Power Hitting, Base Stealing Second Basemen

I looked up Jose Altuve after he signed his contract extension this week. Since he has 200+ career HRs and 200+ career SBs, I wondered how many other 2B men have done that in the AL/NL. Here is what I found at Stathead for guys who played 50%+ of their games at 2B:

Player	HR	SB
Craig Biggio	291	414
Ryne Sandberg	282	344
Joe Morgan	268	689
Ian Kinsler	257	243
Brandon Phillips	211	209
Roberto Alomar	210	474
Jose Altuve	209	293

Joe Morgan was the first to do it. His career began in 1963. Maybe he was a trail blazer of a new kind of 2B man. But I wondered if anyone had come close before him.

So I lowered the cutoff to 100 for both stats for years up to 1962. Here are the results:

Player	HR	SB
Rogers Hornsby	301	135
Charlie Gehringer	184	181
Tony Lazzeri	178	148
Jackie Robinson	137	197
Marty McManus	120	126
Frankie Frisch	105	419
George Grantham	105	132

There are seven guys here, just like the first table. The first table had four Hall of Famers and the second one has five.

Gehringer came close. Robinson might have made it if baseball had been integrated earlier, although he might have missed some years being in the military during World War II. So it would not have been a sure thing.

Through the 2023 season, there are 53 players with 200+ in each stat. The only one of them to ever play catcher was Biggio. He played 428 games at catcher and had 22 HRs & 60 SBs while playing that position. At 2B, he had 226-325. 

So if we eliminate catcher, we have seven positions and 53 divided by 7 is just a bit higher than 7. So the original 7 is about what we might expect for any position (outside of catchers and pitchers).

Through 1962, there was only one player with 200+ in each stat, Willie Mays. Dropping the cutoff to 100 for both stats gives us 41 guys (none of whom ever played catcher). So 7 2B men is a decent share for that position.

There are 23 active players with 100+ in both stats. Altuve is the only one of them who has played 50% of his games at 2B.

At 75-75, here are the active 2B men along with the ages of their career so far. The only one that I think has any chance to be a 200/200 guy is Albies.

Player	HR	SB	Age
Jose Altuve	209	293	21-33
Ozzie Albies	131	76	20-26
DJ LeMahieu	122	93	22-34
Whit Merrifield	90	201	27-34
Kolten Wong	86	120	22-32

Marcus Semien has 215-120. He has played in 1,343 games but only 486 at 2B. If he plays his next 372 games at 2B, he will have 50%. But he will be 33 next season and still needs 80 SBs. He only stole 14 bases last year. So it is definitely not a sure thing for him to make it.

Update Feb. 9. Using Stathead's split finder, here are all the guys who had 150+ in both stats as 2B men (that is, while playing in games when they were at 2B).

Player	HR	SB
Ryne Sandberg	277	311
Joe Morgan	265	678
Ian Kinsler	246	239
Craig Biggio	226	325
Roberto Alomar	207	473
Jose Altuve	207	287
Brandon Phillips	204	208
Ray Durham	183	263
Charlie Gehringer	167	159
Alfonso Soriano	157	166
Frank White	156	169

The first seven are the seven from the first table. Gehringer appeared in the second table. The new guys are Durham, Soriano and White.

Through 2023, 111 players at all positions had 150+ in both stats. The only two who ever played catcher were Biggio and Dale Murphy.