Now that I've examined the best pitchers of all-time,how about the best hitters.
How do we rate these.Batting average is an OK stat but does not indicate power or the ability to get on base by walking.Home runs only indicate power.RBIs are dependent on game situations.
The best possible stat to use is OPS[that is on base percentage plus slugging percentage.]
OBP consists of dividing plate appearances by the total of hits,walks and hit by pitch.
Slugging percentage is calculated like batting average except a homer counts 4 times,triple 3,double 2 and single one hit.
It has been shown that any team with a high OPS will tend to score alot of runs and vice versa.This had been judged by many statisticians to be the best offensive stat.
There are many baseball encyclopedias that have OPS already calculated with adjustment for ballpark[Coors Field is easier to hit in than Dodger Stadium]and era.[1968 was a pitchers year,2003 is mainly part of a hitter's era.
All the math has been done.A score of 100 equals an average hitter.Above it is better than average.
Here are the top 20 hitters of all-time[since 1901] in regards to adjusted OPS.
1 Babe Ruth 207
2Ted Williams 190
3 Barry Bonds 179
4 Lou Gehrig 179
5 Rogers Hornsby 175
6 Mickey Mantle 172
7 Joe Jackson 170
8 Ty Cobb 167
9 Jimmie Foxx 163
10 Mark McGwire 163
11 Frank Thomas 162
12 Stan Musial 159
13 Hank Greenberg 158
14 Johnny Mize 158
15 Tris Speaker 158
16 Manny Ramirez 157
17 Dick Allen 156
18 Willie Mays 156
19 Hank Aaron 155
'20 Joe Dimaggio 155
21 Mel Ott 155
I listed 21 as Ott technically tied Dimaggio.
This is a great list of hitters.A few notes before we get to another list.
If a player plays past his prime,he is penalized.Willie Mays from 1967-1973 was not as good a hitter as he was earlier in his career.Like-wise Mickey Mantle 1965-1968.By sticking around longer,their lifetime totals went down.Ty Cobb was a great hitter before 1920 but only a good hitter afterward.Joe Jackson who was banished from baseball for his involvement in the Black Sox scandal basically retired in his prime.Lou Gehrig retired early due to serious illness and also played not too long after his prime.
In order not to penalize players for playing past their prime,I've taken the 7 peak seasons of a players career.Seven is as good a random number as any.The Strat-O-Matic Game Co. uses the 7 season peak for their hall of fame card set.
The top 20 according to their 7 peak seasons are
1 Babe Ruth 233
2 Barry Bonds 222
3 Ted Williams 209
4 Rogers Hornsby 202
5 Lou Gehrig 200
6 Ty Cobb 199
7 Mickey Mantle 199
8Jimmie Foxx 187
9 Mark McGwire 186
10 Frank Thomas 183
11 Honus Wagner 181
12 Stan Musial 179
13 Nap Lajoie 179
14 Hank Aaron 178
15 Tris Speaker 178
16 Joe Jackson 178
17 Willie Mays 175
18 Willie McCovey 174
19 Frank Robinson 174
20 Dick Allen 173
This is probaly a fairer representation of baseballs greatest hitters.One should note that Ted Williams was at war during the peak of his career.Frank Thomas had some amazing seasons during the early 90s.Mickey Mantle was a better hitter than Willie Mays[career or peak]Nap Lajoie played some seasons before 1901.
There is nobody like Willie McCovey.He played many seasons with less than 400 at bats due to injury or whatever.He was a very productive hitter from the start of his career and still played part-time for a while.
Besides the active and recently retired players, there are two non hall of famers on this list.Joe Jackson who perhaps ignorantly pledged to help throw the 1919 World Series is one.Dick Allen was an amazing hitter but had trouble getting along with almost everybody.He was an individual in a team sport.
By the way Pete Rose had a peak top 7 years of about 140.He is not close to being on this list.He was a good hitter but a singles hitter while others of his era had as good a batting average plus also walked and hit for power.
One may notice that there are six players on this list who were active in the mid 60s but only one[Willie McCovey in his waning years] who were active in the late 70s.The 70s happened to have an amazing balance of talent.There were some great seasons[George Brett[ 1980],Jim Rice[1978],George Foster[1977]but nobody consistent enough to make the top 20.Mike Schmidt comes closest with 164 which places him around #30.
In order to balance this a little bit by era,as I did in pitching,I ranked batters each time they finished in the top 10 in adjusted OPS.
I used a 20-17-15-13-11-9-8-7-6-5 scale.The assumption being that there is a greater separation betwwen the top 5 than the next 5.Also finishing 10th is alot better than not making the top 10 at all.The top 10s are the only listings I had to work with.
