The Greatest Year Ever?

[BB]

Take a short break from cut-loose varients and betting coups to consider the following ... is Barry Bonds having the greatest year in the history of baseball? And all without anyone really noticing?

Bonds is well on his way towards beating the all-time single season record for on-base percentage. On September 15th Bonds had an OBA of .577 - and I\'m quite sure it\'s gone up since then. The record is .553 (The Kid in \'41) Bonds should shatter that by 25 points!

A month ago on this site a hybrid stat - the combined total of oba & slugging average - was proposed as a stat of singular value. A stat that would identify the kreme de la krispy.

Well, in that statistic, Bonds is also on pace to clobber the all-time best ever. As of the 15th, the combination of his oba and his .813 slugging average added up to 1.390. The previous best ever for a single season was the Bambino\'s 1.379 in 1920. Bonds just missed that record last year when his total was 1.378.

Granted, oba is not as viewer-friendly as hitting 73 home runs. How many intentional walks do you really want to see? But it deserves recognition. Think of Spectacular Bid. It\'s a walkover - the ultimate sign of respect.

A little housecleaning. There was some conjecture on the BB as to who would finish where in the hybrid oba+sa stat. I am the David Patent of baseball-stat-guessing contests.

There should have been little surprise about the top two - a Babe/Kid exacta.

Most of the leaders - five of the first six in fact - played in the lively ball era of the 30\'s. Williams was the only post-war player in the top six.

Looking at only the modern (post-expansion) era, the career leaders are Bonds (1.004), McGwire (shocked the hell out of me at .982) and Frank Thomas (good call the other JB  - whose name I won\'t allow my memory to mangle).

Gliding over Hank Aaron and Frank Robinson at 4 & 5 we come to Mike Schmidt at #6. Chris, you and TGJB were right about Schmidt - he had a heck of a career. And Jerry, you were right about Strawberry being higher than I thought he was. Hell, he was six points higher than my pick of George Brett, who came in at #12 among the moderns, and at only #41 all-time.

It was very interesting looking at these stats - it shows how much the game can change over time. Is the second live-ball era upon us? Or, is there just not enough pitching to go around? I\'m just not sure that I\'m ready to accept Barry Bonds as being the greatest player of the last 40 years.

BB

[Michael D.]

The great ones (Mantle, Jordan, Rice, Gretzky, Secretariat, Johnson (sprinter), Woods, Sampras, Slew, Russell) all played big when championships were on the line. If Bonds can do big things over the next month or so, I think you could call him one of the five most valuable players THIS YEAR. If he once again fails when it counts, I don\'t think you could put him ahead of Giambi, Soriano, or the two Arizona pitchers. I am rooting for the guy though, he has done enough to earn a few more cracks at a championship.

[derby1592]

I think it is a fair statement to say the this 2-year stretch for Bonds has been about as good as any 2-year stretch by anyone ever including Ruth or Williams.

I don\'t expect Bonds to be real productive (hits and RBI) in the post season because he will be pitched around constantly. However, now that his hamstring has healed he is a threat to steal and some of those walks may turn into doubles. In a typical low-scoring ball game, that may be the difference.

The stars seldom shine in the playoffs anyway. Most teams pitch around the big threats and challenge the others to beat them. Typically, someone in the supporting cast steps up big at the right time for the winning team. If the Giants are going to advance, they will probably need someone like Benito Santiago or Reggie Sanders to come through in the clutch.

Chris

[TGJB]

George Brett.