February 8, 2016

The Awesomeness Of Babe Ruth

The Ace of MLB Stats tweeted a bunch of amazing things about Babe Ruth:
Babe Ruth would have to resurrect, return to baseball, and go 0-for-3,188 for his career slugging to dip below .500.

Babe Ruth would have to resurrect, return to baseball, and go 0-for-1,147 for his slugging percentage to drop below Barry Bonds's .6069.

Babe Ruth would have to resurrect, return to baseball, and go 0-for-1,501 for his career OPS to fall below 1.000.

Babe Ruth in the #WorldSeries
10 series played, 7 World Series Rings
3 GS, 3-0, 2 CG, 1 SHO, 0.87 ERA
41 G, .326/.470/.744, 15 HR

In 2015, Bryce Harper became the youngest player in baseball history with at least 40 HR & 120 BB in a season. Previously: Babe Ruth, 1920.

Barry Bonds would have to return to baseball & homer in 247 straight plate appearances to pass Babe Ruth's record .690 slugging percentage.

Babe Ruth had a career 2.28 ERA in 1221.1 IP. Only Mariano Rivera had a better ERA with at least as many IP since Ruth last pitched in 1933.

Just how good of a pitcher was Babe Ruth?
Career ERA+
Zack Greinke 123
Babe Ruth 122
Tom Glavine 118
Madison Bumgarner 118
Nolan Ryan 112

Babe Ruth allowed ZERO home runs over 323.2 innings in 1916. He slugged three homers that season.

Babe Ruth never batted .400 in a season. But he maintained a .402 BA over a 250 game span from April 30, 1923 to August 8, 1924.

Babe Ruth hit 71 HR over the span of 162 games from July 24, 1927 to July 30, 1928.

Babe Ruth batted .276/.391/.541 (.932 OPS) in the games in which he had at least one K. Hank Aaron had a .928 career OPS.

Babe Ruth hit 365 HR with runners on-base during his career. Most in baseball history. Nine more than Henry and 53 more than Barry.

Babe Ruth was tied for the lead in MLB with 11 HR in 1918. He ranked 83rd in plate appearances. He also had a 2.22 ERA with 18 CG.

Babe Ruth had a combined pitcher & position player WAR of 183.6 in his career.
That is 1.3 more WAR than Derek Jeter & Tom Seaver combined.

Ken Griffey Jr. batted .284/.370/.538 during his career.
Babe Ruth batted .314/.382/.534 in the 163 games in which he pitched.

Qualified seasons with at least a .350/.480/.730 slash-line
Babe Ruth: 7
The other 18,662 players in history: 5

Babe Ruth had three seasons in which he batted at least .375/.500/.750.
No other player in baseball history has even one.

The Red Sox were 17-9 (.654 -- 106-win pace per 162 games played) in games during which Babe Ruth both pitched and batted clean-up.

Babe Ruth last played for the Yankees in 1934. To that point he had hit 28.32% of all HR in team history. He still owns 4.33% of Yankee HR.

Babe Ruth reached base safely 379 times in 1923. Most in a season in baseball history. This is one of those "unbreakable" records.

Babe Ruth had 10 career steals of home. More than Rickey Henderson, Lou Brock, & Tim Raines had combined (9).

Pitching wins above replacement
Babe Ruth (1916-17) - 15.2
Clayton Kershaw (2014-15) - 15.0

Mike Trout has averaged 9.27 WAR per 162 games played during his career. Second all-time only to Babe Ruth (10.56 WAR/162). We should note that does NOT even count Babe's additional 20.6 WAR as a pitcher.

Babe Ruth, HR by batting order position:
1st: 0
2nd: 0
3rd: 553
4th: 148
5th: 1
6th: 1
7th: 1
8th: 0
9th: 10
Ruth also had the greatest letterhead in baseball history:

4 comments:

johngoldfine said...

That is handsome stationery, and the rest isn't bad either.

FenFan said...

Crazy good!

allan said...

Reggie Jackson would have to return to baseball and hit 595 consecutive homers to pass Babe Ruth in career slugging.

Babe Ruth could resurrect, go 0-for-3,421, and STILL have a higher career slugging percentage than Reggie Jackson.

Hank Aaron could return to baseball, go 4-for-4 with a cycle for 230 straight games, & Babe Ruth would still have a higher career slugging.

laura k said...

So many outsize characters are overrated. Babe, these days, is underrated. Most fans have no idea how amazing he was.