Wagner is still a top 5 player of all time.
Re: Slugging... Wagner played during the dead ball era. NO ONE was hitting many home runs during the years he was in the majors (1897-1917).
Wagner hit 101 HR during those years, the highest total in baseball (Gavvy Cravath hit 98 and Sam Crawford 97 during those years)... Cravath came up in 1907, so had he been in baseball earlier, he would have hit more HR's than Wagner.
If we expand it and look at the leading HR hitters from 1890 to 1920, Wagner's 101 HRs ranks third behind Gavvy Cravath and Babe Ruth).
Possessing. as he did, enormous physical strength, great speed and King Kong's hands, there's no doubt that, had Wagner came up in 1920, when the lively ball era started, he would have adapted superbly, and hit a great many home runs.
It's also impossible to compare fielding percentages of players in the 19-ohs to more modern-era players. Wagner was a superb fielder for his time... but not only were the "gloves" ridiculous in those years (by modern standards), but the fields themselves were nowhere near the perfectly manicured fields we see today.
In terms of offense, Wagner won 8 N.L batting titles. During the first decade or so of the 20th century, the N.L typically carried a batting average of around .240. It was not uncommon for Wagner to out-hit the league by 100 or more points .
Wagner also led the N.L in slugging percentage 6 times.
He led the league in OPS 8 times, total bases 6 times, doubles 7 times, triples 3 times... He never led the league in HR, but finished in the top ten 11 times, including five top-5 finishes. (in those days, 10 HRs could lead the league. That's how rare HRs were..) GOOD teams would hit 25-35 HRs in a season..
He also led the league in both RBI and Stolen Bases five times each, and led the league 7 times in extra base hits.
Bill James does rank Wagner as the #2 player in MLB history (behind Babe Ruth) because of Wagner's total dominance at the plate, in the field, and on the bases.
In ranking the greatest SS's of all time, James said that Wagner is so far ahead of any other shortstop, that the distance between Wagner and the number two shortstop is about the same as the distance between the #2 shortstop and the #30 shortstop.
At no other position is one player so clearly ahead of anyone else who ever played the position.
Honus Wagner was easily the greatest athlete in baseball when he played. He was a fitness fanatic who played sports year-round.
A myth developed about the 1909 World Series, in which Wagner's Pirates defeated Ty Cobb and the Tigers in seven games.
It was said that in one game, when Cobb got to first, ready to steal second, he shouted at Wagner, "watch out krauthead, I'm coming down"... Wagner reportedly responded "come ahead" and when Cobb did steal, Wagner tagged him hard on the mouth and split his lip.
That never happend. Cobb, and everyone else, knew that Wagner was the greatest athlete in the game, and in his own book, Cobb said "No, I didn't call Wagner a krauthead and have my lip split by him in the World Series..that's a fabrication... Honus was a block of granite. You didn't mess with him."
The most similar players to Wagner in baseball history are:
1. Nap Lajoie (841) *
2. Eddie Collins (802) *
3. Tris Speaker (772) *
4. Paul Waner (758) *
5. Cap Anson (754) *
6. Charlie Gehringer (751) *
7. Frankie Frisch (734) *
8. George Davis (713) *
9. Sam Crawford (711) *
10. Paul Molitor (706) *
All of his comps, of course, are HOFers, but the fact that the highest similarity score is only 841 indicates that no player in history is truly similar to Wagner, and the fact that he was better than everyone else among his comps shows how far up there he is as an all time great.
Similarity scores show which players are the most comparable to the given player. The better a player is, the fewer other players will score in the 800-900 similarity range.
And if he's demonstrably better than his best comps, it puts him up in the stratosphere of all time greats.
It is common for typical HOFers to have quite a few players that are essentially similar.
Wagner ranks 11th all time in HOF standards met (tied with Roger Clemens at 73%)
James also picked Wagner as the one player in MLB history that he would most like to have on his team... he chose Wagner rather than Ruth because of Wagner's quietly efficient play and the fact that he was never out of shape.
But again, you can't compare fielding numbers or percentages between players who played 70 or 80 years apart. You take Ozzie Smith and put him on an infield in 1906, with a glove from those days and field conditions being what they were, and he wouldn't know what hit him. Not that he couldn't adapt...but it would certainly be a lot easier for Wagner to "adapt" to modern conditions than it would take a modern player to adapt to the conditions of the early 20th century.
Wagner is an all time great because of what he did at the plate, in the field and on the basepaths.