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Harold Baines, Athletic-Killer

Posted by Sky on August 30, 2007

Harold Baines, Yankee-Killer. I heard that one all the time growing up. Did Baines actually dominate the Yankees, though? I used his PI splits page to get the following data. tOPS+ is Baines' split OPS compared to his overall OPS.

Split    G     GS     PA     AB      R     H    2B   3B    HR    RBI    BB   IBB     SO       BA      OBP      SLG      OPS    BAbip   tOPS+ Split
OAK    214    208    905    781    105   236    49    5    24    132   107    16    114    0.302    0.385    0.470    0.855    0.325    109    OAK
MIN    213    189    809    716    112   209    41    4    32    127    78    13    101    0.292    0.356    0.494    0.850    0.297    106    MIN
TOR    221    202    848    773     89   230    29    4    38    131    71     9    106    0.298    0.356    0.493    0.849    0.304    106    TOR
TEX    209    195    825    734    110   213    27    4    33    117    85    13    119    0.290    0.363    0.473    0.836    0.307    104    TEX
SEA    213    193    832    737    100   213    39    5    29    132    82    20    113    0.289    0.355    0.474    0.829    0.303    102    SEA
MIL    183    175    744    678     84   204    33    3    26    108    54     4     93    0.301    0.349    0.473    0.822    0.313    100    MIL
NYY    213    182    802    713     92   203    30    5    29    124    82    19    117    0.285    0.357    0.463    0.820    0.304    100    NYY
KCR    203    193    824    748     91   220    42    2    27    101    71    19    114    0.294    0.353    0.464    0.817    0.315     99    KCR
CLE    202    192    825    740    100   213    36    4    28    117    75    14     99    0.288    0.350    0.461    0.811    0.297     98    CLE
DET    213    199    854    753     95   210    27    4    30    148    91    20    112    0.279    0.352    0.445    0.797    0.290     95    DET
BAL    168    161    681    619     86   178    35    2    22     98    54    13     81    0.288    0.342    0.457    0.799    0.299     94    BAL
ANA    215    189    829    757     87   217    43    5    24    115    64    10    108    0.287    0.341    0.452    0.793    0.306     93    ANA
BOS    210    191    823    731     93   207    33    1    24    105    86    15    104    0.283    0.357    0.430    0.787    0.301     93    BOS
CHW     85     71    309    269     42    65    14    1    12     44    40     2     42    0.242    0.340    0.435    0.775    0.247     89    CHW
TBD     27     17     80     71      6    18     4    0     2     15     9     0      9    0.254    0.338    0.394    0.732    0.267     80    TBD
Tot   2830   2579  11092   9908   1299  2866   488   49   384   1628  1062   187   1441    0.289    0.356    0.465    0.821    0.303    100    Tot

As you can see, Harold Baines' OPS against the Yankees was right on par with his performance against all other teams. But those A's, boy did he take it out on those A's.

As for teams Baines struggled against, Tampa Bay and Chicago lead the way. That makes sense because he would have played against both those teams later in his career, as he was slowing down.

One Response to “Harold Baines, Athletic-Killer”

  1. Andy Says:

    It's pretty remarkable how much more often OAK walked him than did any other team. Overall, he actually looks to have been most productive against DET, with 148 RBI in just 213 games, despite the 0.797 OPS.

    I think a lot of the "Yankee-killer" stuff we hear (and coincidentally I just posted, cheek-in-tongue, about how Julian Tavarez is a Yankee-killer this year) is because more people see/remember games against the Yankees against other teams. In the early 80s, only a small fraction of the baseball world was paying attention to CHW/OAK games or CHW/DET games, but a much larger fraction paid attention to ???/NYY games.