Category Archives: All-Time Greats

May 16, 2020

The Chance to Hit .400

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My friend Jim Storer and I went on a .400 kick this morning, looking for batters that carried a .400 BA through at least their first 200 AB of a season. With MLB talking about playing an 82 game season, the qualify plate appearance minimum works out 254 plate appearances. An everyday player should get between 280 and 340 PA (a shorter season may mean more players get to play the full year, as late season injuries won’t be a problem). That probably puts most qualifiers between 230 and 300 AB. Someone could go 92 for 230, or even 120 for 300, and hit .400 for season.

While no one qualified for a batting title hitting .400 since Ted Williams, a number of players reached a point in the season where they accumulated at least 200 at bats with a .400 BA. I could not do an exhaustive, search due to the time it takes to run the data. Instead, we chose 24 solid candidates, usually people who had a career of high averages, or maybe one outstanding season. The list tested is on this spreadsheet, twenty four batters in all. The query search the entire careers of these batters, and on the second sheets it lists the dates, at bats, hits, and batting average of the days at which they accumulated at least 200 AB for the season with a rounded BA of at least .400. Of the 24 tested, twelve accomplished the goal.

Chipper Jones accomplished the feat in 2008, finishing a game at or above .400 fourteen days in June. An exhaustive search since then indicates this was the last time it happened. In the intervening years, strikeouts rose a great deal, and strike outs are the batting average killer. Given an eleven year history without this being accomplished, I’d say the odds of a .400 hitter qualifying for the title in a shortened season is low.

Unless someone puts his mind to it. My two favorite candidates would be Mike Trout and Christian Yelich. Both hit for high BABIP and excellent home run power. While their strikeout rates are high, they are not outrageous. Miguel Cabrera lowered his strikeout rate, enabling him to win the triple crown. If Yelich or Trout decides to go for it and really concentrate on putting the ball in play, they might take it a step further. A .400 year, even in a shortened season, would be something that would captivate fans. It might even create a Hall of Fame case for the player who accomplished it. In a short season, anything can happen.

If anyone thinks of a player who should be added to the test list, let me know in the comments and I’ll run the numbers.

Update: Good calls in the comments on Lenny Dykstra in 1990 and Paul O’Neill in 1994. I have added them to the spreadsheet. I also checked Joe Torre, but he did not qualify.

May 10, 2020

Gehrig Writes

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The New York Post excerpts syndicated columns Lou Gehrig wrote during the 1927 season. They are from the book, Lou Gehrig, the Lost Memoir by Alan D. Gaff. Gehrig squashes any thought of bad blood between himself and Babe Ruth:

I owe much to the Babe. He has advised me and taught me and helped me more than I can tell. At times during the season, when I was leading him in home runs, the opinion prevailed that there was a feud between Babe and myself. Nothing could be further from the truth. When I would hit one, Babe would be the first to congratulate me.

NYPost.com

That was written a few days before Ruth would set the single season home run record for the fourth time.

May 2, 2020

The Man

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Stan Musial played really well sixty-six years ago today. He hit five home runs in a double header in St. Louis against the Giants.

Poor Hank Sauer. He hit three home runs that day, and probably thought he was the toast of the game until he saw Musial’s lines.

In the stands, watching the game, was Nate Colbert, who would tie the record for most home runs in a double header with five on August 1, 1972.

April 30, 2020

Dawson’s Comfort

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Hall of Famer Andre Dawson owns a funeral home:

The man consoling mourners and directing his staff at Paradise Memorial Funeral Home might look familiar if he wasn’t wearing a mask.

It’s baseball Hall of Famer Andre Dawson.

Owning a funeral home took some getting used to, Dawson said Thursday, and now he’s adjusting to life as a mortician during a global pandemic.

AJC.com

The business belonged to his younger brother, and eventually fell to Dawson. He’s now dealing with requiring small, quick funerals, limited to ten people. It’s a tough job in good times.

