The Meaning of 55 Home Runs
Well, interestingly enough, this week's Shukan Baseball has an article on OPS (On-base Plus Slugging), with ranking of Japan's all time greates OPS players. But how do these three compare for their 55 home run years?
Player Year AB H HR TB SF BB IBB HBP BA OBP Slug OSP
Oh 1964 472 151 (55) 340 5 119 (20) 3 .320 .456 .720 1.176
Rhodes 2001 550 180 (55) 364 2 83 ( 2) 8 .327 .421 .662 1.083
Cabrera 2002 447 150 (55) 338 1 100 (29) 11 .336 .467 .756 1.223
So, if OPS is important to you, it puts Cabrera's 55 home run season at the top. (Oh's highest OPS season was 1974 when he had a .532 OBS and a .761 slugging for a 1.293 OPS. He was intentionally walked 45 out of 158 free passes that year.)
I read another study by Chiba-san (who wrote this one on OPS - but for career, not individual years) that compared players to their peers. Both Rhodes and Cabrera had a much smaller gap between their deeds and the runners up than Oh had in his era. In other words, what Oh did his his time was far more impressive compared to his contemporaries than Rhodes and Cabrera and their contemporaries.
It's very hard to compare different eras, as you mention. But these are two methods. I would appriciate it if someone could back up the second one with some data, though, as I would expect everyone to be sceptical without evidence.
- Did Oh experience many intentional walks?
Check Oh's stats. He was intentionally walked 427 out of 2,390 career bases on balls (many of those unintentionally intentional). Furthermore, Oh was intentionally walked with the bases loaded on several occastions.
See also stats for Rhodes and Cabrera.
- How much value does Bass' 54 have in today's baseball?
I don't have the data handy, and going by my faulty memory, I don't think the spread between Bass and a couple of his team mates was that large. Any data to refute is most welcome.
Oh 1964 7.37 1.059
Bass 1985 10.18 0.767
Rhodes 2001 10.82 0.722
Cabrera 2002 8.31 0.941
Oh is the only one with a pitching favored environment. Cabrera is in only a very mildly pro hitter environment. Bass and Rhodes were in quite strong pro-hitting environments, Rhodes' much stronger than Bass'.
The adjustment for individual elements would be the square root of the factors given above, if you really want to try to figure out the hitting quality.
Jim Albright
Just a note that when Oh hit 55 home runs, the Central League season was 140 games long.
Thank you for your information. I did not know that Pro Yakyu played 140 games in 1964.
I remember Tuffy Rhodes when he was called "Karl." He was a skinny speedster, looking very similar to another fellow Astro prospect of his time: Kenny Lofton. Therefore, I was surprised by Rhodes's transformation. From today's Rhodes, it's hard to imagine he used to steal by dozens.
Bass started as Twin prospect/Royal prospect, and his career saw more services in San Diego (Donruss, Fleer, and Topps produced his cards in 1982). He seemed to be power hitter even back then.
Cabrera's cards from the U.S. show that he used to be just as well-built as he is today.
How about Oh? Was he known for his power from the beginning? I am interested.
Thank you,
Yuki
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What do you see as the value of 55 home run mark of Sadaharu Oh's period versus Alex Cabrera and Tuffy Rhodes's era?
Did Oh experience many intentional walks?
How much value does Bass's 54 have in today's baseball?
Today, Pro-Yakyu plays 140 games instead of 130 in Bass' and Oh's decades. Meanwhile, nowadays people often do not remember that we once had a "lucky zone." I am not sure how much help the "lucky zone" gave to Bass and Oh. I grew up during a transition period when teams started to remove "lucky zones." Tokyo Dome was also very stylish at that time while some people missed the glory days with the Korakuen (my uncle works for Nihon-TV, and he used to be HR-camera crew for Sadaharu Oh).
In the U.S., we often have difficulties comparing today's batting stats with twentieth century stats. A good example will be the comparison between Bonds and Aaron.
Thank you for your help,
Yuki Sei
*Back in 1988, Carlos Ponce won the home run title with 33 when many stadiums were smaller and played 130 games instead of 140. Personally, I am not a big supporter of 140 game system, especially since each team only plays against the other 5 teams from their own leagues: 28 games between each pair of teams.