Win Shares Per Plate Appearance

by Cyril Morong

cyrilmorong@aol.com

The back of the Win Shares book by Bill James proclaims �Win Shares, a revolutionary system that allows for player evaluation across positions, teams and eras, measures the total sum of player contributions in one groundbreaking number.� James� latest advancement in the world of statistical analysis is the next big stepping stone in the �greatest players of all time� debate.

This website shows how the greatest players rank in Win Shares (WS) per plate appearance (PA).� I did this because WS can never be negative, so the longer a player plays, the more WS he gets.� So I wanted to see how good each player was per plate appearance, sort of by quality instead of quantity. Actually, instead of just dividing WS by PA, I multiplied it by 648, to get an idea of how many WS they would have for a full season.� I used the Lee Sinins Sabermetric Encyclopedia to get PA for each player.

Players included in the study had either at least 5000 (PAs) or at least 141 WS or both through the 2001 season.� A few players like Kid Gleason and Cy Seymour, who got alot WS from pitching are not included because I could not easily determine how many of their WS came from pitching.� This information, however, was clearly stated in the book for Babe Ruth.� So his WS per PA has his pitching WS subtracted.

I first look at what the breakdown is by position for both the top 100 players and the bottom 100 players.� Then I present the ranking of the 861 players in the study.� Then players are ranked by position.

Top 100 Profile

Below are how many players from each position were in the top 100 in WS/648PA:

Position	Count	% of Total	Expected %
1B	18	18.00%	12.50%
2B	8	8.00%	12.50%
3B	6	6.00%	12.50%
C	12	12.00%	12.50%
OF	50	50.00%	37.50%
SS	6	6.00%	12.50%

Some observations:

1. Players were listed at a position if they played more games there than any other position.� Outfield was counted as one position.

2. Outfielders are very over represented among the top 100 players.

3. Infielders, especially shortstops and third basemen are very under represented among the top 100 players.

If WS is supposed to allow for comparisons across positions, this is a surprising result.� Why would so few infielders be in the top 100?� Are outfielders really better than infielders?� Consider the two following teams of eight players. The players on the left are the top 8 in WS/648PA.� The players on the right are the best of the remaining players at their position.� Which team would you expect to win more games if they each had average pitching staffs?

Babe Ruth		Joe Jackson
Mickey Mantle		Willie Mays
Ted Williams		Lou Gehrig
Honus Wagner		Joe DiMaggio
Ty Cobb		Mike Piazza
Barry Bonds		Eddie Collins
Rogers Hornsby		Mike Schmidt
Tris Speaker		Arky Vaughan

The team on the left lacks a first baseman, third baseman and catcher.� The team on the right has one player for each position.� Win Shares says that the team on the left must be better since all eight of those players ranks higher than all eight of the players on the right.� Yet the team on the left might not field some positions very well and therefore may not be as good as the team on the right.

Bottom 100 Profile

What does the bottom 100-player profile look like?

Position	Count	% of Total	Expected %
1B	11	11.00%	12.50%
2B	30	30.00%	12.50%
3B	8	8.00%	12.50%
C	4	4.00%	12.50%
OF	21	21.00%	37.50%
SS	26	26.00%	12.50%

The reverse of the top 100 is true.� Many fewer outfielders than expected.� But many more second basemen and shortstops than expected.

Complete Profile

What about the profile of all the players?� There are 861 players in the ranking.� Seven were DHs, so the percentages below in the third column are based on a total 854. The average refers to average WS/648PA.

Position	Count	% of Total	Expected %	Average
1B	122	14.29%	12.50%	20.51
2B	107	12.53%	12.50%	18.83
3B	96	11.24%	12.50%	19.92
C	68	7.96%	12.50%	20.98
OF	354	41.45%	37.50%	21.13
SS	107	12.53%	12.50%	18.44

Notice that catchers and outfielders have a much higher average than shortstops.� Have catchers and outfielders really been better players than shortstops in baseball history? The low number of catchers might be explained by the wear and tear of the position, making hard to get to 5000 PA.

The Complete Rankings

Rank	Player	WS per 648 PA	POS
1	Babe Ruth	39.92	OF
2	Mickey Mantle	36.95	OF
3	Ted Williams	36.74	OF
4	Honus Wagner	36.16	SS
5	Ty Cobb	35.79	OF
6	Barry Bonds	34.56	OF
7	Rogers Hornsby	34.33	2B
8	Tris Speaker	34.05	OF
9	Joe Jackson	33.48	OF
10	Willie Mays	33.30	OF
11	Lou Gehrig	32.80	1B
12	Joe DiMaggio	32.69	OF
13	Mike Piazza	31.82	C
14	Benny Kauff	31.82	OF
15	Eddie Collins	30.90	2B
16	Stan Musial	30.79	OF
17	Nap Lajoie	30.73	2B
18	Charlie Keller	30.68	OF
19	Dick Allen	30.30	1B
20	Mel Ott	30.18	OF
21	Frank Chance	30.12	1B
22	Mike Schmidt	30.08	3B
23	Dan Brouthers	29.97	1B
24	Hank Aaron	29.89	OF
25	Arky Vaughan	29.88	SS
26	Johnny Mize	29.71	1B
27	Elmer Flick	29.42	OF
28	Joe Morgan	29.29	2B
29	Home Run Baker	29.29	3B
30	Jimmie Foxx	29.15	1B
31	Yogi Berra	29.06	C
32	Frank Thomas-cws	29.02	1B
33	Mark McGwire	28.93	1B
34	Eddie Mathews	28.87	3B
35	Gabby Hartnett	28.86	C
36	Bill Dickey	28.82	C
37	Billy Hamilton	28.77	OF
38	Mickey Cochrane	28.71	C
39	Jackie Robinson	28.70	2B
40	Frank Robinson	28.64	OF
41	Jeff Bagwell	28.48	1B
42	Hank Greenberg	28.38	1B
43	Alex Rodriguez	28.23	SS
44	King Kelly	27.91	OF
45	Roger Bresnahan	27.86	C
46	Roy Campanella	27.85	C
47	Duke Snider	27.69	OF
48	Wally Berger	27.58	OF
49	Larry Doby	27.56	OF
50	Dave Orr	27.55	1B
51	Pete Browning	27.43	OF
52	Ed Delahanty	27.41	OF
53	Al Rosen	27.41	3B
54	Willie McCovey	27.30	1B
55	Sam Crawford	27.28	OF
56	John McGraw	27.16	3B
57	Gene Tenace	27.09	C
58	Buck Ewing	27.06	C
59	Sherry Magee	26.84	OF
60	Johnny Bench	26.61	C
61	Roger Connor	26.60	1B
62	Willie Stargell	26.56	OF
63	George Gore	26.54	OF
64	Jason Giambi	26.50	1B
65	Barry Larkin	26.45	SS
66	Fred Clarke	26.40	OF
67	Gary Sheffield	26.39	OF
68	Manny Ramirez	26.39	OF
69	Charley Jones	26.36	OF
70	Rickey Henderson	26.34	OF
71	Mike Donlin	26.33	OF
72	Jesse Burkett	26.22	OF
73	Ken Griffey Jr.	26.22	OF
74	Frank Howard	26.17	OF
75	Reggie Smith	26.16	OF
76	Hack Wilson	26.13	OF
77	Pedro Guerrero	26.07	1B
78	Bobby Grich	25.94	2B
79	Will Clark	25.89	1B
80	George Stone	25.81	OF
81	Norm Cash	25.81	1B
82	Darryl Strawberry	25.81	OF
83	Harry Heilmann	25.75	OF
84	Craig Biggio