Is the league's best hitter the one with the most hits? No, we still persist in calling the league leader in batting average (BA) the batting champion, the one who led the league in hitting.
Quaint, right. But even BA is significantly better than mindlessly considering the Home Run King to be the one with the most Home Runs.
Perhaps most pathetic is that this must even be pointed out.
A series of recent posts grouped under the label Home Run rates addresses this. The methodology, such as it is, could be improved. This new series will address that but the point of all this is that Home Run hitting by individuals should be judged by more than the total.
The previous posts on Home Run rates looked at the top Home Run hitters, yes, based on total Home Runs, for all of MLB per year and the number of Home Run hitters were the number of teams, plus any tied at the bottom. In other words, instead of comparing an individual's Home Run rate (AB/HR) to his entire league or in those posts both leagues (MLB), it was compared only to the top N Home Run hitters, including the hitter himself, one of the flaws in the method.
The other flaw is that even in 2019 batters in each "league" face mostly different pitchers and play in different ball parks, even with inter-league play.
So two changes for this new series:
- look at batters in their own league
- subtract the individual's numbers from that of the group of other batters before making the comparison.
This second was done in a different series on this general topic a few years ago, including:
Home Run Proficiency Career Sunday, January 6, 2013
Batters retired 1954-1979 (165 batters):
Top 14
| First | Last | Y |
|---|---|---|
| Ted | Williams | 2.64056124469667 |
| Ralph | Kiner | 2.325441451065 |
| Harmon | Killebrew | 1.86478286445436 |
| Mickey | Mantle | 1.77401631775621 |
Finally, this new series is being done on somewhat of an anecdotal basis using a spreadsheet, not a database of all batters 1920-2019, 100 years as in the recent 2019 series. This time it's only 8 years: 1954-1961.
Why those years? They're interesting. They are before the designated hitter (DH) was introduced in the American League (AL) in 1973 and before modern expansion, except for the AL in 1961 when it added the Angels and new Senators, who later moved to Texas and changed their name to Rangers. Obviously, the years are also way before inter-league play started in 1997.
1954-1961 covers prime years for these players: Duke Snider, Eddie Mathews, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Frank Robinson, Harmon Killebrew, Rocky Colavito and Roger Maris.
Also active were two OK Home Run hitters: Ted Williams and Stan Musial. Musial never led the NL in Home Runs and topped out at 39.
3. Home Run rates summary (AB/HR) leaders 1920-2019. Saturday, November 30, 2019
PctDif: Dif/Home Run Rate MLB ...
The data covers 100 seasons. Including ties 112 batters led MLB in home runs in those 100 seasons. 57 of 112 HR leaders also led in PctDif: 50.9%...
52 batters led in the 100 seasons, 32 only once. Here are the 20 who led more than once. PctDif in decimal, not percentage form. Max and Min are for the data in this study. Sorted by Num, YearMin:
| First | Last | Num | PctDifMax | PctDifMin | HRmax | HRmin | YearMin | YearMax |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Babe | Ruth | 10 | 0.7633968 | 0.3809697 | 60 | 35 | 1920 | 1931 |
| Mark | McGwire | 7 | 0.4916667 | 0.2706873 | 70 | 39 | 1987 | 1999 |
| Ralph | Kiner | 6 | 0.4572729 | 0.2308102 | 54 | 37 | 1947 | 1952 |
| Barry | Bonds | 5 | 0.5251974 | 0.3024919 | 73 | 45 | 2000 | 2004 |
| Jimmie | Foxx | 4 | 0.4998518 | 0.2894046 | 58 | 35 | 1932 | 1939 |
| Ted | Williams | 4 | 0.4378258 | 0.2956722 | 38 | 29 | 1941 | 1960 |
| Harmon | Killebrew | 3 | 0.3579831 | 0.2529002 | 48 | 44 | 1962 | 1967 |
| Hank | Aaron | 3 | 0.453768 | 0.2934275 | 47 | 34 | 1971 | 1973 |
| Dave | Kingman | 3 | 0.4243013 | 0.2908016 | 48 | 36 | 1975 | 1979 |
| Mike | Schmidt | 3 | 0.4281405 | 0.2782008 | 48 | 31 | 1980 | 1983 |
...
Ted Williams is a surprise, leading four times, including in his final season: 1960. We don't tend to think of Williams as a home run hitter because his season high was only 43 but much of that was due to all the walks he received.
_______________________
Ted Williams led in PctDif among top N MLB home run hitters in 1941, 1942, 1957, 1960. He led the in Home Run total:
1941: 37; NL Dolf Camilli 34
1942: 36; NL Met Ott 30
1947: 32; NL Ralph Kiner 51
1949: 43; NL Ralph Kiner 54
Ted Williams was 35 years old for most of the 1954 season, turning 36 August 30, 1954. He retired after the 1960 season. Yet in his final seven seasons, 1954-1960, Ted Williams had the best AL Home Run rate (AB/HR) four times, including 1960, but never with the most Home Runs. Players in bold led that league in Home Runs that season.
* lefty # switch hitter
AB: At Bats
HR: Home Runs
American League (AL) and National League (NL)
Home Run Rate: AB/HR (lower is better)
N: number of AL or NL teams that season
Top home run hitters: N hitters with the most HR, plus any ties at the bottom
Home Run Rate AL or NL: for N hitters: total AB / total HR
Home Run Rate hitters: AB/HR
Dif: Home Run Rate hitter - other Home Run Rate AL or NL N hitters
PctDif: Dif/Home Run Rate AL or NL
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, ...
The competition was generally better in the NL, which accounts for the AL leaders having higher PctDif.
Detailed data for each season will be presented in subsequent posts. This introductory post was intentionally kept simple. Click this link to view the data.
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