Most times on base in 2007
Posted by Andy on August 24, 2007
Times on base isn't a stat we look at all that often. The basic total, times on base, correlates pretty nicely with OBP, but I want to look at this in a little more detail.
I do this with apologies to The Hardball Times, one of a handful of organizations that does a great job with this sort of thing. I'm just trying to point out some uses of the PI to get some more interesting stats.
All data is for 2007, running through Wednesday's games.
First, here are the basic leaders in times on base:
Cnt Player **TOB** Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Positions +----+-----------------+-------+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+ 1 Alex Rodriguez 233 2007 31 NYY AL 125 562 463 117 142 27 0 42 121 75 6 91 16 0 8 13 17 2 .307 .415 .637 1.052 *5/D 2 Albert Pujols 227 2007 27 STL NL 122 536 447 81 144 25 0 30 83 77 17 51 6 0 6 21 2 6 .322 .424 .579 1.003 *3 3 Magglio Ordonez 226 2007 33 DET AL 123 532 466 95 164 41 0 24 113 60 5 67 2 0 4 13 3 1 .352 .425 .594 1.019 *9/D 4 Derek Jeter 224 2007 33 NYY AL 125 573 511 80 166 30 3 8 58 47 3 74 11 3 1 20 12 8 .325 .393 .442 .835 *6 5 Ichiro Suzuki 224 2007 33 SEA AL 124 568 521 92 182 17 6 5 50 39 10 51 3 4 1 5 36 2 .349 .397 .434 .831 *8/D 6 David Ortiz 223 2007 31 BOS AL 115 514 427 85 137 39 1 21 80 83 7 84 3 0 1 13 2 0 .321 .434 .564 .998 *D/3 7 Brian Roberts 223 2007 29 BAL AL 122 564 490 84 153 37 4 10 48 70 5 69 0 2 2 7 37 6 .312 .397 .465 .862 *4 8 Grady Sizemore 221 2007 24 CLE AL 125 584 498 90 137 25 3 21 68 71 5 126 13 0 2 2 29 8 .275 .378 .464 .842 *8/D 9 Jose Reyes 220 2007 24 NYM NL 124 591 525 94 158 27 11 9 48 62 12 61 0 3 1 4 67 15 .301 .374 .446 .820 *6 10 David Wright 220 2007 24 NYM NL 124 547 466 84 144 30 1 22 80 72 6 98 4 0 5 7 26 3 .309 .402 .519 .921 *5 11 Matt Holliday 219 2007 27 COL NL 123 554 501 85 168 43 5 22 97 46 5 98 5 0 2 19 9 3 .335 .395 .573 .968 *7/D 12 Vladimir Guerrero 216 2007 31 LAA AL 122 535 463 70 149 42 1 19 100 60 25 53 7 0 5 16 2 3 .322 .404 .540 .944 *9D 13 Todd Helton 216 2007 33 COL NL 117 516 419 60 125 28 2 12 68 91 14 61 0 0 6 8 0 1 .298 .419 .461 .880 *3/D 14 Miguel Cabrera 215 2007 24 FLA NL 123 529 458 76 150 33 2 30 91 61 18 101 4 1 5 15 1 1 .328 .407 .605 1.012 *5/D 15 Hanley Ramirez 211 2007 23 FLA NL 120 546 496 98 165 35 5 23 64 41 3 78 5 2 2 5 39 12 .333 .388 .563 .951 *6/D 16 Barry Bonds 208 2007 42 SFG NL 109 422 294 67 82 13 0 26 60 124 39 52 2 0 2 11 5 0 .279 .493 .588 1.081 *7/D 17 Orlando Hudson 207 2007 29 ARI NL 126 545 468 60 142 24 7 10 62 63 1 72 2 5 7 21 7 2 .303 .383 .449 .832 *4/D 18 Prince Fielder 205 2007 23 MIL NL 126 544 467 83 132 31 2 39 97 60 13 99 13 0 4 8 0 2 .283 .377 .608 .985 *3/D 19 Jimmy Rollins 205 2007 28 PHI NL 125 598 545 107 158 31 15 22 72 40 4 64 7 0 6 10 25 5 .290 .343 .523 .866 *6 20 Nick Swisher 204 2007 26 OAK AL 119 517 416 61 108 25 1 16 61 90 12 97 6 1 4 12 2 2 .260 .395 .440 .835 398/D 21 Eric Byrnes 203 2007 31 ARI NL 127 554 497 78 149 25 7 18 71 48 4 82 6 0 3 6 35 6 .300 .366 .487 .853 *798
This is a very basic PI Batting Season Finder search, set to 2007, ranking players by times on base. (that is a stat available in the PI.)