April 29, 2020 April 23, 2020 April 15, 2020 April 2, 2020

Edmonds Infected

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Jim Edmonds demonstrates the insidious nature of the SARS-CoVID2 virus:

“Just wanted to drop a quick note,” Edmonds said. “I appreciate everyone who has sent well wishes and wished me the best. I did test positive for pneumonia and test positive for the virus. I am completely symptom free now and doing really well, so I must have had it for a while before I got tested.”

OCRegister.com

You can have the virus and not know it. That’s why it spreads so easily.

To all the Baseball Musings readers, please be careful and stay healthy.

March 8, 2020

The Ghost

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Andrew Baggarly talks to Barry Bonds about hitting, coaching, and his legacy (subscription may be required). On the latter:

“I feel like a ghost,” he said, his eyes locked on some distant point. “A ghost in a big empty house, just rattling around.”

And then: “A death sentence. That’s what they’ve given me.”

A bit later: “My heart, it’s broken. Really broken.”

The Athletic.com

It’s quite a good read, especially the sections that have current Giants coaches breaking down why Bonds was such a great hitter.

March 8, 2020

Top Pitchers, 1940-1949

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Working backwards through time with the Bill James Starting Pitcher Rank logs, and this post looks at the 1940-1949 time period. Earlier in the year, posts on the years 1974-2019 prompted Don Malcolm to ask if it were possible to go back further in time, to the 1940s.

With the Day by Day Database pushed back to 1920, it now contains complete careers for everyone who started in the 1940s. I like to name these eras after a pitcher who dominated, so this will be the Hal Newhouser decade.

The decade does not seem as volatile as it could have been. It’s possible that without World War II, Bob Feller would have dominated the ten years. He starts off the decade head and shoulders above everyone else, but goes into the service in 1942 and doesn’t pitch again until the end of the 1945 season. He shoots up the ranks, closes in on Newhouser at the end of the 1947 season, and briefly takes back the top spot in 1948 before Harry Brecheen winds up battling Newhouser to end the decade.

WWII does happen, and among the beneficiaries are two Detroit pitchers who wind up 4-F. Dizzy Trout suffered from a hearing problem, and does very well through the war years. The aforementioned Newhouser had a leaky heart valve. Two MLB pitchers facing what amounted to minor league hitters gave the Tigers one of the best staffs in the league.

While Trout clearly took advantage of the war years, Newhouser dominated the transition as players returned. Newhouser hit his prime years about this time, would seem to take advantage of the rusty returners as well.

Mort Cooper, however, was the first to benefit from the war. His seasonal age in 1942 was 29 years old, which may have pushed him to the back of the line for getting drafted. He was old enough to be an experience pitcher, but young enough to still be very good. His walk rate drops in 1942, and he is at or near the top of the rankings from the middle of 1942 until the middle of 1945.

Whit Wyatt, on the other hand, was a pitcher in his 30s who found his stride late. He was an All-Star in 1939, 1940, and 1941. He played as a 34-year-old in 1942. Tex Hughson, like Cooper, was a good pitcher in his late 20s, who stuck around early in the war. He did go into the service in 1945.

By the end of the decade, the post-war pitcher took over. The 1949 season ends with a tight bunching of Warren Spahn, Harry Brecheen, Mel Parnell, Bob Lemon, and hold over Hal Newhouser.

March 5, 2020

Going Out on Top

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The data for the Bill James pitcher rank reports keep growing, and it is now back far enough to include the entire career of Sandy Koufax. Koufax reached the number one ranking in May of 1962, and expect for a few days here and there, held onto the slot for the remainder of his career. At some point I will check the data, but he may be the only pitcher to end his career as the number one pitcher in these rankings.

In looking at his log, I have to wonder how much the last month of the 1966 season pushed him over the edge. The Dodgers came into September two games back in the NL in third place. They took first soon after that, but could not build a lead bigger than three games. During the last three weeks of the season, covering 20 games, Koufax made six starts and pitched 53 innings. He went 5-1, giving up eight runs. He knew he was pitching on borrowed time, but that was a huge workload for any era.

