Saturday, October 5, 2013

Who Held The Single Season Record For Isolated Power Relative To The League Average Before Babe Ruth Came Along?

George Hall. He did it in 1876. Below are the top 10 seasons from 1876-1918. Hall's ISO divided by the league average is 3.14 (.179/.057). Times 100 is 314. This comes from the Lee Sinins database and there may be some rounding issues here. Ruth broke the record with 353 in 1919. Hall's 316 is still 9th all-time. Only Ruth and Gehrig ever did better (Ruth has the highest with 433 in 1920).

Player YEAR REL ISO ISO LG ISO
George Hall 1876 316 0.179 0.057
Fred Dunlap 1884 292 0.209 0.072
Ross Barnes 1876 285 0.161 0.057
Ned Williamson 1884 283 0.276 0.097
Buck Freeman 1899 280 0.245 0.087
Dan Brouthers 1881 269 0.222 0.083
Honus Wagner 1908 265 0.188 0.071
Lip Pike 1876 263 0.149 0.057
Tip O'Neill 1887 261 0.255 0.098
Tom York 1878 260 0.156 0.060

Hall's team scored 7.61 runs per game at home in 1876 and only 4.76 on the road. So his park might have helped him. But they allowed 9.09 at home and 9.00 on the road. Baseball Reference gives him an OPS+ of 204 that year, 3rd highest in the NL from 1876-99 after Barnes (235, 1876) and Brouthers (208, 1886).

Hall's last year was 1877 at age 28. His OPS+ fell but was still a good 132. Wikipedia reports he was banned from baseball for betting. The Baseball Library has similar information.

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