More photos Nam Y. Huh - AP
Where will Brent Morel fit in amongst Sox 3rd Baseman of the last 60 years?It wouldn't make much to become one of the better ones. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
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Those of you who grew up watching White Sox baseball in the 1990's were very lucky.
Not merely because it was one of the best era's of White Sox baseball and because Frank Thomas was in his prime, but you were blessed enough to see a guy in Robin Ventura perform consistently well year in and year out at the hot corner. Before Ventura, and to a certain extent after him, the White Sox third base situation could be described as "patchwork" at best and abysmal at worst. Occasionally you will see a full season by a 3rd baseman, but the turnover the position has had in the last 60 days is rather remarkable.
Lets begin with the 1950's. Taking a face at the baseball reference pages for the team, the sole actor to take the lions share of the 3rd base work in the 10 more than one time was Bubba Phillips who did so in 1957 and 1959. You had Billy Goodman ('58), Fred Hatfield ('56), George Kell ('55), Cass Michaels ('54), Bob Elliot ('53), Hector Rodriguez ('52), Bob Dillinger ('51) and Hank Majeski ('50).
The clear best flavor of the group came in 1955 from George Kell, who was at the real end of a Residence of Fame career. Kell did most of his career damage during the late '40s and early '50s with the Tigers. He hit .312/.389/.429 for an OPS of .818 with 8 home runs and 81 RBIs in '55 for the Sox. He is the sole person in the group to criticise in more than 46 runs, OPS higher than .800 and also led the 10 of third basemen with his 8 dingers. After playing 21 games for the Sox in 1956 however, he was shipped off to Baltimore to end his career.
Four seasons saw the teams third baseman OPS'ing under .700. Dillinger (.684), Rodriguez (.653) and Phillips twice (.693 and .699).
The 1960's treated White Sox Third Basemen a small bit better. This sentence there was just 5 men who got the most time at third. Gene Freese (1960), Al Smith ('61 and '62), Pete Ward ('63-'65 and '68), Don Buford ('66-'67) and Bill Melton ('69). Fans saw four seasons in the decade where the third baseman hit at least 20 home runs. Four seasons of OPS of .800 were also enjoyed.
Freese was coming off of a big 1959 with Philadelphia and with the White Sox black whole at 3rd base, they thought a motion should be made and Freese was acquired. He had a decent year, hitting .273 with 17 homers and 73 RBI's. It came at a severe expense however, as the Sox traded a young outfielder by the mention of Johnny Callison to acquire him. Callison went on to receive some big years for the Phillies and Freese was traded after the '60 season to the Reds in substitution for Cal McLish and Juan Pizzaro.
You might remember Al Smith from the 1959 World Series highlights as the actor who got the beer dumped on his head when a fan knocked over his libation going for a family run ball. Smith, who played left field in '59, was moved to right field in '60 after the Sox re-aquired Minnie Minoso from Cleveland- where they traded him later the 1957 season. In '61, Smith changed positions again, this sentence to third home to have way for a young outfielder by the call of Floyd Robinson. Smith put up big numbers for the Sox in '61 and '62, OPS'ing .854 and .825 respectively, while hitting 44 homers over the two seasons. Smith was then shipped to the Orioles with Luis Aparicio for a package including Ron Hansen, Hoyt Wilhelm, Dave Nicholson and our next third baseman, Pete Ward.
Ward started out huge for the Sox in '63 and '64. He OPS'd .835 and .821, and hit 55 home runs in those two seasons. Finally our long term third baseman was found! Until he got in a car accident in 1965 and never regained the promising play he showed during the 1st 2 campaigns. In '65, Ward OPS'd .694 with 10 home runs. He took to left plain in '67 before reverting to third in '68 where he hit .216 with a .720 OPS.
Don Buford took over in '66 and '67 after playing mostly Second Floor the previous seasons. Buford would hit in the .240s each season OPS'ing .672 and .638. He did steal 85 bases over those two years, but was too caught 43 times. Buford would so be traded to Baltimore, where he would make four consecutive seasons of OPS'ing over .800 including .890 in 1971.
In 1969, we got our first full time glimpse of Beltin' Bill Melton. Melton had a solid rookie campaign with 23 homers and 87 RBIs. In 1970 and '71, Melton hit 33 homers each year, even capturing the home run crown in '71. Again it had looked like we establish a stud who could be an all star for days to come. Unfortunately, the injury bug struck again for the Sox, and Melton only played in 57 games in 1972. If Melton would have been healthy during the '72 season, the Sox, who won 87 games behind Dick Allen's MVP season, may consume not had to delay until 1983 to finally get back in the playoffs. Instead we got a flavour of Ed Spiezio who OPS'd .580 with 2 home runs. Melton was backward at the hot corner for '73-'75, but his office had dipped to 20, 21 and 15 homers, his average fell to .240 by '75 and so it was on to California and Cleveland before his career ended after 1977.
