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Bill Melton

William Edwin Melton (Beltin' Bill)

Positions: Third Baseman, Rightfielder and First Baseman
Bats: Right, Throws: Right
Height: 6' 2", Weight: 200 lb.

Born: July 7, 1945 in Gulfport, MS
Signed by the Chicago White Sox as an amateur free agent in 1964. (All Transactions)
Debut: May 4, 1968
Teams (by GP): WhiteSox/Angels/Indians 1968-1977

Final Game: August 30, 1977
    About biographical information

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All-Star

Standard Fielding

Adv Fielding w/ run summary
Year Tm Lg Age Pos G GS CG Inn Ch PO A E DP Fld% Rtot Rtot/yr RF/9 RF/G lgFld% lgRF9 lgRFG Awards
1968 CHW AL 22 3B 33 32 25 275.2 95 17 75 3 5 .968 5 21 3.00 2.79 .951 3.05 3.04
1969 CHW AL 23 3B 148 139 132 1236.2 456 112 322 22 36 .952 -11 -10 3.16 2.93 .955 3.16 3.15
1969 CHW AL 23 OF 11 9 4 68.0 16 13 3 0 0 1.000 1 16 2.12 1.45 .978 2.13 2.13
1969 CHW AL 23 RF 8 6 2 43.0 13 11 2 0 0 1.000 2 47 2.72 1.63 .974 1.90 1.91
1969 CHW AL 23 LF 3 3 2 25.0 3 3 0 0 0 1.000 -1 -38 1.08 1.00 .977 1.98 2.00
1970 CHW AL 24 OF 71 71 62 599.2 119 111 8 0 3 1.000 -6 -12 1.79 1.68 .980 2.14 2.13
1970 CHW AL 24 RF 71 71 62 599.2 124 117 7 0 3 1.000 -6 -12 1.86 1.75 .975 1.98 1.97
1970 CHW AL 24 3B 70 70 66 609.0 244 47 179 18 19 .926 -1 -2 3.34 3.23 .949 3.07 3.06
1971 CHW AL 25 3B 148 148 135 1270.1 503 116 371 16 26 .968 7 7 3.45 3.29 .956 3.04 3.03 AS,MVP-13
1972 CHW AL 26 3B 56 56 52 491.1 184 47 125 12 12 .935 -2 -6 3.15 3.07 .954 2.98 2.96
1973 CHW AL 27 3B 151 151 132 1307.2 485 115 347 23 31 .953 -4 -4 3.18 3.06 .950 3.00 2.98
1973 CHW AL 27 DH 1 1
1974 CHW AL 28 3B 123 123 112 1079.2 396 100 272 24 29 .939 -7 -8 3.10 3.02 .954 3.12 3.10
1974 CHW AL 28 DH 11 9
1975 CHW AL 29 3B 138 138 125 1190.2 470 131 313 26 23 .945 -10 -10 3.36 3.22 .954 3.16 3.15
1975 CHW AL 29 DH 11 11
1976 CAL AL 30 DH 51 48
1976 CAL AL 30 1B 30 27 11 218.0 237 220 15 2 20 .992 -3 -14 9.70 7.83 .992 9.85 9.89
1976 CAL AL 30 3B 21 14 11 131.0 29 7 21 1 2 .966 -3 -28 1.92 1.33 .953 2.94 2.95
1977 CLE AL 31 1B 15 11 9 108.0 142 134 8 0 10 1.000 1 16 11.83 9.47 .990 10.02 9.95
1977 CLE AL 31 DH 14 12
1977 CLE AL 31 3B 13 10 6 94.0 30 8 20 2 1 .933 -0 -1 2.68 2.15 .957 2.97 2.96
10 Seasons 3B 901 881 796 7686.0 2892 700 2045 147 184 .949 -26 -4 3.21 3.05 .953 3.08 3.06
2 Seasons OF 82 80 66 667.2 135 124 11 0 3 1.000 -5 -9 1.82 1.65 .980 2.14 2.13
2 Seasons RF 79 77 64 642.2 137 128 9 0 3 1.000 -4 -8 1.92 1.73 .975 1.97 1.96
2 Seasons 1B 45 38 20 326.0 379 354 23 2 30 .995 -1 -4 10.41 8.38 .991 9.91 9.91
1 Season LF 3 3 2 25.0 3 3 0 0 0 1.000 -1 -38 1.08 1.00 .977 1.98 2.00
10 Seasons TOT 1028 999 882 8679.2 3406 1178 2079 149 217 .956 -32 -4 3.38 3.17 .959 3.26 3.29
Lg Pos G GS CG Inn Ch PO A E DP Fld% Rtot Rtot/yr RF/9 RF/G lgFld% lgRF9 lgRFG Awards
Note: Fielding stats are a combination of official records and RetroSheet records. Both are likely to have substantial errors and will not match perfectly.
View Complete Notes on Fielding Data
Leagues historically made no effort to balance team, league, and player fielding stats. Since 1990 or so, computers have made this feasible, but prior to that there are hundreds or thousands of discrepancies each year in games played (even whether a player played a position), putouts, assists, double plays and errors.
  • Pre-1948 SB & CS data for catchers is estimated from catcher assists, games started and opposition stolen bases.
  • From 1948 on SB, CS, Pickoff, & WP data for catchers and pitchers is taken from play-by-play accounts in the retrosheet files. There are several hundred games without pbp from 1948 to 1973 and for those we may not have any data.
  • CG & GS come from the retrosheet data and should be complete and pretty accurate from 1918 on.
  • Innings played (like SB and CS) come from the retrosheet play-by-play data and should be considered mostly complete from 1948 to 1973 and complete from then on.
  • Stats (PO,A,G, etc) for LF-CF-RF positions (since 1918) is taken from play-by-play or box score data as available.
  • Stats (PO,A,G,etc) for C,P,1B,2B,3B,SS,OF positions is taken from the official reported totals and may have been corrected at various times since their publication.
  • For detailed information on which games retrosheet is missing play-by-play from 1948 to 1973, please see their most wanted games list
  • For detailed information on the availability of data on this site by year, see our data coverage page

