Let the debate continue--Greatest Season Performance

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Posted By: Glenn

In response to the previous two posts: pursuit of the home run and tougher late-inning pitching both have contributed to lower batting averages. Overlooked, however, and perhaps more important than either of those is the different groundskeeping (flatter infields, shorter grass) which makes the infield single considerably less common than it was in an earlier era.

I'll be discussing statistics below. Feel free to skip the paragraph if you don't care for that part of the debate.

Thanks to Jay for posting the numbers of Hornsby vs. runner-up. Hornsby's average over the four year span was 10.1% better than the runner-up (.404 vs .367). But it isn't really as fair (or nearly as informative) to judge merely against the runner-up as it is to judge against the league average. If we look at that, Hornsby did 40.3% better than the league (.404 vs .288). Taking a four year span instead of a five year span actually strengthens the case for Bonds however. OPS for Bonds over 2001-2004 was 23.2% higher than the runner-up (1.368 vs 1.110) and more importantly, an astonishing 83.4% higher than the league average (1.368 vs. 746). Granted, the standard deviation in OPS is higher than in batting average, but even if one converted these to standardized scores the Bonds OPS is more impressive than the Hornsby BA. This is compared to either the runner-up (which, other things being equal, would be predicted to favor Hornsby because of a smaller number of players in the league, and is a less valid indicator of excellence anyway) or vs. the league average. Mind you, I'm not conceding that BA is as important as OPS. (I believe that is not only falsifiable but has in fact been falsified.) I am merely pointing out that even if BA in the 1920's were as important as OPS in the 2000's, unless it was vastly MORE important, then Bonds's 4-year run is more impressive than Hornsby's upon comparing each man to his peers.

Hornsby BA 1922-1925: .404
League average 1922-1925: .288
difference: 40.3%

Bonds OPS 2001-2004: 1.368
League OPS 2001-2004: 0.746
difference: 83.4%