Top Player Added to Franchise History Pages
Posted by Sean Forman on August 20, 2010
Pittsburgh Pirates Team History & Encyclopedia - Baseball-Reference.com.
I used to have ERA and OPS leaders on these pages, but decided to switch it to WAR now. It gives a nice look at who has been the best player on the team over a span of years. Or in the case of the Pirates a strong indication as to why they've lost so many games. They haven't had a six-win player since 2000.
I also updated the Cardinals and Braves pages to include Herzog and Glavine's retired numbers.
August 20th, 2010 at 10:22 am
Nice work. How sad were the 1981 Cubs? Yes, it was a strike shortened season, but Randy Martz was thier top player with 2.2 WAR. No wonder they had a .369 winning percentage. I like the addition to the franchise pages. Thanks.
August 20th, 2010 at 10:42 am
Where is that on the page? I didn't see it...
August 20th, 2010 at 10:47 am
Never mind, now I see it - my bad!
August 20th, 2010 at 11:41 am
Actually, to see why the Pirates have lost alot of games, go to the team page and click on amateur drafts. They had Bonds and King back to back, then... nothing
August 20th, 2010 at 12:13 pm
Wow. Honus Wagner was the best player on his team 13 years in a row.
Hank Aaron 12 years, and the same for Walter Johnson.
Any other long streaks?
August 20th, 2010 at 12:30 pm
Mays has a 12 year streak. Schmidt took 13 out of 14.
August 20th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
Now that I look at it, Barry Bonds had 16 straight years (4 with Pittsburgh, 12 with San Fran).
August 20th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
I like this although I'd prefer to see top pitcher by WAR and top position player by WAR.
August 20th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
"Andy Says: August 20th, I like this although I'd prefer to see top pitcher by WAR and top position player by WAR."
Yes, excellent idea - there's at least a couple inches of unused space on the right for most yearly team entries, so perhaps this can be done eventually?
August 20th, 2010 at 1:58 pm
Well, this was relevant for the NY Times article I wrote a few weeks ago about best players during Steinbrenner's era. It's easy to overlook good performances by either a pitcher or a position player if one looks at just the top WAR value in a given year instead of the top ones from each category (not to mention other performances not captured by WAR.)
August 20th, 2010 at 2:36 pm
Ruth had a 16 of 17 run between Boston & NY , missing out in '25, that's insane, from a pure stats viewpoint that '31 Yankees team is way out there
August 20th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
that would be the offense
August 20th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
Wow, the Tigers have had 17 straight seasons without repeating a player.
August 20th, 2010 at 2:55 pm
I thought the Senators/Twins might have some pathetic numbers. 1904, Jake Stahl led the team (38-113) with 1.7. 5 years later, Walter J led with another 1.7 (42-110).
The flip side of the current Pirates might be the (of course) Yankees. Their leader was at least 5.0 every year from 1919-1966. Wonder if that is the longest streak?
August 20th, 2010 at 3:00 pm
Cardinals are close. From 1930-1975 they missed only one year of having at least one player at 5.0 or higher. 1945 Whitey Kurowski led with 4.9.
August 20th, 2010 at 3:06 pm
The Angels won 100 games in 2008 but no single player reached 5 WAR. Is this a great example of how important it is to have a team not just one or two star players? Compare with 2003 when Garret Anderson had 6.1 WAR but the Angels were 77-85. I'm sure there are more extreme examples out there.
August 20th, 2010 at 3:49 pm
Steve Carlton, 12.4 WAR (highest total in Phillies history) on a 1972 team that went 59-97.
August 20th, 2010 at 4:11 pm
Just noticed, you should remove the "High OPS requires 3.1 PAs per team game and Low ERA requires 1 IP per team game." text from below the Franchise History table since the listings are now gone.
August 20th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
This is really good but it would be even better if the Top Position player and the top Pitcher were listed.
I was looking on the Mets page and They had a pitcher be the top player 23 times and from 1962-1976 A Met pitcher was the top player every year except '69, which is ironic. Cleon Jones was the only position player to be the top player from '62-76.
I kind of forgot how good Beltran's season was last year. He only played half of the season and he was still the top player. He had a .325/.415/.500 line with excellent defense in Center.
I think Piazza's time with the Mets has been overrated and overblown. From 1999-2005 he only lead the Mets One year, 2001.
Alfonzo's time with the Mets gets underrated/overlooked, he lead the team in '97 & '00.
