As part 2 of yet another amorphous and irregular series (see part one, the Browns, here), here are my picks for the greatest position players at each position for the first Washington Senators franchise, 1901-1960:

The Infield:
C Muddy Ruel (.290/.382/.349, 94 OPS+, 3405 PA)
1B Joe Judge (.299/.379/.423, 115 OPS+, 8906 PA)
2B Buddy Myer (.303/.393/.408, 109 OPS+, 7028 PA)
3B Eddie Yost (.253/.389/.369, 108 OPS+, 7461 PA)
SS Joe Cronin (.304/.387/.455, 118 OPS+, 4138 PA)

Interesting. There's at least one really good player at every position, but there are no more than two at any position. And all these guys are pretty much the same kind of player: high-OBP, almost no pop. Which is infinitely better than the other way around.

Ruel had a thousand more PA than any other Senator catcher, and while his OPS+ isn't pretty, the OBP/SLG imbalance makes that pretty much meaningless. A catcher with the kind of on-base skills Ruel had is an awfully valuable thing, and while that OBP is a little inflated by the era he played in, he was comfortably better than average at not making outs.

The big battles here are between Judge and Mickey Vernon at first base (Vernon has a slighly better OPS+, but Judge has a slight OBP advantage and 1200 more PA with the team) and between Cronin and Cecil Travis at shortstop (if Travis hadn't had to go to war, he'd probably be on this list and in the Hall of Fame, but as it stands Cronin just had the much better Senator career).

On the other hand, if there had never been an Eddie Yost or a Buddy Myer--both very fine players--this team might have been better off with nobody at all playing 2B and 3B. That's how bare those positions are in this franchise. The fact that there wasn't a single year of overlap between Myer's long Senators career and Yost's tells you most of what you need to know about this franchise.

The Outfield:
LF Roy Sievers (.267/.359/.500, 135 OPS+, 3574 PA)
CF Sam Rice (.323/.375/.429, 113 OPS+, 9879 PA)
RF Goose Goslin (.323/.386/.502, 131 OPS+, 5810 PA)

These Senators' last star and the only power bat on the team, Sievers was traded to the White Sox for Earl Battey and Don Mincher, helping build the very good early Twins teams. His 1957 stands out (career and league highs in HR and RBI and career highs in batting average, SLG and runs), but he was a solid hitter in each of the six seasons he wore the uniform (and the first two years with the Sox too).

Sam Rice might not be a deserving Hall of Famer, might not have been much of a center fielder (he actually spent more time in right), and there's not all that much difference between him and Clyde Milan. But his bat made him an all-star quality player for as long as he could manage to be even average in CF, and he had all but 98 of his 2,987 career hits as a Senator.

Goslin is the no-doubter pick of the whole franchise, spending parts of 12 of his 18 Hall of Fame seasons with the team, including his first 9 1/2. He'd be your #3 hitter, smashing doubles and triples in front of Sievers' home run bat.

Again, there's not a ton of competition for any of these slots. Centerfielder Stan Spence is the franchise leader in OPS+ (min. 1500 PA), but he had only about 3300 plate appearances with the team, mostly during the war. LF Heinie Manush is another iffy Hall of Famer, but he got just 3500 PA and certainly isn't taking the spot of Goose or Sievers.

In all, a solid but uninspiring lineup. No real holes in the lineup, lots of on-base ability, but no real superstars either. I imagine they'd win their share of games against most all-time teams over a similar span of years (and most of their games that Walter Johnson pitched, anyway).

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