Comments on: Bobby Abreu’s RBI streak

By: Raphy

Raphy — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:06:42 +0000

My guess is that his game totals are compared to the league average. During the 1800's teams folded regularly mid-season and therefore the league average games per team was much lower than the games Anson actually played. Anson could have easily played 50% more games than the average team and then be credited with 162*1.5= 243 games.

I have never neutralized a stat and I may be way off. However, if I am right, it might make more sense to adjust the games of players from the 1800's against their own teams and not the league average.

By: Raphy

Raphy — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:56:24 +0000

Anson is adjusted way above 162 games. Check out his Neutralized line for 1872.
G: 226
PA: 936
He has a similar line for 1875 and other years.
Neutralizing his games played increases his career PA from 11,319 to 17,769 (~57%).
Given that, the 17% jump in his RBI is not so astonishing.

Now the question is, why did he have such a large number of adjusted games/PAs?

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:04:13 +0000

The explanation for neutralized stats is here:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/about/equiv_stats.shtml

One thing, right away, is that everything is adjusted to 162-game seasons. So that alone would bump Anson from 2076 to 2183 adjusting for the number of games in a year.

By: gerry

gerry — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:48:04 +0000

Tell me how the neutralized total is computed, and I may be able to tell you why Anson is at 2426.

By: Andy

Andy — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:05:46 +0000

Explain this to me...Anson's actual RBI total was 2076 but his neutralized RBI total is, gulp, 2426! I had assumed his neutralized total would be a lot lower than his actual total. A total of 2426 would put him in first place over Hank Aaron by a margin of more than 100.

By: Andy

Andy — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:03:21 +0000

Cap Anson leads so many of these "after age X" lists because of some phenomenal seasons he had late in his career.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/ansonca01.shtml

He had 120 RBI in 136 games at age 39, and 99 RBI in 83 games at age 42, not to mention 90 RBI in 108 games at age 44.

Those years, of course, were during a very-scoring era in baseball (the 1890s at least, not sure how far it extended before and after.)

By: birtelcom

birtelcom — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:59:49 +0000

From PI, the five highest MLB career RBI totals through a player's age 33 season:
Foxx 1,849
Gehrig 1,721
A-Rod 1,706
Ott 1,648
Aaron 1,541

Most RBI age 34 season and after:
Cap Anson 1,197
Ruth 806
Barry Bonds 780
Edgar Martinez 777
Andres Galarraga 770

A-Rod is currently 21st on the all-time career RBI list with 1,706, having passed both Reggie Jackson (1,702) and Frank Thomas (1,704) on that 7-RBI final day of the regular season.

By: ira

ira — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:13:09 +0000

you can say:
baseball is an individual performance sport but it's statistics are very team (and situationally) dependant.
put a few bobby bonds, ricky hendersons, and ichiros in front of some good 3-4-5 hitters and POW!

this is why everybody should marvel at Earnie Banks stats and MVP trophies.

there are, without a doubt, plenty more guys stuck in olden philly, brown's and/or royals' uniforms that would be HoFers if they were lucky enuf to have been pinstriped.

and BTW, thanks, Mr. Steinbrenner.

By: Andy

Andy — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:00:09 +0000

I led you astray on that one, kingturtle, by this post making it sound like all 3 guys I mentioned had 7-season streaks. It's amazing how close A-rod came to falling off this list except for that huge game he had at the end of the season.
Barring injury, he'll become a co-leader on this list next season.

By: kingturtle

kingturtle — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 03:19:03 +0000

thanks! i didn't even look at Arod or Pujols. silly me. and thanks for the two I missed. So here's the real deal:
*13, Gehrig (1926-1938)
*13, Foxx (1929-1941)
*12, Rodriguez (1998-present)
*11, Simmons (1924-1934)
*9, Belle (1992-2000)
*9, Palmiero (1995-2003)
*9, Sosa (1995-2003)
*9, Ramirez (1998-2006)
*9, Pujols (2001-present)
*8, Ruth (1926-1933)
*8, Ott (1929-1936)
*8, Williams (1939-1942; 1946-1949)
*8, Mays (1959-1966)
*8, Thomas (1991-1998)
*8, Jones (1996-2003)
*7, Duffy (1893-1899)
*7, Heilmann (1923-1929)
*7, Johnson (1935-1941)
*7, DiMaggio (1936-1942)
*7, Hodges (1949-1955)
*7, Abreu (2003-present)