You'll note that if we normalized this to plate appearances, Bonds would skyrocket to the top of the list (notice how he's the only player on this list with fewer than 500 PAs, at just 422. That's thanks to all those games he's taken off.)
But I like looking at the non-normalized stats because it indicates players who play in the most games and get on base a lot.
Now here's a slight variation on the above list. Here are the players who, in 2007, have the most games with at least one time on base.
Year Games Link to Individual Games +-----------------+----+-----+-------------------------+ Eric Byrnes 2007 111 Ind. Games David Wright 2007 110 Ind. Games Orlando Hudson 2007 110 Ind. Games Matt Holliday 2007 110 Ind. Games Ichiro Suzuki 2007 109 Ind. Games Grady Sizemore 2007 109 Ind. Games Alex Rodriguez 2007 109 Ind. Games Prince Fielder 2007 109 Ind. Games Derek Jeter 2007 108 Ind. Games Jimmy Rollins 2007 107 Ind. Games Jose Reyes 2007 107 Ind. Games Manny Ramirez 2007 107 Ind. Games Carlos Lee 2007 107 Ind. Games Albert Pujols 2007 106 Ind. Games Juan Pierre 2007 106 Ind. Games Magglio Ordonez 2007 106 Ind. Games Adam Dunn 2007 106 Ind. Games Casey Blake 2007 106 Ind. Games Nick Swisher 2007 105 Ind. Games Brian Roberts 2007 105 Ind. Games Garrett Atkins 2007 105 Ind. Games Ryan Zimmerman 2007 104 Ind. Games David Ortiz 2007 104 Ind. Games Nick Markakis 2007 104 Ind. Games Mike Lowell 2007 104 Ind. Games
Interesting, huh? Eric Brynes, who has "only" the 21st most times on base had spread them out over more games than anybody else. For example, Nick Swisher has been on base 1 more time than Byrnes, but has 6 more games than Byrnes where he didn't get on base at all.
It's difficult to know what it really means. Perhaps Byrnes draws a few more 9th-inning walks in blowout wins or losses--times on base that are not very meaningful. Or, perhaps he's contributing to the offense in nearly every game by peppering times on base all over the place. But generally speaking, I'll put my money on a player like Byrnes.
One other notable item that popped out to me--Mike Lowell. He's 51st in times on base, with "just" 185. (I don't mean to suggest that's bad--Lowell's having a good season.) But, he made the top 25 for most games getting on base. Again, he's spreading them out a lot more, but to know the exact value would require more detailed analysis.
Incidentally, one way of doing this type of analysis is looking at Win Probability Added. I'm not going to explain the stat here (go check out The Hardball Times for that) but basically it's a way of determining the value to a team's chances of winning a game for any given plate appearance. It uses historical data based on game situations, score, inning, and eventual outcome of the game to measure how each plate appearance changes the odds of a team winning. In this regard, it makes a huge distinction between, say, a walk to load the bases in the 6th inning of a tie game versus a bases-empty walk in the 9th inning of a game where one team is ahead by 6 runs. (Whereas, when we look at a player's season total for walks, there is no way to know how valuable each walk was.) The best place to get updated WPA figures is fangraphs.com.
At the moment, through Wednesday's games, Byrnes has a WPA of 2.29 while Swisher is at just 1.18. That tells you that Byrnes is having a much bigger impact than Swisher (although some of that may be due to his team.) Lowell, for what it's worth, is at just 0.77.