Update: My good friend David Aceto points out the J.R. Richard went out on top as well. I suspect all these cases will be due to catastrophic injuries or illnesses.

January 22, 2020

Quote of the Day

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Derek Jeter comments on missing a unanimous Hall of Fame election by one vote:

“I look at all the votes that I got,’’ Jeter said of falling one vote short of being unanimous, posting a 99.7 percentage. “Trying to get that many people to agree on something, it is pretty difficult to do.’’

NYPost.com

One of Jeter’s non-baseball talents was always being gracious and saying the right thing.

January 21, 2020

BBWAA Vote

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Larry Walker becomes the first Canadian position player to be voted into the Hall of Fame. Derek Jeter gets in as an obvious first ballot choice.

I think of both of them for unusual defensive plays. Walker was famous for throwing batters out at first from rightfield. Jeter, while not a great defensive shortstop, made to iconic plays at the position. He flipped the ball in the ALDS against Oakland, and did a layout dive into the stands in foul territory in the greatest regular season game ever played.

The voting is here. Jeter picked up 396 of 397 votes. Walker got in by six votes. Congratulations to both on well deserved elections!

January 21, 2020

IBWAA Hall

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The Internet Baseball Writers Assoication of America (IBWAA) announced their Hall of Fame results:

Los Angeles – In its 11th annual Hall of Fame election announced Tuesday, the IBWAA added one player to its digital Hall of Fame: Derek Jeter, of the New York Yankees.


Jeter was the top vote-getter, with 152 out of 160 ballots cast (95%). Larry Walker finished in second place, receiving 115 votes (71.25%). A 75% threshold is required for election.   Barry Bonds (2018) and Rogers Clemens (2018) did not appear on the 2020 IBWAA Hall of Fame ballot because they have already been elected by the IBWAA in previous years. With those exceptions, the IBWAA ballot was identical to the one used by the BBWAA. The IBWAA elected Marvin Miller in 2016. All voting is done electronically.  

IBWAA

The BBWAA announces their results at 6 PM EST.

January 21, 2020

Hall of Fame Day

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The Hall of Fame announces the class of 2020 this evening. It looks like Derek Jeter and Larry Walker will make the cut, with Curt Schilling on the bubble. Once again, the early public ballots like Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds, but even with those votes they are not over 75% going into the reveal. I thought Scott Rolen would get more votes. He gained a lot of public ballot support this year, so he may break through in a year or two.

January 6, 2020

The Ruth Sale

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The Boston Globe reviews the news reports of and the reactions to the announcement of the Red Sox selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees. The deal became public 100 years ago today.

Ruth had led the Red Sox to three World Series in the previous decade as a formidable pitcher and hitter, who was just rounding into what would become historic form. But Frazee defended the sale — a then-record sum that he hoped would relieve his complicated money struggles — as “an amount the club could not afford to refuse.” The Red Sox owner also argued that he would use the money to build a more balanced roster, following the team’s disappointing 1919 season.

“What the Boston fans want, I take it, and what I want because they want it, is a winning team, rather than a one-man team which finishes in sixth place,” Frazee said, according to the Globe.

Boston.com

Harry Frazee would prove adept at rebuilding the roster. The team would finish under .500 until 1934.

Although not mentioned in the article, there is a sub-head to the story that says, “‘Babe’ Says He Will Play in Boston or Nowhere.” That seemed to be a ploy to make sure he received the contract he wanted from the Yankees, which was agreed to quickly.

September 17, 2019

Yastrzemski Returns

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Mike Yastrzemski will lead off for the Giants tonight at Fenway Park with his grandfather, Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski in attendance. It should be a magic moment, but I can’t get NESN to stream!

Update: Mike Yaz struck out leading off the game, but Brandon Belt batted second and hit a solo home run.

Update: Mike Yastrzemski homers in the fourth inning. It’s his 20th of the season.

