Thursday, December 13, 2012

Home Run Proficiency relative to League.

Babe Ruth dominates as do other batters of the 1920s and 1930s.    Ruth took spots 1 through 9, 11, 13.  Of the top 19 spots, the only one later: Hank Greenberg 1946: 4.43 time more proficient at hitting home runs (HR) than the other batters in his league that season.  Best position after Greenberg: Mike Schmidt 21 (1980).

To see the data click this link.  Criteria: HR >= 35 and (AB/HR) < 12.  That produced 116 seasons.

See this post:
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Season Home Run record 1: Bonds, McGwire, Maris, Ruth, Craveth.

(P-(L-P))/((L-P)
In this equation each letter represents (HR/AB) for either the player or the league minus the player.  The result is the number of times the player's HR rate is better than all the other batters in that league that season.
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In the data provided the column X represents the equation described above.

Ruth in 1920 was 14.5 times more  proficient at hitting HR than the other batters in his league that season.  That was number one among the 116 seasons examined.  Ruth had all three seasons in which a batter was at least ten times more proficient than his peers.

Note: Mark McGwire in 1997 played in two leagues and his data for that season needs to be adjusted.

The most HR in a season for Barry Bonds and Hank Aaron were also their best using this method of evaluation but they placed 23 and 24 respectively.  See post:

Monday, December 3, 2012
Barry Bonds and Hank Aaron: Home Runs.

Season high:
Bonds 2001 73, 476 AB; final team game 10/7/2001; age 37.2
Aaron 1971 47, 495 AB; final team game 9/28/1971; age 37.7

Aaron was 160 days older than Bonds.
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The next place for either was Aaron #28: 1973, age 39.  See post:

Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Those 1973 Atlanta Braves: was there something in the water?

Roger Maris was number 43, 2.81 times better than the others in 1961.  Mickey Mantle's two 50 HR seasons: 36 (1956) and 40 (1961).  Willie Mays two 50 HR seasons: 33 (1965) and 84 (1955).

Mark McGwire: 20 (1998), 34 (1995), 35 (1992), 38 (1999), 47 (1996), 57 (1997), 104 (1987).

Sammy Sosa: 46 (1998), 62 (2001), 72 (1999), 81 (2002).

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