George Brett - One of the best baseball players of all time, and easily the best 3rd baseman.
1970s
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Brett's 3,154 career hits are the most by any third baseman in major league history. He is one of four players in MLB history to accumulate 3,000 hits, 300 home runs, and a career .300 batting average (the others being Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Stan Musial. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999 on the first ballot and is the only player in MLB history to win a batting title in three different decades.
He played 21 seasons with the same franchise, The guy was an absolute hitting machine. In 187 postseason plate appearances, the guy hit .337.
I remember the season he hit .390 The guy was just awesome. I watched Mike Schmidt play his entire career as well, and I would take Brett over Schmidt for my team. I don't think it's even close.
Comments
I mostly agree , but now we are going to hear all kinds of gibberish stats in 3............. 2............. 1
OPS , win shares, OPS+ OPS- OPS % win shares share wins , walk to strikeout ratio , hits per ballpark , year inducted into the HOF divided by the number of average innings per rain delay game.
This topic was recently discussed in painstaking detail in another thread. The bottom line is that Schmidt's defense was markedly superior to Brett, and for a third baseman, solid defense at that position is extremely important to winning baseball games.
We all agree that Brett's hitting surpasses Schmidt in certain aspects, and that is notable. However when combining offensive production and defensive capability, Schmidt clearly wins out over Brett.
Honestly it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Dallas came on and said Brett was terrible. The geek stats that he comes up with and talks about is mind boggling
Give me Schmidt everytime but Brett is a great in his own right.
mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
I think he ranks Brett pretty highly and rightfully so, but I'd give the slight edge to Schmidt over Brett overall due to power production and defensive play.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
1970s'- Greatest post ever on this board!
I well remember the 1980 season as well, as I listened to almost every game on the radio.
The excitement in Denny Matthews and Fred Whites voices as Brett raised his average well above the .400
mark in mid August is something I'll never forget.
About Bretts' clutch hitting- Hal Mcrae once said he was proud of his ability to hit with runners on base
and was extremely confident in those situations, but with the game on the line even he wanted Brett up there.
And Hal at the time was pretty much considered the best DH in the game.
In the course of every human endeavor since the dawn of time the risk of human error has always been a factor. Including but not limited to field goals, 4th down attempts, or multiple paragraph ramblings on a sports forum authored by someone who shall remain anonymous.
But having said that, I do believe when Nolan Arenado is finished,
he may have a chance to be the best third baseman of all time.
Even Mike Schmidt said that.
In the course of every human endeavor since the dawn of time the risk of human error has always been a factor. Including but not limited to field goals, 4th down attempts, or multiple paragraph ramblings on a sports forum authored by someone who shall remain anonymous.
Let's be honest about it...Royals fans and Brett fans are just hissed off because the Phillies and Michael Jack Schmidt beat them in the 1980 World Series.
I was at game 1 and game 2 of those WS games - it was a beautiful sight to see, Phillies winning both games.
Still wish I could have gotten tickets for game 6, just couldn't get them...Dammit.
Giving credit where credit is due, the Royals fought hard, scratched and clawed in all the games, no quit in them, the Phillies were just the better team.
i was just kidding around a little bit with the opening sentence. However I do know some hard core, long time Phillies fans who are still hissed off at the Yankees for beating the Phillies in the 1950 World Series. Then the Yankees beat the Phillies again in 2009. Kinda easy to hate the Yankees though...those Damn Yankees.
jeezum crow I'm pretty sure you can say pissed steve
If the board wasn't censored, my comment about how those Phillies fans really feel about the Yankees would have been a lot harsher. LOL
Stick to your expertise on bend the rules football, Perk.
DA has the sharpest mind on the forum re MLB.
As far as Schmidt having more power than Brett- Brett finished with more RBI's than Schmidt.
Isn't that the advantage to having more power? The ability to drive in more runs?
Schmidt hit 250 more home runs than George but still couldn't drive in more runs than Brett!
That is an amazing stat!
In the course of every human endeavor since the dawn of time the risk of human error has always been a factor. Including but not limited to field goals, 4th down attempts, or multiple paragraph ramblings on a sports forum authored by someone who shall remain anonymous.
Coin or Glick whoever you really are get your facts straight before you run your one sided mouth. I have a lot of respect for Dallas as well as Skin, two of the smartest baseball guys on CU, if you paid any attention instead of starting stupid thread after stupid thread all the time about nonsense you would see that I always make fun jabs at Dallas for being so smart, to a level that I can’t even wrap my head around. In short I know your insanely jealous of Tom Brady and the Patriots, I totally understand it. They have been a machine for the past 18+ years, 8 Super Bowl appearances, winning 5 and countless AFC Championship games, don’t worry Brady is at the tail end of his career so you won’t have to be in a jealous rage for too much longer.
Been discussed. Both great, Schmidt a little better.