July 21, 2019 July 21, 2019

Hall of Fame Day

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The Hall of Fame welcomes six former player today:

Baseball’s living legends convene for the annual National Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony at 1:30 p.m. ET outside the Clark Sports Center. MLB Network’s coverage of the 2019 Hall of Fame induction ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. ET and be streamed live on MLB.com.


This year the celebration is a toast to commanding closers Mariano Rivera and Lee Smith, distinguished designated hitters Edgar Martinez and Harold Baines and sabermetrically-supported starter Mike Mussina. But it will also bring tears for the late Roy Halladay, whose widow Brandy will deliver an acceptance speech on his behalf.
The emotions, like the humidity, will be high.


“You just think about how hard it is to get to Cooperstown,” Smith said, before a small chuckle. “It is hard to get to Cooperstown.”

MLB.com

Smith and Baines won election through the Today’s Game Era Committee. This group obviously holds closers and designated hitters in higher regard than the sports writers. I suspect the Baines vote, coming during the BBWAA voting period, pushed the writers to vote for Martinez. If Baines made the Hall, then one of the two actually great designated hitters should be in.

My feeling in general is that relievers and designated hitters should be treated like other specialists in the game, they only get in the Hall if they are exceptionally great. So I have not problem with Martinez and Rivera winning election. What is surprising is that Rivera made it unanimously on the first ballot. A first ballot election is still meaningful. If relievers do not merit the same support as a someone who pitches thousands of innings, they should wait a year or two. What I believed happened was:

  • A number of closers were already in the Hall of Fame.
  • Rivera was better than all of them.
  • Therefore, there was no reason not to vote for him.

Mussina and Halladay were easy picks. Mussina pitched well year after year, accumulating lots of wins with excellent ERAs. It took him awhile to reach 75%, but that’s okay. Halladay resisted the modern usage of pitchers, completing games when younger pitchers were being pulled from starts.

Congratulations to all. No matter how one feels about the election of a particular player, all these men had long, successful careers, and their fans get a chance to honor these wonderful representatives today.

July 20, 2019

Stark Hall

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Congratulations to Jayson Stark, who accepted the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for meritorious contributions to baseball writing on Saturday. I worked with Stark at ESPN in the late 1990s, and he came up with the most complicated, “When was the last time…,” questions. He kept my programming skills sharp.

May 4, 2019 April 21, 2019

Milestone Saturday

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Fernando Rodney tied Cy Young for pitching appearances at 906 in yesterday’s Athletics game. That ranks 24th all time, with nothing but relievers at the top of the list.

This article stats that Albert Pujols tied Babe Ruth with 1992 RBI, but that depends on your source. That may be the Elias number, but Baseball Reference has a much higher number for Ruth and others.

April 15, 2019

Big Hands

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I enjoyed the interview with Henry Aaron during Sunday Night Baseball yesterday. At 85 years old, we don’t know how much longer he’ll be around to talk about his part in the history of the game. My only criticism is I did not hear anyone ask about Aaron’s part in integrating the southern minor leagues. The question would seem appropriate given this is Jackie Robinson day, and he Aaron spoke about how Robinson helped Aaron as a player. It’s a minor quibble.

I did like Alex Rodriguez asking about hand size. Rodriguez is three inches taller than Aaron according to Baseball Reference, yet their hands are the same size. In general, the ball players I’ve met all have large hands. I remember one day at ESPN some people where tossing a rubber ball in the news room, and it got away. It took some bounces toward Reynolds, and even though it was bouncing a bit erratically, Reynolds scooped it up without even thinking. It was at that moment I noticed how large his hand were compared to the ball.

So I can comfort myself that my poor ability to catch a ball is a result of my small hands.

🙂

March 7, 2019

Sad News on Seaver

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Tom Seaver retires from public life after a diagnosis of dementia.

His family made the announcement Thursday through the Hall and said Seaver has retired from public life. He will continue to work at Seaver Vineyards, founded by the retired player and wife Nancy in 2002 on 116 acres at Diamond Mountain in the Calistoga region of California.

