Minor league stars can fail in MLB. Consider that in evaluating Negro League players.

Joe DiMaggio 1935: was the best player in the minors? Friday, June 19, 2015

In July 2010 my friend Eric suggested that Joe DiMaggio might have been the best player in 1935 even though he played in the Pacific Coast League.  Whether or not that was true, it got me thinking about why Joe played the 1935 season in the minors and not with the New York Yankees.

1. Was Joe DiMaggio the best player in 1935?

Negro league star Josh Gibson at the of age 23 in 1935 hit .372 with 8 homers in 161 plate appearances (PA). That’s not nearly enough to eclipse Joe DiMaggio’s accomplishments.

Japanese baseball was not on high enough level to seriously consider those players.

Joe DiMaggio will be compared to AL and NL players.

Joe's 1935 stats with the 1935 San Francisco Seals:

Joe played the most games on his team: 172.  Marv Gudat appears to have led the PCL with 176.

In the outfield Joe had 32 assists, 21 errors, fielding percentage .957, range factor per game 2.69.

Pacific Coast League batting leaders:

BA: Ox Eckhardt .399; Joe DiMaggio .398 ... Gene Lillard seventh at .361

Slugging Average: Gene Lillard .684; .Joe DiMaggio 672

Hits: Ox Eckhardt 283; Joe DiMaggio 270

2B: Moose Clabaugh 56, Jim Oglesby 56, Art Garibaldi 53, Joe DiMaggio 48

3B: Joe DiMaggio 18

HR: Gene Lillard 56; Joe DiMaggio 34

Total Bases: Joe DiMaggio 456; Gene Lillard 439

These stats were not kept: Runs, RBI, On Base Percentage, BB, SO, SB.

Like his MLB record DiMaggio had less black ink (lead league) than might be expected.

Gene Lillard may have been the best player in the PCL in 1935.  He had his career year.  Lillard played 44 MLB games as a Pitcher, Shortstop and Third Baseman.

_______________________

Stats for all players were taken from baseball-reference.com 

Numbers for Josh Gibson in the Negro Leagues database are not much different:

http://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/player.php?playerID=gibso01jos&tab=bat&mult=Indiv&sort=Year_a&adv_sort=Year_a

Let's look at two PCL stars: Gene Lillard and Ox Eckhardt. Their ages in 1935 were 21 and 33 respectively.

Lillard played 1932-1942 (break, probably for military service in WWII), 1946-1954 (age 40). Including the 56 PCL home runs he hit in 1935, Lillard hit 345 minor league home runs in 6,900 AB with a .303 BA. In MLB pitching and hitting:

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	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	Awards
1939	25	CHC	NL	3	5	.375	6.55	20	7	4	2	0	0	55.0	68	48	40	2	36	8	31	3	0	2	264	60	4.45	1.891	11.1	0.3	5.9	5.1	0.86
1940	26	STL	NL	0	1	.000	13.50	2	1	0	0	0	0	4.2	8	7	7	1	4	0	2	1	0	0	27	32	7.98	2.571	15.4	1.9	7.7	3.9	0.50
2 Yrs				3	6	.333	7.09	22	8	4	2	0	0	59.2	76	55	47	3	40	8	33	4	0	2	291	56	4.72	1.944	11.5	0.5	6.0	5.0	0.83

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB	Pos	Awards
1936	22	CHC	NL	19	37	34	6	7	1	0	0	2	0	0	3	8	.206	.270	.235	.506	36	8	3	0	0		0	H/65
1939	25	CHC	NL	23	16	10	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	3	.100	.438	.100	.538	50	1	0	0	0		0	1/H
1940	26	STL	NL	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0						0	0	0	0		0	/1
3 Yrs				44	53	44	9	8	1	0	0	2	0	0	9	11	.182	.321	.205	.525	43	9	3	0	0		0

Lillard hit zero home runs in 44 MLB AB.

Ox Eckhardt led the PCL in BA in 1932, 1933 (.414 in 760 AB), 1935; second in 1934 at .378 in 707 AB; third in 1931 at .369 in 745 AB. Eckhardt played 1926, 1928-1940 (age 38). MLB:

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB	Pos	Awards
1932	30	BSN	NL	8	8	8	1	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	.250	.250	.250	.500	37	2		0	0		0	/H
1936	34	BRO	NL	16	49	44	5	8	1	0	1	6	0	0	5	2	.182	.265	.273	.538	45	12	0	0	0		0	9/H

Neither Lillard or Eckhardt would be considered MLB caliber players, certainly not Hall of Famers. The difference between them and the Negro League players in those years is that Lillard or Eckhardt had the opportunity. If they hadn't tried and failed in MLB, we might assume that Lillard or Eckhardt would have performed at their same high minor league level in MLB. That would be a mistake.