Ryne Sandberg

Baseball Player Won-Loss Records
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Ryne Sandberg

Hall-of-Famers as Seen Through Player Won-Lost Records: Ryne Sandberg

Ryne Sandberg was elected to the Hall of Fame in his 3rd year of eligibility, 2005, with 76.2% of the vote.

Five highlights of Ryne Sandberg's career:

Ryne Sandberg was named after Ryne Duren, a relief pitcher who pitched for seven teams across ten seasons in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Duren’s two best seasons were 1958 and 1959, when Duren saved 33 games for the New York Yankees (leading the league in 1958 with 19) with a 1.95 ERA in 152.1 innings across 85 appearances. Ryne Sandberg was born in September 1959.

Sandberg was named to ten All-Star teams, nine as the starting second baseman for the National League. He won nine Gold Gloves and seven Silver Sluggers.

Sandberg batted .300 or better five times in his career. He scored 100 or more runs seven times and had exactly 100 RBI twice. Sandberg led the National League in runs scored three times and in triples, home runs, and total bases once each.

Sandberg won the National League MVP award in 1984. That season, Sandberg batted .314/.367/.520 with 36 doubles, 19 triples, 19 home runs, 114 runs scored, 84 RBI, and 32 stolen bases (in 39 attempts). Sandberg led the National League in runs scored and triples and won his second Gold Glove at second base.

Sandberg appeared in the postseason twice, in 1984 and 1989. In 1984, he batted .368/.455/.474 in five games. In 1989, he batted .400/.458/.800 in five games. Overall, Sandberg batted .385/.457/.641 in postseason play with 6 RBI and 9 runs scored in 10 games.

The first two tables below present Ryne Sandberg's career as measured by Player won-lost records, in and out of context.

Season	Team	Age	Games	pWins	pLosses	pWORL	pWOPA

Basic Player Won-Lost Records
						Value Decomposition
1981	PHI	21	13	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.0
1982	CHN	22	156	18.2	19.5	-0.2	-1.9
1983	CHN	23	158	19.3	20.8	0.7	-1.2
1984	CHN	24	156	25.1	19.3	8.3	6.2
1985	CHN	25	153	23.9	19.2	6.8	4.7
1986	CHN	26	154	19.5	18.6	3.0	1.2
1987	CHN	27	132	16.6	16.0	2.5	0.9
1988	CHN	28	155	20.1	18.8	3.4	1.5
1989	CHN	29	157	21.2	18.3	4.8	2.9
1990	CHN	30	155	22.1	18.7	5.4	3.5
1991	CHN	31	158	22.7	17.0	7.5	5.6
1992	CHN	32	158	24.6	18.9	7.8	5.7
1993	CHN	33	117	13.0	13.8	0.7	-0.6
1994	CHN	34	57	6.9	7.1	0.5	-0.1
1995	-	35	-	-	-	-	-
1996	CHN	36	150	19.6	16.9	4.9	3.1
1997	CHN	37	135	12.6	13.8	0.3	-1.0
			------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			2,164	285.5	256.7	56.4	30.6
			------	------	------	------	------
PostSeason (career)			10	1.4	1.3	0.2	0.0
			------	------	------	------	------
COMBINED			2,174	286.9	258.0	56.6	30.6

Season	Team	Age	Games	eWins	eLosses	eWORL	eWOPA

Expected Player Won-Lost Records
						Value Decomposition
1981	PHI	21	13	0.0	0.1	0.0	0.0
1982	CHN	22	156	18.8	18.8	1.2	-0.6
1983	CHN	23	158	20.4	19.7	2.9	1.0
1984	CHN	24	156	24.5	19.9	6.9	4.8
1985	CHN	25	153	23.5	19.6	6.0	3.9
1986	CHN	26	154	19.6	18.5	3.2	1.4
1987	CHN	27	132	17.2	15.4	3.6	2.0
1988	CHN	28	155	20.2	18.7	3.6	1.7
1989	CHN	29	157	21.5	18.1	5.1	3.3
1990	CHN	30	155	23.1	17.6	7.5	5.6
1991	CHN	31	158	22.5	17.2	7.1	5.2
1992	CHN	32	158	25.1	18.4	8.8	6.8
1993	CHN	33	117	13.5	13.3	1.6	0.3
1994	CHN	34	57	7.0	6.9	0.9	0.2
1995	-	35	-	-	-	-	-
1996	CHN	36	150	19.3	17.2	4.3	2.5
1997	CHN	37	135	13.0	13.4	1.1	-0.2
			------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			2,164	289.4	252.8	63.9	38.1
			------	------	------	------	------
PostSeason (career)			10	1.6	1.0	0.7	0.6
			------	------	------	------	------
COMBINED			2,174	291.1	253.8	64.7	38.7

Ryne Sandberg won nine Gold Gloves at second base, the second-most in major-league history. The next table shows the top 20 players in net fielding wins at second base among players for whom I have calculated Player won-lost records.


