Thursday, May 30, 2024

Baseball Reference shows a hint of sanity on Negro Leagues data added to MLB: Josh Gibson does not qualify for BA, SLG, OPS.

Top leaderboard changes as Negro Leagues join Major League record
May 29th, 2024 Andrew Simon, mlb.com

Gibson, with a .372 average in the official stats, is now the all-time Major League batting champion...

Slugging (average) now Ruth is No. 2 on the list. That’s again thanks to Gibson...

OPS ... Once more, Gibson (1.177) surpasses Ruth (1.164) for first place.

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Josh Gibson 37th in Plate Appearances in Negro Leagues. And NOT highest season BA! Wednesday, May 29, 2024

Tetelo Vargas had only 121 AB. Maybe that was too few for MLB. Ironic since Gibson had only 2,168 for his career compared to 11,440 for Cobb. But:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/batting_avg_season.shtml

RankPlayer (age that year)Batting AverageYearPABats
1.Tetelo Vargas (37).47111943136R
2.Josh Gibson+ (31).46591943302R
3.Lyman Bostock (23).4658194184L

Oh, what a tangled web.

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Lyman Bostock played for the 1941 Birmingham Black Barons. They played 45 games (28-17). How the heck does Bostock qualify for BA either using PA or AB? 2.6*45=117 AB minimum. Bostock had 73 AB. Bostock played 23 of his team's 45 games. His qualifying must be based on his games: 2.6*23=60 AB.

What the heck?

See below.

For season rate/average stats:

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

  • From 1920-1948 in the Negro Leagues, a player must have 2.6 at bats per team game...
  • 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.
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Note for Negro Leagues it's AB, not PA.

I think it's games played by the team, not by the player. I don't think a player can play one game, go 2 for 3 and be declared BA leader.

The 1943 New York Cubans played 34 games, so 2.6*34=88 AB required. The brand new BA season record holder Tetelo Vargas had 121 AB.

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But I noticed that career requires 3,000 PA and Josh Gibson is not listed at all. Is that a change? Did Baseball Reference require more PA previously?

Cobb is still #1:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/batting_avg_career.shtml

Minimum of 1000 IP, 3000 PA, 500 games (fielding, 500 IP for Ps), 200 stolen base attempts (catchers) or 80 stolen base attempts (baserunners only since 1951) or 100 decisions for career and active leaderboards for rate statistics.

RankPlayer (yrs, age)Batting AveragePABats
1.Ty Cobb+ (24).366213103L
2.Oscar Charleston+ (17).36483885L
3.Rogers Hornsby+ (23).35859481R
4.Joe Jackson (13).35585697L
5.Jud Wilson+ (21).35043563L
6.Lefty O'Doul (11).34933660L
7.Turkey Stearnes+ (18).34834279L
8.Ed Delahanty+ (16).34588402R
9.Tris Speaker+ (22).344712020L
10.Billy Hamilton+ (14).34447609L
 Ted Williams+ (19).34449792L

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Wednesday, May 29, 2024

Josh Gibson 37th in Plate Appearances in Negro Leagues. And NOT highest season BA!

Major League Baseball (MLB) ...

What to know about Negro Leagues stats entering MLB Record May 29, 2024
Anthony Castrovince

Major League Baseball’s embrace of the Negro Leagues is now recognized in the record book, resulting in new-look leaderboards fronted in several prominent places by Hall of Famer Josh Gibson and an overdue appreciation of many other Black stars.

Following the 2020 announcement that seven different Negro Leagues from 1920-1948 would be recognized as Major Leagues, MLB announced Wednesday that it has followed the recommendations of the independent Negro League Statistical Review Committee in absorbing the available Negro Leagues numbers into the official historical record...

Gibson, the legendary catcher and power hitter who played for the Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords, is now MLB’s all-time leader in batting average, slugging percentage and OPS and holds the all-time single-season records in each of those categories.

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https://stathead.com/tiny/WrWoG

For combined seasons, from 1920 to 1948, Playing in the NAL or NNL or NN2 or EWL or NSL or ANL or ECL, in the regular season, requiring Plate Appearances >= 2500, sorted by descending Plate Appearances.

Provided by Stathead.com: Found with Stathead.
Generated 5/29/2024.

Josh Gibson is last. Gibson spent 1940 and 1941 playing in the Mexican League, which is not included by Major League Baseball (MLB). However, even if we double Gibson's highest Plate Appearances (PA) in a season (302) that only brings him to 3,128 (#14).

Let's sort these 37 Negro Leagues players on the two stats that Gibson is now recognized by MLB as the all time leader: Batting Average and Slugging average (it's in the form of an average despite people on calling it percent). Both stats are based on At Bats (AB), not PA.

Batting Average:

Oscar Charleston is only two point behind Ty Cobb, the players who has been recognized as having the highest MLB BA since he retired after the 1928 season, 96 years ago. Charleston has 55% more At Bats than Gibson. Cobb has 11,440 AB, 5th most in MLB history.

Part of the reason for the discrepancies is that Negro League teams played only about 69 regular season games. MLB teams played 154 games from 1903-1960, then 162 starting in the American League in 1961, followed by the National League in 1962. Another reason is that Negro League is incomplete. AL and NL data is complete since 1950 and the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) continues to add and correct going further back in time.

A few years ago SABR researchers reduced Cobb's BA from .367 to its current .366 when correcting minor errors in the official data.

Slugging:

Gibson has a big lead but again with far fewer AB than #2 Mule Suttles.

Gibson's highest BA and SLG came in 1943 

I just found something that impacts the MLB narrative about Gibson also having the season record for BA.

Gibson's highest BA is in 1943 when he had his highest AB and PA: .466.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gibsojo99.shtml

But it's not black ink. If someone in NN2 had a higher BA in 1943, shouldn't that player be recognized?

Gibson's top ten in BA:

Batting Average
1933 NN2  .395 (2nd)
1935 NN2  .369 (5th)
1936 NN2  .389 (1st)
1937 NN2  .417 (1st)
1938 NN2  .370 (3rd)
1939 NN2  .402 (1st)
1942 NN2  .327 (5th)
1943 NN2  .466 (2nd)
1944 NN2  .335 (9th)
1945 NN2  .357 (4th)
1946 NN2  .318 (9th)

1943: .466 (2nd).

What the heck? But wait:

1943 Negro National League II Batting Leaders


Batting Average
1.Vargas • NYC.471
2.Gibson • HG.466
3.Benjamin • HG.372
4.Coimbre • NYC.360
5.Harris • HG.358
6.Bell • HG.355
7.Easterling • HG.352
8.Benson • PS.337
9.Leonard • HG.331
10.Davis • NE.326


Tetelo Vargas had only 121 AB. Maybe that was too few for MLB. Ironic since Gibson had only 2,168 for his career compared to 11,440 for Cobb. But:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/batting_avg_season.shtml

RankPlayer (age that year)Batting AverageYearPABats
1.Tetelo Vargas (37).47111943136R
2.Josh Gibson+ (31).46591943302R
3.Lyman Bostock (23).4658194184L

Oh, what a tangled web.

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That's enough. This whole thing is nonsense and now it may not even be accurate nonsense.

Maybe MLB will move the All Star game again.

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