Monday, August 15, 2016

Ted Williams hit .394 in 1941 against teams not the Yankees.

Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941. Williams is the last batter to qualify for league lead in averages with a batting average (BA) of at least .400.

Williams had his highest BA (.471) against the New York Yankees (101-53) who won the American League pennant by 17 games over Boston and then the World Series in 1941. His second highest BA was against the Philadelphia Athletics (64-90): .444. Williams hit below .400 against three teams: Washington Senators, Chicago, Detroit (only .338). Ted Williams hit .394 in 1941 against teams not the Yankees. Ironically, the AL BA against Yankee pitchers was the AL lowest: .248. AL BA: .266.

1941 Yankees pitchers:

Rk Pos Name Age W L W-L% ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP BK WP BF ERA+ FIP WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 SO/W
1 SP Marius Russo* 26 14 10 .583 3.09 28 27 1 17 3 1 209.2 195 85 72 8 87 105 1 0 3 886 128 3.42 1.345 8.4 0.3 3.7 4.5 1.21
2 SP Red Ruffing 36 15 6 .714 3.54 23 23 0 13 2 0 185.2 177 87 73 13 54 60 1 0 1 771 112 3.82 1.244 8.6 0.6 2.6 2.9 1.11
3 SP Spud Chandler 33 10 4 .714 3.19 28 20 5 11 4 4 163.2 146 68 58 5 60 60 0 0 3 682 124 3.43 1.259 8.0 0.3 3.3 3.3 1.00
4 SP Atley Donald 30 9 5 .643 3.57 22 20 2 10 0 0 159.0 141 69 63 11 69 71 3 0 5 673 111 4.03 1.321 8.0 0.6 3.9 4.0 1.03
5 SP Lefty Gomez* 32 15 5 .750 3.74 23 23 0 8 2 0 156.1 151 76 65 10 103 76 1 0 5 712 106 4.52 1.625 8.7 0.6 5.9 4.4 0.74
6 SP Marv Breuer 27 9 7 .563 4.09 26 18 4 7 1 2 141.0 131 73 64 10 49 77 2 1 4 595 97 3.58 1.277 8.4 0.6 3.1 4.9 1.57
Rk Pos Name Age W L W-L% ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP BK WP BF ERA+ FIP WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 SO/W
7 CL Johnny Murphy 32 8 3 .727 1.98 35 0 31 0 0 15 77.1 68 20 17 1 40 29 0 0 3 333 200 3.63 1.397 7.9 0.1 4.7 3.4 0.73
8 RP Tiny Bonham 27 9 6 .600 2.98 23 14 5 7 1 2 126.2 118 44 42 12 31 43 1 0 0 518 132 3.97 1.176 8.4 0.9 2.2 3.1 1.39
9 RP Steve Peek 26 4 2 .667 5.06 17 8 2 2 0 0 80.0 85 48 45 6 39 18 0 0 1 350 78 4.65 1.550 9.6 0.7 4.4 2.0 0.46
10 RP Charley Stanceu 25 3 3 .500 5.63 22 2 9 0 0 0 48.0 58 41 30 3 35 21 1 0 1 241 71 4.85 1.938 10.9 0.6 6.6 3.9 0.60
11 RP Norm Branch 26 5 1 .833 2.87 27 0 22 0 0 2 47.0 37 16 15 2 26 28 0 0 2 195 138 3.68 1.340 7.1 0.4 5.0 5.4 1.08
Rk Pos Name Age W L W-L% ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP BK WP BF ERA+ FIP WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 SO/W
12 George Washburn 26 0 1 .000 13.50 1 1 0 0 0 0 2.0 2 4 3 0 5 1 0 0 1 12 35 9.16 3.500 9.0 0.0 22.5 4.5 0.20
Team Totals 29.8 101 53 .656 3.53 156 156 81 75 13 26 1396.1 1309 631 547 81 598 589 10 1 29 5968 112 3.88 1.366 8.4 0.5 3.9 3.8 0.98
Rank in 8 AL teams 1 8 2 2 2 1 2 1 1 1 4 4 3
Rk Pos Name Age W L W-L% ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP BK WP BF ERA+ FIP WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 SO/W
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 8/14/2016.

1941 Yankee pitchers against Ted Williams:
NamePAABH2B3BHRRBIBBSOBAOBPSLGOPS
Marius Russo12127100202.583.583.6671.250
Red Ruffing
Spud Chandler14105000342.500.643.5001.143
Atley Donald732100040.667.8571.0001.857
Lefty Gomez181410201340.714.7781.0711.849
Marv Breuer1491000251.111.429.111.540
Johnny Murphy420000020.000.500.000.500
Tiny Bonham1193001220.333.455.6671.121
Steve Peek332100100.667.6671.0001.667
Charley Stanceu632000130.667.833.6671.500
Norm Branch330000000.000.000.000.000
George Washburn
Total92683250214245.471
GSPAABH2B3BHRRBIBBSOBAOBPSLGOPS
2192683250214245.471.609.6321.241

As you can see the biggest culprit was Hall of Famer Lefty Gomez. The other 1941 Yankee Hall of Fame pitcher was Red Ruffing who did not pitch against the second place Red Sox (84-70) that season. Ruffing did pitch against Boston in 1940 and 1942. It may have been an oddity of scheduling. Ruffing started game one of the World Series far more often than Gomez and that was true in 1941 against the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Williams may have been lucky against the Yankees in 1941. His BAbip was .492; next highest: .420 against Cleveland. Against all teams his BAbip was .378.

Williams BA:
home: .428
road: .380

His BA against the Yankees was over .400 both home and road.

1 comment:

Walker said...

Funny that Williams' BABIP was so high against the Yankees -- Gomez in particular -- given the statement "I'd rather be lucky than good," most often attributed to the Yankee southpaw.