Coors Field Fun
I could do a 25,000 word blog on the joy that Baseball Reference has brought into my life … but I’m not going to do that right now. I’ll only say that Sean Forman*, creator and designer of the site, is only about three advancements away from turning me into a Howard Hughes like hermit who sits in a room all day and all night and looks up who led the Toledo Mud Hens in doubles in 1973.
OK, I’m not really sure how my life differs from that now. Damn it Sean! Take a vacation or something.
One of his advancements is a calculation which converts a players stats into a different environment – for instance it will estimate what Ken Griffey Jr. might have hit had he spent his entire career stuck in 1968 and playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The numbers are quite striking:
Here are Griffey’s career numbers in the 1968 Dodgers context:
.246 average, .322 on-base percentage, 2,037 hits, 474 homers, 1157 RBIs.
Yuck.
For more fun, we have taken some of the great seasons in baseball history and placed those players in Coors Field in 2000. Here you go:
Stan Musial, 1948.
-- .429 average, .505 on-base percentage, 299 hits, 60 doubles, 23 triples, 51 homers, 103 walks, 197 runs, 199 RBIs.
Thoughts: I do believe that Musial would have hit .400 at least once at Coors (his translated stats have him hitting .400 seven times). But could he really have put up these numbers? No way. What really would have happened had Musial played in the Coors context? I’ll bet he would have walked 250 times.
Bob Gibson, 1968
-- 26-4, 2.43 ERA, 270 IP, 275 hits, 15 homers, 237 strikeouts, 86 walks.
Thoughts: Well, that’s a shocker – I would say 26-4 with a 2.43 ERA at Coors seems almost more impressive than a 22-9, 1.12 ERA in that crazy year, 1968. The only thing that seems a little off here is the strikeouts – I think he might have had more than 237.
Joe DiMaggio, 1941
-- .408 average, .493 OBP, 249 hits, 55 doubles, 13 triples, 39 homers, 98 walks, 177 runs, 181 RBIs.
Thoughts: I wish there was a way to see how long his hitting streak might have gone on at Coors Field. Of course, if I say that too loud Sean will invent a hitting-streak-o-meter or something and I’ll never get out of here … What’s amazing is how similar DiMaggio’s translated stats from 1941 are to Ted Williams ACTUAL stats from 1941. The hits, RBIs and so on are out of whack, naturally, but Williams hit .406, DiMaggio translated hit .408. Williams hit 37 homers, DiMaggio translated hit 39.
Sandy Koufax, 1965
-- 23-10, 3.87 ERA, 304 IP, 285 hits, 34 homers, 346 strikeouts, 94 walks.
Thoughts: Seems sacrilegious, doesn’t it? But it does give you some added respect for Brian Bohanon, who pitched for the Rockies in 2000 and went 12-10 with a 4.68 ERA. If you adjust HIS season back to the 1965 Dodgers, he goes 14-8 with a 2.41 ERA.
Duane Kuiper, 1978
-- .352 batting average, .383 OBP, 217 hits, 25 doubles, 8 triples, 0 homers, 89 runs, 27 walks, 74 RBIs.
Thoughts: Well, you knew I had to adjust my all-time favorite player. How about that average? You’ve got to be kidding me though – 27 walks in 616 at-bats? Damn it, Duane! Take a pitch!
Babe Ruth, 1927
-- .405 average, .539 OBP, 248 hits, 37 doubles, 10 triples, 78 homers, 177 walks, 226 runs, 235 RBIs.
Barry Bonds, 2001
-- .398 average, .488 OBP, 210 hits, 43 doubles, 3 triples, 98 homers, 238 walks, 198 runs, 210 RBIs.
Thoughts: Looking at it in a Coors Context, it’s pretty clear: No matter what Barry Bonds was on in 2001, that’s the best year in baseball history.
Jose Lima, 2005
-- 4-13, 10.47 ERA, 153 IP, 255 hits, 36 homers, 72 strikeouts.
Thoughts: That year, Lima (5-16, 6.99 ERA) was bad enough.
11 comments:
That sounds unbelievably cool. I've been using BaseballReference for years and never seen it! And I'm looking now and I can't find it. Where do I look?
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Nice entry, Joe! Isn't baseball-reference the best thing ever? I still can't get over the incorporation of the Retrosheet game logs and box scores. It's a tremendous blast looking up half-remembered games from my childhood with only vague facts (let's see, it was a night game against the Angels at Comiskey that went at least 14 innings somewhere in the mid-80's...), or fact-checking old-timers' gilt-edged reminiscences of their glory days. ("There was this one time I picked off Mickey Rivers with the ol' fake-to-third-throw-to-first trick. It was a good thing too, because Bobby Bonds was at the plate with the game on the line...")
By the way, depending on how perfectionist you are, you might want to correct the spelling of Sean Forman's name.
I wonder what Darrel Mays stats wouldve looked like in 2004...or Mike Maroth in 2003
The question can also be, what would the stats of 1920 Ruth and 2001 Bonds have looked like in 1968 Dodgers. Or maybe what would the win-loss records of Bob Gibson in 1968 or Roger Clemens in 2005 had been if they had the offense of the 1961 Yankees behind them.
The only problem about Baseball References (other than the time it sucks up) is how it still lists Kevin Brown as active. He retired over a year ago!
I, too, am curious as to where this wonderful tool can be found on BR.
And that's why Barry Bonds' numbers should be seen as the lies they are....
To those wondering where the conversion tool is on Baseball-Reference:
Go to any player's page, and in the gray box just above the statistics there are a number of links to various tools. One of them is in red, called "Neutralize Statistics." Click that, and it will convert the stats to a neutral context.
Once you do that, there will also appear some other options, two of which are "1968 Dodgers" and "2000 Rockies." If you're a paying member, you can also convert to any other team and era, but those two are a good start on the fun...
That is clever.
Bonds in Chavez Ravine '68: .286/.465/.754, 128 H, 26 2B, 2 3B, 60 HR, 145 BB, 128 R.
That 1.219 OPS would still be good for 17th all-time (and 2002's "1.257" would be 10th).
98 Homers???? So, 2001 Bonds playing in Coors Field in 2000 is the equivalent to playing RBI Baseball on easy...except in real life. Damn.
I like neutralizing Charley Radbourn's stats. In 1968 Dodger Stadium, he would have won over 100 games each year in 1883 and 1884, with 1129 and 1029 innings pitched. Even at Coors, he would have won 97 and 95 those two years.
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