Yaz
Baseball has a ton of stats. There are stats for everything. You have hits, runs, number of strings on the webbing of a first baseman’s mitt, and other assorted great things. Some are pretty much ignored, others almost worshipped.
One of my favorites, which sits somewhere between ignored and worshipped, is Total Bases. For those who don’t know the stat is singles+ (doublesx2)+(triplesx3)+(homerunsx4)=total bases. It’s a quick way of seeing exactly what a player has done on the basepaths. The higher the total bases, the more hits and the more slugging a player has contributed to his team. I like it because it’s simple and it does its job well. It has a huge flaw and if you’re quick, you’ve already noticed it. It doesn’t include walks, which is sort of equivalent to a single. Despite what you may have been told in Little League by a coach saying “A walk is as good as a hit,” it’s not exactly the same because with a man on base a walk gives him one base. A single might give him two or more.
So I decided to take a look at the men at the top of the total base list. Their names are Aaron, Musial, Mays, Bonds, Cobb, Alex Rodriguez, Ruth, Rose, Pujols, and Yastrzemski. You’ve probably heard of them. What I did was take their total bases (as given by BaseballReference.com) and add to that number their walks (same source). I didn’t factor out intentional walks because they are not complete for early players like Cobb. I also didn’t add in hit batsman or catcher’s interference (other ways to get on base) because those numbers are so small that they didn’t make a difference in the calculations. If you’re interested in doing this yourself, feel free to add them in (and to factor out intentional walks if you think that’s best). The list above (Aaron, Musial, Mays, et.al.) is in order of total bases. With walks factored in, the list reads:
Barry Bonds-8534
Henry Aaron-8258
Babe Ruth-7855
Stan Musial-7733
Willie Mays-7530
Carl Yazstremski-7484
Pete Rose-7318
Alex Rodriguez-7151
Ty Cobb-7103
Albert Pujols-6946
A couple of quick points. First, Pujols is still active so will rise up the list probably. Second, I didn’t look at the total bases and walks of players not in the top 10 in total bases. It is entirely possible that someone listed 11th or lower would, when walks are added, move ahead of one of the current top 10.
I found this interesting and thought I’d pass it along.
Tags: Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, Carl Yazstremski, Henry Aaron, Pete Rose, Stan Musial, Ty Cobb, Willie Mays
April 30, 2019 at 1:13 pm
One of the measures of a good stat is how much is it tied to success, on both a team and individual basis. Not only are the guys listed here the game’s elite, there’s also a lot of pennants connected to these guys’ names.
May 1, 2019 at 6:14 am
What does this show you? Well, one thing that it shows you is that Aaron was one of the most underrated players of all time. It’s unfortunate that so many people think of him for his home run record. That home run record is more of an albatross around Aaron’s neck than anything else, because everyone seems to remember only his home run record and not his singles, doubles, triples, and I might also throw in his excellent fielding, excellent stolen base percentage, and other things. I wish I could watch his career all over again without having been hammered by the media’s propaganda over his home runs only.
May 1, 2019 at 7:30 am
You make a very valid point, Glen. Aaron was so much more than his homers.
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