By the way, the above search was done doing a PI Batting Game Finder, searching for games with at least one time on base, then sorted by most games in the year.
And here are the longest streaks in 2007 of getting on base at least once per game:
StreakStart Streak End Games AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SO BB SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Teams +-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Kevin Millar 2007-06-20 2007-08-22 49 177 27 51 11 1 6 32 33 27 0 1 .288 .391 .463 .854 BAL Jeff Kent 2007-06-08 2007-08-07 38 144 25 53 10 1 6 26 16 20 0 1 .368 .446 .576 1.022 LAD Orlando Hudson 2007-04-02 2007-05-06 33 126 18 43 9 1 4 25 20 17 2 1 .341 .408 .524 .932 ARI Derrek Lee 2007-04-02 2007-05-10 32 131 22 51 17 0 2 21 26 17 2 2 .389 .467 .565 1.032 CHC David Ortiz 2007-05-06 2007-06-14 31 110 23 40 15 0 3 17 14 27 0 0 .364 .489 .582 1.071 BOS Eric Byrnes 2007-05-05 2007-06-08 31 122 23 44 5 3 6 17 19 9 4 3 .361 .414 .598 1.012 ARI Alfonso Soriano 2007-04-02 2007-05-15 31 133 21 40 14 0 4 8 30 8 6 1 .301 .350 .496 .846 CHC James Loney 2007-06-22 2007-07-25 30 115 16 42 7 3 3 19 13 11 0 1 .365 .422 .557 .979 LAD Ichiro Suzuki 2007-06-03 2007-07-05 30 122 17 52 6 1 1 14 15 14 8 0 .426 .482 .516 .998 SEA Ryan Howard 2007-06-18 2007-07-22 29 113 28 40 8 0 13 38 42 20 0 0 .354 .449 .770 1.219 PHI Albert Pujols 2007-06-03 2007-07-05 29 101 20 36 5 0 7 23 15 26 1 2 .356 .481 .614 1.095 STL Kevin Youkilis 2007-05-05 2007-06-07 29 120 23 47 13 1 6 23 13 11 1 0 .392 .456 .667 1.123 BOS Matt Holliday 2007-07-22 2007-08-22 28 113 26 40 12 1 6 23 24 14 4 1 .354 .434 .637 1.071 COL Manny Ramirez 2007-05-21 2007-06-22 28 98 18 39 11 1 5 16 15 21 0 0 .398 .508 .684 1.192 BOS Lance Berkman 2007-04-09 2007-05-10 28 94 19 30 1 0 4 18 22 31 1 0 .319 .484 .457 .941 HOU Grady Sizemore 2007-07-13 2007-08-09 27 112 10 30 6 0 4 18 29 11 4 4 .268 .336 .429 .765 CLE Casey Blake 2007-05-20 2007-06-18 27 107 17 33 7 1 7 19 21 12 0 1 .308 .403 .589 .992 CLE Melky Cabrera 2007-07-25 2007-08-22 26 105 17 36 9 3 4 21 9 7 2 1 .343 .388 .600 .988 NYY Chone Figgins 2007-07-25 2007-08-21 26 101 25 38 6 1 2 17 26 14 9 4 .376 .441 .515 .956 LAA Hanley Ramirez 2007-07-19 2007-08-21 26 114 26 41 10 0 8 25 18 11 12 3 .360 .413 .658 1.071 FLA Pat Burrell 2007-07-04 2007-08-05 26 80 18 36 6 0 8 25 18 22 0 0 .450 .566 .825 1.391 PHI Ryan Theriot 2007-06-30 2007-08-02 26 96 23 34 6 0 2 7 6 14 5 2 .354 .436 .479 .915 CHC Justin Morneau 2007-06-12 2007-07-15 26 97 19 33 5 1 8 30 10 11 1 0 .340 .409 .660 1.069 MIN Jorge Posada 2007-04-27 2007-05-27 26 91 21 37 11 0 4 16 16 11 0 0 .407 .471 .659 1.130 NYY Aaron Rowand 2007-04-07 2007-05-05 26 92 18 37 8 0 5 14 11 12 1 0 .402 .486 .652 1.138 PHI Ichiro Suzuki 2007-05-07 2007-06-01 25 112 26 46 4 0 2 13 5 7 13 2 .411 .445 .500 .945 SEA Jim Thome 2007-04-04 2007-05-31 25 76 14 24 4 0 6 16 24 29 0 0 .316 .500 .605 1.105 CHW Reggie Willits 2007-04-12 2007-05-19 25 93 19 35 4 0 0 6 16 13 9 0 .376 .453 .419 .872 LAA Torii Hunter 2007-04-09 2007-05-09 25 99 18 37 13 0 5 20 18 4 6 2 .374 .400 .657 1.057 MIN
This is done with a PI Batting Streak Finder, year 2007, times on base greater than or equal to 1.
