$Unique_ID{BAS01100}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{The All-Time Leaders:  Introduction}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{}
$Subject{All-Time Leaders Introduction lifetime single-season}
$Log{}

Total Baseball:  Registers, Leaders, and Rosters


The All-Time Leaders: Introduction


     This section is divided into two parts: lifetime leaders and
single-season leaders. Both groups command our attention and convey the
pleasures of the game, which lie as much in contemplation of the past as in
experiencing the present: Henry Aaron, 755; Babe Ruth, 714; Willie Mays,
660--this is no mere aggregation of names and numbers, as in a telephone
directory . . . it comprises the romance and lore of the home run, and of
baseball itself. Jack Chesbro, 41, 1904; Bob Gibson, 1.12, 1968; Nolan Ryan,
373, 1973 . . . you can fill in the blanks that tell the story of pitching's
most glorious seasons.
     What follows are the all-time great achievements in 219 categories, both
the traditional statistics and the new. For most of these we will give not the
top 10 or 20 but the top 100, because some categories would otherwise be
dominated by players of a certain era (for example, slugging average by
batters of the 1920s and 1930s, earned run average by pitchers of 1900-1919).
And for many stats we will offer a second kind of ranking, broken down into
the five distinct eras of baseball, with the top 10 or 15 leaders in each. For
example, breaking down single-season home runs this way would produce lists
topped by these men:

    1876-1892: Ned Williamson, 27, 1884
    1893-1919: Babe Ruth, 29, 1919
    1920-1941: Babe Ruth, 60, 1927
    1942-1960: Ralph Kiner, 54, 1949
    1961-1993: Roger Maris, 61, 1961

And for single-season Adjusted ERA (normalized to league average and adjusted
for home-park factor), we get:

    1876-1892: Tim Keefe, 294
       (adjusted from actual 0.80), 1880
    1893-1919: Dutch Leonard, 280
       (adjusted from actual 0.96), 1914
    1920-1941: Lefty Grove, 218
       (adjusted from actual 2.06), 1931
    1942-1960: Billy Pierce, 201
       (adjusted from actual 1.97), 1955
    1961-1993: Bob Gibson, 258
       (adjusted from actual 1.12), 1968

     This is quite a different lineup from the traditional list of ERA leaders
(which relegates pre-1900 pitching to the shadows), where of the 15 top spots,
14 are accorded to pitchers active from 1905 to 1918. Is there a baseball fan
alive who thinks that all the great pitchers were created in that 14-year span
and that the mold was then broken?
     But enough expostulation and fulmination. Let's set some ground rules,
define some terms that may still be unfamiliar after you've browsed through
the Player and Pitcher registers, and get on with the show.
     To be eligible for a lifetime pitching category that is stated as an
average, a man must have pitched 1,500 or more innings, or 750 or more innings
if he is a relief pitcher, in the major leagues; for a counting statistic, he
must simply have attained the necessary quantity to crack the list. For a
single-season category expressed as an average, he must have pitched one
inning per league scheduled game or have attained the necessary quantity
(wins, strikeouts, saves) to head a counted list.
     To be eligible for a lifetime batting category that is stated as an
average, a man must have played in 1,000 or more games; for counting stats
such as strikeouts, a Rob Deer earned his place on the list before he played
his 1,000th game. For Pitcher Batting Average, the criterion is 1,500 innings
pitched or 100 hits. And to reach the single-season batting lists, a man must
have 3.1 plate appearances per scheduled game.
     We provide tables of the top fielding performances, too, sorted by
position as you would expect (and, in this second edition, including only
games played at the position, rather than combining data from secondary
positions under the dominant position). But we go one step further and rank
several batting categories by position, thus recognizing and illustrating the
greater demands for fielding skill at such positions as shortstop, catcher,
and second base, and the comparatively plentiful supply of batting talent in
the outfield and at first base. As we establish a 1,000-game minimum for
inclusion in all but a few batting and baserunning categories, we likewise
establish for these positional rankings a minimum of 1,000 games played at the
position.
     For the three principal categories--Total Player Rating, Total Pitcher
Index, and Total Baseball Ranking--we have introduced several variations. For
example, TPR and TBR are shown 500 deep for lifetime leaders--sorted first by
highest value; then alphabetically so that the reader may find a particular
player without scanning 500 names; and last by the above-named eras, the top
25 in each. Total Pitcher Index is also sorted this way, but because far
fewer pitchers than position players meet the longevity criteria, the lifetime
groupings go 300 and 200 deep rather than 500 and 300. Ties are calculated to
as many decimal places as needed to break them, but averages are shown to only
three places. When two or more players are tied in an averaged category with
a narrow base of data, such as a season's won-lost percentage, the reader can
presume a numerical dead heat (and obviously this goes for counting stats,
too--one man's 39 doubles are as good as another's). But where there is a tie
for batting average, earned run average, or any of the sabermetric measures,
the reader may assume that the man listed above the other(s) has the minutely
higher average.
     For the Clutch Hitting Index, we have corrected an error which will raise
the ratings of leadoff hitters and lower those of cleanup hitters by 5 to 10
percent. The formula is unaffected.
     Here are the few stats carried in this section that are not carried in
the Annual Record or Registers, with definitions where the terms are not
self-explanatory (see Glossary for formulas):


BATTING, BASERUNNING, FIELDING

Runs (Scored) Per Game:  Broken down by era

Home Run Percentage:  Home runs per 100 at bats

Bases on Balls Percentage:  Walks (most) per 100 at bats

At-Bats Per Strikeout:  Broken down by era

Relative Batting Average:  Normalized to league average

Isolated Power:  Slugging average minus batting average

Extra Base Hits

Pinch Hits

Pinch Hit Batting Average

Pinch Hit Home Runs

Strikeout Percentage

Total Player Rating Per 150 Games:  Highlighting the achievements of modern
players and those with comparatively short careers (though at least 1,000
games)

Total Chances Per Game:  Broken down by position

Chances Accepted Per Game:  Broken down by position

Putouts:  Broken down by position

Putouts Per Game:  Broken down by position

Assists:  Broken down by position

Assists Per Game:  Broken down by position

Double Plays:  Broken down by position


PITCHING

Wins Above Team:  How many wins a pitcher garnered beyond those expected of
  an average pitcher for that team; the formula is weighted so that a pitcher
  on a good team has a chance to compete with pitchers on poor teams who
  otherwise would benefit from the larger potential spread between their
  team's won-lost percentage and their own; see Glossary for more information.

Wins Above League:  A pitcher's won-lost record restated by adding his
  Pitching Wins above the league average to the record that a league-average
  pitcher would have had with the same number of decisions (for example, Tom
  Seaver goes 20-10 with 7 Pitching Wins; applying the 7 wins to a 15-15 mark
  in the same 30 decisions results in a WAL of 22-8).

Percentage of Team Wins

Relief Games

Pitchers' Batting Runs

Pitchers' Fielding Runs

Relief Wins:  This statistic, like the relief stats below, includes only
games in relief.

Relief Losses

Relief Innings Pitched

Relief Points:  Relief wins plus saves minus losses