Sad news, Tom Ruane has passed away

Click here to see a short bio of him. Tom's obituary. Here is what SABR posted.

There were many times I emailed Tom questions about baseball and he always took the time to come up with amazing answers. He also did several guest posts at this blog. It always great to talk to him at SABR conventions. He was a fantastic guy.

Sean Forman said on Twitter: "B-R [Baseball Reference] would be a lot less useful without him and the work he did as a part of Retrosheet."

Here is what that bio says about him:

"A prized member of the SABR family for more than 25 years, Tom Ruane’s broad knowledge and interests have allowed him to contribute to many committees, especially Baseball Records, Statistical Analysis, Biographical Research, and the Biography Project. He received the Bob Davids Award, SABR’s highest individual honor, in 2009. A longtime board member and stalwart of Retrosheet, Tom has been involved in many of its most noteworthy efforts, including the design and implementation of its website. While Retrosheet had already served a valuable role in the research community, it was Tom’s extensively linked site which made it a prized tool for the masses. He led a group of volunteers to create box scores using official dailies and newspaper accounts, an effort requiring painstaking diligence and persistence that has led to Retrosheet having a complete set of box scores dating back to the early 20th century."

Related links:

• Read Mark Armour’s profile of Tom Ruane in the Spring 2016 Baseball Research Journal
• Read “Fun with Retrosheet Data,” by Tom Ruane (Retrosheet.org)
• Read “The Games That Broke Retrosheet,” by Tom Ruane (Retrosheet.org)

The number of times each AL & NL team has had the leader in WAR for position players

The other day Luis Robert of the White Sox was tied with Wander Franco for the AL lead in WAR for position players (although he is second now). It got me wondering how many White Sox players have led the AL for a whole season. Here they are:

 

George Davis-1906 (7.2)

Minnie Minoso-1954 (8.2)

Dick Allen-1972 (8.6)

 

That is it in 122 seasons. I also wondered how all the AL teams have done. Data from Baseball Reference.

Team	Count
NYY	33
BOS	23
CLE	13
BAL	10
DET	7
MIN	7
OAK	6
SEA	6
LAA	5
CHW	3
TEX	3
HOU	2
KCR	1
MIL	1
TBR	1

Ruth has 10 of the Yankees 33 (he also had one with the Red Sox). I combined teams that moved but were the same franchise. The Orioles includes the Browns, for example.

So the White Sox (3) have the fewest of the eight original franchises while the next lowest of that group is the A's with 6. Two expansion teams, the Mariners and the Angels, are ahead of the White Sox.

Rickey Henderson led the AL in 1990 but he played for two teams (Yankees, A's). So that season was not counted for either team.

 

The Blue Jays are the only AL team to never have a leader. 

Here are the NL numbers (starting in 1900). I combined teams that moved but were the same franchise just like I did for the AL. The Giants includes their time in NY. The Braves includes their time in Boston and Milwaukee. MIL is for the Brewers. 

 

Team	Count
SFG	30
STL	24
PIT	23
LAD	9
PHI	8
CIN	7
ATL	5
CHC	5
HOU	3
SDP	3
WSN	3
COL	2
MIA	1
MIL	1

The Diamondbacks and the Mets are the only NL teams to never have a leader. Both the Astros and Brewers have had leaders in both leagues.

For the Brewers, Yelich did it in the NL and Yount in the AL.

For the Astros, Bagwell and Thon did in the NL and Correa and Bregman did it in the AL