Seaver was diagnosed with Lyme disease in 1991, and it reoccurred in 2012 and led to Bell’s Palsy and memory loss, the New York Daily News reported in 2013.

WashingtonPost.com

I wish Seaver the best.

February 5, 2019 January 31, 2019

Robinson at 100

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I have an Alexa at work, and everyday I wish it a good morning. The device replies with a fun fact for the day. Today it announced that this is the 100th anniversary of Jackie Robinson‘s birth. The New York Times celebrates with some photographs of the legend.

I especially like the one of Robinson in his UCLA football uniform. A few years ago my dad and I were talking about Robinson, and dad mentioned that he was a fan of Robinson’s when he was playing college football. I had not realized that Robinson was that well known at the time, but it makes sense since college football was immensely popular at the time.

January 28, 2019 January 23, 2019

Too Crowded?

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Tim Dahlberg wonders if the Hall of Fame is too crowded:


The trend today seems to be to add players in bunches. And that’s not necessarily a good thing for a hall that was once reserved for only the best of the best.


Baines’ place in the hall can be debated, as can a plaque for any player not named Ruth, DiMaggio or Koufax. And it will be debated, because baseball’s Hall of Fame remains the gold standard for all sports and baseball fans love to argue about who should be in it.
Still, six players this year, six last. In last three years, 15 players have made the Hall of Fame, bringing the total to 234 former major league players, and 331 members overall.


It may not be too many, but it’s becoming too much. And it shows no signs of slowing down, even with a lack of star power in upcoming classes (Derek Jeter will almost surely be the only new player elected next year).

FoxSports.com

We’re talking about the 98.5 percentile of anyone who ever put on the uniform. Getting on the ballot requires a decently long career, so maybe just the top 10% of players make the ballot period.

No one is going to equate Harold Baines with Willie Mays, even though both are in the Hall. Fans are smarter than that.

January 22, 2019

Hall Class

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Mariano Rivera, Roy Halladay, Edgar Martinez, and Mike Mussina win election to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Rivera becomes the first player elected unanimously. Both Halladay and Martinez received 85.4% of the vote, and Mussina squeaked by with 326 votes, with 319 required for election.

Congratulations to all!

Update: Edited for clarity.

January 22, 2019

Hall of Fame Day

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The Hall of Fame announces the Baseball Writers Association of America vote for the class of 2019 this evening at 6 PM on MLB Network. I believe you can stream it live if you do not have access to the channel otherwise. USA Today lists the votes of their writers here. Five of the seven writers there voted for Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, as those two gained a bit in the public voting this year.

The latest tracker includes over 50% of the potential ballots, and it looks like Mariano Rivera, Roy Halladay, and Edgar Martinez are locks. Mike Mussina remains at about 81%; he dropped about 6% last year when the vote was announced, so he is on the edge. Given his jump in support among the public ballots, I suspect he will see some growth in the non-public ones as well. It’s going to be close. Bonds and Clemens managed to pick up a few public votes compared to last year, and new voters went for them strongly. There’s been a surge for Fred McGriff as well in his final year on the ballot, but not nearly enough to put him over the top.

I suspect Martinez’s surge has something to do with the Today’s Game committee electing Harold Baines. Once a designated hitter is in the Hall of Fame, there’s no reason a much better one should be shut out.

Finally, we will see if Mariano Rivera is a unanimous choice. My bet would be no. There are people out there who believe closers should not be in the Hall of Fame. I don’t agree with that. Closer and DH are modern positions, and the best at those should be recognized. There should just be very few of them. There is a hierarchy in the Hall based on how many ballots it took to get in, and the percentage of the vote on the first ballot. While I feel Rivera should be in, he shouldn’t be the first unanimous choice, and probably not a first ballot player. He’s in the right place at the right time.

It is sad Roy Halladay won’t see his election. Halladay was a man who finished what he started, leading the majors in complete games during the years of his major league career. As that stat quickly became an oddity, Halladay kept staying on the mound. His election will be a fine memorial.