Kevin Bell was very underwhelming in his 2 seasons as the regular Third Baseman ('76 and '79), hitting in the .240's with a combined 9 homers. In between, however, the Sox struck lightening in a bottle with Eric Soderholm. Soderholm had been fairly successful with the Twins in the early- mid '70s before injuring his knee and wanting the entire 1976 season. Bill Veeck gambled on him for the 1977 season, and Soderholm became a big man of the South Side Hitmen hitting .280/.350/.500 with 25 homers. Soderholm won the A.L. Comeback Player of the Year that season and followed it up with another 20 homer season in '78 before being dealt to Texas for Ed Farmer. Soderholm then went on to get up one of the first ticket agencies and fought to legalize scalping. His Front Row tickets is even going today.
Bell was back as he most regular starter for the 1980 season, and he was worse than before. He put up a .178/.284/.241 line with 1 homer and 11 RBI's over 224 plate appearances. In '81, Jim Morrison (no not that Jim Morrison) became the regular Third Baseman. Morrison had a successful '80 as the Sox Second Baseman, but in '81 he managed a .234/.261/.372 with 10 homers. In '82 it was veteran Aurelio Rodriguez turn. He produced a .241/.275/.342 line with 3 homers.
Vance Law is the first Third Baseman I think for the Sox as he was the regular in '83 and '84. In '83, Law hit .243/.325/.348 with 4 homers. In '84 he muscled up for a .252/.309/.403 with 17 homers and 59 RBI's but was sent packing because we had our next hot prospect coming on the bend.
From '85-'87 the hot corner belonged to Tim Hulett. Hulettt was highly touted and hit .268/.324/.375 in his rookie year. In '86 he ended up hitting 17 homers to go on with his .231 average and .639 OPS. In '87 his average dropped to .217 and he was out the door. Somehow he managed to even play major league baseball into 1995, but only received 200 at bats twice in those years.
In 1988 it was Psycho Steve Lyons turn. He was unimpressive with a .269/.313/.373 line with 5 homers. The late Carlos Martinez ended up with the highest OPS for a 3rd Baseman in the decade at .746 in 1989. The 80's were another very ugly decade for the Sox at the hot corner.
At the posterior end of 1989, we got our first glance of Robin Ventura and he hit .178 over 16 games. He was another hyped up prospect that had his first full season in 1990 and hit .249/.324/.318. You couldn't help to believe it was Hulett version 2. Fortunately for all involved Ventura OPS'd at least .800 for the following 6 years before an ankle injury cost him most of '97. He rebounded to hit .263/.349/.436 with 21 homers in his last season with the White Sox in '98. All of this was done as he was playing gold glove caliber defense (he won 5 during that span) and becoming the greatest 3rd Baseman in team history.
After Ventura, we got a helping of Greg Norton, Herb Perry and a displaced Jose Valentin. Perry had a really good 2000, hitting .308/.356/.483 with 12 homers and 61 RBI's for the A.L. Central Champs. In 2001, however, he became Herbert Perry again and the numbers dropped across the board. Valentin was switched over to the hot corner in 2002 and hit his usual 25 homers, but was moved back to Short for 2003 and Joe Crede took over regular duties.
Crede provided some power from the side while playing good defense in '03 and '04. After returning from injury midway through 2005, however, something seemed to finally click. Crede became a legitimate hitter and was a huge part in leadership the White Sox to their maiden Championship in 88 years. Crede had a monster 2006, hitting 30 homers with 94 RBI's and OPS'ing .828. In 2007 though, the back acted up precisely like Pete Ward's and Bill Melton's before him. He only played in 47 games in '07 and 97 in '08, although we did see a glance of Crede at his best that class as he did take the All Star team. In 2009, he signed with the hated Twins and in 2010 he was out of baseball.
While Crede was low in '07, Josh Fields manned third. He ended up hitting 23 homers that year, but then struggled and was dealt to Kansas City after 2009. Gordon Beckham had an excellent rookie year at third in 2009, but was so moved to Second Home for 2010 to have way for Mark Teahen (whom they acquired from Fields). Teahen was unimpressive and so injured allowing 43 year old Omar Vizquel to be the fixture at 3rd. While Vizquel played well, a 43 year old isn't the solution for any team and we saw two young third basemen come up during the season- Dayan Viciedo and Brent Morel. Viciedo hit well, but struggled defensively and is moving to the outfield. Morel impressed with the glove in his first 21 games.
So here we are. Brent Morel is slated to get the regular 3rd Baseman. He showed he can play defense well and showed a short bit of pop in a really small sample size. Will he go on to be one of the better 3rd Basemen in team history with Ventura? Will he fizzle out quickly a la Tim Hulett? Will he go out firm and so have an injury like Ward, Melton and Crede? I sure hope he ends up being jolly good, but history suggests otherwise. PollWho will be Brent Morel's closest comparison when his tenure is ended with the Sox?
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