Beyond the Box Score: An SB Nation Community

Navigation: Jump to content areas:


Pro Quality. Fan Perspective.
Around SBN: Can Tebow Say No To Anything?

Graph of the Day: 61+ Home Run Seasons

Only four men have ever hit more than 60 home runs in a single season.  In the seven seasons in which they achieved the feat, they racked up 462 home runs between them, or an average of 66 per year.

But not every massive home run season is created equal. Today's graph of the day compares those seven seasons using Rally's batting runs above average (BRAA) from his WAR calculations, Win Probability Added, and Win Probability Added divided by the average Leverage Index, which Tango suggests might be the best way to measure a player's contextual value.

61__homer_seasons_19044_image001_medium

Bonds had by far the most offensive value in his 73 home run season, with Sosa's 2001 and McGwire's 1998 vying for second. 

Sosa's 1999 wasn't that impressive a season except for the 63 home runs.  It doesn't even make the top 500 seasons since 1954 in terms of WPA. This is just one illustration of why some people question whether he deserves to make the Hall of Fame (ignoring steroids, of course).

For those who are curious, I converted batting runs to batting wins using the simple 10 runs to 1 win conversion.  It's not exact, but it's easy and close enough.

The Win Expectancy and Leverage Index data is licensed from http://www.InsideTheBook.com

Batting runs above average from Sean Smith's BaseballProjection site.

0 recs  |  Comment 3 comments |

Story-email Email Printer Print

Around SB Nation

This Day in LSB History

Jan 2010 from Lone Star Ball - 49 comments

Roids: Let's Talk About'em

Jan 2010 from Front Office Fans - 3 comments

McGwire? Steroids?  Whaaaaaaaat?

Jan 2010 from Twinkie Town - 43 comments

Comments

Display:

Sosa's 2001 Better Than 1998

I’ve always thought of 2001 as Sosa’s signature season. I even thought Sosa was a decent, if not good, rightfielder in 2001. Sosa had a better batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage in 2001 than he did in 1998.

"The big possums walk late." - Harry Caray

by memphiscub on Jun 29, 2009 1:23 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Fits Sosa's reputation as a garbage time hitter.

OverTheMonster - ALLERGEN WARNING: May contain peanut butter.

by bs.uf15bosox9bears23 on Jun 29, 2009 4:45 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Comments For This Post Are Closed


User Tools

We use numbers and stuff.
Community Guidelines
Why be a member?
Start posting on Beyond the Box Score »

Join SB Nation and dive into communities focused on all your favorite teams.

FanPosts

Community blog posts and discussion.

Recommended FanPosts

770insig_small
BtB's "Ball On A Budget" Fantasy League - Discuss Participants, Payrolls and Position Eligibility

Recent FanPosts

Ds9_small
good graphing program?
Small
Predicting HR/FB Rates
Leopold_butter_scotch_southpark_small
Troy Tulowitzki vs Ryan Braun
Small
Pitchers batted ball observations
Small
Eric Byrnes: A player worth a look?
Small
Valverde Is Charging Detroit Double
Mukuro_small
Another question: About power rankings
Small
Why You Shouldn't Trade for Arroyo
Jinaz-reds-avatar_small
Last Call for BtB Sabermetric Writing Award Nominations

+ New FanPost All FanPosts >

FanShots

Quick hits of video, photos, quotes, chats, links and lists that you find around the web.

Recent FanShots

Can you spot the five guys NOT in the Hall of Fame? It's easy, I separated 'em for ya. :)

Here's the full post about guys elected to the Hall of Fame primarily for their defense. Guys like Brooks Robinson, Ozzie Smith, Bobby Wallace, John Ward, and Bid McPhee stand up as definite HOFers, with many others worthy of debate (and a couple aren't worth any debate at all).

I almost made it through the whole post without comparing some HOFers to our friends Bill Dahlen, Lou Whitaker, Bobby Grich, Alan Trammell, and Ron Santo. Almost.
If you care about newspaper coverage of MLB, read this post
Visualizing the Difference Between Offensive and Defensive Value for Catchers
First B-Pro and now ESPN. Tommy, you're growing up so fast
THT - Advancing by ground
Negro League Museum Close to Folding
It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one...
Ranking Minor League Systems Using Victors Wang's Prospect Valuations
Pitch f/x on Ricky Nolasco Stretch vs. Windup again
Veron Wells the artist.  I never knew.

http://www.vwellsart.com/

+ New FanShot All FanShots >

BtB on Twitter

Main Feed: @BtBScore

Jeff: @jeffwzimmerman
Steve: @steve_sommer
Sky: @BtB_Sky
Dan: @dturkenk
Harry: @harrypav
Jinaz: @jinazreds
Jack: @jh_moore
Erik: @Erik_Manning
Tommy R: @trancel
Justin: @justinbopp

Subscribe to BtB via Email

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

BtB Goes Social


Managers

Wbc_029_small Jeff Sullivan

Editors

Rawlings_baseball_bigger_small Dan Turkenkopf

Limes_125_small Sky Kalkman

770insig_small Jeff Zimmerman (TucsonRoyal)

Aviles_small Justin Bopp

Authors

Roots_game_small R.J. Anderson

Jinaz-reds-avatar_small JinAZ

Face_small Harry Pavlidis

1753738656_110919ebe9_o_small vivaelpujols

Ozzie_small erik

Raysring1_small Tommy Rancel

Redcap_small SFiercex4

St_louis_cardinals_ce1141_003263_small stevesommer05

Paige_small Satchel Price