The hot corner: third basemen no longer expected to produce the offense they once did

Baseball Digest, Sept, 2003 by Jack Etkin

THE TERM IS LOVING AND FULL OF praise, at least in the baseball sense. Nobody outside the game would want to be singled out as a "big eater" in their peer group.

A big eater isn't a player renowned for wolfing down a postgame spread and going back for seconds. No, the term refers to offensive production, plenty of it in this case, and was the brainchild of Eddie Bane and Bart Braun, two members of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays front office with scouting backgrounds. They came up with the term when ruminating about first basemen, a big eater being, say, Todd Helton or Jeff Bagwell but not Brian Daubach or J.T. Snow.

"The big eater's got to go 30 home runs, 100 RBI and hit .300," Bane said. "That's bottom line."

If the dietary reference was devised for first basemen, there is some applicability across the diamond. Run production once was a prerequisite at third base, and more so than first base, it's a position that demands defensive prowess.

"There are still some big-eater third basemen, but not near as many of them," Bane said.

The upper echelon among third basemen currently includes Scott Rolen of the St. Louis Cardinals, Eric Chavez of the Oakland Athletics and Troy Glaus of the Anaheim Angels. They might not be big eaters in the strictest sense, using the guidelines set forth by Bane and Braun, since none has batted .300. But they are the premier third basemen in the game, middle-of-the-order run producers who have surpassed 100 RBI and 30 homers. Or 40 homers in the case of Glaus, which helps him attain big-eater status since he batted .250 each of the past two seasons and entered this season with a .253 career average in the major leagues.

Rolen has been the Gold Glove third baseman in the National League the past three years--he has won four such awards overall--and Chavez was the American League winner each of the past two seasons.

Eric Hinske of the Toronto Blue Jays, who was the Rookie of the Year last season in the A.L.; Joe Crede of the Chicago White Sox' Hank Blalock of the Texas Rangers, and Sean Burroughs of the San Diego Padres--although the robust power numbers look like a stretch for him--are promising young third basemen who could rise to big-eater heights.

There also is a group of slightly more experienced third basemen who could join the elite at that position. Late-blooming Corey Koskie of the Minnesota Twins, who turned 30 in June, batted .276 in 2001 with 26 homers and 103 RBI. Arizona's Shea Hillenbrand rose to .285 with 18 homers and 83 RBI in 2002 with the Red Sox, his second season in the majors. Pittsburgh's Aramis Ramirez, five years younger than Koskie, batted .300 with 34 homers and 112 RBI in 2001 but tailed off sharply last year, to .234 with 18 homers and 71 RBI. Like Ramirez, Adrian Beltre of the Los Angeles Dodgers has to prove he is more than a one-year wonder.

Check the box scores, and you'll see third basemen Chris Stynes or Greg Norton frequently batting eighth for the Rockies. It's not uncommon to see third baseman Jeff Cirillo batting eighth for the Seattle Mariners or rookie Casey Blake, another third baseman, batting eighth for the Cleveland Indians.

Blalock, in his first full big-league season, has been batting second and hitting well for Texas. That's a nice spot in the lineup for a young player, with Alex Rodriguez right behind him. Third basemen Geoff Blum of the Houston Astros and Joe Randa of the Kansas City Royals bat second. Before the Cardinals traded for Rolen last year, they frequently used Placido Polanco at third base. The versatile Polanco, who was sent to Philadelphia in the Rolen trade, often batted second for St. Louis.

"It just doesn't look right, when you write out the lineup card and have your third baseman hitting second or eighth," Bane said. "The third baseman's not supposed to hit second or eighth, and they do."

Former third baseman Wade Boggs often batted first or second for the Boston Red Sox. Boggs finished his major league career with 3,010 hits, a .328 average and five A.L. batting titles, including four in succession from 1985-1988.

Boggs never drove in 90 runs in a season and only twice reached double figures in homers, finishing with 118 in his big-league career. But the left-handed hitter used the inviting Green Monster in Fenway Park, taking advantage of that looming wall in left field to hit 40 or more doubles in eight seasons with the Red Sox.

He won two Gold Gloves and worked hard to become a very good third baseman. He was an All-Star 12 times, a complete player in his own way but not the prototypical big eater at third base.

"Wade was such a good hitter, if he wanted to hit 25 home runs (annually), he could have," Bane said. "Teams are more than willing to get 230 hits from their third baseman."

That's an exaggeration, but not by much. Boggs' only season with 230 hits was 1985 (240), but he collected at least 200 in seven consecutive seasons between 1983-1989.

The way it was

Third base once was a position flush with players with outsize offensive numbers. There were bona fide big eaters such as Mike Schmidt and George Brett, contemporaries in the 1970s and 1980s and first-ballot Hall of Famers, and a host of other luminaries at third base. There were Buddy Bell, Boggs, Ron Cey, Graig Nettles, Howard Johnson, Bob Horner and Terry Pendleton. Eddie Mathews, Ken and Clete Boyer and Brooks Robinson had come earlier, and Ken Caminiti and Chipper Jones came later. Jones moved to left field, as did St. Louis' Albert Pujols, whose days at third base ended when the Cardinals acquired Rolen.