ultimate baseball stat - exist ?

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Posted By: steve

Talking "greatest" of all-time. Can it be boiled down to the most simple of concepts?

For hitters, Runs created per nine innings. For starting pitchers, Runs allowed per nine innings.

Ultimate goal is to win, aka, create the most runs/allow the fewest. Adjusted for the era's they played, is there a definitive stat ranking the all-time greats?

I kinda looked at my old Bill James, my Baseball Encyclopedia, and the internet - came up empty. Any help?

Steve.

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Posted By: peter chao

Well...Bill James champions win shares.

Peter

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Posted By: Paul

There was a book called the Hidden Game of Baseball that did precisely this. Based on an analysis of every major league game ever played, the author determined, on average, how many runs a single, double, triple, home run, and walk were each worth. Then he totaled each hitter's total run production. Some adjustments were also made for ballpark and era.

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Posted By: peter chao

Win shares does almost the same thing, but it creates a basis for not only comparing hitters. But you could also compare hitters to pitchers. And compare starters to relievers.

Peter

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Posted By: Chris Counts

Baseball stats are tricky business. There are so many variables, such as live balls vs. dead balls, big parks versus bandboxes, how good a team a player plays for, day games versus night games, etc. ... That's why I'll trust Bill James' numbers until I see a better system ... plus, if there was an easy way of rating players, what would we argue about all day long?

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Posted By: Max Weder

Peter

I'm not sure what Win Shares you're referring to, but the concept frm Bill James does deal with pitchers and provides win shares for them

Max

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Posted By: Dave Hornish

The greatest player is the one you think was the greatest. There is no way to accurately rank players across generations by statistics IMHO.

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Posted By: brian

was Babe Ruth, and he will always remain way above the second best player until a great pitcher comes along that can also hit like Barry Bonds