The Baseball Musings Batter Rankings are based on a version of game scores for batters. The idea was to rank batters like Bill James ranks pitchers, and to do that I needed a game that acted the same way; centered on 50, with 100 really great and 0 really bad.

Since great players should have great game scores, this spreadsheet shows average game scores (in starts only) for players with at least 1500 games started since 1920. There are two game score columns. The first is the raw game score, the second a part adjusted game score. This second one is the one used in the Batter Ranking calculation. If a batter plays in a park that increases offense, or plays in a high offensive era, the game score is reduce. If the players performs in a poor part for hitters, or in a low offensive era, the game score is increased.

Here is the top 15 from the list:

That’s a pretty good top five. Fans of Dick Allen will appreciate his rank. The most surprising name on the list is Roy White, an outfielder for the Yankees in the late 1960s and through the 1970s. Bill James wrote about how he rates White ahead of a number of more honored outfielders, and this would be another example of that. This has him even with Joe DiMaggio. Note that DiMaggio posted better raw game scores than White, but DiMaggio played in a higher scoring era than White.

The player with the lowest adjusted game score on the list is Leo Durocher at 45.91. Leo would become much more famous as a manager.