Best Single Season Ever (Statistically) for a Player

tedzan · #1 06-04-2010, 07:14 AM

The best single-season pitching performance has to be Chesbro's 1904 season. Here are the STAT's......

Games.........55

WON...........41
LOST...........12
W/L %..... .774

ERA..........1.82

K's............239
BB's............88

Unfortunately, Chesbro blew the game against Boston on the last day of the 1904 season. This resulted
in no World Series that year, since McGraw and his NY Giants refused to play it vs. Boston.

TED Z

scooter729 · #2 06-04-2010, 07:34 AM

I know stats from this era don't compare apples to apples now, but I will forever be amazed by Ol' Hoss Radbourn's 1884 stat line. Although when did his win total get changed from 60 down to 59?

http://www.baseball-reference.com/pl...adboch01.shtml

Year 5 Age Tm Lg W L W-L% ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP BK WP BF ERA+ WHIP H/9 HR/9 BB/9 SO/9 SO/BB Awards
1884 29 PRO NL 59 12 .831 1.38 75 73 2 73 11 1 678.2 528 216 104 18 98 441 0 34 2672 207 0.922 7.0 0.2 1.3 5.8 4.50

W-L: 59-12
W-L%: .831
ERA: 1.38
Games: 75
Complete Games: 73
Innings: 678.2
Strikeouts: 441

martyogelvie · #3 06-04-2010, 07:36 AM

It's hard for me to wrap my brain around what Ruth was doing in 1920/21. It's hard to argue he put up the greatest statistical season ever, but for me.. the seasons that made a more lasting impact on me are the ones I witnessed.. like;
Foster in '77 - 52 HRs
Guidry in '78 - 1.74 ERA, 25-3 win/loss
Brett '80 when he hit .390
Hershiser in '88 with 59 scoreless innings

at the time, watching Big Mac and Sosa in the HR chase in '98 was the greatest baseball event I had witnessed..

milkit1 · #4 06-04-2010, 07:46 AM

Lets not forget Joe Wood's 1912 season

judsonhamlin · #5 06-04-2010, 08:02 AM

Going old school - how about Ross Barnes in 1876? Led the league in almost all offensive categories and scored 1.91 runs per game. In context of the league and year, he was as dominating as anyone.

Robextend · #6 06-04-2010, 08:11 AM

I still don't think Walter Johnson's 1913 season is getting enough recognition in this discussion:

W L W-L% ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO
36 7 .837 1.14 48 36 10 29 11 2 346.0 232 56 44 9 38 243

36 Wins, 1.14 ERA and 124 less hits than IP. Definitely has to be in the discussion.

Al C.risafulli · #7 06-04-2010, 08:15 AM

While I think it's romantic to discuss the people in this thread, and that it shows adequate respect for the history of the game that we all love, I honestly don't think there's a question that Barry Bonds' 2004 season is the best statistical season of all time for a hitter.

Bonds' OPS that season was 1.4217 - the highest of all time (Bonds actually had three of the top five and four of the top 10 of all time). His on base percentage that year was .609 - the only time in any season in the history of baseball that a player got on base more than 60% of the time.

Think about that. 60% of the times Bonds got up to bat, he got on base.

Bonds hit a whopping .362 that season, with a slugging percentage of .821 - fourth best of all time. He drew a ridiculous 232 walks that year - the only time a player has ever drawn more than 200 walks in a season. Of those 232 walks, 120 of them were intentional. ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY INTENTIONAL WALKS. As far as single seasons go, that's 75 more walks than anyone not named Bonds ever received in a season. That should speak to the utter dominance of the man, and how feared he was as a hitter - one hundred and twenty times, opposing managers decided it would be less damaging to give him a free pass and put him on base than to take the risk of having him swing the bat.

Bonds racked up 303 total bases that year, hitting 45 home runs and driving in 101. He scored 129 runs, and only struck out 41 times in 617 plate appearances.

I'd go as far as to say that Bonds' 2002 season is probably the second-best statistical season ever, his 2001 season and 1993 seasons were also outstanding.

Is he my favorite player? No. Did he use steroids? Sure, but so did all the rest of the competition he faced. He's impossible to like, and acknowledging his greatness flies in the face of everything that vintage baseball fans love about the game, but his 2004 season was magic.

-Al

Peter_Spaeth · #8 06-04-2010, 08:31 AM

I agree with Al -- if we are talking pure statistics, especially from the Bill James school, Bonds' two seasons are unrivaled.

There are lots of candidates for pitching, but for me it's hard to top Gibby's 1.12. How the hell did he lose 9 games?

insidethewrapper · #9 06-04-2010, 08:54 AM

I think Hack Wilson must have been on more than just alcohol in 1930. 191 RBI's with 56 Home Runs, 208 hits, 105 walks with a .723 slugging percentage. That was a good year.

barrysloate · #10 06-04-2010, 08:59 AM

I also thought of Bonds' prime seasons but the asterisk next to his name is too large. But if he is in contention, I would have gone with 2002 as his best season, with 2001 and 2004 a close second.

