Jim Fregosi, NOT Maury Wills, was the shortstop of the '60s

So there I was, minding my own business on Sunday morning, when the MLB Channel I had on as background noise informed me that Maury Wills was "the shortstop of the '60s." So I says to myself "Self, didn't we sponsor Jim Fregosi's Baseball Reference page with the claim that he was 'the best Major League shortstop from 1961-79'?" Since we have searchable Wins Above Replacement (WAR) on Baseball Reference now, I thought I'd quickly re-visit the topic. But first, let's compare the '60s production of Fregosi and Wills:

NM:  G    PA   AB   R   H   2B  3B HR RBI  SB/CS  BB  SO   BA   OBP  SLG OPS+ 
JF: 1164 4866 4296 565 1160 171 64 88 431  69/31  450 682 .270 .340 .401 117  
MW: 1507 6662 6091 874 1744 136 62 17 369 535/183 439 561 .286 .335 .337  92 

Despite playing 343 fewer games, Fregosi hit more doubles, triples, and (five times as many) more home runs, drove in more runs, drew more walks, had a higher OBP and (much) higher slugging percengage. Wills played more games, hit more singles, stole waaaaay more bases, and scored more runs. And remember, they played in the same stadium for half the decade, so there's not a whole bunch of park distortions in effect.

NM:  G   PA  AB  R  H  2B 3B HR RBI SB/CS BB SO   BA  OBP  SLG OPS+ 
JF: 156 663 585 78 158 24  9 12  58 10/4  62 93 .269 .340 .402 118
MW: 151 666 609 87 174 14  6  2  37 54/18 44 56 .286 .335 .337  92 

I know which guy I'd want in my lineup, but what about defense? WAR has Wills (who started the decade at 27 years old) at -1.8 for the time period; Fregosi (who started at 18 and debuted at 19) at positive 1.6.

Wills made 5 All-Star teams, won 2 Gold Gloves, and showed up in MVP voting 6 times (finishing 1st, 3rd, 11th, 17th, 17th, and 21st).
Fregosi made 5 All-Star teams, won 1 Gold Glove, and showed up in MVP voting 7 times (finishing 7th, 13th, 15th, 20th, 21st, 23rd, and 28th).

When I looked at season-by-season Win Shares in the post linked above, the results tilted decisively in Fregosi's favor. So let's similarly rank their '60s seasons best to worst, according to WAR, and see how they total out.

NM: 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 10.0    (total)
JF: 8.1 5.2 5.2 5.0 4.5 4.1 3.2 0.5 0.0         (35.8)
MW: 6.1 4.7 3.8 3.3 3.3 3.0 2.3 2.3 1.8 1.1     (31.7)

For comparison purposes, the most WAR by anyone in 2010 was Evan Longoria's 7.7; the top by a shortstop was Troy Tulowitzki's 5.6, and Alex Gonzales was second at the position with 3.7 (the top AL shortstop, if you can believe it, was Cliff Pennington with 3.3). Generally anything above 4.0 is a damned good All-Star caliber season, above 5.0 is great, and above 6.0 gets you into the MVP conversation. WAR re-confirms to me that Fregosi was the shortstop of the '60s.

Here's a list of all Major League shortstops who put up at least 10 WAR during the 1960s. In order, that's Fregosi, Wills, Luis Aparicio, Dick McAuliffe, Ron Hansen, Dick Groat, Denis Menke, Rico Petrocelli, Leo Cardenas, Gene Alley, Bert Campaneris, Eddie Bressoud, Zoilo Versalles, and Tony Kubek:

JF: 35.8
MW: 31.7
LA: 30.3
DM: 28.3
RH: 23.4
DG: 21.2
DM: 20.7
RP: 20.3
LC: 18.0
GA: 16.3
BC: 14.3
EB: 14.1
ZV: 13.3
TK: 10.0

And just for fun, here's a list of top shorststop WAR by decade, with everyone matching Fregosi's '60s total listed, as well as some other players of interest:

2000s: Derek Jeter (46.2), Miguel Tejada (37.5) ... David Eckstein 12th (20.0), Orlando Cabrera 14th (17.2) ... 23 total
1990s: Barry Larkin (51.7), Cal Ripken (41.3) ... 19 total
1980s: Alan Trammell (50.1), Cal Ripken (47.8), Ozzie Smith (44.7) ... Dickie Thon 6th (17.4), Dick Schofield 11th (10.2) ... 11 total
1970s: Bert Campaneris (31.1) ... 13 total
1960s: Fregosi (35.8) ... 14 total
1950s: Ernie Banks (43.2) ... 13 total
1940s: Lou Boudreau (53.0), Luke Appling (36.5), Pee Wee Reese (34.6) ... 12 total
1930s: Arky Vaughn (52.3), Joe Cronin (48.8) ... 13 total
1920s: Joe Sewell (39.5) ... 8 total
1910s: Art Fletcher (39.2) ... 12 total
1900s: Honus Wagner (91.6), Bobby Wallace (42.6), George Davis (42.0) ... 8 total

From 1961, Fregosi's rookie season, until his retirement in '78, here are the top seasons recorded by a shortsop:

1) 9.3 Rico Petrocelli 1969
2) 8.1 Jim Fregosi 1964
3) 7.0 Jim Fregosi 1970

Maury Wills' 1962 (6.1) checks in at 10th, and his second-best year ranks 25th. Fregosi has slots #18, 19, 21, 31, and 45. Nobody else had 2 of the top 10 seasons, no one else had 4 of the top 20, 5 of the top 30, 6 of the top 40, or 7 of the top 50.

Finally, what does WAR say about my original, slightly more expansive claim that Fregosi was the best Major League shortstop between 1961 and 1979? If you rank just by total WAR, he still beats Bert Campaneris -- who played 230 more games -- by a nose.

Look, it's our 50th anniversary season now. A half-century is just about long enough to accept playing second fiddle to second-rate (though still high quality) Dodgers. Consider this the first in a sporadic offseason series in which historical Angel snubs are treated with the fact-checking they deserve.