by Outta Leftfield » Fri Feb 12, 2010 3:40 pm
Of course, the real "hitting" shortstops are in the 80s, when we had a kind of historic shift toward shortstops who could not only field, but could also really hit.
The obvious cases in point are Yount, Ripken, Trammell and Barry Larkin. In fact Larkin, who would be considered a hitting prodigy in the 70s, gets very offhand treatment by 80s managers at times. However, even the lower tier (offensively speaking) of Ozzie, Tony Fernandez, Roosta Burleson and the 80s versions of Templeton and Concepcion are pretty decent hitters by 70s standards. Then you've got the pretty good hitters but not such great fielders like Smalley, Brooks, Franco and Thon. And a guy like UL Washington can be a killer as a platoon player vs LHP. So....SS is a very deep position in the 80s, with a lot of options.
In the 70s, the whole SS situation is much sketchier, which is why I tend to go cheap at SS in the 70s. I used Dent a lot for quite a while but have recently had a run of several seasons where he just didn't hit a lick, so I'm not so sure any more. I do like Kessinger for a bit more $$.
I"ve never tried the 70s Concepcion, but maybe he's worth a look?