The St. Louis Cardinals’ 50 greatest players

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#42 Whitey Kurowski 3B

Whitey is one of those guys who’s beginning and end of his career aren’t great, but what he did was post some solid numbers in between those years. Whitey was apart of the great teams of the 40s, as he played from 1941-1949 with the Cardinals, being apart of three world championship teams.

From 1942-1947, Kurowski had a wRC+ of 107 or better in each season, only having one season in which he didn’t improve upon the previous season. That season was in 1946, when Kurowski still posted an impressive fWAR of 4.7 and 144 wRC+.

For his career, Kurowski slashed .286/.366/.455 with a wRC+ of 127 and 24.7 fWAR. These are all very good numbers for a guy who only played in a total of six full seasons. However, it is Kurowski’s -0.2 fWAR that he posted in 1948 and 1949 in his final two seasons that has him so low on this list.

However, you cannot ignore Kurowski’s run from 1942-1947, when during this time his lowest fWAR total was 3.0 (1942) and highest was 5.9 (1947). Besides not getting to play much more after 1947, I am sure Kurowski would have loved to improve upon his .251 career average in his four World Series appearances.

Next: Second great first baseman