Number 4: Garrett Atkins (5.3 bWAR, 7.6 fWAR, parts of 7 years as a Rockie)
Garrett Atkins is a bit hard to rank considering that his best seasons were really great but he dropped like a lead balloon. He also only spent four of the seven seasons as primary third baseman. In the other three seasons, Atkins accumulated -2.3 bWAR/-1.8 fWAR so that’s obviously not what got him on this list. But in the other four seasons (the four main seasons that he was the primary third baseman), he had 7.3 bWAR/9.5 fWAR.
Here’s look at his overall stats from his Rockies tenure.
Year | Tm | G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | OPS+ | Awards |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2003 | COL | 25 | 73 | 69 | 6 | 11 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 14 | .159 | .205 | .188 | .394 | -2 | |
2004 | COL | 15 | 33 | 28 | 3 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 4 | 3 | .357 | .424 | .536 | .960 | 135 | |
2005 | COL | 138 | 573 | 519 | 62 | 149 | 31 | 13 | 89 | 45 | 72 | .287 | .347 | .426 | .773 | 93 | RoY-4 |
2006 | COL | 157 | 695 | 602 | 117 | 198 | 48 | 29 | 120 | 79 | 76 | .329 | .409 | .556 | .965 | 136 | MVP-15 |
2007 | COL | 157 | 684 | 605 | 83 | 182 | 35 | 25 | 111 | 67 | 96 | .301 | .367 | .486 | .853 | 113 | |
2008 | COL | 155 | 664 | 611 | 86 | 175 | 32 | 21 | 99 | 40 | 100 | .286 | .328 | .452 | .780 | 96 | |
2009 | COL | 126 | 399 | 354 | 37 | 80 | 12 | 9 | 48 | 41 | 58 | .226 | .308 | .342 | .650 | 64 |
Of the four primary seasons, two stand out offensively: 2006 and 2007. However, his fielding is what has the big differentiation in WAR between FanGraphs and Baseball-Reference.
By WAR, his best two seasons were 2005 and 2006 per Baseball-Reference but FanGraphs says that his best two seasons were 2006 and 2007.
Both sites are in agreement, though, that he was awful defensively in 2007 as he has -26 DRS from both sites.
His peak would have him at number three but considering his rise and fall was so quick and dramatic, he is at number four.