Sabermetric Fielding

Year Tm Lg Age Pos Rtot Rtot/yr Rtz Rtzhm Rtzrd Rdp Rof Rctch Rdrs Rdrs/yr Rpm Rdp Rbnt Rof Rhr RerC RsbC RsbP
1968 CHW AL 22 3B 5 21 5 6 -1 0
1969 CHW AL 23 3B -11 -10 -12 -5 -7 1
1969 CHW AL 23 RF 2 47 1 0 1 1
1969 CHW AL 23 LF -1 -38 -1 0 -1 0
1970 CHW AL 24 RF -6 -12 -7 -5 -2 1
1970 CHW AL 24 3B -1 -2 -1 -1 0 0
1971 CHW AL 25 3B 7 7 8 5 3 -1
1972 CHW AL 26 3B -2 -6 -1 -0 -1 -1
1973 CHW AL 27 3B -4 -4 -5 -5 0 1
1974 CHW AL 28 3B -7 -8 -7 -1 -6 0
1975 CHW AL 29 3B -10 -10 -8 -5 -2 -2
1976 CAL AL 30 1B -3 -14 -3 -2 -1 0
1976 CAL AL 30 3B -3 -28 -3 -2 -1 0
1977 CLE AL 31 1B 1 16 1 2 -0 0
1977 CLE AL 31 3B -0 -1 -0 -0 0 0
10 Seasons 3B -26 -4 -24 -8 -16 -2
2 Seasons RF -4 -8 -6 -5 -2 2
2 Seasons 1B -1 -4 -1 0 -1 0
1 Season LF -1 -38 -1 0 -1 0
10 Seasons TOT -32 -4 -32 -12 -20 -2 2

