Originally Posted by
M2
In 1976 exactly three players in all of MLB posted a .900 or better OPS (one above 1.000) - Joe Morgan, Bill Madlock and Mike Schmidt. In 1977 15 guys did it (three above 1.000), including Mitchell Paige, Andre Thornton and Larry Hisle.
In 1992, 7 guys above .900, one above 1.000 (Bonds). In 1993 it jumped to 19 and 7 (including Chris Hoiles).
Expansion has an enormous effect on upper end production. It was no coincidence Roger Maris hit his 61 HR in 1961 (and expansion year) and that he never hit more than 39 in a single season outside of that.
You can go back to the 50s and 60s and find plenty of Geoff Jenkins type .900 OPS players. It's not that hard.
BTW, are we now putting Casey on the list of PED abusers? He's one guy I can fully believe played clean (body type, personality, chronic inability to put two productive half seasons together). Because, if he was clean, then something else was going on to drive up his OPS.
No one's arguing that PED didn't fuel production in the late '90s and early '00s. However, as WOY noted, there's documented history that changes in baseballs can get you offensive explosions like in 1930 and in 1987. And you can see how expansion plays a huge role.
I can't vouch for the baseballs in the roids era (though I suspect the powers that be wanted more scoring after 1994 and liked the way their cash registers were ringing once the homers started flying). I can vouch for expansion. I can vouch for smaller parks. I can vouch for it profiling as a hitters era regardless of other factors. We're still seeing roughly 50% more HR in the game today than we did 20 years ago.
No one's saying PED didn't fuel some of the production, but pitchers took roids too and it didn't seem to create a lot of supermen on the mound (outside of the older Roger Clemens). My guess is PED simply fed into the direction the game was taking even if there had been no PED. It pumped the volume to 11, but the volume was going to be 9 or 10 anyway. So you get Barry Bonds' turn as a Greek god and Brady Anderson whacking 51 HR in 1996, but to think the entire era came straight out of a bottle is, IMO, naive.
Expansion changes the game:
Code:
SEASON
1960
OPS >= .900
OPS OPS OPS
1 Frank Robinson 1.002 1.002
2 Mickey Mantle .957 .957
3 Roger Maris .952 .952
4 Eddie Mathews .948 .948
5 Willie Mays .936 .936
6 Ken Boyer .932 .932
7 Roy Sievers .930 .930
8 Hank Aaron .919 .919
9 Harmon Killebrew .909 .909
10 Ernie Banks .904 .904
SEASON
1961
OPS >= .900
OPS OPS OPS
1 Norm Cash 1.148 1.148
2 Mickey Mantle 1.135 1.135
3 Jim Gentile 1.069 1.069
4 Frank Robinson 1.015 1.015
5 Harmon Killebrew 1.012 1.012
6 Roger Maris .993 .993
7 Rocky Colavito .982 .982
8 Willie Mays .977 .977
9 Hank Aaron .974 .974
10 Orlando Cepeda .970 .970
11 Roberto Clemente .949 .949
12 Wally Moon .940 .940
13 Eddie Mathews .937 .937
14 Ken Boyer .930 .930
15 Dick Stuart .925 .925
16 Roy Sievers .913 .913
17 George Altman .913 .913
18 Al Kaline .909 .909
Changing things in-between the lines and expansion changes the game
Code:
SEASON
