Why are certain baseball positions tied to plate performance?

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It has been mentioned that you want a strong arm from your third baseman (to make the long throw to first), but there are other, different demands for middle infielders (indeed, for every position). Shortstop and second base place a premium on agility/quickness, to make several necessary plays: ranging into the hole, turning the double play, and charging a weakly hit ball. Physically speaking, it’s exceedingly rare for an athlete to be very nimble and also be very strong (strength, of course, is directly related to hitting power).

There have been exceptions, of course; Cal Ripken and Alex Rodriguez at shortstop, and Bret Boone and Jeff Kent at second base. But generally speaking you want a guy like Ozzie Smith up the middle, who’s fast, has good hands and can get off a quick throw.

Basically, if you were to start a typical outfielder at 2B or SS, you would cost your team a lot of runs. More than you would make up with the bat, which is why teams do it this way in the first place.

[TriPolar]

@RickJay

One of my fun facts about Schmidt and his rival, George Brett, is this: Brett, obviously, was known for his batting averages and contact hitting. He once hit .390, won three batting titles (in three different decades!) and struck out less than he walked, ending his career with a .305 average. Schmidt, of course, was not reknowned as a contact hitter; he struck out a lot, only hit .300 once, and was a career .267 hitter.

But Mike Schmidt has a higher on base percentage than George Brett.

Schmidt and Brett were easily the best third basemen of their time, and an interesting case in how one’s context defines statistics. Schmidt hit 548 homers; how many would he have hit if he’d started his career in 1991 instead of 1971? He might be the all time home run champ, In one sequence of years he hit 38, 38 and 36 homers and those numbers led the major leagues every year. When he hit 48 in 1980, he led the league by a margin of 13, which is a remarkable figure. His eight home runs titles are the most ever by a played not named “Babe Ruth.” In the homer happy days of the last 1990s up to today, I really don’t think he would have topped out there. He would likely have had multiple 50-homer seasons. In context, Schmidt’s 548 homers are a LOT more impressive than Sammy Sosa’s 609 or Jim Thome’s 612, and I think you can strongly argue at least as remarkable as A-Rod’s 696.

To address the OP more directly as well, Schmidt played next to Larry Bowa most of those years. A shortstop who still holds the NL record for fielding perfomance but ended up with a lifetime BA of .260. Mike was great at the hot corner, but a great shortstop is still worth more to a team in the field.

And yes, in a different era Mike Schmidt would be revered as a slugging god. He played in an era where the parks had the walls furthest away from the plate. I saw the way he smacked dingers in his rookie year, with smooth solid power, and I knew he’d end up in the Hall of Fame some day. He certainly didn’t disappoint me.