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Arizona Diamondbacks All-Time Top 50: Position player candidates

Here are the best position players to have have appeared for the Diamondbacks. Which ones deserve to make the top 50?

Independence Referendum Takes Place In Catalonia Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

As discussed over the weekend, our major off-season project will be to crowd-source the top 50 all-time players for the Arizona Diamondbacks, as they completed the franchise’s first two decades. The process kicks off in earnest today, with a poll to determine which position players will make the top 50. To help with the task, below, you will find some selected statistics for the fifty leading position players by bWAR as a Diamondback. [A more complete report can be found here]

Top 50 D-backs position players 1998-2017

Rk Player bWAR dWAR G HR SB BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+
Rk Player bWAR dWAR G HR SB BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+
1 Paul Goldschmidt 34.8 -1.3 934 176 117 .299 .399 .532 .931 146
2 Luis Gonzalez 30.0 -3.9 1194 224 32 .298 .391 .529 .919 130
3 A.J. Pollock 18.2 6.3 524 53 90 .286 .343 .464 .806 113
4 Steve Finley 18.0 3.4 849 153 70 .278 .351 .500 .851 111
5 Chris Young 14.7 5.7 885 132 112 .239 .318 .437 .755 95
6 Justin Upton 14.3 -1.4 731 108 80 .278 .357 .475 .832 118
7 Stephen Drew 13.1 4.6 773 72 33 .266 .328 .436 .765 96
8 Craig Counsell 12.7 10.6 664 24 68 .266 .348 .357 .705 80
9 Miguel Montero 12.6 3.0 906 97 2 .264 .342 .421 .763 103
10 Gerardo Parra 11.8 5.9 787 39 51 .274 .326 .395 .721 94
11 Orlando Hudson 10.5 3.8 403 33 23 .294 .365 .448 .814 105
12 Jay Bell 9.7 0.8 616 91 17 .263 .355 .458 .812 104
13 Ender Inciarte 8.9 5.2 250 10 40 .292 .329 .386 .716 95
14 David Peralta 8.5 -0.7 425 43 25 .293 .345 .468 .813 112
15 Matt Williams 8.2 2.1 595 99 12 .278 .327 .471 .798 100
16 Aaron Hill 6.2 -1.2 525 55 31 .273 .331 .439 .769 108
17 Damian Miller 6.0 3.6 467 48 3 .269 .336 .437 .773 93
18 Chad Tracy 5.9 -0.3 704 78 11 .280 .339 .453 .792 100
19 Jake Lamb 5.8 -0.8 444 69 16 .250 .336 .462 .798 105
20 Jean Segura 5.6 0.4 153 20 33 .319 .368 .499 .867 122
21 Mark Reynolds 5.5 -2.9 563 121 42 .242 .334 .483 .817 108
22 Ryan Roberts 5.3 1.4 372 34 31 .254 .334 .404 .737 96
23 Kelly Johnson 5.0 0.6 268 44 26 .252 .335 .460 .795 111
24 Junior Spivey 5.0 -0.1 321 34 18 .279 .363 .453 .816 105
25 Chris Snyder 4.6 3.5 556 62 0 .233 .335 .402 .737 88
26 Erubiel Durazo 4.3 -1.7 287 47 2 .278 .390 .528 .918 128
27 Eric Byrnes 4.2 0.3 439 61 88 .261 .317 .446 .764 91
28 Welington Castillo 3.7 1.3 193 31 2 .261 .320 .452 .772 100
29 Martin Prado 3.7 0.8 261 19 5 .278 .326 .398 .725 100
30 Devon White 3.7 1.5 146 22 22 .279 .335 .456 .792 106
31 Chris Owings 3.6 1.9 474 27 59 .257 .295 .390 .685 79
32 Greg Colbrunn 3.6 -1.5 334 34 1 .310 .384 .527 .911 126
33 Cliff Pennington 3.5 2.9 236 4 11 .244 .320 .315 .635 76
34 Troy Glaus 3.4 -0.8 149 37 4 .258 .363 .522 .885 126
35 Reggie Sanders 3.2 0.4 126 33 14 .263 .337 .549 .886 117
36 Tony Batista 2.9 1.4 150 23 3 .268 .324 .478 .802 105
37 Nick Ahmed 2.8 5.4 302 20 12 .226 .273 .345 .618 62
38 J.D. Martinez 2.6 -0.2 62 29 2 .302 .366 .741 1.107 168
39 Kelly Stinnett 2.6 2.4 315 39 2 .238 .317 .408 .724 84
40 Didi Gregorius 2.5 0.9 183 13 3 .241 .314 .368 .682 88
41 Augie Ojeda 2.5 3.0 324 2 4 .243 .334 .317 .651 69
42 Conor Jackson 2.2 -4.8 526 46 22 .277 .358 .423 .781 98
43 Mark Grace 2.2 -0.5 335 25 3 .268 .359 .416 .774 94
44 Alex Cintron 2.1 0.6 439 25 6 .279 .320 .412 .732 85
45 Chris Iannetta 1.8 0.3 89 17 0 .254 .354 .511 .865 114
46 Tony Clark 1.7 -1.5 396 59 0 .255 .330 .520 .850 113
47 Cody Ross 1.6 0.9 177 10 3 .268 .322 .378 .699 93
48 Andy Fox 1.6 0.2 269 16 20 .263 .343 .381 .724 87
49 Brandon Drury 1.4 -1.0 289 31 2 .271 .319 .448 .767 94
50 Chad Moeller 1.4 0.7 140 10 1 .268 .344 .428 .772 94

Below, you’ll find a link to a Google form, listing the same players, and for this stage, a straight yes/no question: should they be included in the all-time top 50? The 25 who receive the highest percentage of votes will proceed on to the second, ranking stage. Note that you shouldn’t worry too much about voting yes for exactly 25. It would make sense to approve about half of them, but if you have 26 or 24, I’m not going to disqualify you. To prevent ballot-box stuffing - for example by douchebag Dodger fans (not that such a thing could possibly exist) - a username is requested, but as long as your ballot makes sense, I’m not going to agonize if you don’t provide one.

It’s entirely up to you on what criteria you use to judge whether or not a player should advance, and what process you adopt. Personally, I’d do three sweeps and triage the candidates. The first would involve voting yes on the “obvious” qualifiers. The second, voting no on the obvious non-qualifiers. The final sweep will involve a more detailed look at the remaining candidates. The form lists the 50 candidates in random order, so there should be no bias resulting from a player’s position on the list. Responses will close at 9am on Thursday morning, with the results being published later that day.

Feel free to explain selections - especially for or against the candidates you consider to be borderline choices - in the comments below.

Link to the selection form