Monday, January 21, 2008

Bah! Who needs Home Run Percentage?

To complete the trifecta of offensive outcomes per plate appearance, I thought it'd be a good idea to look at home runs. Home run percentage is, I guess, the usual rate statistic used and that's found by taking home runs per every 100 at-bats. Rather than presenting a list you can easily find online, I'll present one that may take a little more digging. The HR/PA columns are expanded beyond three decimal places in order to show more clearly the value for each player.

Most Career HR/PA, 1901-2007, min. 3000 PA

RankNamePAHRHR/PA
1Mark McGwire7660583.0761
2
Babe Ruth10616714.0673
3
Sammy Sosa9896609.0615
4
Alex Rodriguez8482518.0611
5
Juan Gonzalez7155434.0607
6
Barry Bonds12606762.0604
7
Jim Thome8427507.0602
8
Dave Kingman7429442.0595
9
Albert Pujols4741282.0595
10Ralph Kiner6256369.0590
11Manny Ramirez8352490.0587
12Ron Kittle3013176.0584
13Ken Griffey10167593.0583
14Harmon Killebrew9831573.0583
15Adam Dunn4098238.0581
16Albert Belle6673381.0571
17Jose Conseco8129462.0568
18Richie Sexson5277294.0557
19Jimmie Foxx9670534.0552
20
Mike Piazza7745427.0551

For the curious, Hank Aaron is 24th with .0542 HR/PA between Hank Greenberg and Mickey Mantle.

Fewest Career HR/PA, 1901-2007, min. 3000 PA

RankNamePAHRHR/PA
1Duane Kuiper37541.00027
2
Emil Verban31101.00032
3
Al Bridwell49282.00041
4
Tommy Thevenow44842.00045
5
Jimmy Slagle44382.00045
6
Frank Taveras43992.00045
7
Johnny Cooney36752.00054
8
Mike Tresh36372.00055
9
Nemo Liebold48633.00062
10Bill Bergen32282.00062
11Lee Tannehill41843.00072
12Muddy Ruel52924.00076
13Charley O'Leary35813.00084
14Matty McIntyre45124.00089
15Ossie Vitt44864.00089
16Ralph Young43364.00092
17Tom Jones42894.00093
18Eddie Foster63176.00095
19Spike Shannon30153.00100
20
Donie Bush87349.00103

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The most surprising name (probably for most people) is Mike Piazza. He's always been viewed as a great hitting Catcher, people don't realize just how great he was in general. Piazza hit in bad parks, LA/Shea, yet put up massive numbers every year. Right before his decline at age 34, he had hit .321 / .388 / .576, and hit 30+ HR for 9 seasons. He should get more credit even if his defense wasn't great.

The next interesting thing is just how dominate (and I can use this word) McGwire was. Almost 9 more HR/1000 PA than 2nd place Ruth. And about 15HR/1000PA more than 2nd place Sosa. His 162G AVG is 50HRs.

Theron Schultz said...

What you say is very true. In the top 100 of the HR/PA list, only six catchers show up anyway: Piazza, Roy Campanella (52), Todd Hundley (81), Chris Hoiles (93), Javy Lopez (96) and Johnny Bench (97). Even more generally, Piazza has the career OPS+ record for a catcher at 142 and, of the guys on the above list, Bench is second at 126. I wonder how many people would name Gene Tenace as holding second place on the OPS+ list, with 136.