Monday, November 8, 2021

How does Ohtani's all-round batting-pitching season compare to some other great seasons?

A SABR friend, Tom Thayer, raised this issue. So I calculated the harmonic mean of batting WAR (BWAR) and pitching WAR (PWAR) for a few different players (some of whom were suggested by Jessica Brand, Emory Brinkman and Adam Darowski).
 
Harmonic = (2*BWAR*PWAR)/(BWAR  + PWAR)
 
It is like the Bill James Speed Score that uses HRs ans SBs. 

The table below has the "Batting-Pitching Score" for each guy as Harmonic. For the guys whose teams played fewer than 162 games, I gave  them a pro-rated score (see Per 162). Ohtani compares very well. Anyone ahead of him was more than 90 years ago.

This is not a top 10 or leader list. I can't think of anyone else since 1945 who might do well. But if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.
 

Player

Year

BWAR

PWAR

Harmonic

Team G

Per 162

Whitney

1883

2.1

11.4

3.55

98

5.86

Caruthers

1886

3.9

7.6

5.15

139

6.01

Foutz

1886

1.3

9.7

2.29

139

2.67

Terry

1890

1.4

4.9

2.18

129

2.73

Stivetts

1891

1.4

7.7

2.37

139

2.76

Ruth

1918

4.7

2.3

3.09

126

3.97

Ruth

1919

9.1

0.8

1.47

138

1.73

Rogan

1925

1.9

7.4

3.02

84

5.83

Dihigo

1929

3.2

1.6

2.13

62

5.57

Ferrell

1935

2.4

8.2

3.71

154

3.91

Ohtani

2021

4.9

4.1

4.46

162

4.46

 

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