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Neil Walker: Best Pittsburgh Pirates second baseman in three decades?
By Josh Krysak
Neil Walker, much like the Pittsburgh Pirates, is easy to root for.
He is a local guy done good. He has a no-nonsense approach to playing baseball. He has fun, but recognizes the significance of Pittsburgh sports to the identity of this town. Fans here live and die with their teams on the diamond, the gridiron and the ice.
But where does Walker, who was arguably the best all-around second baseman in Major League Baseball last season, rank among the recent second basemen to wear black and gold?
In 2014, Walker racked up 23 home runs and boasted a solid .809 OPS for the season and his stellar defense was among the league’s best.
During the course of his career with the Pirates, Walker has continued to grow and mature. He finished fifth in Rookie of the Year voting in 2010, has become a great double play turner and has amassed a career batting average of .273 and an OPS of .771.
He also seems to be moving past that pesky injury bug that has plagued him during early years with the Pirates.
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But again, where does he rank?
There will only be one Bill Mazeroski, whose 1960 World Series Game 7 home run cemented him as a beloved untouchable in Pirates’ history and there are others like early great George Grantham that did it so well for so long at second that they remain ahead of Walker and other, more recent, second base standouts.
There will only be one Bill Mazeroski, whose 1960 World Series Game 7 home run cemented him as a beloved untouchable in Pirates’ history and there are others like early great George Grantham that did it so well for so long at second that they remain ahead of Walker and other, more recent, second base standouts.
But how does Walker stack up against the other 27 men who have held the position of second baseman over the last 35 years?
Here are my top 5 second basemen to play in Pittsburgh since the Pirates last won the World Series in 1979.
5. Tony Womack
Although the majority of his 13-year career was spent outside a Pirate uniform, Womack was extremely fun to watch in the late 1990s when he finished in the top 10 in Rookie of the Year voting and led the league for three straight seasons in steals – two of those seasons with the Pirates. The 1997 All Star stole 60 bases that year, followed by 58 in his last campaign as a Pirate and then swiped 72 the following year. Womack finished his career batting .273 with an OPS of .673.
4. Phil Garner
Scrap Iron won over the city with his gritty style of play and was a member of that 1979 squad that brought Pittsburgh its last baseball championship. A lifetime .260 average for his 16-year career, Garner was a three-time All Star and a solid middle infielder.
3. Johnny Ray
The 1983 Silver Slugger winner was a career .290 hitter and an iron man, playing nearly every game during his tenure with the Pirates. Ray led the league in doubles in back-to-back seasons in 1983 and 1984 with 38.
2. Neil Walker
With his stock still on the rise, as long as Walker can stay healthy, he can easily push to the top of this list with another solid campaign in 2015, but for now, the best Pirates second baseman since 1979 is…
During a tenure in Pittsburgh baseball history that Pirate fans battled through rather than relished with teams annually languishing in the National League cellar, Sanchez was the heart and soul of the remnants that were the Pirates, along with fellow middle infielder, Jack Wilson. But unlike Wilson who never showed consistency at the plate, Sanchez was glorious to watch in his prime. Overcoming medical maladies to not only play Major League Baseball but to thrive, Sanchez was the golden boy of the city in 2006 when he was the Pirates’ All Star representative at PNC Park and went on to win the batting title, hitting a sizzling .344 while lashing a league-best 53 doubles. The three-time All Star finished his career with a .297 batting average, which ranks 18th all-time in Pirates history.
With 2015, the sky seems the limit for Walker and for the Pittsburgh Pirates. If it all goes the way fans hope it will – Walker’s name could move from one of the best to that cemented status only legends enjoy.