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Posted By: Cy

I was just looking ay the Jeff Sagarin ratings for current Major League ballplayers. Barry Bond's rating is 16.62. The next player is Larry Walker with a 9.34 rating. That means that his rating is 1.77 times better than the 2nd best batter in baseball! I know a lot of people just don't like Bonds. But these are Ruthian comparisons in an era where the standard deviation between batters is much smaller than way back when.

Here are some other comparisons. (Hey, baseball is back. Let's enjoy it. And what more can one ask for than baseball and mathematics rolled up in one.)

BATTING AVG.            G       AB      R       H       AVG
1. Bonds, SF           117     331     96     123     .372
2. Walker, Col         115     415     85     146     .352

HOME RUNS
1. Sosa, Chi               43
2. Bonds, SF               40 (OK, he's 2nd but with 129 less at bats)

SLUGGING PERCENTAGE
1. Bonds, SF             .828
2. Sosa, Chi             .632

ON-BASE PERCENTAGE
1. Bonds, SF             .574
2. Giles, Pitt             .442

BASES ON BALLS
1. Bonds, SF              153
2. Dunn, Cin              112

TOTAL BASES           Bases    AB   Base/AB
Kent, SF                    311    516    0.602 
V. Guerrero, Mtl          306    502    0.609 
Sosa, Chi                  290    459    0.631 
Berkman, Hou           286    474    0.603 
Green, LA                  277    476    0.581 
Pujols, StL                 277    490    0.565 
Bonds, SF                  274    330    0.830 
(not 1st in total bases but 31% better than 2nd place in Bases/AB

Cy