Friday, August 25, 2023

Tito Francona (not Terry) and the case for Hits being the qualifier for leading in Batting Average (BA).

Photo of Tito Francona

Tito Francona

Positions: Outfielder, First Baseman and Pinch Hitter

Bats: Left  •  Throws: Left

5-11, 190lb (180cm, 86kg)

Born: November 4, 1933 in Aliquippa, PA us

Died: February 13, 2018 (Aged 84-101d) in New Brighton, PA






Tito Francona is the father of Terry Francona. Terry is best known as a manager, currently of the Cleveland baseball club. To the extent that Tito is known, he is best known for having the highest Batting Average (BA) in the American League (AL) in 1959, Tito's first with the Cleveland team: .363. But Tito did not qualify for leading in the rate (average) stats: BA, OBP, SLG. A brief digression:

Archaic rate stats criteria should be changed. The strange tale of Javy Lopez. Tuesday, August 15, 2023

The lazy boy way baseball determines whether a batter qualifies in a season for any of the basic "rate" stats is to use the one that only makes sense for OBP.

Batting Average is Hits/AB. No BB.

SLG (slugging average) is TB/AB. No BB.

I don't know what the newer more esoteric "rate" stats use as a qualifier.

The direct way to fix this is to use the denominator (bottom of the equation) as the qualifier. But another that I've recommended and which would deal with the example of Javy Lopez is to use the numerator (top of the equation). Say what? ...

For batting rate stats, generally a minimum of 3.1 Plate Appearances ...

https://www.baseball-reference.com/about/leader_glossary.shtml#min_req

From 1938-1944, the AL used 400 at bats and the NL stayed with 100 games, as discovered by Paul Rivard of SABR...

From 1957 to the present, a player must have 3.1 plate appearances per team game. Note, however, that from 1967 to the present a player could lead if they still led after the necessary number of hitless plate appearances were added to their at bat total...

________

... make qualifiers of N batters who are tops in the total stat that is the numerator. Maybe 2 or 3 multiplied by the number of teams in the league. I'm flexible on this and see that an odd season may occur in which that produces too few. So build in some flex.

____________________________

BA qualifier in 1959 for the old 154 game schedule: 3.1 * 154 = 477 PA. 

Note: The SABR bio states what I think is an error:

Francona was not a starter with the 1959 Indians, but still led the team in batting with a .363 average in 399 at-bats...

... despite his .363 batting average, he fell one at-bat shy (399) of qualifying for the batting title, which was won by Detroit’s Harvey Kuenn, who batted .353.

_______________________

In 1959 Tito Francona had 433 PA and 399 AB (At Bats).

BA = Hits / AB    145 / 399 = .363

The 1959 stats below suggest that the number of qualifiers among the eight AL teams for BA should be 4 * 8 = 32. The top 32 players in Hits in 1959 would qualify for leading in BA. Simple and fair.

Using stathead.com

For single seasons, in 1959, Playing in the AL, in the regular season, requiring Hits >= 140, sorted by descending Hits.

https://stathead.com/tiny/UUATh  Click that link to see the list of 19 sorted by Hits.

That yields only 19 batters, not 32. Tito Francona is number 15. But if we sort those 19 on BA, Tito Francona is number one. Here's the top ten sorted on BA:

Harvey Kuenn led the AL in Hits and was credited with beating teammate Al Kaline in BA. Tito Francona was an interesting footnote.

For single seasons, in 1959, Playing in the AL, in the regular season, requiring Plate Appearances >= 477, sorted by descending Plate Appearances.

https://stathead.com/tiny/ZpIOJ  Click that link to see the list of 35 sorted by Hits.

The 35 batters does not include Tito Francona. If we sort it on Hits, George Strickland, Tito's Cleveland teammate, qualifies with 105 Hits. Strickland had .238 BA, the second lowest among the 35 qualifiers.

How the heck did George Strickland deserve to qualify and not Tito Francona?

Among the 35 qualifiers, only 15 had at least the 145 Hits that Tito Francona had.

Is there any logical reason to NOT use Hits as the qualifier?

In 1959 the New York Yankees had an off year, led by their best player, Mickey Mantle, having an off year by the criteria of the time. 

https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/AL/1959.shtml

Win totals:
White Sox 94
Cleveland 89
Yankees 79

MVP points:
Nellie Fox CHW 295
Luis Aparicio CHW 255
Early Wynn CHW 123 (won Cy Young award)
Rocky Colavito CLE 117
Tito Francona CLE 102
Kaline 6th, Kuenn 8th

The next year, 1960, Tito Francona led the AL with 36 doubles. That's his only league leading stat, including negative stats, in his career 1956-1970. He qualified for BA in PA five times: 1956, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963.

https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Tito-Francona/

John Patsy Francona was born on November 4, 1933, in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, on the Ohio border. He was the second son (older brother David) born to Mr. and Mrs. Carmen Francona. He was given the nickname Tito (“little one” in Italian) by his father. Carmen Francona worked most of his life as a tool grinder in the steel mills. He supplemented his income by tuning pianos on the side. When Tito was 10, the Francona clan relocated to nearby New Brighton. “My mom wanted to get away from all that smoke,”4 recalled Francona...

On October 6, 2012, Terry Francona was named the 42nd manager in Cleveland Indians history. Terry played 10 years in the major leagues (1981-1990). Like his father, he was an outfielder-first baseman. He managed in Philadelphia and Boston, leading the Red Sox to two world championships, in 2004 and 2007.

John “Tito” Francona died at the age of 84 on February 13, 2018.

____________________

Mickey Mantle addendum to previous post about Tito Francona: 1959 AL MVP. Friday, August 25, 2023

Posted by at
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment