Best All-Time Interpolated Seasons for Hitters

by Jeff Zimmerman (TucsonRoyal) on Dec 3, 2009 10:57 PM EST Comment 7 comments

Joe Mauer had a great season, even though he missing a few games. He got me thinking of which players had great seasons going, but were cut short by injury or a shorter season. I decided to ignore regression (I wanted to name the article "F___ Regression," but I don't think it would have flown too far) and project all players with greater than 100 PA as if they had 700 PA. Using Rally's WAR database, here are the top 21 seasons of all time if all the hitters had 700 PA.

Rank	Name	WAR700	Year	WAR	PA
1	Ross Barnes	15.3	1872	5.2	238
2	Ross Barnes	15.1	1876	7.4	342
3	Babe Ruth	14.8	1920	12.9	610
4	Babe Ruth	14.8	1923	14.7	696
5	Rogers Hornsby	14.5	1924	13	627
6	Babe Ruth	14.2	1921	14	689
7	Barry Bonds	14.1	2004	12.4	614
8	Mickey Mantle	14.1	1957	12.5	620
9	Ted Williams	14.0	1953	2.2	110
10	Barry Bonds	14.0	2002	12.2	610
11	Mickey Mantle	14.0	1956	12.9	647
12	Babe Ruth	13.8	1919	10.6	539
13	Fred Dunlap	13.5	1884	9.2	478
14	Gates Brown	13.5	1968	2	104
15	Ty Cobb	13.4	1910	11	574
16	Jeff Bagwell	13.3	1994	8.9	469
17	Joe Morgan	13.3	1975	12	633
18	Babe Ruth	13.2	1927	12.8	677
19	George Brett	13.2	1980	9.6	508
20	Barry Bonds	13.2	2001	12.5	662
21	Walter Johnson	13.2	1925	1.9	101

Notes from the data:

I went with 21 because I was amazed that Walter Johnson's name showed up. Here is his line from that 1925 season

Year	Age	Tm	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+
1925	37	WSH	36	107	97	12	42	6	1	2	20	3	6	.433	.455	.577	1.033	163

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Ross Barnes was a member of the "All Roscoe Team."
I expected more players with fewer than 300 PA to make list. Instead, only four did.
Babe Ruth's 1923 season is pretty amazing, in that he accumulated almost all the WAR himself and his value is barely projected.

Besides an over all list here are the top 5 players in each of the 50 PA intervals above 100:

Rank	Name	Year	WAR700	WAR	PA
1	Cal Ripken	1991	10.9	11.0	708
2	Jimmie Foxx	1932	10.7	10.7	701
3	Willie Mays	1962	10.6	10.6	703
4	Hank Aaron	1963	9.9	10.0	709
5	Stan Musial	1946	9.8	9.8	700

Rank	Name	Year	WAR700	WAR	PA
1	Babe Ruth	1923	14.8	14.7	696
2	Babe Ruth	1921	14.2	14.0	689
3	Babe Ruth	1927	13.2	12.8	677
4	Barry Bonds	2001	13.2	12.5	662
5	Ty Cobb	1917	12.8	11.9	653

Rank	Name	Year	WAR700	WAR	PA
1	Babe Ruth	1920	14.8	12.9	610
2	Rogers Hornsby	1924	14.5	13.0	627
3	Barry Bonds	2004	14.1	12.4	614
4	Mickey Mantle	1957	14.1	12.5	620
5	Barry Bonds	2002	14.0	12.2	610

Rank	Name	Year	WAR700	WAR	PA
1	Ty Cobb	1910	13.4	11.0	574
2	Honus Wagner	1907	12.4	10.0	566
3	Honus Wagner	1906	12.0	10.0	584
4	Joe Morgan	1976	11.9	10.0	587
5	Rogers Hornsby	1925	11.9	10.0	589

Rank	Name	Year	WAR700	WAR	PA
1	Babe Ruth	1919	13.8	10.6	539
2	George Brett	1980	13.2	9.6	508
3	Barry Bonds	2003	13.2	10.3	548
4	Roger Connor	1885	13.1	9.5	506
5	Ted Williams	1957	12.7	9.9	544

Rank	Name	Year	WAR700	WAR	PA
1	Fred Dunlap	1884	13.5	9.2	478
2	Jeff Bagwell	1994	13.3	8.9	469
3	Ty Cobb	1918	10.9	7.2	464
4	Dave Orr	1884	10.7	7.1	464
5	Ezra Sutton	1884	10.7	7.6	497

