from Amazon
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Babe Ruth complained to his manager about being expected to both pitch and play regularly in the fie
Great stuff from Tom:
While Ruth was becoming the talk of the league with his batting exploits, he was largely absent from the mound. After winning his fourth game of the season on May 15th, Ruth made only three starts over the next ten weeks. He complained to his manager about being expected to both pitch and play regularly in the field, but starting on July 29th, he did both for the rest of the season. He pitched extremely well down the stretch, winning seven of nine starts and throwing 82 innings in little more than a month, but his hitting suffered.
And he shows his stats. I asked him to break down his 1918-1919 hitting stats based on days of rest as pitcher. “0” means it’s his hitting stats on the days he pitched. “1” means it’s his hitting stats the day after he pitched. “2-4” are after 2-4 days of rest. And “5+” are after at least 5 days of pitching rest. No double-counting of games. Here’s what he sent:
Rest wOBA AVG OBP SLG BABIP AB R H 2B 3B HR BB SO HBP
0 0.436 0.306 0.404 0.639 0.303 147 28 45 15 5 8 23 17 1
1 0.456 0.352 0.471 0.592 0.393 71 14 25 4 2 3 14 12 2
2-4 0.431 0.305 0.429 0.582 0.327 213 40 65 14 6 11 45 37 1
5+ 0.456 0.311 0.452 0.629 0.324 318 71 99 27 10 18 78 50 4
Given the small samples at each split, I would have expected some jumps just by luck. But, it’s rather remarkably consistent. Perhaps Ruth FELT as if it was tough, but, his splits don’t show it.
However, given that his career wOBA was .510, perhaps we won’t find a drop in his talent level at one particular split, but just overall at all splits. Removed from the shackles of being a pitcher, Ruth went from being Pujols to being Bonds circa 2001-04.
Recent comments
Older comments
Page 1 of 344 pages 1 2 3 > Last »Complete Archive – By Category
Complete Archive – By Date