Offense thrives in the desert: Batting stats have fallen off in recent years as drug testing has pumped the brakes on the offensive proliferation of the steroid era. But despite this, two of Arizona's top three offensive WAR seasons came in 2015 (Goldschmidt’s 6.8 and A.J. Pollock's 5.9) and five of the top six have occurred since 2011. …and on the other hand: Arizona’s lack of big offensive numbers in its early years (with the exception of Gonzalez) illustrates the extent to which Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling were able to carry the franchise to a World Series title in 2001. Across the Four Corners: Despite being division rivals, many of Arizona’s top players have also seen time with the Rockies. The list includes Steve Finley, Craig Counsell, Chad Qualls, Byung-Hyun Kim and Gerardo Parra.
Offense thrives in the desert: Batting stats have fallen off in recent years as drug testing has pumped the brakes on the offensive proliferation of the steroid era. But despite this, two of Arizona’s top three offensive WAR seasons came in 2015 (Goldschmidt’s 6.8 and A.J. Pollock’s 5.9) and five of the top six have occurred since 2011. …and on the other hand: Arizona’s lack of big offensive numbers in its early years (with the exception of Gonzalez) illustrates the extent to which Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling were able to carry the franchise to a World Series title in 2001. Across the Four Corners: Despite being division rivals, many of Arizona’s top players have also seen time with the Rockies. The list includes Steve Finley, Craig Counsell, Chad Qualls, Byung-Hyun Kim and Gerardo Parra.42: A few statistics obviously aren’t going to add any more to Jackie Robinson’s legacy, but it’s remarkable to consider he is the all-time best under these criteria for a franchise with such a long history and he did it so late in life. Robinson didn’t debut until his age-28 season, and his top statistical seasons came at 32, 30 and 33. Most players – not counting the steroid era – were on the downslope of their career at that point. Boys of Summer: The Dodgers have played 52 percent of their games in Los Angeles since 1900, but of the eight position players on the all-time team only three (Cey, Davis, Piazza) didn’t play the bulk of their career in Brooklyn. Orel exam: With a franchise deep in starting pitching, Orel Hershiser (5.6) didn’t even crack the five-man rotation – Koufax, Vance, Nap Rucker (7.03), Clayton Kershaw (6.83) and Don Drysdale (6.25). But Hershiser produced one of the great modern baseball stats by pitching 82 innings over his final nine starts in 1988, and giving up just four runs in the process. Crazy how much the game has changed in less than 30 years.Dad squeezed out: Bobby Bonds (5.87) finished fourth among Giants outfielders, narrowly missing a chance to share a spot in the outfield with his son. Wonder if Barry would have let his dad take turns sitting in his recliner in the clubhouse. Probably not. The Thrill is gone: Will Clark (5.32) looked like he might make a run at McCovey’s spot at first base, but his best seasons proved to be his age 24 and 25 years, when he averaged 7.6 WAR. He topped 4.2 just once more in his career. Strike out: Matt Williams (4.7) fell just short at third base, punished heavily by the strike-shortened years of 1994 and 1995. Those were his best seasons statistically, but he played in just 188 games over those years and didn’t accrue enough WAR to push Devlin off third base.Arenado, so soon? Yes, Nolan Arenado appears on the list in what is just his fourth season in the major leagues. He edged Vinny Castilla (3.03). Arenado has earned 17.6 WAR in his brief career, and he benefited from credit earned by extrapolating what he has accrued this year through the remainder of the season. 5,280: Jimenez takes the top pitching spot almost exclusively because of his 2010 season, and most of that was based on his lightning-in-a-bottle first half (he started the year 13-1 with a 1.15 ERA through 14 starts; he closed the year 6-7 with a 4.34 ERA over his final 19 starts). The next three pitchers behind Jimenez and Cook, who were separated by just .2 WAR, were Jorge De La Rosa (2.45), Jhoulys Chacin (2.35) and Jeff Francis (1.83). So in roughly 25 years of the franchise that asks pitchers to throw a mile above sea level half the time, the primary separation among the top pitchers was been determined by 14 Jimenez starts. No Dante: Dante Bichette (.76) didn’t crack the first team, or even the second team – behind Ellis Burks (1.98), Dexter Fowler (1.65) and Charlie Blackmon (1.39). In fact, his overall WAR (4.6) with Colorado was exactly the same as Corey Dickerson’s, and Dickerson had about one fifth as many plate appearances. The Rockies other runners up were C Jeff Reed (.70), 1B Andrews Galarraga (2.4), 2B Eric Young (1.57) and SS Clint Barmes (1.63).Local product: Chase Headley, a Fountain-Fort Carson graduate, tops the Padres’ list at its deepest position. Headley’s tenure narrowly proved better at third base than MVP Ken Caminiti (2.91) and Phil Nevin (2.85) for this franchise that came into being in 1969. Too much sun? For a city with such universal appeal, San Diego sure has seen a lot of players come and go in a hurry. Gary Sheffield, Greg Vaughn, George Hendrick, and Fred McGriff put up some of the top single-season performances in team history, but none made it three full seasons with the Padres. It’s not quite the turnover seen at the burger joints grown by one-time owner Ray Kroc, but it’s significant. Alomar, really? Roberto Alomar is on a short list of the greatest second basemen in history, but how many baseball fans think of him in a Padres uniform? He was traded from his original team after just three years, but, representative of San Diego’s rather barren history at the position, his numbers hold up as the best
