The St. Louis Cardinals’ 50 greatest players

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#6 Ozzie Smith

Here we have one of the greatest players to ever play the short stop position, and quite possibly the best ever. Ozzie came to the Cardinals via trade before the 1982 season and the Cardinals reaped the benefits of having a Hall of Fame SS for the next 13 seasons.

During that time, Ozzie wasn’t just a good defensive player, he was pretty good with the bat as well posting seven seasons with a wRC+ above 100. Through his Cardinals’ career, Ozzie ranks fourth among position players with his 59.5 fWAR. In those 13 seasons, Ozzie finished with a fWAR above 4.0 nine times.

His best season came in 1989, when the SS posted a career best 40.2 runs above average and hit .273, while hitting 30 doubles and stealing 29 bases, netting him a fWAR of 6.7 that year.

Not only did Smith bring a stellar defensive prowess to the team and a decent bat, Smith also was an incredibly good base runner. He posted positive base running values in every season except for the last three seasons of his career, netting him a 43.4 base running runs above average for his Cardinals’ career.

Not only that but Smith stole 433 bases in his career, placing him third all time in his Cardinals’ career, with 57 of them coming in his 1988 season. This is just another  feather in the cap of the Hall of Fame shortstop, making him one of the top ten best players in team history.

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