (pick a sport) for (pick a number of years) and (pick a player) is better than everyone. UR DUMB. HAHA6969."

–Some Jabroni

As cognitively stimulating as this species of comment is, it ends up being a missed opportunity to share a nuanced perspective. I reply to all comments that show even the most basic levels of thought and humility. The people who make the comments like the example above are under the assumption that the three seconds of thought that popped into their brains after reading the list is more than the 1000s of hours that I put into creating and maintaining the lists. I would be happy to defend any placement, or make an adjustment if one is warranted. If you are a jabroni, like the one above, then your comment will die in the lonely void of the unpublished comments section.

For everyone else, I look forward to your comments!

P.S. The theme of this site and the top-100 lists is that athletes from previous generations have historically been grossly overrated by sports publications in a way that is statistically improbable. Click on the "About" dropdown menu to see just how badly the average top-100 list disproportionately favors athletes from older generations when leagues were smaller, race quotas existed, and globalization wasn't a thing. Also, please consider reading "The History" section of the sport you are commenting on.

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