Dandridge is an interesting case. He could clearly hit for average, with decent doubles power and above average speed. His fielding is somewhat legendary, but that’s the easiest part of the record to inflate, right?
I keep circling around two poles for Dandridge as models. The first is Jimmy Collins, with an understanding that Dandridge put up numbers like Collins in a far more offensive context; the second is Bill Madlock, meaning that Dandridge can be thought of as Bill Madlock, if Madlock were also in the conversation for the gold glove at 3B most years.
Perhaps being overly influenced by some other MLE’s for Dandridge that, I think, may give too much weight to his time in the minor leagues. At the same time, Dandridge was excellent at AAA in his mid-to-late 30’s, so the argument that he would still be a highly productive MLB player at that time has decent support.
As an initial draft, we’ve settled in with Dandridge being an excellent fielder who made a ton of contact without a lot of power. He’s extreme in that, reaching the magical 3,000 hit plateau in the projection. But he really had very little power–while, yes, he does hit his fair share of doubles, a player with his speed would have more triples if he could launch the ball with more force.
He had poor control of the strike zone–or perhaps, more accurately, he had great bat control and didn’t see the value of taking a walk. So both his walk rate and strikeout rates were very, very low.
But he could hit, no doubt, and we have him leading the league in H at least a couple times, and among the league leaders in 2B’s at his peak.
Fielding is hard–and not really present in the MLE’s, but is a thing in how they are applied in replays, games, etc. Bottom line is that Dandridge should be in the conversation as the best fielding 3B of his generation.
We filled in 1939, and extended his career into the early 1950’s.
Name | Ray Dandridge |
ID / Status | dandr01ray / Draft |
Pos | 3B |
DOB / i9s Career | 08/31/1913 / 1933 - 1953 |
Birthplace | Richmond, VA (USA) |
Height / Weight | 5'5" / 175 |
B / T | R / R |
Batting Projections
Year | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | SO | SB | CS | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
1934 | 276 | 93 | 12 | 2 | 1 | 19 | 26 | 4 | 3 | 0.337 | 0.380 | 0.406 | 0.785 |
1935 | 477 | 135 | 16 | 5 | 4 | 28 | 23 | 7 | 4 | 0.283 | 0.323 | 0.363 | 0.685 |
1936 | 511 | 138 | 18 | 4 | 3 | 35 | 23 | 22 | 9 | 0.270 | 0.317 | 0.339 | 0.655 |
1937 | 619 | 211 | 37 | 8 | 6 | 39 | 33 | 11 | 6 | 0.341 | 0.380 | 0.456 | 0.836 |
1938 | 649 | 227 | 45 | 10 | 7 | 29 | 30 | 22 | 7 | 0.350 | 0.378 | 0.782 | 0.860 |
1939 | 551 | 202 | 39 | 5 | 5 | 40 | 38 | 10 | 5 | 0.367 | 0.409 | 0.483 | 0.892 |
1940 | 568 | 181 | 22 | 6 | 7 | 33 | 30 | 30 | 14 | 0.319 | 0.356 | 0.415 | 0.772 |
1941 | 580 | 200 | 41 | 4 | 11 | 37 | 44 | 29 | 13 | 0.345 | 0.384 | 0.486 | 0.870 |
1942 | 645 | 189 | 36 | 5 | 10 | 47 | 34 | 35 | 14 | 0.293 | 0.341 | 0.411 | 0.752 |
1943 | 613 | 226 | 30 | 4 | 8 | 42 | 35 | 58 | 22 | 0.369 | 0.409 | 0.470 | 0.879 |
1944 | 634 | 187 | 41 | 6 | 5 | 47 | 37 | 25 | 10 | 0.295 | 0.344 | 0.402 | 0.746 |
1945 | 634 | 187 | 41 | 6 | 5 | 47 | 37 | 25 | 10 | 0.295 | 0.344 | 0.402 | 0.746 |
1946 | 640 | 172 | 39 | 4 | 4 | 35 | 39 | 8 | 4 | 0.269 | 0.307 | 0.361 | 0.668 |
1947 | 562 | 202 | 34 | 5 | 5 | 33 | 39 | 27 | 10 | 0.359 | 0.395 | 0.464 | 0.859 |
1948 | 637 | 202 | 28 | 5 | 7 | 29 | 44 | 9 | 4 | 0.317 | 0.347 | 0.410 | 0.757 |
1949 | 592 | 203 | 29 | 6 | 6 | 35 | 49 | 7 | 5 | 0.343 | 0.380 | 0.443 | 0.822 |
1950 | 477 | 123 | 14 | 4 | 4 | 41 | 32 | 3 | 3 | 0.258 | 0.317 | 0.329 | 0.646 |
1951 | 292 | 97 | 11 | 3 | 2 | 16 | 24 | 3 | 2 | 0.332 | 0.367 | 0.411 | 0.778 |
1952 | 227 | 68 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 17 | 25 | 2 | 2 | 0.300 | 0.348 | 0.339 | 0.688 |
1953 | 76 | 18 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0.237 | 0.266 | 0.342 | 0.608 |