2009 Third Base Position Review

In our continued series reviewing the Royals position by position in 2009, here are the players who played at third base last year.

Name	G	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	H	R	HR	RBI	BB	SO
Mark Teahen	107	.285	.323	.424	.746	111	54	11	35	27	94
Alex Gordon	49	.232	.324	.378	.703	38	28	6	22	21	43
Alberto Callaspo	14	.288	.337	.438	.776	17	10	0	6	3	9
Luis Hernandez	5	.400	.400	.400	.800	2	1	0	0	0	1
Willie Bloomquist	3	.091	.091	.091	.182	1	1	0	0	0	4
Mike Aviles	2	.000	.000	.000	.000	0	0	0	0	0	1
Tug Hulett	1	.000	.000	.000	.000	0	0	0	0	0	0

Alex Gordon was initially going to be the everyday starter at third, and Royals fans were hoping this was another step forward for him. Unfortunately an injury made him take a major step back or at least sideways. Teahen, who had been jerked around by the Royals for nearly his entire career got to go back to his original position and filled in fine. A few guys got some time at the position here and there, but the story of the position is Teahen and Gordon.



So how did the Royals third basemen compare to the league?

Column1	Split	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	sOPS+
Rays	as 3B	.283	.365	.530	.895	135
Rangers	as 3B	.315	.364	.505	.869	129
Red Sox	as 3B	.287	.347	.496	.843	121
Yankees	as 3B	.271	.374	.461	.834	121
Angels	as 3B	.303	.396	.407	.803	115
Blue Jays	as 3B	.285	.349	.439	.788	108
Royals	as 3B	.264	.322	.413	.735	94
White Sox	as 3B	.252	.326	.406	.732	94
Tigers	as 3B	.234	.317	.409	.726	92
Indians	as 3B	.260	.324	.394	.719	90
Twins	as 3B	.247	.312	.385	.696	85
Orioles	as 3B	.262	.318	.373	.691	84
Athletics	as 3B	.246	.317	.356	.672	79
Mariners	as 3B	.247	.294	.349	.643	71

Meh....average. Which on this team is something positive. I don't know what else to say about this position. It is average, we are all waiting on Gordon to take that step forward, Teahen was Teahen and now he is gone.

It is kind of odd and probably mere coincidence but it seems like most teams have a position they always have somebody solid at and a position where they never have anyone good at. The Royals always seem to have at least an average third baseman and never have a good shortstop.

Clearly this would be skewed by having George Brett for his entire career and no real SS of note, so I wondered what positions the Royals were best and worst at for the recently ending decade. So again I used sOPS+ (from www.baseball-reference.com), which compares each position to the rest of the league at that same position that year. So it is SS vs SS and 3B vs 3B. Its the main stat I am using in these posts because in most cases a 1B is going to outhit a SS so it is unfair to compare, and what I am trying to do is evaluate the Royals at each position to the rest of the league. Anyway, the following chart shows the average sOPS+ for the Royals at each position from 2000-2009. 100 is roughly average.

Position	sOPS+
CF	104.9
1B	96.9
3B	93.5
C	91.4
DH	90.5
RF	87.7
2B	83.3
LF	79.3
SS	77

Pretty much what anyone who paid attention to the Royals this decade would guess. Having only 1 position above average (and just) tells the tale of the 2000s. But again the 3B position is pretty high, from Randa to Teahen to Gordon the position has been while not stellar quite servicable. But the SS position...good God. Well below the league SS numbers and a rotating crop of players I don't even want to mention.