Yeah, interesting take on Lazzeri. As a hitter, he was a monster. As a fielder, he's about average (at least according to the "bogus" numbers.) But he's up there in the discussion. Good call.
I agree with Reese and T. Petty above about Jackie, as far as how good he actually was -- but his impact on the Dodgers was immeasurable, and a big reason why they went to six World Series in his 10 years. His impact on the game, of course, is well known, as it should be, and he can never, never be underestimated there ... but no, he's not on the list of all-time 2Bs, although he was a better fielder than Pee Wee gave him credit for in that quote.
And I was wrong to place Alomar so high among all-time second basemen (I said top 3 to 5). He's definitely not in Collins' or Lajoie's class, either, and he'd have a hard time displacing Gehringer in the top five (with Hornsby and Morgan.) ...
But Alomar's up there with Lazzeri (I think Robbie was better than Poosh 'Em Up Tony) ... whereas Sandberg (and to a much lesser extent, Jeff Kent, who some think should be in the Hall -- I don't) is certainly not in that class of second basemen, among all-timers.
***
Carew counts as a 2B as much as Ernie Banks counts as a SS -- which is to say, they only get half-credit at those positions. Carew's not eligible in this debate, I think. ... In fact, they *both* ended up with more games at 1B than they did at 2B/SS, respectively. ... Musial ended up with 800 more games as an OF than he did at 1B, but he gets similar half-credit for playing there.