Clearly he had a string of seasons that were statistically unrivalled, although the king for a five year stretch is probably Hornsby from 1921-25, when he averaged .403 for half a decade!

fkw · #11 06-04-2010, 09:07 AM

I agree with Bonds, but he was my fav player, so didnt bring it up

Pitchers
Gibson 1968 season, 13 shutouts, 1.12 ERA
Koufax 1963-66 seasons, hard to pick one

drdduet · #12 06-04-2010, 09:11 AM

While Ruth had the two greatest offensive seasons ever, Rogers Hornsby was just a lick behind. In 1922 Hornsby hit .401, 250 hits, 46 doubles, and scored 141 runs with 152 RBI, and put up similar numbers in 1925. Talk about your forgotten greats...

sportscardtheory · #13 06-04-2010, 09:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Al C.risafulli

While I think it's romantic to discuss the people in this thread, and that it shows adequate respect for the history of the game that we all love, I honestly don't think there's a question that Barry Bonds' 2004 season is the best statistical season of all time for a hitter.

Bonds' OPS that season was 1.4217 - the highest of all time (Bonds actually had three of the top five and four of the top 10 of all time). His on base percentage that year was .609 - the only time in any season in the history of baseball that a player got on base more than 60% of the time.

Think about that. 60% of the times Bonds got up to bat, he got on base.

Bonds hit a whopping .362 that season, with a slugging percentage of .821 - fourth best of all time. He drew a ridiculous 232 walks that year - the only time a player has ever drawn more than 200 walks in a season. Of those 232 walks, 120 of them were intentional. ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY INTENTIONAL WALKS. As far as single seasons go, that's 75 more walks than anyone not named Bonds ever received in a season. That should speak to the utter dominance of the man, and how feared he was as a hitter - one hundred and twenty times, opposing managers decided it would be less damaging to give him a free pass and put him on base than to take the risk of having him swing the bat.

Bonds racked up 303 total bases that year, hitting 45 home runs and driving in 101. He scored 129 runs, and only struck out 41 times in 617 plate appearances.

I'd go as far as to say that Bonds' 2002 season is probably the second-best statistical season ever, his 2001 season and 1993 seasons were also outstanding.

Is he my favorite player? No. Did he use steroids? Sure, but so did all the rest of the competition he faced. He's impossible to like, and acknowledging his greatness flies in the face of everything that vintage baseball fans love about the game, but his 2004 season was magic.

-Al

And a few people, including the OP, didn't even have that season in their top-6. I know this is a vintage forum, but come on.

PolarBear · #14 06-04-2010, 10:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Al C.risafulli

While I think it's romantic to discuss the people in this thread, and that it shows adequate respect for the history of the game that we all love, I honestly don't think there's a question that Barry Bonds' 2004 season is the best statistical season of all time for a hitter.

Bonds' OPS that season was 1.4217 - the highest of all time (Bonds actually had three of the top five and four of the top 10 of all time). His on base percentage that year was .609 - the only time in any season in the history of baseball that a player got on base more than 60% of the time.

Think about that. 60% of the times Bonds got up to bat, he got on base.

Bonds hit a whopping .362 that season, with a slugging percentage of .821 - fourth best of all time. He drew a ridiculous 232 walks that year - the only time a player has ever drawn more than 200 walks in a season. Of those 232 walks, 120 of them were intentional. ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY INTENTIONAL WALKS. As far as single seasons go, that's 75 more walks than anyone not named Bonds ever received in a season. That should speak to the utter dominance of the man, and how feared he was as a hitter - one hundred and twenty times, opposing managers decided it would be less damaging to give him a free pass and put him on base than to take the risk of having him swing the bat.

Bonds racked up 303 total bases that year, hitting 45 home runs and driving in 101. He scored 129 runs, and only struck out 41 times in 617 plate appearances.

I'd go as far as to say that Bonds' 2002 season is probably the second-best statistical season ever, his 2001 season and 1993 seasons were also outstanding.

Is he my favorite player? No. Did he use steroids? Sure, but so did all the rest of the competition he faced. He's impossible to like, and acknowledging his greatness flies in the face of everything that vintage baseball fans love about the game, but his 2004 season was magic.

-Al

Sorry, 'roid fueled stats don't count.

JP · #15 06-04-2010, 12:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PolarBear

Sorry, 'roid fueled stats don't count.

Actually, if you read my original post, they absolutely do. The point was how a standout player fared against his peers. Those who we assume did steroids, competed against others who we also presume did steroids. It is all relative. I left Bonds out of my list for several reasons. While he was an amazing hitter, many of his numbers are horribly skewed by the fact that he was never given a chance to swing the bat. Anyone's numbers would improve dramatically with over 100 intetional walks and 230 unintentional (intentional) walks. Just think of how
much that adds to categories like OBP, runs, etc.

It is interesting to see curmudgeons like Ted Z. come in here and think I'm crazy to rank someone over Ruth. Again, these are opinions. There is no RIGHT answer, no matter how long you hold your breath or stomp your feet.

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