Using this scale, the top 20 is
1 Ty Cobb 317
2 Babe Ruth 307
3 Rogers Hornsby 266
4 Stan Musial 260
5 Mel Ott 259
6 Hank Aaron 253
7 Barry Bonds 252[still active]
8 Willie Mays 247
9 Ted Willians 246
10 Tris Speaker 241
11 Mickey Mantle 237
12 Honus Wagner 225
13 Frank Robinson 219
14 Lou Gehrig 207
15 Mike Schmidt 205
16 Jimmie Foxx 197
17 Nap Lajoie 173
18 Sam Crawford 161
19 Johnny Mize 155
19 Reggie Jackson 150
20 Joe Dimaggio 148
At least we got a couple of 1975-1985 era players in there this way.Ted Williams lost alot by missing 5 seasons at war.He could've been #1 in this category.Johnny Mize and Joe Dimaggio lost 3,Stan Musial and Willie Mays[Korean early in his career]2.
As it is tough to judge fielding by stats,I have to depend on reputation.My all-time team would be
IB--Lou Gehrig
2B--Rogers Hornsby
SS--Honus Wagner.Wagner in his prime is much better than A.Rod when adjusted for era and home ballpark.Alex has had the benefit of home games at the Kingdome and in Arlington Texas.[two hitters ballparks]
3B--Mike Schmidt
LF--Barry Bonds[I picked him over Ted Williams due to Williams below average fielding reputation.
CF--Mickey Mantle or Ty Cobb over Willie Mays.You really can't go wrong with either of the three
RF--Babe Ruth
C--The best hitting catcher in MLB history is MIke Piazza.However his fielding is below par.Johnny Bench had a good hitting but inconsistent career similar to Roy Campanella.Both were regarded to be superior fielding catchers.Yogi Berra was more consistent hitting wise and was almost always there at World Series time.Ivan Rodriquez merits consideration.I have no stats to back it up but Josh Gibson was rated as the best hitter in the Negro Leagues and also a great catcher.I'd love to go with Josh Gibson as my all-time catcher.
As if 7 seasons is not a good enough peak of a career, I've expanded that to ten seasons.
The top 20 in terms of best 10 peakl seasons in adjusted OPS[on base plus slugging]are
1 Babe Ruth 226
2 Barry Bonds 218
3 Ted Williams 207
4 Ty Cobb 193
5 Rogers Hornsby 192
6 Lou Gehrig 192
7 Mickey Mantle 187
8 Mark McGwire 179
9 Jimmie Foxx 178
10 Stan Musial 177
11 Frank Thomas 177
12 Honus Wagner 175
13 Hank Aaron 173
14 Tris Speaker 173
15 Willie Mays 170
16 Willie McCovey 168
17 Mel Ott 168
18 Frank Robinson 168
19 Nap Lajoie 167
20 Manny Ramirez 164
Note--the previous 7 peak years were figured out a few years ago.
According to Moneyball[a book on the success of the recent Oakland a's], the difference in OBP is three times more important than the difference in slugging pct.This makes some sense.One can hit a single every at bat and have an OBP and SLUG pct of 1000 each giving him an OPS of 2000.His team would score an infinite number of runs as there are no outs.A player who homers and strikes out on alternative at bats would have a slug of 2000 and OBP of 500 for a total OPS of 2500.However a team of this batter would score 27 runs[not infinite]a game.
Taking that into account, certain players should be rated higher due to higher OBP and some lower.In this case a lower ratio of slug to OBP is can move you up the list..Using non-adjusted lifetime figures, Babe Ruth has a slugging pct that is 1.46 times his OBP.Of course both numbers were huge.Ty Cobb at 1.18, Honus Wagner at 1.19 and Tris Speaker at 1.17 are examples of players that spent a majority of years in the dead ball era.Comparing 4 players from a later era, Mickey Mantle's ratio of 1.32 is lower than Frank Robinson's of 1.38.Willie Mays scores 1.45 and Hank Aaron 1.48.Mays and Aaron simply didn't walk that much.Ted Williams scores a reasonable 1.32 with Stan Musial at 1.34.As we go down the list, .By the way for numbers fans, the highest ratios I found were for Dave Kingman at 1.58 and Sammy Sosa at 1.56.Both slugged alot of homers but did not hit for high averages or walk alot.In fact Kingman hit 35 homers in his final season but no team wanted him the next season.Two players that walked a tremendous amount of times but didn't hit for power were Max Bishop of the mid 20s-1933 A's and Eddie Yost who played mainly for the Senators in the 50s.Both had higher OBP than slugging percentages.Bishop was occasionally called Camera Eye.His ability to take a walk resulted in many years of scoring over 100 runs.He was on a great offensive team with Al Simmons,Jimmie Foxx and Mickey Cochrane.
