by Jim Jividen

Created on: December 07, 2008   Last Updated: April 05, 2010

#200 RON CEY 3B Dodgers
1971-87
OPS+ 121
BFW 21.2
WARP3 97.4
Best WARP3 Seasons: 1975 (11.3)

Ron Cey's the 200th best player in baseball history.

Duke Snider is essentially #201; his WARP3 is just a tick lower than is Cey's, with the positional value of 3B outweighing Snider's better bat just a tiny bit. There is almost no statistical distinction among players #200-160 on the list and another dozen or so who didn't make it. That's why, in my initial run at this, the rankings vary from how they will look now, as really, given the nature of equivalency stats and my ham-slamming together the universal theory of everything numbers that I believe are most indicative of value, it's fair to slot the first 40 guys virtually any way one likes.

I'm not doing that - I'm using no judgment at all beyond my choice of what numbers matter to me - I'm just doing the math beyond that; and the math says that it's a Dodger (I'm a Giants fan, in full disclosure, and like Duke Sniker is effectively 201, Juan Marichal is effectively 202) Cey, who is 200. He and Reggie Smith are the only Dodger position players from that 70s team to make the list. Cey's forever part of that LA infield, one of the more famous in ML history, here's how the other 3 rate:

Steve Garvey
OPS+ 117
BFW -6.1

WARP3 79.2

Davey Lopes
OPS+ 106
BFW 12.1
WARP3 82.2

Bill Russell
OPS+ 82
BFW 1.0
WARP3 69.7

The moral of the story - there's no debate that Cey had the best career, and there's no debate that Lopes was 2nd. Garvey's the one you know; he was a glamor player at a glamor position in a glamor town; I don't know if there were 5 better known baseball players on the planet in the late 1970s than Steve Garvey. But he had no power, didn't walk, and hurt you with his glove; he was just another guy. He was nice to me in 2000; as a guy, I have nothing bad to say about Garvey, but he wasn't as good as we were led to believe. If you're a baseball fan about my age, in your (gulp) late 30s, and your sense of baseball was formed in the late 70s, to learn that not only was Darrell Evans a better baseball player than Steve Garvey - but that it isn't even close is a transformative experience. That's a good litmus test, actually, for your local beat writer (or Bob Costas) ask him who was better, Evans or Garvey. If he gets it wrong, literally never listen to another syllable. The science has left him behind.

Russell couldn't hit at all, his glove wasn't special enough to elevate him; Lopes's, however, was; the high WARP3 reflects a strong showing in the defensive metrics, given his run of the mill bat.

Ron Cey starts it off - he's the 200th Greatest Major League Baseball Player who ever lived.

Cey only had 1 season with a WARP3 over 10 - but had 5 additional where he was over 9.0. He was the best Dodger on the '78 pennant winning team, the only one with a WARP3 to hit 9.0 - and was second best on the '77 team (Reggie Smith).

For further look at the 200 greatest baseball players ever, come to The Blog of Revelation, http://theblogofrevelation.blog.sponscore.com/search /label/Best%20Baseball%20Players%20Ever

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