1968
OPS >= .900
OPS OPS OPS
1 Willie McCovey .923 .923
2 Carl Yastrzemski .922 .922
Code:
SEASON
1969
OPS >= .900
OPS OPS OPS
1 Willie McCovey 1.108 1.108
2 Reggie Jackson 1.018 1.018
3 Harmon Killebrew 1.011 1.011
4 Hank Aaron 1.003 1.003
5 Rico Petrocelli .992 .992
6 Frank Howard .976 .976
7 Frank Robinson .955 .955
8 Roberto Clemente .955 .955
9 Rusty Staub .952 .952
10 Dick Allen .949 .949
11 Jimmy Wynn .943 .943
12 Boog Powell .942 .942
13 Pete Rose .940 .940
14 Willie Stargell .938 .938
15 Cleon Jones .904 .904
Changing the ball one season to the next changes the game
Code:
SEASON
1976
OPS >= .900
OPS OPS OPS
1 Joe Morgan 1.020 1.020
2 Bill Madlock .912 .912
3 Mike Schmidt .900 .900
Code:
SEASON
1977
OPS >= .900
OPS OPS OPS
1 Rod Carew 1.019 1.019
2 George Foster 1.013 1.013
3 Reggie Smith 1.003 1.003
4 Greg Luzinski .988 .988
5 Jim Rice .969 .969
6 Mike Schmidt .967 .967
7 Ken Singleton .945 .945
8 Dave Parker .927 .927
9 Mitchell Page .926 .926
10 Reggie Jackson .925 .925
11 Carlton Fisk .922 .922
12 Ted Simmons .908 .908
13 George Brett .905 .905
14 Andre Thornton .904 .904
15 Larry Hisle .902 .902
Code:
SEASON
1919
OPS >= .900
OPS OPS OPS
1 Babe Ruth 1.114 1.114
2 Ty Cobb .944 .944
3 Joe Jackson .928 .928
4 George Sisler .921 .921
5 Bobby Veach .916 .916
Code:
SEASON
1920
OPS >= .900
OPS OPS OPS
1 Babe Ruth 1.379 1.379
2 George Sisler 1.082 1.082
3 Tris Speaker 1.045 1.045
4 Joe Jackson 1.033 1.033
5 Rogers Hornsby .990 .990
6 Eddie Collins .932 .932
7 Happy Felsch .923 .923
8 Elmer Smith .910 .910
9 Ross Youngs .904 .904
10 Baby Doll Jacobson .903 .903
Code:
SEASON
1930
OPS >= .900
OPS OPS OPS
1 Babe Ruth 1.225 1.225
2 Lou Gehrig 1.194 1.194
3 Hack Wilson 1.177 1.177
4 Babe Herman 1.132 1.132
5 Al Simmons 1.130 1.130
6 Chuck Klein 1.123 1.123
7 Bill Terry 1.071 1.071
8 Jimmie Foxx 1.066 1.066
9 Chick Hafey 1.059 1.059
10 Lefty O'Doul 1.057 1.057
11 Mel Ott 1.036 1.036
12 Gabby Hartnett 1.034 1.034
13 Eddie Morgan 1.014 1.014
14 Freddy Lindstrom .999 .999
15 Harry Heilmann .993 .993
16 Wally Berger .990 .990
17 Goose Goslin .983 .983
18 Kiki Cuyler .975 .975
19 Carl Reynolds .973 .973
20 Paul Waner .952 .952
21 Mickey Cochrane .949 .949
22 George Grantham .947 .947
23 Earle Combs .947 .947
24 Earl Averill .941 .941
25 Woody English .941 .941
26 Charlie Gehringer .938 .938
27 Joe Cronin .934 .934
28 Pie Traynor .932 .932
29 Frankie Frisch .927 .927
30 Joe Judge .919 .919
31 Del Bissonette .919 .919
32 Dick Porter .918 .918
33 Heinie Manush .915 .915
34 Travis Jackson .915 .915
35 Earl Webb .908 .908
36 Johnny Frederick .908 .908
37 Glenn Wright .903 .903
38 Adam Comorosky .900 .900
Code:
SEASON
1931
OPS >= .900
OPS OPS OPS
1 Babe Ruth 1.194 1.194
2 Lou Gehrig 1.108 1.108
3 Al Simmons 1.085 1.085
4 Chuck Klein .982 .982
5 Earl Averill .979 .979
6 Mickey Cochrane .976 .976
7 Chick Hafey .973 .973
8 Goose Goslin .967 .967
9 Eddie Morgan .961 .961
10 Jimmie Foxx .947 .947
11 Mel Ott .937 .937
12 Earl Webb .932 .932
13 Bill Terry .926 .926
Lots of things affect the game, not all of them come in vials