This is the second installment of a series looking at the best OPS months by position. Today’s post looks at each of the infield positions, with selected observations on the players involved.

As with Part 1 on outfielders, the method is to look at monthly OPS for players with 80+ PA in a month (50+ PA for April) and who played a majority of games in that month at one position.

More on the best months by infielders, after the jump.

First up are the first basemen.

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Perhaps the ultimate “what might have been” season for Frank Thomas in 1994. Take a look.

That might have been the only season ever of 200 hits + 150 runs + 150 walks + 140 RBI. Only Babe Ruth in 1923 has a season matching the first 3 of those milestones. Despite all that, Thomas’s 212 OPS+ wasn’t even the best result among first baseman in 1994 – Jeff Bagwell edged him out with 213.

• Willie McCovey’s MVP season is reflected here. It was a career year for Stretch with personal bests in HR, RBI, BA, OBP, SLG, OPS (of course) and OPS+. His 209 OPS+ is tied with Ty Cobb for 26th best among all seasons since 1901. It was also the best mark for 25 seasons, not eclipsed until Frank Thomas and Jeff Bagwell in 1994 and, in a full-length season, by Mark McGwire in 1998 (also represented).
• No accident that Lou Gehrig shows up here twice in the month of June. For his career, Gehrig had June OPS of 1.208, almost 100 points higher than the 1.111 in his next best month of August.
• Somehow seems appropriate to see the two Cardinal legends next to each other for April.
• Most remembered for this game when he became the first player to hit grand slams in consecutive plate appearances, Jim Gentile, like Norm Cash in the same season, was briefly among the most feared hitters in the game. Those two trailed only Mickey Mantle in OPS+ in the 1961 season, and for the 1960 and 1961 seasons combined.
  • Gentile and Cash both feasted on one of the expansion teams in 1961. Gentile was .429/.537/.905 in 18 games against the Angels, while Cash went .431/.542/.846 in 18 games against the Senators.
• Todd Helton’s 2000 season is the only one since Stan Musial in 1948 of 200+ hits, including 100+ for extra bases.
  • Helton had 400+ total bases that season and again in 2001 when 4 players reached the 400 mark, matching 1930 for the most players in any season.
  • Helton, Lou Gehrig, Chuck Klein and Jimmie Foxx are the only players with 400 total bases in consecutive seasons. None of them did it 3 years running.

For second basemen.

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Rajah dominates here, and it’s no accident. His 175 career OPS+ paces the field ahead of Nap Lajoie and Eddie Collins, and far ahead of Joe Morgan and Jackie Robinson, tied for 4th at 132 OPS+. Hornsby’s seasons here include 3 of the 4 clubs for which he won NL OPS+ crowns (not that anyone was aware of it at the time), the last coming in 1931 for the Cubs. In all, Hornsby led the senior circuit in OPS+ 12 times in 15 seasons, including 7 straight for the Cardinals from 1919 to 1925. In the last 6 of those 7 seasons, Hornsby led in BA, OBP and SLG, including his triple crown seasons in 1922 and 1925.

• Joe Morgan shows up here twice for the 1976 WS champion Reds, the only team in the “playoff era” to go undefeated in the post-season. Not coincidentally, that was also Morgan’s career year with personal bests in HR, RBI, SLG, OPS and OPS+, the last two the best for any second baseman not named Hornsby or Lajoie.
• Charlie Gehringer’s month came in his MVP season in which he was AL batting champion with a career best .371 mark. Gehringer is the AL record holder with 6 seasons of 300 total bases and fewer than 20 homers. Paul Waner has one season more for the NL mark.
• Jeff Kent shows up in his age 39 season, his 16th straight (and last) with 100+ games and OPS+ over 100, the longest unbroken streak for any second baseman.
• “One of these things just doesn’t belong here” – yes, Mariano Duncan, he of the career 86 OPS+, is out of his league here. His month comes from his career year (120 OPS+) for the world champion Reds in 1990. His only other 100 OPS+ season was for the world champion Yankees in 1996. What can I say – the man’s a winner!!
• For you trivia buffs, who are the only second basemen to play in the World Series for three different teams?

On to third base.

