Moser: Ron Santo, Sabermetric Star Before Its Time, Finally Makes the Hall of Fame

There aren’t many third basemen in the Hall of Fame; fewer still played during years easily comparable to those Santo played in. Via Fangraphs, here’s a look at cumulative WAR (Wins over Replacement Player, a stat designed to measure how much better a player is than a MLB-ready minor leaguer or easily signable free agent) among the HoF third basemen who played during or after Santo’s time…

In short, Santo was arguably better over time than his peers, even the great Brooks Robinson. By Baseball Prospectus’s numbers, Santo had two MVP-caliber years and finished just shy twice, despite never winning the award (a longtime knock on Santo’s candidacy). Only Mike Schmidt passed Santo before Santo’s health issues ended his career several years before a player of his caliber and position would usually retire. Which brings up the point that diabetes, at the time, was not well understood or treated; the usual comparison between yesterday’s players and today’s in the context of superior conditioning and training—pitchers pre- and post-Tommy John surgery, for instance—is only more dramatic in Santo’s case. Santo self-medicated with candy bars between innings, gauging his need based on his mood, a far cry from the technology available to today’s players.

It’s not just that Santo was underappreciated as a player, it’s that a player of Santo’s type was underappreciated until recently. He was a brilliant defensive third baseman, and for all his obvious skills as a hitter, his real offensive value was hidden in stats that baseball teams and nerds have only started to emphasize in recent years.

Thanks to Benny.