A simple question

[Sockeye]

Can someone tell me where on the net I can find the list of most games played list at each position? Seems like a simple enough stat to locate but for some reason I can't find such a list anywhere. I need it down to about 1000 or 800 games played at each position. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Sockeye]

I guess this stat is tougher to locate than I thought.

[AstrosFan]

The National Pastime Almanac works great for this sort of question:

C Carlton Fisk 2408
1B Eddie Murray 2438
2B Eddie Collins 2794
3B Brooks Robinson 2896
SS Luis Aparicio 2601
LF Rickey Henderson 2690
CF Willie Mays 2992
RF Paul Waner 2548
P Jesse Orosco 1178
DH Harold Baines 1838

I believe these statistics are for games played at each respective position.

[Sockeye]

Does that place have a website? I'm trying to find a complete list of players that played 1000+ games for each position?

[AstrosFan]

http://hometown.aol.com/ronlg/index.html

You can download it from the site above. It's been mentioned several times on BBF.

[Sports Fan 07]

The National Pastime Almanac works great for this sort of question:

C Carlton Fisk 2408
1B Eddie Murray 2438
2B Eddie Collins 2794
3B Brooks Robinson 2896
SS Luis Aparicio 2601
LF Rickey Henderson 2690
CF Willie Mays 2992
RF Paul Waner 2548
P Jesse Orosco 1178
DH Harold Baines 1838

I believe these statistics are for games played at each respective position.

I'm quite certain all of those figures are wrong.

[AstrosFan]

Yep, a quick glance at Retrosheet says the ones you can look up there are. Well, I can't vouch for the accuracy of the National Pastime Almanac. It just seemed like a convenient tool. Too bad.

[AlKaline Batteries]

There was no error in the National Pastime Almanac. AstrosFan evidently found games played by position on the Career Batting screen instead of the Career Fielding screen.
AstrosFan said "I believe these statistics are for games played at each respective position." If he would have read the Notes with the Almanac he would have seen that "On Batting screens the Position is the MAIN Position a player played during each season. It does not mean that all the player's stats for that season were compiled at the selected Position. It means that the selected Position was where he played the most games. The player's stats are for the entire season regardless of any other Positions he may have played.
In short, if you use the Career Fielding screen of the National Pastime Almanac it will accurately give you games played by position.

[DJC]

I know it's been 2 years since this thread was started, but I happened across it in a Google search and was wondering if you're still looking for that position data. I recently compiled a comprehensive listing of number of games played by position through the end of 2008 using data from BB Databank and BB Reference. There are 1393 players with 800+ games played at a particular position (1397 counting NA stats), so I can't list them all, but I will list the top 10 for each position here. If you want the whole list, I can send you an Excel file. Just let me know.


PITCHERS: Jesse Orosco (1252), Mike Stanton (1178), John Franco (1119), Dennis Eckersley (1071), Hoyt Wilhelm (1070), Dan Plesac (1064), Mike Timlin (1058), Kent Tekulve (1050), Jose Mesa (1022), Lee Smith (1022)

CATCHERS: Carlton Fisk (2226), Bob Boone (2225), Ivan Rodriguez (2173), Gary Carter (2056), Tony Pena (1950), Jim Sundberg (1927), Al Lopez (1918), Benito Santiago (1917), Brad Ausmus (1887), Lance Parrish (1818)

FIRST BASEMEN: Eddie Murray (2413), Jake Beckley (2377), Fred McGriff (2239), Mickey Vernon (2237), Mark Grace (2162), Rafael Palmeiro (2139), Lou Gehrig (2137), Charlie Grimm (2131), Jeff Bagwell (2111), Andres Galarraga (2106)

SECOND BASEMEN: Eddie Collins (2650), Joe Morgan (2527), Roberto Alomar (2320), Lou Whitaker (2308), Nellie Fox (2295), Charlie Gehringer (2206), Willie Randolph (2152), Frank White (2150), Bid McPhee (2126), Bill Mazeroski (2094)

THIRD BASEMEN: Brooks Robinson (2870), Graig Nettles (2412), Gary Gaetti (2282), Wade Boggs (2215), Mike Schmidt (2212), Buddy Bell (2183), Eddie Mathews (2181), Ron Santo (2130), Tim Wallach (2054), Eddie Yost (2008)

SHORTSTOPS: Omar Vizquel (2654), Luis Aparicio (2583), Ozzie Smith (2511), Cal Ripken (2302), Larry Bowa (2222), Luke Appling (2218), Dave Concepcion (2178), Rabbit Maranville (2153), Alan Trammell (2139), Bill Dahlen (2132)

OUTFIELDERS: Ty Cobb (2934), Barry Bonds (2874), Willie Mays (2842), Rickey Henderson (2827), Hank Aaron (2760), Tris Speaker (2698), Lou Brock (2507), Al Kaline (2488), Steve Finley (2487), Dave Winfield (2469)

DESIGNATED HITTERS: Harold Baines (1644), Hal McRae (1427), Edgar Martinez (1412), Frank Thomas (1311), Don Baylor (1285), Paul Molitor (1174), Chili Davis (1170), David Ortiz (1000), Jose Canseco (837), Brian Downing (824)


N.B. This list excludes NA data, but in this case it doesn't matter because including NA data doesn't change the top 10 for each position or the number of games they played (none of them played in the NA). Outfielders are lumped together because the fielding data I was working with makes no distinction between left, center, and right fielders for the majority of seasons. Consequently, for those seasons in which the distinction is made, I ignored it in favor of treating any game in which they played one or more outfield positions as a single game played (rather than, for example, counting a game twice because they played LF and RF in that game).