Schmidt. Brett was a liability in fhe field a lot of his career. He was less then average the first 10 years or so.
mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
l will let most of the silliness in this thread go, but abuse of statistics this extreme can't be ignored. Over the course of their careers Brett had the opportunity to drive in about 1,500 more runs than Schmidt did. And out of those 1,500 opportunities, Brett drove in 1 - ONE! - more run. Of the various ways to compare Brett and Schmidt, RBI is probably the way that most shows that Schmidt was better; to use it to try to show that Brett was better is absurd.
George Brett was a GREAT baseball player; in fact, he was so great that he is one of only two third baseman in history that can reasonably be compared to Mike Schmidt (Eddie Matthews is the other). But he loses that comparison, and the debate can only be by how much.
For their careers:
OPS+: Schmidt 147, Brett 135
Offensive WAR: Schmidt 91.8, Brett 84.8
WPA: Schmidt 106.8, Brett 88.7
Win Shares: Schmidt 466, Brett 432
The gaps aren't enormous, but they are consistent; no matter who does the measuring, as long as they are measuring what matters, Schmidt wins.
Let's see George Brett make this play:
I already said I would ignore the rest of the silliness in this thread; adding a bunch more does not change my decision.
I knew I could draw Dallas out of the shadows.
Skew the numbers any way you like, but the fact is Brett finished with more RBI's than the
great power hitter, Mike Schmidt.
If Schmidt wasn't so busy striking out, he easily would have beat Brett in RBIs'.
In the course of every human endeavor since the dawn of time the risk of human error has always been a factor. Including but not limited to field goals, 4th down attempts, or multiple paragraph ramblings on a sports forum authored by someone who shall remain anonymous.
The difference in WAR between these two is easy to explain. Trout has played 20 more games, has a higher OPS+, and plays CF vs RF for Betts. Not that hard to understand.
Dallas has already said that postseason numbers don't count, for some crazy reason,
like too small a sample size. LOL.
Just an excuse for players who sucked in postseason, like Schmidt.
In the course of every human endeavor since the dawn of time the risk of human error has always been a factor. Including but not limited to field goals, 4th down attempts, or multiple paragraph ramblings on a sports forum authored by someone who shall remain anonymous.
It's not that hard to do; you just have to be willing to be willing to sacrifice your self-respect by posting something so foolish that it makes my ears bleed.
And I never said postseason doesn't count, I said - many, many times - that it counts just as much as regular season play. And if you want to give Brett a "bump" of 1% for his postseason performance and ding Schmidt 0.5% for his then go for it. If you want to pretend that 150 postseason at bats has equal value to 10,000 regular season at bats then go for that, just be aware that you will sacrifice 100% of your dignity if you do.
And just so I'm clear on this, the guy we're dinging for his postseason play is the same Mike Schmidt who won the WS MVP for bitch-slapping the Royals, right?
1970's is correct in that managers scoff at a lot of the modern stats.
You have to use your gut instincts to be a great manager.
"I've always loved the way he played the game of baseball, and I also thought he was the most dangerous hitter I ever faced - certainly in the American League. Back with Cincinnati, I used to walk the Giants' Willie McCovey all the time because he could just kill you. I thought I'd never treat another hitter that way, but I wound up doing it with George." - Sparky Anderson
I know, I know, this is just the opinion of one of the greatest managers in baseball, not the opinion of a Dallas accountant.
But still, I put a lot of stock in it.
In the course of every human endeavor since the dawn of time the risk of human error has always been a factor. Including but not limited to field goals, 4th down attempts, or multiple paragraph ramblings on a sports forum authored by someone who shall remain anonymous.
<<< And just so I'm clear on this, the guy we're dinging for his postseason play is the same Mike Schmidt who won the WS MVP for bitch-slapping the Royals, right? >>>
Nomination for best CU Sports Talk smack sentence of 2018. LOL
I'm still partial to Brooks Robinson. Never saw him in person, but nothing got by the man.
Thought I heard encore:
NE has had a great run. I was a fan of Tedy Bruschi when he played at the school down the road. Same place that Gronk played for a spell.
Fortunately I am in a town with no major league sports teams. My allegiance to any given team is gone...long gone. College as well as the local corruption is over the top and the athletes perform for plantation wages.
At any rate....the last championship team that I was a real fan of was the 89-91 Pistons with consecutive championships. Took pride in the Bad Boys...but as time went by, I realized just how bad that they really were. Laimbeer was a thug. Isaiah Thomas a sexual predator and Dennis Rodman an idiot. Rather than spend the next 30 or 40 years of my life denying the obvious, I saved the good memories but abandoned the blind hero worship.
The Champion Patriots with the exception of Aaron Hernandez are better than that, but you have a string of scandal that will cause you to defend these clowns until your last living day.