Appearances

Year Tm Lg Age G GS Batting Defense P C 1B 2B 3B SS LF CF RF OF DH PH PR
1968 CHW AL 22 34 32 34 33 0 0 0 0 33 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
1969 CHW AL 23 157 148 157 152 0 0 0 0 148 0 3 0 8 11 0 5 0
1970 CHW AL 24 141 141 141 141 0 0 0 0 72 0 0 0 71 71 0 0 0
1971 CHW AL 25 150 148 150 148 0 0 0 0 148 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
1972 CHW AL 26 57 56 57 56 0 0 0 0 56 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
1973 CHW AL 27 152 152 152 151 0 0 0 0 151 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
1974 CHW AL 28 136 132 136 123 0 0 0 0 123 0 0 0 0 0 11 4 0
1975 CHW AL 29 149 149 149 138 0 0 0 0 138 0 0 0 0 0 11 0 0
1976 CAL AL 30 118 89 118 49 0 0 30 0 21 0 0 0 0 0 51 28 0
1977 CLE AL 31 50 33 50 28 0 0 15 0 13 0 0 0 0 0 14 11 0
10 Seasons 1144 1080 1144 1019 0 0 45 0 903 0 3 0 79 82 88 50 3
Appearances table is calculated solely from full RetroSheet play-by-play data available from 1973 on. A combination of RetroSheet (starting with the 1918 season) and non-RetroSheet data is used for other seasons.

Advanced Fielding -- 3B*

Putouts Assists Errors Double Plays
Year Tm Lg Age PA RHB% BIP% GBIP% Fld F2O% FC Tot Cgt Frc Tag Tot 1B 2B Hm Rly Tot Cch Fld Thr ROE Tot 543 53 GB LD LDs LDf bFld bF2O%
1968 CHW AL 22 1105 64% 81% 32% 98 87% 2 17 12 1 4 77 60 11 1 4 3 0 3 0 3 5 2 0 3 2 1 0 1 0%
1969 CHW AL 23 5322 67% 82% 30% 452 88% 1 110 75 11 24 327 240 73 2 14 23 0 22 1 20 37 30 0 34 1 0 1 10 90%
1970 CHW AL 24 2656 62% 83% 33% 242 86% 5 51 37 3 11 176 136 29 4 5 18 0 15 3 14 18 11 1 14 2 1 1 4 75%
1971 CHW AL 25 5330 68% 80% 29% 507 89% 7 114 84 9 21 372 290 65 5 10 16 0 12 4 12 26 20 1 22 3 3 0 25 56%
1972 CHW AL 26 2046 68% 79% 27% 166 90% 1 46 29 3 14 124 92 24 1 6 12 0 9 3 9 13 8 2 10 1 0 1 8 50%
1973 CHW AL 27 5642 70% 81% 27% 471 89% 4 121 72 20 29 349 284 46 3 16 24 2 16 6 18 31 17 5 25 5 4 0 23 83%
1974 CHW AL 28 4679 71% 81% 26% 386 90% 3 95 72 11 12 277 216 53 0 7 24 0 22 2 19 29 18 5 23 6 2 3 12 75%
1975 CHW AL 29 5191 69% 80% 26% 445 91% 7 129 87 20 22 311 240 61 2 8 26 1 17 8 21 23 16 1 19 1 1 0 13 62%
1976 CAL AL 30 545 60% 79% 27% 29 79% 1 7 4 1 2 20 16 2 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 2 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 100%
1977 CLE AL 31 400 60% 80% 21% 31 84% 0 8 7 0 1 20 15 4 1 1 2 0 2 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 2 50%
10 Seasons 32916 68% 81% 28% 2827 89% 31 698 479 79 140 2053 1589 368 20 71 149 3 119 27 118 185 123 16 152 22 13 6 99 69%
MLB Averages 63% 80% 28% 89% 66%

Advanced Fielding -- RF*

Errors Assists Single w/ Runner on 1st Single w/ Runner on 2nd Double w/ Runner on 1st Flyout, <2out, Runner on 3rd Flyout, <2out, Runner on 2nd Baserunning Totals
Year Tm Lg Age Tot Cch Fld Thr ROE Tot 1B 2B 3B Hm Opp Held Kill Opp Held Kill Opp Held Kill Opp Held Kill Opp Held Kill Opp Held Held% Adv Kill Kill% Aother PA RHB% BIP% FBIP% Fld F2O%
1969 CHW AL 23 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 1 3 2 1 0 0 0 2 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 6 2 33.3% 2 2 33.3% 0 172 65% 80% 26% 21 62%
1970 CHW AL 24 0 0 0 0 0 7 1 3 3 1 43 17 1 20 5 0 12 7 0 10 2 2 15 11 1 100 42 42.0% 54 4 4.0% 3 2674 65% 82% 23% 273 44%
2 Seasons 0 0 0 0 0 9 1 3 4 2 46 19 2 20 5 0 14 7 1 11 2 2 15 11 1 106 44 41.5% 56 6 5.7% 3 2846 65% 82% 24% 294 46%
MLB Averages 41.4% 3.2% 63% 80% 27% 53%