Rank	Name	Year	WAR700	WAR	PA
1	Mike Schmidt	1981	12.3	7.6	431
2	Ross Barnes	1875	11.7	6.7	400
3	Andre Dawson	1981	11.7	7.3	436
4	Ted Williams	1955	11.4	6.7	413
5	Buddy Bell	1981	10.7	6.2	405


Rank	Name	Year	WAR700	WAR	PA
1	Cap Anson	1881	12.1	6.4	369
2	Babe Ruth	1918	11.5	6.2	377
3	Dan Brouthers	1882	11.1	5.9	372
4	Bobby Grich	1981	10.4	5.9	396
5	Cal McVey	1875	10.2	5.7	390


Rank	Name	Year	WAR700	WAR	PA
1	Ross Barnes	1876	15.1	7.4	342
2	Ross Barnes	1873	10.7	5.2	340
3	Joe DiMaggio	1949	10.6	5.0	329
4	George Gore	1880	10.6	5.2	343
5	Pete Browning	1882	10.3	4.6	314

Rank	Name	Year	WAR700	WAR	PA
1	George Wright	1872	10.6	3.9	258
2	Solly Hemus	1954	10.2	4.0	274
3	Charlie Bennett	1888	9.6	4.0	291
4	Orator Shaffer	1878	9.5	3.8	279
5	Charlie Bennett	1886	9.4	3.8	283

Rank	Name	Year	WAR700	WAR	PA
1	Ross Barnes	1872	15.3	5.2	238
2	Mickey Mantle	1963	10.9	3.3	212
3	Willie McCovey	1959	9.6	3.0	218
4	Carlton Fisk	1974	9.5	2.9	213
5	Buck Herzog	1908	9.3	2.7	203

Rank	Name	Year	WAR700	WAR	PA
1	Ross Barnes	1871	11.9	2.9	170
2	Nig Clarke	1906	11.6	3.2	193
3	Jack Lapp	1911	10.6	2.9	191
4	George Uhle	1923	10.2	2.2	151
5	Greg Goossen	1969	9.9	2.2	156

Rank	Name	Year	WAR700	WAR	PA
1	Ted Williams	1953	14.0	2.2	110
2	Gates Brown	1968	13.5	2.0	104
3	Walter Johnson	1925	13.2	1.9	101
4	Don Newcombe	1955	13.0	2.3	124
5	Babe Ruth	1915	12.5	1.8	101

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Comments

Does the 1919 data for Babe include pitching?

by Tommy Bennett on Dec 3, 2009 11:04 PM EST reply actions

Just hitting

Walter would of had a crazy 1925 season

Jeff Zimmerman - Protecting the world from RBI's and Wins from my mom's guest house.

by Jeff Zimmerman (TucsonRoyal) on Dec 3, 2009 11:12 PM EST up reply actions

The first person I thought of

was Frank Thomas in the strike shortened season of ’94.
He was batting .353/.487/.729 with an OPS+ of 211.

waiting for shaun phigguns since 2007

by soxshenanigans on Dec 4, 2009 1:00 AM EST reply actions

He was number 481 - His defensive adjustment killed him.

Jeff Zimmerman - Protecting the world from RBI's and Wins from my mom's guest house.

by Jeff Zimmerman (TucsonRoyal) on Dec 4, 2009 1:03 AM EST up reply actions

Roscoe Rules

that is all.

godfather of futureredbirds.net

by erik on Dec 4, 2009 10:36 AM EST reply actions

Do you mean "extrapolate"?

Interpolation would mean you want to estimate a non-existent data point within a set of data … I think you mean “extrapolate” which means to estimate data points outside the given data.

by Ryry9379 on Dec 4, 2009 6:10 PM EST reply actions

Yeah, Bonds is up there a few times with Babe Ruth

But he doesn’t deserve to be in the Hall of Fame because a) we proved he used steroids (okay, so everyone knows he did, but there was never any concrete evidence) and b) it was all the steroids; if he wasn’t injecting himself he would’ve been a career .200/.300/.400 hitter with ten home runs and c) the media hates him and a player’s likability in the media is what should matter when you’re inducting guys.

by quincy0191 on Dec 5, 2009 5:03 PM EST reply actions