1. Top Home Run hitters rates per year.

This is the first in a series of posts that examine annual home run leaders among themselves, not compared to all players. A previous series of posts examined home run proficiency using rates (AB/HR) comparing leaders to all batters.

The groups of home run leaders each season in this analysis are for all of Major League Baseball (MLB), not broken down by American League and National League, even when those were separate leagues. This introduces a fundamental flaw: generally batters in each "league" are facing different pitchers and batting in different ballparks. This flaw was considered but the extra work didn't seem worth it. Plus, it smooths out pitchers batting and designated hitters.

Home run leaders each year 1920-2019 are just that, the batters who hit the most MLB homers. The number of batters included is roughly the number of teams. So, through 1960 that number would be about 16. For recent seasons, 30. That makes more sense than the top five or top ten, neither of which ever made much sense.

AB: At Bats
HR: Home Runs
MLB: Major League Baseball: both American League and National League
Home Run Rate: AB/HR (lower is better)
N: number of MLB teams that season
Top home run hitters: N hitters with the most HR, plus any ties at the bottom
Home Run Rate MLB: for N hitters: total AB / total HR
Home Run Rate hitters: AB/HR
Dif: Home Run Rate hitter - Home Run Rate MLB
PctDif: Dif/Home Run Rate MLB
HR#: rank among N hitters for HR
PctDif#: rank among N hitters for PctDif

Hitters are ranked by relative position: 1, 2, 3, ... Ties would have the same number and then rank number would resume. For example, if four players are tied at third place: 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 7, 8, ...

Eventually, batter rates (AB/HR) will be compared with the cumulative rate for all the leading home run hitters that season and a percentage difference figured. The best home run hitter will be the one with the highest percent above the rate for the group, not simply the hitter with the most home runs. Batters will receive new ranks reflecting that and the difference in ranks will be compared: percentage difference v. total home runs.

This post presents the annual group data for the 100 seasons examined. Click link to view all the data.

Best ten group (AB/HR): 1999, 2001, 1996, ...

qryHomeRunsTopN

Rank	yearID	AB/HR	HR	AB	AB/HRmin	AB/HRmax	HRmax	HRmin	Batters	Teams
1	1999	13.61	1253	17056	8.02	17.91	65	34	31	30
2	2001	13.73	1293	17757	6.52	18.38	73	34	31	30
3	1996	13.87	1252	17360	8.13	17.88	52	34	31	28
4	2019	13.93	1342	18696	10.44	18.17	53	34	35	30
5	2000	14.04	1268	17808	9.80	18.49	50	33	32	30
6	1961	14.17	694	9833	9.52	20.04	61	28	18	18
7	1998	14.30	1258	17995	7.27	19.39	70	31	31	30
8	2006	14.42	1236	17827	10.02	20.56	58	32	32	30
9	1994	14.57	872	12707	10.26	21.95	43	20	32	28
10	2003	14.76	1120	16536	8.67	20.55	47	30	30	30

Middle ten group (AB/HR):

qryHomeRunsTopN

Rank	yearID	AB/HR	HR	AB	AB/HRmin	AB/HRmax	HRmax	HRmin	Batters	Teams
44	1964	17.19	688	11827	10.87	21.89	49	28	21	20
45	1990	17.28	845	14600	11.24	26.42	51	24	28	26
46	2010	17.49	995	17407	10.54	22.45	54	27	31	30
47	1929	17.52	523	9165	10.85	27.10	46	21	16	16
48	2013	17.67	918	16223	11.02	24.96	53	25	30	30
49	1991	17.70	799	14141	13.00	24.27	44	26	26	26
50	1985	17.74	802	14231	12.63	21.68	40	27	26	26
51	1965	17.77	657	11673	10.73	23.15	52	26	21	20
52	1963	17.83	683	12175	11.44	25.20	45	25	22	20
53	1973	17.94	747	13402	9.80	24.96	44	25	25	24

Worst ten group (AB/HR): 1920s and WWII (1942-1945)

qryHomeRunsTopN

Rank	yearID	AB/HR	HR	AB	AB/HRmin	AB/HRmax	HRmax	HRmin	Batters	Teams
91	1922	24.05	372	8945	11.60	48.08	42	13	17	16
92	1945	24.90	324	8068	17.64	33.80	28	14	17	16
93	1942	25.79	357	9208	14.50	44.43	36	14	17	16
94	1923	26.06	327	8522	12.73	49.00	41	13	16	16
95	1924	26.40	316	8343	11.50	48.25	46	12	16	16
96	1944	27.55	328	9038	15.35	35.69	33	15	17	16
97	1943	28.39	301	8544	16.52	47.46	34	13	16	16
98	1926	28.82	308	8878	10.53	47.91	47	11	18	16
99	1921	29.60	380	11248	9.15	52.00	59	12	20	16
100	1920	35.77	242	8656	8.46	55.64	54	10	16	16