Advanced Fielding -- 1B*

Putouts Assists Errors Double Plays
Year Tm Lg Age PA RHB% BIP% GBIP% Fld F2O% FC Tot Cgt Frc Tag 3U Tot 1B 2B Hm Rly Tot Cch Fld Thr ROE Tot 363 361 36 GB GBs LD LDs LDf bFld bF2O%
1976 CAL AL 30 903 60% 80% 26% 42 93% 0 218 13 203 2 15 15 10 0 0 0 2 0 2 0 2 20 0 0 0 16 0 4 1 3 4 100%
1977 CLE AL 31 485 54% 82% 29% 31 100% 0 133 7 125 1 17 9 5 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 0 1 0 10 1 0 0 0 0
2 Seasons 1388 58% 81% 27% 73 96% 0 351 20 328 3 32 24 15 2 0 0 2 0 2 0 2 30 0 1 0 26 1 4 1 3 4 100%
MLB Averages 63% 80% 28% 94% 88%

Advanced Fielding -- LF*

Errors Assists Single w/ Runner on 1st Single w/ Runner on 2nd Double w/ Runner on 1st Flyout, <2out, Runner on 3rd Flyout, <2out, Runner on 2nd Baserunning Totals
Year Tm Lg Age Tot Cch Fld Thr ROE Tot 1B 2B 3B Hm Opp Held Kill Opp Held Kill Opp Held Kill Opp Held Kill Opp Held Kill Opp Held Held% Adv Kill Kill% Aother PA RHB% BIP% FBIP% Fld F2O%
1969 CHW AL 23 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 2 40.0% 3 0 0.0% 0 115 82% 78% 21% 11 27%
1 Season 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 2 40.0% 3 0 0.0% 0 115 82% 78% 21% 11 27%
MLB Averages 59.3% 2.9% 63% 80% 27% 47%

* Many Detailed Statistics are based on play-by-play accounts accumulated by RetroSheet. These totals may be incomplete (3.6% of all plays from 1918 to 1973 are missing or have incomplete accounts, click link for year and team summary) for some players prior to 1974 and even complete seasons may not match the official totals due to errors in both the official totals and the play-by-play accounts. Pre-1954 seasons have a substantial numbers of games missing play-by-play accounts and should be viewed as essentially incomplete.

Appearances on Leader Boards, Awards, and Honors

Stats are Year-Value-Rank · Glossary

Hall of Fame
1983 BBWAA ()

All-Star Games
1971

MVP (yr lg (rk, shr))
1971 AL (13, 5%)
0.05 Career Shares (1113th)

Errors Committed† s c a p y
1975 AL  26 (5th)

Def. Games as 3B s c a p y
1969 AL  148 (5th)

Putouts as 3B s c a p y
1975 AL  131 (4th)

Assists as 3B s c a p y
1969 AL  322 (4th)
1971 AL  371 (2nd)
1973 AL  347 (4th)
Career  2,045 (85th)

Errors Committed as 3B s c a p y
1969 AL  22 (3rd)
1970 AL  18 (4th)
1971 AL  16 (4th)
1973 AL  23 (3rd)
1974 AL  24 (1st)
1975 AL  26 (1st)

Total Zone Runs as 3B s c a p y
1968 AL  5 (5th)
1971 AL  7 (4th)

Range Factor/9Inn as 3B† s c a p y
1969 AL  3.16 (5th)
1971 AL  3.45 (2nd)
1973 AL  3.18 (4th)
1975 AL  3.36 (3rd)

Range Factor/Game as 3B s c a p y
1971 AL  3.29 (2nd)
1973 AL  3.06 (4th)
1974 AL  3.02 (5th)
1975 AL  3.22 (4th)
Career  3.05 (77th)

Fielding % as 3B s c a p y
1971 AL  .968 (4th)

Other Resources & Links

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Viewed 23,030 times through June 1, 2012.
Name and misspellings: Beltin' William Bill billy Edwin Will William Melton

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