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Pee Wee Reese, 1942
Stats: .255/.350/.332/.681, 3 HR, 53 RBI. 144 H, 24 2B, 82 BB, 87 R, 98 OPS+
Awards: All-Star, MVP (25th in voting)
Baseball Reference WAR: 6.1
FanGraphs WAR: 5.5
Combined WAR: 5.8
As one of the greatest Dodgers of all time, we’ll be seeing Pee Wee Reese more often in this countdown. Today, we’ll be taking a look back at his third season with Brooklyn from 1942.
Reese had already been with the Dodgers for two seasons prior to 1942. He was pretty good those first two years, but this season was the one that really convinced everyone he would be the shortstop of the future.
Offensively he was pretty good. Hit for contact, didn’t really hit for power. Of his 144 hits, only 27 of them were either home runs or doubles. He was more of a singles guy. Though he was good with the bat, it wasn’t his biggest attribute, it was his defense. Reese played every game at shortstop that season, and had the highest defensive rWAR in the league (3.6). He led the league with 482 assists, and his 337 putouts were the most as well.
If they would’ve had the Golf Glove Award back then, Reese would’ve been a near-lock to win it.
As I mentioned earlier, we’re going to be seeing Reese a lot more on this list in the near future.