The Baseball Scholar

1940s All-Decade Team

Dave Franks
1–2 minutes

    The 1940’s started out with a bang with young stars like Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Stan Musial, and Bob Feller giving us a glimpse at the bright future of Major League Baseball. But like the rest of the country, the decade would be one of change. World War II saw some of the games biggest stars including the four aforementioned to sacrifice parts of their careers in order to serve our country. It was also a decade that, after a fifty-year absence, would finally see a black man once again take his rightful place in the locker room along side players with whom he could more than hold his own.

    Baseball welcomed a few players to exclusive milestone clubs during the 40s. Paul Waner became the seventh player to collect 3,000 career hits, Mel Ott and Jimmie Foxx joined Babe Ruth as the second and third players to hit 500 career homers and Lefty Grove became the 12th player to win his 300th career game.

    Catcher

  • Ernie LombardiHOF

    Ernie Lombardi Hitting Stats
    WAR G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
    19.2 803 2,467 244 725 84 3 90 419 3 221 120 .294 .357 .440 .797

    • First Base

  • Johnny MizeHOF

    Johnny Mize Hitting Stats
    WAR G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
    41.2 949 3,527 655 1,071 181 37 217 744 24 0 496 259 .304 .394 .561 .954

    • Second Base

  • Joe GordonHOFMVP

    Joe Gordon Hitting Stats
    WAR G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
    45.6 1,169 4,314 680 1,165 196 39 181 710 63 46 572 529 .270 .358 .459 .818

    • Third Base

  • Whitey Kurowski

    Whitey Kurowski Hitting Stats
    WAR G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
    24.0 916 3,229 518 925 162 32 106 529 19 369 332 .286 .366 .455 .821

    • Shortstop

  • Lou BoudreauHOFMVP

    Lou Boudreau Hitting Stats
    WAR G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
    59.9 1,425 5,268 758 1,578 339 59 62 692 47 47 706 268 .300 .385 .422 .807

    • Outfield

  • Ted WilliamsHOF2x MVP

    Ted Williams Hitting Stats
    WAR G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
    65.9 1,035 3,656 951 1,303 270 45 234 893 14 12 994 312 .356 .496 .647 1.143

    • Outfield

  • Joe DiMaggioHOF2x MVP

    Joe DiMaggio Hitting Stats
    WAR G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
    43.6 927 3,562 681 1,156 191 68 180 786 14 8 450 183 .325 .404 .568 .972

    • Outfield

  • Stan MusialHOF3x MVP

    Stan Musial Hitting Stats
    WAR G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
    57.6 1,072 4,133 815 1,432 302 108 146 706 44 565 199 .346 .428 .578 1.005

    • Starting Pitcher

  • Bob FellerHOF

    Bob Feller Pitching Stats
    WAR G GS W L ERA IP CG SHO SV R ER BB SO SO/9 WHIP
    38.2 266 231 137 82 2.90 1,897 155 28 16 677 611 827 1,396 6.6 1.247

    • Starting Pitcher

  • Harry Brecheen

    Harry Brecheen Pitching Stats
    WAR G GS W L ERA IP CG SHO SV R ER BB SO SO/9 WHIP
    32.4 216 172 105 59 2.74 1,388 101 22 12 480 422 378 666 4.3 1.167

    • Starting Pitcher

  • Hal NewhouserHOF2x MVP

    Hal Newhouser Pitching Stats
    WAR G GS W L ERA IP CG SHO SV R ER BB SO SO/9 WHIP
    54.6 377 305 170 118 2.84 2,453.1 181 31 15 927 774 1,068 1,579 5.8 1.302

    • Starting Pitcher

  • Dizzy Trout

    Dizzy Trout Pitching Stats
    WAR G GS W L ERA IP CG SHO SV R ER BB SO SO/9 WHIP
    37.4 374 239 129 119 3.01 2,026.1 132 27 22 821 678 746 930 4.1 1.328

    • Outfield

  • Spud ChandlerMVP

    Spud Chandler Pitching Stats
    WAR G GS W L ERA IP CG SHO SV R ER BB SO SO/9 WHIP
    18.8 165 151 85 34 2.67 1,211.2 89 22 6 425 359 387 543 4.0 1.177

    • Honorable Mention

  • Catcher – Walker Cooper
  • First Base- Dolph Camilli
  • Second Base- Eddie Stanky
  • Third Base- Bob Elliott
  • Shortstop- Vern Stephens
  • Outfield – Ralph Kiner
  • Outfield – Enos Slaughter
  • Starting Pitcher – Warren Spahn
  • Starting Pitcher – Bob Lemon

    • All underlying data used in this analysis is available in The Baseball Scholar Data Library.

4 responses to “1940s All-Decade Team”

  1. Garry Harris Avatar
    Garry Harris

    Catching is weak in the 1940s. Ernie Lombardi fits more with the 1930s catchers (4th best). However, the other choices of catchers who played throughout the 1940s are Birdie Tebbetts, Tom Tresh and Buddy Rosar and were not exactly all-star players.
    C Walker Cooper

    1B Johnny Mize, Mickey Vernon, Rudy York
    2B Bobby Doerr, Joe Gordon
    3B Ken Keltner, Bob Elliott

    The OF of Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio and Stan Musial is obvious. It is in the top three all decade OFs with the 1910s OF of Joe Jackson, Tris Speaker and Ty Cobb and the 1960s OF of Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Frank Robinson.

    SP Bob Feller
    SP Hal Newhouser
    SP Early Wynn (One of two pitchers, the other Cy Young, on two decades all star teams)
    SP Dizzy Trout
    SP Allie Reynolds
    SP Dutch Leonard

    RP Hugh Casey
    RP Johnny Murphy
    RP Harry Gumbert

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  2. Kevin Joe Avatar
    Kevin Joe

    Ok I’m officially done with you…Can you say….HANK GREENBERG!!!!!!!!!!- 5 DETROIT TIGERS….

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  3. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Dumb!

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  4. Avatar
    Anonymous

    really tough but actually saw these guys play and loved Doerr and Stephens, great defense and much more power offensively at SS!

    Stevie also had the greatest arm!

    I validated the latter in a conversation with Johnny Pesky, a fabulous shortstop in his own right who moved to third for Stephens!!

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