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Joe Morgan - fredtoast - 10-15-2019
I think the greatness of Joe Morgan kind of got lost among all of the talent around him. Sure, he won 2 MVP Awards ('75, '76), but his teammates (Bench, Rose Foster) won 4 more from '70 through '77. However Morgan put up some numbers that are unmatched in ML history.
Over a 4 year stretch ('73-76) Morgan was second in the majors in both stolen bases (behind Hall of Famer Lou Brock who held the career stolen base record for over a decade) and slugging percentage (behind Hall of Famer Willie Stargill). No other player has ranked that high in those two catagories over that long of a stretch.
Willie Mays had a 5 year stretch ('55-'59) where he led the majors in stolen bases, but he was only third in slugging percentage (behind a couple of decent hitters named Williams and Mantle). Barry Bonds had a 4 year stretch early in his career ('89-'92) where he was second in slugging and sixth in stolen bases. They are the only two who even came close.
I admit that is a bit of an obtuse stat, but it is a good measure of how unique a ball player Morgan was.
Over that same 4 year streetch he also led the majors in Walks, On Base Percentage, and OPS (Slg% + OB%). He was 2nd in Runs (behind Hall of Fame teammate Pete Rose); hit over .300; and won four Gold Gloves. He was NL MVP twice ('75, '76).
Morgan's career HR totals don't look impressive because he played in a dead ball era. His 27 HR in '76 don't seem like a lot until you see that it was good for 5th in the league. He also finished in the top 10 in '73 and '74. Despite playing in a dead ball era Morgan is still one of only 3 players with 250+ HR (268) and 500+ SB (689). The other two are Barry Bonds and Ricky Henderson.
Morgan is 11th on the career stolen base list, but 6 of the 10 guys ahead of him played before World War One when it was more of a running game. And he is 5th in career Walks.