A simple one vote poll and feel free to explain your vote or argue over others.
Where’s the poll? I vote Schmidt.
Another gimme for Schmidt. Waiting for left field :).
Schmidt is a pretty obvious choice here.
Consider this; George Brett was one hell of a player and won three batting titles, and obviously had a much higher batting average than Schmidt. ** But Mike Schmidt got on base more than Brett did.** And obviously Schmidt had more power, so Schmidt was better than Brett at BOTH aspects of baseball offense. And of course Schmidt won ten Gold Gloves, and… um, why did Brett get votes?
Having said all that the day may come when the answer is Alex Rodriguez, who will soon have played more games at third than he has at short.
I picked Santo. Shameless homer pick to make up for years of ignorance by the HOF.
Brett’s 4th best season would have been Schmidt’s 10th.
Brett was a more versatile and exciting player than Schmidt. Not only did Brett have nearly 1000 more hits, but also 250 more doubles and 75 more triples. Brett was the better base-runner and had less than half the number of strikeouts.
Schmidt was great, no doubt. OBP is God now, but I find the HR/BB/K guys kind of boring to watch, like McGwire and Giambi, and to a lesser extent Schhmidt.
To me it was Schmidt but Brett had the better glove and Brooks was crazy good. I can understand the Brett vote though Mike was better in my opinion.
My heart won over my head in this vote. Boggs was my all time favorite player when he was with the Sox back in the 80s. The chicken man could flat out hit.
One of the easiest positions, I think, if A-Rod isn’t considered a 3B.
Even though Brett was the favorite player of my youth, Schmidt is the vote.
I grew up watching Brooks Robinson. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone better. I might be biased, but I was present during a game late in his career where he hit (IIRC) a 10th inning pitch-hit walk-off home run.
Is this a typo, or do you really think George Brett was a better fielder than Mike Schmidt?
Well, since Graig Nettles isn’t an option, I guess I’ll take Mike Schmidt.
I don’t see Chris Sabo and his goggles on this list, so I couldn’t vote.
Not a typo.
For fielding I think Brooks & Nettles > Brett > Schmidt.
I can see Brooks (obviously) and Nettles but I’m honestly mystified as to why you think George Brett was a better fielder than Mike Schmidt. This is, quite honestly, precisely akin to saying that you think Mark McGwire was a better fielder than Keith Hernandez.
I mean, Brett wasn’t bad with the glove but he was never regarded as a glove man, ever. He won one Gold Glove in 1985 largely because there weren’t many other good choices and he sort of won it with his bat. His career numbers, under any analysis, suggest he was pretty good but not among the greats.
Schmidt, by comparison, won ten Gold Gloves and deserved most of them. EVERYONE who saw him at his peak said he was a sensational defensive third baseman; he had awesome range, a cannon for an arm, and there might never in baseball history have been a better third baseman at coming in to field the bunt and the short grounder. He set defensive records. He still holds the NL record for assists by a third baseman (Graig Nettles holds the MLB record) and by any analysis his defensive numbers are just eye-popping. And he put up better overall numbers playing a LOT more games at third than Brett did.
That is the problem with recalling his play as watching them both as a kid. Maybe Brett just played extra well against the Yanks and Schmidt never looked as good as Brooks or Nettles to me, so I mentally downplayed his value. Brett was a Yankee killer.
Where’s my main man, Gary Gaetti? I was at a Mariners game in the late 80s when Gaetti hit a ground rule double. Off pitcher Billy Swift’s face! That has to be worth something, doesn’t it? 
But I digress.
Schmidt was clearly the best third baseman ever. Five exceptional tool guy who most people forget nearly went 30-30 in 1975 (missed by a single stolen base). No other third baseman ever can touch him for overall excellence.
I voted for Brett simply because I’m a KC homer. Schmidt is quantifiably a better player, and A-Rod will be heads and shoulders above them when it’s all done.
So… since Eric Solderholm was tragically left off this list… i had to vote for the ultimate cub Killer Micheal Jack Schmidt…
That rat bastard… I was at Wrigley when he slugged the game winner in that 23-22 game… we we all were pretty exhausted by the end of that!!