Pittsburgh Pirates: Three More Forgotten All-Stars From 20 Years of Losing

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PITTSBURGH – JULY 19: Jack Wilson #2 of the Pittsburgh Pirates plays shortstop during the game against the San Francisco Giants at PNC Park on July 19, 2009 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Giants defeated the Pirates 4-3. (Photo by Rob Leiter/MLB Photos via Getty Images) /

2004 – Shortstop Jack Wilson

Jack Wilson was quite the fielder during his career. He is one of 14 MLB players to reach at least 100+ defensive runs saved. In total, the middle infielder has a +116 DRS mark. That’s the 8th highest mark in history. He also has +76 total zone runs, which is comparable to Lou Whitaker and Ken Griffey Jr. He also has +21 defensive WAR, and ties him with Nellie Fox for 47th of all time.

I actually consider him one of the most underrated defenders of all time. When you combine his defensive prowess with his popularity among Pittsburgh Pirates fans in during his time in the Burgh, and Wilson himself is not forgotten about Pirate fans. There are many fans, however, who may have forgotten that he was a NL All-Star in 2004.

But he wasn’t really known to be much of a batter. Overall, he is only a career .265/.306/.366 line and 76 OPS+. However, he did have his moments with the bat like in 2004 and 2007. In one of those years, Wilson made the All-Star Game, that being in 2004.

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In 2004, Wilson batted for a solid .308/.335/.459 with an impressive amount of doubles with 41, and led the league in triples at 12. Weirdly enough, he had more triples than home runs with 11 long balls. Going into the All-Star Break, Wilson was batting .332/.354/.501, but fell off in the second half hitting .279/.313/.407. Still, an overall above average batter, even though it was just by 4%, is very good considering that Wilson also had +11 DRS, 8.0 UZR and 2.1 range runs above average. Overall, he had a 4.8 bWAR and 4.3 fWAR.

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