In Brief: Holy Crap, Wade Boggs Was Amazing

As the title suggests, I’ll keep this mercifully brief…

Joe Posnanski, America's Greatest Living Baseball Writer, has been exhaustively and in great detail counting down his Top 100 players of all time. Last month, he unveiled longtime Red Sox third baseman Wade Boggs as #52 on his list. And I was surprised, honestly, to see him so high on the list. After reading his article and doing my own research, however, I realized my shock is due solely to my own ignorance of his career.

"Another double down the line. A few more of these and I might get as many MVP votes as Tony Fernandez."
 

When it came to Boggs, I really only knew the surface stuff. I knew he reached 3,000 Hits (3,010 to be exact). I knew he went to the Yankees to get his World Series ring. I knew he deserved an Emmy for his work on Cheers. But I had never really given his career numbers more than a cursory glance.

 

However, when you star delving into Boggs's career, you find just how absurdly great he was. He finished with 578 Doubles, good for 20^th all time. His .415 OBP ranks 24^th, and only Barry Bonds has a higher career OBP for players who played at least five seasons in the 1980’s. Boggs’s 1,412 Walks places him 26^th all time, right between Frank Robinson and Hank Aaron. And finally, his .328 career average is 33^rd best all time, with only Tony Gwynn compiling a better career average for players who played at least five seasons in the 1980’s.

The career totals are extraordinary, but when you look season-by-season, it’s clear Boggs might have been baseball’s best hitter in the 1980’s. Seriously, look at the average season during his seven year peak, 1983-1989:

Wade Boggs Batting Stats for Years 1983 to 1989

Year	Tm	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB
1983-1989	BOS	1079	4990	4196	772	1479	300	35	59	479	13	22	719	318	.352	.446	.483	.928	152	2026	114	17	19	39	83
Average		154	713	599	110	211	43	5	8	68	2	3	103	45						289	16	2	3	6	12
per 162 games		162	749	630	116	222	46	6	9	72	2	4	108	48						304	18	3	3	6	13

Look at this numbers, again. And that, including the .352 batting average, was his average season for nearly a decade! Good god. Shame on me for not fully realizing just how great Boggs was. And as Posnanski notes, because Boggs was not a traditional power-hitting third baseman as a prospect, the Sox buried him in the minors for about 1.5 seasons longer than necessary. His first full season did not come until age 25, and it probably cost him 200-300 career hits.

During a nine season run from 1983-1991, Boggs achieved the following:

·         5x – Batting Champion

·         6x – Led league in OBP

·         2x – Led league in Doubles

·         2x – Led league in Runs Scored

·         2x – Led league in Walks

·       2x – Led league in Plate Appearances

·         6x – Finished Top 3 in WAR (3x led all position players)

And the accomplishment that most blows my mind…

·         2x – Led league in OPS, including a 1.049 in 1987

For a guy who hit 118 career home runs, with a career high of 24 in 1987, to twice lead the league in OPS is remarkable. That he posted a .928 OPS over a decade while reaching double digits in home runs only once (24 in 1987) is hard to believe.

But as Posnanski notes, Boggs was really a player ahead of his time. His greatest strengths – drawing walks, 40+ doubles a season, generally not making outs – would today make him, if not a God, then at least some sort of left-handed hitting deity. 30 years ago, it got him labeled derisively as a "singles hitter" who was too slow to hit leadoff (24 career stolen bases) and selfish for not trying to hit more home runs.

In fact, during that 1983-1989 stretch, Boggs never finished higher than fourth in the AL MVP voting. In 1987 he hit .363 to win the batting title, led the league in Times on Base, OBP, OPS, OPS+, WAR for Offensive Player, finished second in Doubles, third in Walks, third in SLP, fourth in Hits, fourth in Extra Base Hits, and fifth in Total Bases. He added a career high 24 Home Runs and 89 RBI. He finished ninth in the MVP voting. NINTH! Toronto’s Tony Fernandez, he of the five HR’s and .805 OPS, finished eighth.

To recap: The 1980's, especially the sportswriters, were just the worst. However, the awful uniforms of the decade were amazing. And, of course, I’m an idiot for not realizing how truly great Boggs was. God bless you, Chicken Man.

 

 A tip of the cap to you as well, sir

P.S.

Time was kind to Boggs, as he received the 22nd highest (91.9%) voting percentage for a player appearing on the ballot for the first time.