Colorado Rockies Countdown: Top Five Third Basemen

2.  Nolan Arenado (2013-Present, fWAR 13.2)

Well you knew he was going to be on the list somewhere, and barring the unspeakable, he will top our list sooner rather than later. Arenado is an absolute wizard, both at the plate and with the glove. In only three years in the league, Arenado already has three Gold Gloves, led the National League with 42 home runs, 130 RBI, and 354 total bases a year ago, and is headed to his second consecutive All-Star Game. Not bad for a guy with only three full seasons under his belt.

Drafted in the second round of the 2009 draft, scouts never figured Arenado as one to have a whole lot of pop in his bat although they knew he could rake. Before exploding for 42 home runs and winning his first Silver Slugger last year, Nolan had only hit 28 in his first two seasons combined. When you factor in his defense mastery, Arenado has to be considered among the top 10 position players in the game, and that’s being conservative.

In regards to just defense, Nolan has already secured his place as Colorado’s all-time greatest third baseman with the glove. According to FanGraphs’ DEF score, Nolan is sitting atop the list with a score of 48. Jeff Cirillo is second at a score of 33.3.

If you watch Rockies games regularly, you don’t need “scores” to tell you how great Nolan is defensively, you can see his wizardry on a nightly basis.

In only three full seasons, Nolan already ranks third among Rockies third basemen in nearly every major offensive category including home runs (93), runs (263), and RBI (313). Arenado should surpass Atkins for second in these categories fairly soon … and he should move into second in home runs by season’s end.

Just to prove baseball is romantic and weird, Nolan hit for a .287 average in 2014, which just happens to be the same exact average he would wind up with in 2015. At the time this article was written, can you guess what Nolan’s average was? Yeah … .287.

Next: The G.O.A.T.