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Bobby Thomson’s month included the 3-game playoff against the Dodgers, in which he went 5 for 10 with 2 doubles and 2 homers, the second of which is probably the most famous walk-off outside of the post-season. Thomson had only been playing 3rd base that season since the All-Star break – he played from opening day to mid-May in center field and from then until mid-July in left field.

• George Brett’s months came in two of his 3 seasons as the majors’ leader in OPS+, including the Royals’ first pennant season in which Brett flirted with .400 as late as Sep 19th. What isn’t so well remembered is that Brett started that season in very pedestrian fashion, hitting as low as .247 as late as May 21st. From then until Aug 30th, Brett went .459/.508/.742, despite missing a month due to injury in the middle of that stretch.
• In addition to Thomson and Brett, Ron Cey, Tony Perez, Wade Boggs and Chipper Jones also had their months in pennant winning seasons. All but Thomson would play on at least one world championship team, but not in any of these pennant seasons. (Thomson had the misfortune to be twice traded away from a team for which he had played 3+ seasons, and which then went on to win the world championship in the same season.)
• Wade Boggs is the career batting leader among third basemen. His two appearances here came in the middle two of four consecutive AL batting titles, the only time since Al Simmons (1927-31) that a player has compiled four straight .350 seasons. Similarly, Boggs’ .349 BA in 1982 was the best among rookies (min. 300 PA) since George Watkins’ .373 in 1930.
•  A-Rod’s month came in probably the biggest season by a Yankee not named Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio or Mantle. His Runs + RBI of 299, and Runs + RBI + BB of 394 were just shy of the milestone levels reached by Sammy Sosa in 2001. Often overlooked in A-Rod’s game are his stolen bases – his current total of 2863 combined runs, HRs and stolen bases leaves him just shy of joining Henderson, Cobb, Bonds, Aaron, Ruth and Mays as the only players in this 3000 club.
• Eddie Mathews’ appearance came in the rookie season of his teammate Hank Aaron. They remain the only players to each record over 400 HR while teammates.

And, the shortstops.

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A-Rod shows up here 3 times, including in his first season as a regular, at age 20 in 1996. That season leads all players age 20 or younger in runs (141), hits (215), doubles (54) and total bases (379). The marks for hits and doubles are also Alex’s career bests.

• Arky Vaughan also shows up 3 times, including his 1935 season when he led the majors in BA, OBP, OPS and OPS+ (but placed only 3rd in NL MVP voting). Vaughan’s 190 OPS+ that season is second among shortstops, behind only Honus Wagner with 205 in 1908 (Wagner also holds down 5 more of the top 10 shortstop OPS+ seasons since 1901).
• Nomar Garciaparra shows up in 1999 and in consecutive months in the 2000 season. Those were his two seasons as AL batting champion. For his career through age 26 (his 2000 season), Garciaparra was .333/.382/.573 for 140 OPS+, trailing only Arky (146) and A-Rod (144) among shortstops of the same age. Ramirez (136) and Banks (131) round out the top 5.
• Joe Sewell shows up in his 1923 season when he  compiled 109 RBI, then the record for AL shortstops and tied with Honus Wagner for the post-1901 major league standard. Sewell’s AL mark would be eclipsed first by Joe Cronin (1930) and later by Vern Stephens (1948). Stephens’ 159 RBI in 1949 (tied with Ted Williams for the team lead) remains the shortstop record; only Miguel Tejada in 2004 has also reached the 150 mark.
• Red Kress might be  a surprise, but perhaps shouldn’t be. In his best 3 seasons (1929-31), Kress led all shortstops in HR and RBI, edging HOFers Joe Cronin and Travis Jackson. Kress toiled mainly for the woeful Browns, but might have had a change in fortune when traded to the defending AL champion Senators in 1934. Alas, those Sens slid all the way to 7th. Similarly, a reserve role on the 1940 AL champion Tigers fizzled with a mid-season release. Kress re-invented himself, at age 36, as a position player and part-time pitcher in 5 minor league seasons. That earned him one final major-league appearance, in a single game as a 41 year-old pitcher for the 1945 Giants (after four years out of baseball, Kress returned as a 45 year-old Northern League pitcher, and then pitched the following season in Mexico).

Watch for Part 3 with catchers, DH’s and pitchers too.