ultimate baseball stat - exist ?
 

Posted By: <b>steve</b><p>Talking "greatest" of all-time. Can it be boiled down to the most simple of concepts?<br /><br />For hitters, Runs created per nine innings. For starting pitchers, Runs allowed per nine innings.<br /><br />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?<br /><br />I kinda looked at my old Bill James, my Baseball Encyclopedia, and the internet - came up empty. Any help?<br /><br />Steve.

ultimate baseball stat - exist ?
 

Posted By: <b>peter chao</b><p>Well...Bill James champions win shares.<br /><br />Peter

ultimate baseball stat - exist ?
 

Posted By: <b>Paul</b><p>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.

ultimate baseball stat - exist ?
 

Posted By: <b>peter chao</b><p>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.<br /><br />Peter

ultimate baseball stat - exist ?
 

Posted By: <b>Chris Counts</b><p>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?

ultimate baseball stat - exist ?
 

Posted By: <b>Max Weder</b><p>Peter<br /><br />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<br /><br />Max<br /><br />

ultimate baseball stat - exist ?
 

Posted By: <b>Dave Hornish</b><p>The greatest player is the one you think was the greatest. There is no way to accurately rank players across generations by statistics IMHO.

ultimate baseball stat - exist ?
 

Posted By: <b>brian</b><p>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