Ozzie Smith stands as one of the premier shortstops in baseball history. If there existed a metric for runs prevented due to defensive prowess, he would undoubtedly rank at the pinnacle.
such a stat has existed for about 25 years. total runs saved can be found under "Rtot", under their fielding stats on baseball reference. ozzy is toward the top, but not in first place. so, not "undoubtedly the pinnacle". i, and many others agree with you in that ozzy is the best fielder we have ever seen, but according to the genuine metric that you proposed as a mere hypothetical, dal maxvill, mark belanger, phil rizzuto, and a couple others are ahead. it is worth noting that 2 legendary defensive shortstops, each of whom won many gold gloves, rank as barely average defensive players ( omar vizquel, and luis aparicio). also, of the fine HITTING shortstops, most were terrible fielders, even if they won some gold gloves "with their bats". these would include derek jeter, ernie banks, a-rod, and garciaparra. robin yount was an above average defensive player, as was barry larkin. the only top hitting shortstops who were also TOP fielding shortstops, are honus wagner, and cal ripken. surely ripken is the most underrated defensively, and is remembered as the guy who played every game and hit some homeruns. well, he also had a third-baseman's arm, with ozzy-like range.
Me being born in the 1960s grew up in the 70s The Wiz was in his prime in my area he is my favorite short stop of all time he was like the Dr.j of short stops he was and still is the man thank you Wiz for changing the position…..