Top Second Basemen, Net Fielding eWins
	Player	eWins	eLosses	Net eWins
1	Willie Randolph	81.5	75.0	6.5
2	Dustin Pedroia	51.0	44.8	6.2
3	Frank White	80.6	74.5	6.0
4	Lonny Frey	42.2	36.8	5.4
5	Nellie Fox	85.1	79.7	5.4
6	Ski Melillo	56.8	52.0	4.8
7	Mark Ellis	49.4	44.7	4.7
8	Frankie Frisch	80.4	75.8	4.7
9	Bill Mazeroski	85.5	80.9	4.6
10	Joe Gordon	60.7	56.1	4.6
11	Pokey Reese	20.4	15.8	4.5
12	Hughie Critz	67.0	62.5	4.5
13	Red Schoendienst	69.8	65.3	4.5
14	Bobby Grich	66.4	62.1	4.3
15	Orlando Hudson	50.8	46.5	4.3
16	Ryne Sandberg	78.8	74.6	4.2
17	Glenn Hubbard	54.6	50.5	4.1
18	Mark Grudzielanek	39.4	35.4	4.0
19	Lou Whitaker	82.1	78.1	3.9
20	Jackie Robinson	25.6	21.8	3.8

Sandberg makes the top 20 but also had significantly more fielding wins than several players ahead of him. The next table, then, shifts the baseline of comparison from average (0.500) to replacement level. This gives an advantage to players who played longer at, perhaps, a below-average, but above-replacement level.


Top Second Basemen, Fielding eWins over Replacement Level
	Player	eWins	eLosses	Fielding eWORL
1	Willie Randolph	81.5	75.0	14.0
2	Nellie Fox	85.1	79.7	13.9
3	Frank White	80.6	74.5	13.5
4	Bill Mazeroski	85.5	80.9	12.9
5	Frankie Frisch	80.4	75.8	12.7
6	Lou Whitaker	82.1	78.1	11.7
7	Ryne Sandberg	78.8	74.6	11.5
8	Red Schoendienst	69.8	65.3	11.5
9	Hughie Critz	67.0	62.5	11.2
10	Dustin Pedroia	51.0	44.8	10.7

Ryne Sandberg was arguably one of the top 10 fielding second basemen of the past 100 years.

Sandberg also won seven Silver Sluggers. This is the most by a second baseman in major-league history (although, the phrase "in major-league history" is a bit misleading; Silver Sluggers have only been awarded since 1980).

The next table shows the top 10 players in offensive wins over positional average earned as a second baseman among players for whom I have calculated Player won-lost records.


Top Second Basemen, eWOPA, Offense Only
	Player	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
1	Joe L. Morgan	263.3	200.0	70.2
2	Rogers Hornsby	184.2	117.2	67.5
3	Charlie Gehringer	219.3	175.9	46.6
4	Lou Whitaker	208.5	183.5	34.8
5	Bobby Grich	154.3	129.7	32.3
6	Jeff Kent	199.8	170.9	31.2
7	Ryne Sandberg	191.7	163.1	31.0
8	Craig Biggio	196.3	167.9	30.7
9	Roberto Alomar	220.2	198.1	29.3
10	Bobby Doerr	179.7	155.6	27.8

Ryne Sandberg is also in the top 10 in this table.

Only one player is ahead of Sandberg in each of the previous two tables - the criminally underrated Lou Whitaker.

Putting the offense and defense together, then, the final table of this article shows the top 10 second basemen, as measured by eWins over positional average, across all players for whom I have calculated Player won-lost records.


Top Second Basemen, eWOPA
	Player	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
1	Joe L. Morgan	357.9	294.7	70.1
2	Rogers Hornsby	246.3	181.3	65.6
3	Charlie Gehringer	308.0	264.7	46.5
4	Lou Whitaker	290.6	261.6	38.7
5	Bobby Grich	220.7	191.8	36.6
6	Ryne Sandberg	270.5	237.7	35.2
7	Chase Utley	226.2	196.1	30.6
8	Joe Gordon	205.7	177.9	30.5
9	Bobby Doerr	253.3	226.8	30.1
10	Roberto Alomar	305.0	282.9	29.3

Article last updated: February 21, 2020

All articles are written so that they pull data directly from the most recent version of the Player won-lost database. Hence, any numbers cited within these articles should automatically incorporate the most recent update to Player won-lost records. In some cases, however, the accompanying text may have been written based on previous versions of Player won-lost records. I apologize if this results in non-sensical text in any cases.

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