Holy cow...Kevin Millar is first? How about Ichiro, with a streak of 30 and another streak of 25?
I think this kind of streak is pretty impressive, when you know a guy can go a month at a time and get on base at least once per game. Overall, it's not actually all that significant, though. (It's not as if a guy who batted .380 but had an 0-for-4 every couple of weeks would be so bad...)
A few more quick lists for you. Most games this season getting on base at least twice per game:
Year Games Link to Individual Games +-----------------+----+-----+-------------------------+ Vladimir Guerrero 2007 78 Ind. Games David Wright 2007 76 Ind. Games Ichiro Suzuki 2007 76 Ind. Games Albert Pujols 2007 75 Ind. Games Alex Rodriguez 2007 74 Ind. Games Jose Reyes 2007 74 Ind. Games Derek Jeter 2007 74 Ind. Games Todd Helton 2007 74 Ind. Games Brian Roberts 2007 73 Ind. Games David Ortiz 2007 71 Ind. Games Grady Sizemore 2007 69 Ind. Games Miguel Cabrera 2007 69 Ind. Games Barry Bonds 2007 69 Ind. Games Magglio Ordonez 2007 68 Ind. Games Kevin Youkilis 2007 67 Ind. Games Lance Berkman 2007 67 Ind. Games Travis Hafner 2007 66 Ind. Games Michael Young 2007 65 Ind. Games Nick Swisher 2007 65 Ind. Games Jimmy Rollins 2007 65 Ind. Games Alexis Rios 2007 65 Ind. Games Hanley Ramirez 2007 65 Ind. Games Jorge Posada 2007 65 Ind. Games Matt Holliday 2007 65 Ind. Games Ken Griffey 2007 65 Ind. Games
And the 25 leading hitters this season in games getting on base three or more times:
Year Games Link to Individual Games +-----------------+----+-----+-------------------------+ Magglio Ordonez 2007 39 Ind. Games Albert Pujols 2007 35 Ind. Games Derek Jeter 2007 35 Ind. Games Alex Rodriguez 2007 34 Ind. Games David Ortiz 2007 34 Ind. Games Todd Helton 2007 34 Ind. Games Brian Roberts 2007 33 Ind. Games Jose Reyes 2007 33 Ind. Games David DeJesus 2007 33 Ind. Games Ichiro Suzuki 2007 32 Ind. Games Chipper Jones 2007 32 Ind. Games Grady Sizemore 2007 31 Ind. Games Gary Sheffield 2007 31 Ind. Games Hanley Ramirez 2007 31 Ind. Games Chase Utley 2007 30 Ind. Games Derrek Lee 2007 30 Ind. Games Orlando Hudson 2007 30 Ind. Games Vladimir Guerrero 2007 30 Ind. Games Miguel Cabrera 2007 30 Ind. Games Barry Bonds 2007 30 Ind. Games Nick Swisher 2007 29 Ind. Games Placido Polanco 2007 29 Ind. Games Matt Holliday 2007 29 Ind. Games Prince Fielder 2007 29 Ind. Games David Wright 2007 28 Ind. Games
And leaders for getting on base four times per game:
Year Games Link to Individual Games +-----------------+----+-----+-------------------------+ Alex Rodriguez 2007 13 Ind. Games Magglio Ordonez 2007 13 Ind. Games Grady Sizemore 2007 12 Ind. Games Gary Sheffield 2007 12 Ind. Games Matt Holliday 2007 12 Ind. Games Miguel Cabrera 2007 12 Ind. Games Chase Utley 2007 11 Ind. Games Brian Roberts 2007 11 Ind. Games David Ortiz 2007 11 Ind. Games Barry Bonds 2007 11 Ind. Games Kelly Johnson 2007 10 Ind. Games Adrian Gonzalez 2007 10 Ind. Games
And 5 times:
