GOAT HUNTING

Making a ‘greatest-ever’ case is always tricky business — particularly across generations. But we sifted through Baseball Reference and Fangraphs so you wouldn’t have to.

There are seven defensive categories that rate a player over the course of a season: Defensive WAR, Assists, Putouts, Range Factor Per Nine Innings, Double Plays Turned, DRS (Defensive Runs Saved) and UZR (Ultimate Zone Rating).

The last two are the modern-era stats that only apply to Matt Chapman and Nolan Arenado in this argument. We looked at the stats for six other players who are largely considered the best defensive third basemen of all time: Brooks Robinson, George Brett, Mike Schmidt, Buddy Bell, Scott Rolen and Adrian Beltre.

Here’s a look at how Chapman’s first and only season stacks up. Our conclusion: He’s a GOAT-in-training.

Defensive War

Chapman’s number (3.5) led the league and was third-best in history only behind Arenado’s 3.6 in 2014 and Bell’s 3.7 in 1979.

ASSISTS / PUTOUTS / DOUBLE PLAYS / RANGE

FACTOR

Chapman lags behind the OG legends in these categories, as does Arenado, because those older guys regularly played all 162 games. Robinson, Bell, Brett and Schmidt shined in these categories.

Defensive Runs Saved

This is the number — 29 — that really opened eyes about Chapman last year. This is the modern stat that really accounts for a player’s range.

Arenado is the only third baseman in this new age who really challenges Chapman, and he had a total of five defensive runs saved.

UZR

Chapman (10.9) blew Arenado (5.8), Kyle Seager (6.6) and every other fielder in baseball out of the water with this one as well in 2018. UZR is a stat that compares the event that actually happened (hit/ out/error) to data on similarly hit balls in the past to determine how much better or worse the fielder did than the “average” player.

THE A’S HAVEN’T HAD A TRUE YOUNG ACE SINCE THE DAYS OF ZITO, MULDER AND HUDSON. IN JESÚS LUZARDO THEY APPEAR TO HAVE THE MOST STARDOMREADY PITCHING PROSPECT IN THE GAME.