Sid Fernandez has been underrated/overlooked by the Mets, especially that 1992 season.
Matlack has been underrated/overlooked by the Mets, He was the top player in '72 &'74.
HoJo is kind of underrated/overlooked by the Mets, He was top in '89 & 91.
August 20th, 2010 at 7:47 pm
Jim Rice only led the Sox once, I wonder how many hall of famers led their team one or fewer times?
August 20th, 2010 at 7:55 pm
Off topic....
Whats the highest percentage of wins for a team coming in extra innings? Baltimore is over 25% right now, with 11 of their 43 wins... which seems quite absurd to me...
August 20th, 2010 at 9:00 pm
Pageup,
Lou Brock was never the top (WAR) player on his team during a 19 year career.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:22 pm
Mistake on the 1982 Cardinals page. You listed Lee Smith as the top player. He didn't join them until 1990.
August 20th, 2010 at 11:11 pm
HOF Red Schoendienst, George Kell, Fred Lindstrom, Pie Traynor, Travis Jackson, George Kelly, never were the top WAR player on their team.
Billy Williams never was the top WAR guy. was the top position player twice, '70 & '72 but lost out to Fergie Jenkins and he had a 7.2 WAR season in '65 and lost out to Santo.
Jimmy Collins never led his team in WAR but he was the top position player 3 times. '97, '98, and '01. He lost out to Kid Nichols twice and Cy Young once.
Zach Wheat never led his team in WAR but he was the top position player twice, '20 & '24.
Two interesting points about the Dodgers. Don Drysdale led a Dodger team in WAR 8 times while Sandy Koufax only led 3 Dodger teams in WAR. Ron Cey led a Dodger team in WAR 3 times but Steve Garvey never led a Dodger team in WAR.
August 21st, 2010 at 12:12 am
Gehrig had a 12 WAR in 1927 and came in SECOND to Ruth. That has to be the biggest WAR total not to lead the team.
August 21st, 2010 at 1:29 am
Steven, that's Lonnie Smith. He played key roles for several teams that reached the postseason, five World Series appearances with four different teams.
August 21st, 2010 at 5:57 am
Yaz with the highest WaR in Sox history.in 67 over 12...impossibly dreamy year
August 21st, 2010 at 7:47 am
Thanks for correcting me. I don't know how I could have forgot "Skates." Another Smith (other than Ozzie), may have been equally as valued by the Cardinals. They traded 1964 MVP Ken Boyer for Charley Smith, then the following off-season, obtained Roger Maris for Smith. Charley was indirectly responsible for back-to-back World Series appearances by the Cardinals.
August 21st, 2010 at 1:07 pm
John Q -- As usual, there's pitching-related stuff in the misty past that trounces the modern era. Gehrig may have lost out with 12 WAR, but Dave Foutz had 13.7 WAR in 1886 and came second on his team to Bob Caruthers.
August 21st, 2010 at 2:06 pm
strangely, from a raw production standpoint Ruth's '20 and '21 season seem better, but his '23 season has the highest war ever
August 22nd, 2010 at 12:01 am
I was thinking about an eligible non HOF who led his team in WAR the most time and I think it's Rick Reuschel.
I'm not sure if it's a record but Rick Reuschel led his team 8 times, 7 Cubs, 1 Pirates, and isn't in the HOF
I think Bobby Grich has the most for a position player with 7 times, 4 with the Angels and 3 with the Orioles.
August 22nd, 2010 at 12:02 am
Good one Paul Drye.
August 22nd, 2010 at 12:08 am
Alan Trammell, Keith Hernandez and Dale Murphy led their teams 6 times and aren't in the HOF.
August 22nd, 2010 at 7:15 am
Perhaps not surprisingly, Colorado have been led only 3 times by pitchers in 17 years. Jimenez is on course to be the 4th.
In contrast, Arizona have been led only once by a position player in 12 years, with Young on course to make it 2.
August 23rd, 2010 at 9:42 am
"John Q Says: HOF Red Schoendienst, George Kell, Fred Lindstrom, Pie Traynor, Travis Jackson, George Kelly, never were the top WAR player on their team."
John Q, all of the above players (except Traynor) were selected by the Veterans Committee, including several of the "Friends of Frankie Frisch", as many 1970s/early 80s Veterans picks are known (due to Bill James' HOF book, no doubt). This does NOT surprise me...