Year Games Link to Individual Games +-----------------+----+-----+-------------------------+ Michael Young 2007 3 Ind. Games Mark Teixeira 2007 3 Ind. Games Alex Rodriguez 2007 3 Ind. Games Hanley Ramirez 2007 3 Ind. Games Albert Pujols 2007 3 Ind. Games Kenny Lofton 2007 3 Ind. Games Matt Holliday 2007 3 Ind. Games Travis Hafner 2007 3 Ind. Games
Here's one more for you Ichiro-lovers: most consecutive games this year getting on base at least twice per game:
StreakStart Streak End Games AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SO BB SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Teams +-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Ichiro Suzuki 2007-06-03 2007-06-19 15 65 9 29 3 1 1 11 7 8 5 0 .446 .507 .569 1.076 SEA Jose Vidro 2007-07-27 2007-08-09 11 45 9 19 2 0 1 9 9 7 0 0 .422 .481 .533 1.014 SEA Ryan Garko 2007-07-13 2007-07-24 11 34 9 18 5 0 3 9 5 7 0 0 .529 .614 .941 1.555 CLE David Wright 2007-08-09 2007-08-19 10 41 11 18 4 0 3 11 5 5 0 1 .439 .511 .756 1.267 NYM Pat Burrell 2007-07-24 2007-08-02 10 29 6 16 4 0 3 10 6 11 0 0 .552 .667 1.000 1.667 PHI Tadahito Iguchi 2007-07-23 2007-08-02 10 34 7 12 4 0 2 7 8 13 3 0 .353 .510 .647 1.157 CHW-PHI Kevin Youkilis 2007-05-05 2007-05-17 10 42 8 20 5 0 2 10 4 2 0 0 .476 .522 .738 1.260 BOS
August 24th, 2007 at 7:47 am
If you followed the Orioles, you'd know about Millar's streak -- he just broke Ken Singleton's team record of 48.
August 24th, 2007 at 8:21 am
Well I try to follow all teams, but I do occasionally have to spend some time on my real job. 🙂
A random Orioles comment...I used to live in Baltimore and spent a lot of time at Camden Yards when it first opened. I remember one day during batting practice watching Mike Devereaux and Brady Anderson stationed right at the wall in CF, practicing jumping over the fence to catch balls that were going for home runs. They did it for 15-20 minutes...it was kind of weird to watch.
August 24th, 2007 at 8:34 am
Are you counting HRs as times on base? Because technically, you're not on base at the end of the play. It'd be interesting to weed out the HRs - that way we'd be able to see better who the scrappy, get-on-base players are.
August 24th, 2007 at 8:46 am
Yeah I would assume that HRs count as times on base. I agree that subtracting out HRs would be interesting. I am hoping that one day the PI can include the ability to do very simple arithmetic operations like that, but it's not such a straightforward thing for Sean to implement, I suppose.
August 24th, 2007 at 10:38 am
I too was wondering if HRs counted, and I am pretty sure Arod wouldnt be first if they werent counted. Ichiro would be first and Jeter second. I agree that I have looked for basic arithmetic or comparison in the PI. Comparison would be checking to see if one stat is equal to, greater than, or less than another. This would help finding stats like most consecutive home runs (set AB to HR). Currently you have to set HR=10 and AB=10, then HR=9 AB=9, and so on. Quite tedious.