Donie Bush was the regular Tiger shortstop for 12 seasons, from 1909 to 1920. Over his career, Bush compiled totals exceeding 1800 hits, 1200 runs, 1100 walks and 400 stolen bases. Yet, he managed only a 91 career OPS+.

So, I wondered what other players there might be like Donie Bush. Let’s find out.

First, let’s look at those milestone levels I mentioned – 1800 hits, 1200 runs, 1100 walks and 400 stolen bases. Probably not many players with careers like that, but let’s see what sort of OPS+ scores they may have had.

As expected, a short list. Probably most similar is Butler, but he had 500+ more hits and was almost 20 points higher in OPS+.

Looking just at the speed factors, runs and stolen bases.

The three players whom Bush bests in OPS+ all played much longer and logged many more hits, though none could match Bush’s walks. The two players closest to Bush in career length are Lofton and Ichiro. Suzuki and Bush have almost the same career OBP, though they went about it quite differently, with Ichiro basically substituting a hit (and a bit) for every extra walk that Bush had. Lofton has much superior totals, save for walks, as evidenced by his 16 point bulge in OPS+.

Bush has an unusual Hit to Walk ratio right around 1.5 to 1. Let’s look at those players.

These are players with at least 1500 hits and walks of more than 63% of their hits. There are 11 others on the list with higher OPS+ scores, but they have names like Killebrew, Schmidt, McGwire, Mantle, Bonds and Ruth. So, I thinks it’s the above players we want to look at.

Again, nobody is really close to Bush in OPS+. Nor in slugging, with Bush trailing the next lowest score by over 70 points. I know he played in the dead-ball era, but still – how does a guy with a .300 SLG mark (and speed, too) walk so much? More especially given his proclivity for getting home.

Finally, let’s look at season counts. Here are the players with the most seasons with 80+ runs, 30+ stolen bases, and an OPS+ below 100.

This list may be giving us a better picture of the type of player Bush was. One HOFer, some other good players, and a few not so good.

And, players with seasons of 120+ hits, 70+ walks and an OPS+ below 100.

It’s a pretty unusual combination, with just this handful of players with even 3 seasons like this. Again, a HOFer and some good ballplayers.

I think these last two lists have probably identified our man as closely as possible. Bush is basically a cross between the guys on these two lists. Which is to say he’s pretty unique and also a pretty valuable ballplayer to have around, OPS+ or no OPS+.

Lastly, just for fun, here are the players with a season scoring 50% more runs (min. 80 runs) than OPS+ (weird, I know, but another example of making the most of your OPS). Not many players, but one (not Bush) seemed to specialize pulling off this quirky feat.