After he was traded to the Red Sox, he had a season with only 253 at bats but 82 walks resulting in 65 runs scored.Pro rate it for a full season and one gets 130 runs scored.His adjusted OPS was only 97 which is below that of an average hitter.Even in a hitters era in a hitters ballpark,I don't think your average hitter would do better than 130 runs scored.Bishop's walking ability was underrated.Yost earned a similar nickname.He was called the Walking Man.
When counting OBP three times as much as slugging players like Rickey Henderson,Wade Boggs and Rod Carew become much more important ballplayers.
Look up to that list I have with the 20-17-15-13-11-9-8-7-6-5 scoring system.That is for years finishing in the top 10 of adjusted OPS.In order to get the feel of a 3XOBP+SLUG, I added all the seasons a player finished in the top 10 of OBP to the years he finished first in OPS.I was unable to get a stat for adjusted OBP by ballpark,so those that played in better hitters park have an advantage in this system.
In this system, Ty Cobb finished first in adding top 10 finishes in adjusted OPS.He also finishes first when considering OBP.He had a long prosperous career.
The top 20 in seasonal 3XOBP +SLUG are
1 Ty Cobb 633
2 Babe Ruth 585
3 Stan Musial 541
4 Barry Bonds 538
5 Rogers Hornsby 512
6 Ted Williams 495
7 Tris Speaker 490
8 Mel Ott 489
9 Honus Wagner 462
10 Mickey Mantle 449
11 Frank Robinson 433
12 Lou Gehrig 431
13 Willie Mays 425
14 Jimmie Foxx 383
15 Hank Aaron 372
16 Mike Schmidt 341
17 Nap Lajoie 322
18 Frank Thomas 288
19 Edgar Martinez 287
20 Wade Boggs 275
If one looks up the list the top 17 are the same but shuffled around.By the way, Rickey Henderson would rank #21.With his amazing SB ability, he certainly ranks as one great offensive player.
In this list it is to one's advantage to have a long career.Babe Ruth led the league in adjusted OPS every season from 1918-1931 except for 1925 in which he did not qualify due to many games not played due to sickness.In addition 10 of those seasons, he led the league in OBP.In the other 3 seasons, he never finished below 4th.Cobb was just able to sustain a longer career.
Ted Williams lost 5 years due to war,Stan Musial 2, Willie Mays 2.We know of Lou Gehrig's sickness cutting down his great career.Notice, by counting OBP three times, Aaron dropped from #6 to #15.
I'd love to get an adjusted 3XOBP+SLUG.
I've never commented on the steroid problems.In the 80s and 90s, there have been numerous players who have improved performance at advanced age.In 1982 Brian Downing hit 28 homers at age 31.He had never hit more than 12 in a season before that.I can't say whether he just decided to take the game more seriously or was artificially helped.Six years later he still slugged 25 homers.It is just unusual for a player to have better stats at age 37 than age 27.The bottom line is there was no testing.When McGwire and Sosa went neck and neck in the 1998 home run race, baseball encouraged them.They were bringing interest back to a game that was recently hit by a lengthy player strike.I can trace McGwire's alleged usage back to 1995.He was all of a sudden hitting a home run every 8 at bats.He missed a good chunk of the season but still hit 39 homers.He was at a 70 homer per 162 game pace starting then.Other players like Brady Anderson and Luis Gonzalez had monster seasons seemingly coming out of nowhere.
I suspect all kinds of ballplayers using steroids.Randy Velarde, an average hitter who sustained a long career is even suspected.How about pitchers?All of a sudden there are many successful pitchers over 40.It is the fault of the baseball establishment for not testing in the first place.I can't condone this guilty until proven innocent mentality.An invisible asterisk will forever cloud the power achievments of the 90s sluggers.Anyway the best measurement is to measure the stats with regards to era and home ballpark.From this era, Bonds and McGwire are truly dominating.Sammy Sosa may have more homers than Mickey Mantle but is nowhere near as a dominant a hitter.
McGwire and Bonds are HOFers.McGwire and Sosa doublehandedly brought the game back to popularity.Baseball condoned them.Bonds eclipsed them.He won 4 straight MVP awards despite being disliked by the writers.He was simply the best
While I'm on the HOF subject, Rich 'Goose' Gossage ranks as the #2 all-time relief pitcher behind Mariano Rivera.It is not close.No sane person can argue with me on that one.He was a dominating reliever for nine straight years. Put him in the Hall Of Fame.
