We have our starting outfield, now it’s time to look at the five players who will round out the starting position players. I am of course referring to the starting infield.
Willie Stargell is a tough guy to place on this list. It could be argued he should be the starting left fielder over Ralph Kiner since he spent over 1200 games in left field, but the reason I put him at first base is fairly simple: there just aren’t that many truly great first baseman in Pirates’ history, but there are a plethora of great outfielders. So it seemed fair to put Stargell at first base because of his nearly 850 career games played at the position.
2232 hits, 475 home runs, .282BA/.360OBP/.529SLG/.889OPS/147OPS+/57.5 WAR
We go from one Hall of Famer to another that played on a lot of the same teams as our first baseman. The starting second baseman in my opinion is Bill Mazeroski. Mazeroski is most famous for his walk-off home run in game seven of the 1960 World Series, but he was a Hall of Fame level player, mostly because of his ridiculously elite defense. He was an eight-time Gold Glove winner, lead the league in assists five times, and his 1706 double plays are still the most by any second baseman in the history of Major League Baseball.
2016 hits, 138 home runs, .260BA/.299OBP/.367SLG/.667OPS/84OPS+/36.2 WAR
Another player, another Hall of Famer. Pie Traynor was an absolute star for the Pirates in the 1920s and 1930s. He finished top 10 in MVP voting six times in a 10-year span. He hit over .300 in 10 of his 17 seasons in the big leagues and was a key member of the 1925 World Series Pirates. Traynor again doesn’t get the buzz a lot of Pirates’ legends get, but he was an outstanding player and well deserving of this spot on the team.
2416 hits, 58 home runs, .320BA/.362OBP/.435SLG/.797OPS/107OPS+/36.2 WAR
Next, let’s look at the all-time Pirates starting pitchers.
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