Friday, July 3, 2020

Which players improved and declined the most in the second half of the season during their careers?

I used Stathead (the data base formerly known as the Baseball Reference Play Index) to find all the players since 1908 who had at least 2,500 PAs in their career in both the first half of the season and the second half.

The cutoff is the All-Star break. That is usually past game 81 and varies from year to year. Not sure how Baseball Reference defines before 1933.

So this means players are not all judged equally here. But this what we have. In fact, there is a pretty wide range in terms of percentage of PAs accumulated in the second half (that discussions comes last).

There were 754 players. 344 had positive differentials, meaning the their OPS in the 2nd half during their careers was higher than in the 1st half. Four players had no differential. 406 had a negative differential. The average was -.004.

Here are the top ten differentials. Ryan Howard stands out quite a bit. 45.5% of his career PAs came in the 2nd half.

Rk
Player
OPS1
OPS2
DIFF
1
Ryan Howard
0.805
0.924
0.119
2
Carlos Pena
0.769
0.858
0.089
3
Lance Johnson
0.676
0.763
0.087
4
Chase Headley
0.705
0.788
0.083
5
Mark Ellis
0.669
0.752
0.083
6
Ryan Zimmerman
0.780
0.862
0.082
7
Eddie Murray
0.799
0.878
0.079
8
Mickey Rivers
0.688
0.763
0.075
9
Adrian Beltre
0.784
0.859
0.075
10
Bill Madlock
0.774
0.846
0.072

Notice that these are all relatively recent players. Here are the bottom ten.


745
Mike Lowell
0.840
0.763
-0.077
746
Willie Jones
0.793
0.714
-0.079
747
Bing Miller
0.864
0.780
-0.084
748
Roger Maris
0.863
0.778
-0.085
749
Ivan Rodriguez
0.835
0.749
-0.086
750
Ryan Klesko
0.910
0.820
-0.090
751
Gus Suhr
0.845
0.751
-0.094
752
Chuck Klein
0.971
0.875
-0.096
753
Darin Erstad
0.786
0.686
-0.100
754
Fred Merkle
0.769
0.666
-0.103


These are not all recent players. Some go pretty far back. No outlier here like Howard.

I also looked at just all the players with 400+ career HRs (57 players).


Rk
Player
OPS1
OPS2
OPSDIFF
1
Eddie Murray
0.799
0.878
0.079
2
Adrian Beltre
0.784
0.859
0.075
3
Carlos Delgado
0.899
0.970
0.071
4
Mark Teixeira
0.845
0.901
0.056
5
Eddie Mathews
0.860
0.912
0.052
6
Mike Schmidt
0.885
0.934
0.049
7
Edwin Encarnacion
0.830
0.878
0.048
8
Duke Snider
0.901
0.940
0.039
9
Barry Bonds
1.034
1.072
0.038
10
Chipper Jones
0.913
0.951
0.038


Now for the biggest negative differentials.

48
Lou Gehrig
1.095
1.067
-0.028
49
Jim Thome
0.969
0.941
-0.028
50
Jimmie Foxx
1.052
1.024
-0.028
51
Mark McGwire
1.001
0.957
-0.044
52
Jose Canseco
0.892
0.837
-0.055
53
Carl Yastrzemski
0.869
0.811
-0.058
54
Adam Dunn
0.882
0.819
-0.063
55
Dave Winfield
0.857
0.792
-0.065
56
Mickey Mantle
1.010
0.941
-0.069
57
Willie Stargell
0.922
0.847
-0.075

Mantle has a reputation for being a carouser. I can't think of any reason why Willie Stargell is first. Now the same two tables for SLG.


Rk
Player
SLG1
SLG2
SLGDIFF
1
Eddie Murray
0.451
0.506
0.055
2
Adrian Beltre
0.454
0.509
0.055
3
Carlos Delgado
0.526
0.573
0.047
4
Mark Teixeira
0.492
0.532
0.040
5
Mike Schmidt
0.511
0.546
0.035
6
Eddie Mathews
0.492
0.527
0.035
7
Vladimir Guerrero
0.538
0.569
0.031
8
Barry Bonds
0.594
0.621
0.027
9
Edwin Encarnacion
0.487
0.514
0.027
10
Albert Pujols
0.537
0.564
0.027




48
Andre Dawson
0.491
0.473
-0.018
49
Jim Thome
0.564
0.542
-0.022
50
Lou Gehrig
0.644
0.622
-0.022
51
Mark McGwire
0.598
0.575
-0.023
52
Jose Canseco
0.534
0.491
-0.043
53
Carl Yastrzemski
0.483
0.439
-0.044
54
Dave Winfield
0.497
0.448
-0.049
55
Adam Dunn
0.513
0.461
-0.052
56
Mickey Mantle
0.584
0.527
-0.057
57
Willie Stargell
0.557
0.493
-0.064


Now, what I mentioned earlier. What percent of PAs were from the 2nd half? Here are the top 10 and bottom 10. The top 10 tended to play awhile back.


Rk
Player
PA2%
1
Luke Appling
56.18%
2
Joe Medwick
55.21%
3
Joe DiMaggio
54.86%
4
Jo-Jo Moore
54.78%
5
Lonnie Smith
54.74%
6
Lonny Frey
54.56%
7
Billy Goodman
54.40%
8
Bill Nicholson
54.35%
9
Dom DiMaggio
54.01%
10
Kiki Cuyler
54.01%


The bottom 10 are mostly more recent. Maybe it has to do with when All-Star games were played.


745
Mark Reynolds
41.13%
746
J.D. Drew
40.97%
747
Barry Larkin
40.96%
748
Jose Guillen
40.95%
749
Prince Fielder
40.92%
750
Jack Clark
40.74%
751
Jay Bruce
40.09%
752
Hanley Ramirez
40.00%
753
Dave Concepcion
39.93%
754
Dustin Pedroia
39.43%

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