Understanding Sabermetrics Read Online Free PDF Page B

different eras?
    During his peak, Maris was a good ballplayer. Perhaps it’s unfair to judge him, as he played on the Yankees, who were always under intense scrutiny. Back to our peak criteria, did the player contribute to his team winning league or world titles in any significant way? In the 1960 World Series, in 25 at-bats, Mantle batted .400 and slugged .800, with three home runs and eleven runs batted in. In 1960, Roger Maris batted .267, slugged .500, with two home runs and two runs batted in in his 30 at-bats. A year later, the new home run king batted .105 in the Series, with one homer and two RBIs, while Mantle batted .167 (recall that he was injured and played in limited duty — two games). Maris had a peak season in 1961, but in comparison to other players and using the criteria outlined above, his peak was not as significant as others in his era.
    Eddie Murray gained induction to the Hall of Fame in 2003, after playing 21 seasons and amassing over 11,000 at-bats in 3036 games. The amazing part about Eddie’s career is that he never had a “peak” season; he was consistent throughout his career. He hit 504 home runs and batted in 1917 runs. He had 3255 base hits. His career batting average was .287 and his career slugging percentage was .476. He averaged 27 home runs in a season, but the most he ever hit was 33 in 1983. That was the year the Orioles won the World Series and, incidentally, 33 was Murray’s jersey number. He averaged 103 RBIs per season, yet his highest output was 124 (in 1985). Eddie Murray was voted American League Rookie of the Year in 1977, was voted to only eight All-Star teams, and placed in the top ten in league Most Valuable Player Award voting eight times, never winning (although he did place second in 1982 and 1983). Could it be that Eddie Murray was inducted because his career totals eclipsed the “magic numbers” of 500 home runs and 3000 hits? When Murray retired, he was 15th on the career home run total list. At the end of the 2007 season he was 23rd, and the five players who passed him may not “automatically” be inducted into the Hall of Fame simply on the basis of their more than 500 career homers.
    Don Sutton’s record would indicate that he was more valuable over his career than during any peak seasons. The Hall of Fame pitcher won 324 games, yet only broke the seasonal twenty-victory mark once, in 1976 when he had 21 wins. At the end of 2007, Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine were the only pitchers who have pitched in the last fifteen years to have won more than 300 career games. Does this suggest that truly great future pitchers will never win 300 games in their career? Except for strike-shortened seasons, someone had always won at least 20 games in a season until 2006, when the National League leader had 16 (six pitchers tied for the league lead) and the American League leader had 19 (two pitchers). The league leaders in games started for the past several seasons are averaging 34 or 35 starts, and not every starting pitcher gets a decision in every game. Further, with today’s specialty pitchers (relievers, one-out match-up pitchers, closers, etc.), starters are averaging fewer than six innings per start and many games are decided after the starter has departed for the showers. So racking up an average of 15 wins in a season for a twenty-year career (15 × 20 = 300) seems to indicate that we might not see a 300-game winner again for a very long time.
    Many Hot Stove League conversations are fueled with “Peak versus Career” arguments. For example, who was the more valuable pitcher, Sandy Koufax or Don Sutton?
    We have considered the peak versus career value for both hitters and pitchers. We could extend this notion to fielders as well, although most general managers want “complete position players”; GMs want a player who can both field and hit for average. Gone are the days when a player was in the line-up solely for his glove. Hall of Fame manager