Some Random Historical Stats

Over the weekend, I went on a little bit of a twitter tear, tweeting out random statistics from a few of the All-Time greats. I found some of them quite interesting, so I figured I’d post them here in case you missed it. Here they are:

• Scott Rolen has the 5th highest WAR among active players (4th if Thome retires), behind only Derek Jeter, Albert Pujols, and A-Rod.
  
• Billy Hamilton (the old one) once hit 4 home runs in a season and still posted a .523 slugging percentage.
• When Derek Jeter won his 2nd Gold Glove in 2005, he was worth -2 wins defensively.
• Frankie Frisch won the MVP award in 1931 with a .764 OPS (101 OPS+).
• The only year Tony Gwynn ever hit below .309 was 1982, his rookie year (he hit.289 that year).
• From 1979 to 2000, Rickey Henderson stole less than 30 bases in a season just ONCE. He stole “just” 22 in 87 games in 1994.
• Stan Musial didn’t hit 20 home runs until his 7th season in the big leagues, then proceeded to hit 310 in a 10 year span.
• in 1953, Ted Williams played in just 37 games, yet still received an MVP vote.
• Ty Cobb won 12 batting titles over a 13 year span from 1907 to 1919. He also led the league in OPS+ 11 of those years.
• Willie Mays won the ROY in 1951, then combined to play 34 games over the next 2 seasons (1942-53). He then combined to hit 92 home runs from 1954-55.
• Babe Ruth was caught stealing (117 times) more times than he was successful (110) among season caught stealing stats were recorded.

Needless to say, I was quite bored.

You can follow Justin Millar on twitter at @justinmillar1, or email him at Justinmillar1@gmail.com. Comment below to join the discussion.