Good of you to be so loyal to this band of high price talent, but I doubt that they would reciprocate if given the opportunity.
This is not true. If anything, teams are using sabermetrics and advanced statistics with greater success than ever before. Both teams in last year's World Series used sabermetrics and advanced statistics to their benefit and we have all seen the success Theo Epstein has achieved with both the Red Sox and the Cubs by using advanced statistics. And look at what Klentak, another sabermetrics proponent, has done with the Phillies this year.
Besides, you're using Sparky Anderson to make a point about baseball strategy in 2018? Sparky was a great manager and all, but the internet hadn't even been invented the last time he managed a major league team.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
?????! Reciprocate?? What on earth are you talking about? I don’t know any of these Patriot players, I don’t hunt them down and ask for autographs, I don’t care to meet any of them and I think Tom Brady is a weirdo. Yea I’m a fan of the Patriots and defend my team, I never said they were my friends lol. I take games serious because I’m a homer, I don’t know anything about these guys on a personal level nor do I care too. I appreciate your long post explaining the complicated way you view sports teams, that’s fine whatever lol. I keep it simple,I root for the Pats and defend them in Sports Talk, nothing more nothing less.
compadres, it is really starting to get contentious up in here
please proceed in earnest
Bobby Richardson in the post season batted .305 in WS play which includes receiving a rare MVP award for the losing team in the 1960 WS when his team the Yankees lost the series...versus some guy named Mickey, uh, lemme think, um, oh yea, Mantle who only batted .257 in WS play and never won a WS MVP award.
So sure, if I had to choose for my upcoming World Series team based on previous WS stats, between Bobby Richardson, and that other guy, I'm forgetting his name again...then golly gee of course I'm gonna choose that Bobby Richardson who from his lifetime WS stats must have been a first ballot Hall of Famer versus the other guy who i guess never got into the Hall of Fame unless he purchased a ticket at the entrance booth.
For all you Brett worshipers out there who also idolize Bill James...just in case you didn't know...Bill James has Mike Schmidt ranked as the greatest 3rd baseman ever.
BTW - Brett was such a "great" fielding third baseman, that the last seven years of his career he actually was moved to first base and then DH.
Sorry if its getting contentious. I do realize Mike Schmidt was a great player.
But in this era when Alex Gordon has 15 RBI's and over half the season has been played,
when he used to be a very good player and now hits like Miss Daisy, it gets kind of frustrating
and I think us Royals fans defend our one great player maybe a little too earnestly.
In the course of every human endeavor since the dawn of time the risk of human error has always been a factor. Including but not limited to field goals, 4th down attempts, or multiple paragraph ramblings on a sports forum authored by someone who shall remain anonymous.
Okay...one more for the road.
Mike Schmidt's 500 HR video, call by Harry Kalas, one of the finest baseball announcers of all time.
In all fairness, I was going to also post George Brett's 500 HR video, but I couldn't find it.
Post Schmidts' 3,000 hit video, wiseacre!
In the course of every human endeavor since the dawn of time the risk of human error has always been a factor. Including but not limited to field goals, 4th down attempts, or multiple paragraph ramblings on a sports forum authored by someone who shall remain anonymous.
Yea, because a 3,000 hit video is as exciting as a 500 HR video. LOL
If Schmidt had played first base and been a cushy DH the last seven years of his career like Brett, then all of Schmidt's stats would have without a doubt been better.
BTW: Mantle didn't come close to 3,000 hits either.
Ted Williams never eclipsed 200 hits in a season, either, which is amazing when you come to think about it, but not surprising when you consider all the factors that come into play in making a great hitter as productive as he is.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
How about a 2,500 hit video? No? 2,400.............. 2,300? Seriously, Schmidt didnt even get that many hits?
Oh yeah, he only had 2,234 career hits. I didn't realize a lowly .267 batting average got you such a paltry amount
of hits for someone whose supposed to be the best 3rd baseman of all time.
Just think, if he had Bretts' lofty .305 average Schmidt would have accumulated 313 more hits than he
actually did, bringing him past the 2,500 mark and a little respectability in the hits department.
Its kind of embarrasing for you to compare their hit totals, so keep posting the HR videos. After all,
Schmidt was kind of a one trick pony.
In the course of every human endeavor since the dawn of time the risk of human error has always been a factor. Including but not limited to field goals, 4th down attempts, or multiple paragraph ramblings on a sports forum authored by someone who shall remain anonymous.
Hey look...in the other thread, i already VERY clearly stated what I thought about George Brett - nothing but the highest respect and admiration.
The bottom line is that Bill James as mentioned, and virtually every other knowledgeable professional in the world of MLB has Schmidt over Brett.
Some even have other third baseman over Brett and that could be because of what I previously mentioned, that for seven years of his career, Brett didn't play third base. However, i disagree with them on that...I have Brett at #2 on my all time third baseman list.