Dodgers: Ranking the Best First Basemen in Franchise History
The Los Angeles Dodgers, along with the rest of MLB, are still waiting for Opening Day. In the meantime, MLB.com is producing all-time lists with each team’s best players by position. We submit to you, our list of the top five Dodgers first baseman in franchise history.
Who was the best Dodgers first baseman of all time? #DNPoll
— Dodgers Nation (@DodgersNation) March 25, 2020
|
Player |
Games |
AVG |
HR |
RBI |
OPS |
WAR |
AS |
MVP |
RINGS |
GG |
TOP 10 MVP |
|
Gil Hodges |
2,006 |
0.274 |
361 |
1,254 |
0.847 |
43.3 |
8 |
0 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
|
Steve Garvey |
1,727 |
0.301 |
211 |
992 |
0.796 |
36.7 |
8 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
5 |
|
Eric Karros |
1601 |
0.268 |
270 |
976 |
0.782 |
11.9 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
Wes Parker |
1288 |
0.279 |
64 |
470 |
0.726 |
22.9 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
6 |
1 |
|
Jake Daubert |
1213 |
0.305 |
33 |
415 |
0.760 |
27.3 |
N/A |
1 |
0 |
N/A |
3 |
|
Mike Griffin |
988 |
0.305 |
29 |
478 |
0.815 |
31.3 |
N/A |
0 |
0 |
N/A |
N/A |
|
Dolph Camili |
839 |
0.279 |
139 |
572 |
0.889 |
29.6 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
|
735 |
0.280 |
101 |
448 |
0.793 |
14.3 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
5. Wes Parker
Parker was a key member of the World Champion 1965 Los Angeles Dodgers team that brought the club their second title on the West Coast. The pride of Claremont Mckenna College doesn’t boast prodigious hitting stats like Hodges and Garvey, but the argument can be made that Parker was the best fielding first baseman of all time.
“Mr. Steady” won six straight Gold Gloves from 1967-1972 – a rare feat. In 2007, Parker was named to the All-time Gold Glove Team in honor of the 50th Anniversary of the Rawlings Gold Glove Awards.
4. Jake Daubert
Full transparency — had to look Daubert up since I couldn’t find my copy of MVP Baseball 1918 on Playstation. The 1913 MVP had two other top ten MVP finishes amidst a run of six straights seasons of hitting over .300. Daubert’s Dodgers career WAR of 27.3 sits right behind 19th century cornerman Mike Griffin for fourth all-time for franchise first baseman.
3. Dolph Camili
The San Francisco native did not arrive in Brooklyn until his age 31 season in 1938. In just six seasons with the Dodgers, Camili led the league in walks twice and won the 1941 MVP. That season, Camili led the National League in home runs (34) and RBI (120) on a 100 win Dodger team. The Dodgers would go on to lose to the Yankees in five games, but would have never made it there without the slugging Camili.
2.Gil Hodges
In his last four World Series appearances, Hodges hit an incredible .336 with four home runs and 16 RBI for the Boys of Summer (RIP Roger Kahn).
Duke Snider.
Gil Hodges.
Cody Bellinger.Each with 28 homers before the All-Star break. ? pic.twitter.com/QaKjpUYMgn
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) July 4, 2019
The talented Hodges compiled better regular season stats than Garvey in his 2,006 game Dodger career that spanned three different decades. Hodges pure volume of stats, especially RBI, dwarfs Garvey’s. However, there’s more to baseball rankings than WAR and Hodges played on remarkably more offensive talented teams that rolled out lineups featuring four Hall of Famers in Campanella, Robinson, Reese, and Snider.
1. Steve Garvey
The offensive lightning rod for the legendary Garvey-Lopes-Russell-Cey infield, Steve Garvey is the best pure contact hitting first baseman in franchise history. At the height of his powers, Garvey was selected to eight straight All-Star games, finished top ten in MVP voting five times, including winning the award in 1974, won four Gold Gloves, and led the NL in hits twice.
He was even better in the playoffs. In 45 playoffs games, Garvey hit an absurd .346/.571/.942 en route to two NLCS MVPs.
Most @Dodgers #postseason HR:
Snider (11)
Garvey (10) @redturn2 (8) pic.twitter.com/zfUc7lHsjQ— MLB Stats (@MLBStats) October 7, 2019
Most importantly, Garvey was part of the 1981 championship team that accomplished what so many Dodgers teams could not – defeating the New York Yankees.
Can someone please get this man in to the Hall of Fame?
Dodgers: Eric Gagne vs Barry Bonds in the At-Bat for the Ages
Pretty pathetic group over 100 plus years. And why would Garvey be voted into the hall of fame. Hodges maybe but Garvey?
Garvey was the best of that dominant Dodgers era. HOF, maybe, there are a lot worse numbers in the hall. Steroids certainly helped modern numbers by the way. Talking about the hall though, TOMMY JOHN is a true Hall of Famer for so many reasons. Before Garvey being considered Tommy should get inducted. Finally, the Garvey-Cey-Lopes- trio, hqve better numbers that some in the hall at their positions. Defensively they were exceptional. Better than Aparicio and O Smith numbers to a certain extent. That Dodger class/era was really underapreciated.
BTW Garvey’s 2,600 hits and 294 avg are not soft numbers. Longest streak of games in NL and second to Ripken are not easy to ignore
Let’s not forget the plethora of illegitimate children Garvey fathered in cities around the country with National League MLB affiliates. Stand up guy for sure somehow I don’t feel the resemblance to Ripken. Unless you consider they both have Junior High Schools named after themselves in their home towns. Garvey was a jerk on and off the field.
I was fortunate to play in 1968 with Steve Garvey Billy Buckner Bobby Valentine Tom Paciorek Sandy Vance and of course our manager Tommy Lasorda.was it was a short season because it was a rookie league ,we played about 60 games and Steve Garvey hit like 22 homeruns was just a monster with the bat.Hof hopefully! take care Steve hope you remember me “Pat Burke“
Steve Garvey belongs in the Hall if uncomplete players like Harold Baines and Edgar Martinez are in we’ll Steve was better than both of them.He played in the 2 ballparks that was hard to hit hrs and if he had played in different park he easily would have hit 500 hrs ,5 straight seasons with 20+hrs over 300 average 200 hits he dominated ,a lot of hall of Famers had it easier playing in smaller parks like Yankee stadium were right field is only 200 feet away or Fenway were the green monster is maybe less than 200 feet away.That’s were baseball writers are not fair.I would take Steve Garvey over a lot of hall of fame players not just those 2 incomplete players.Larry Walker most of his hrs was helped playing in that joke of a stadium in Denver,Those 3 players would have never taken Padres to the World Series like Garvey did.,nobody scooped up bad throws in the dirt like him,year after year he would save Russel,Lopes and Cey at least 100 or more errors at 1st base,And he would hit in post season.Garvey belongs in The Hall Of Fame period.There’s players in the hall with less numbers than Garvey.
Eddie Murray! HOF’er… compare his career numbers with Garvey’s… Steve comes up short! Speaking of short , he was too short to play 1st!