Leveling the 1930s Playing Field, Part 2: The Careers
Last time, we introduced a methodology to re-cast the stat lines of players from 1931 through 1941, normalizing everyone away from the extremely different offensive conditions that prevailed between the American and National Leagues into a major-league-standardized environment. We looked at the leading performers for each season. This time, we’ll assess the performances of the top players over the period as a whole.
(The multipliers by which all these players’ stat lines have been adjusted are detailed in the References and Resources section at the bottom of this article.)
The Catchers
The 1930s boasted two of the catchers who have often been regarded as among the greatest of all time – Mickey Cochrane and Bill Dickey – and two others, Gabby Hartnett and Ernie Lombardi, who are generally considered authentic Hall of Famers, but a notch below the first pair. Given that Cochrane and Dickey were American Leaguers, and the latter pair were National Leaguers, let’s see if we can determine to what degree the reputations of these four are a function of league offensive environments.
Here are the top fifteen OPS seasons (minimum 400 PAs) achieved by any catcher in our adjusted 1931-41 era:
Year Player AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS 1937 Gabby Hartnett 359 51 129 23 7 14 89 49 19 .359 .436 .574 1.010 1936 Bill Dickey 420 91 150 24 7 20 98 40 16 .357 .413 .590 1.003 1935 Gabby Hartnett 414 70 143 33 6 13 95 49 45 .345 .414 .552 .966 1938 Ernie Lombardi 493 66 171 32 1 23 105 46 14 .347 .403 .554 .957 1931 Mickey Cochrane 457 81 158 30 6 16 83 52 21 .346 .412 .541 .954 1937 Bill Dickey 526 81 172 32 2 26 124 65 22 .328 .401 .543 .944 1938 Rudy York 460 77 135 26 2 28 116 81 73 .293 .399 .542 .941 1932 Spud Davis 402 47 135 23 5 15 75 48 40 .336 .407 .529 .935 1938 Bill Dickey 451 77 139 26 4 23 105 66 22 .308 .396 .536 .932 1933 Mickey Cochrane 426 93 135 28 4 13 54 88 21 .317 .434 .492 .926 1932 Mickey Cochrane 518 111 152 35 4 22 105 85 21 .294 .394 .503 .897 1933 Spud Davis 499 58 177 30 3 11 73 40 26 .354 .402 .492 .894 1936 Ernie Lombardi 390 46 132 25 2 14 75 22 16 .338 .374 .518 .891 1940 Ernie Lombardi 378 53 122 23 0 16 79 34 15 .322 .378 .511 .889 1939 Bill Dickey 478 91 143 23 3 22 97 70 36 .299 .388 .494 .882
Spud Davis was with the Phillies in ’32 and ’33, so his numbers need to be seen through the Baker Bowl filter, but clearly he could really hit. Rudy York was such a bad defensive catcher that despite this kind of hitting, the Tigers made him a backup the following season, until they could find room for him at first base by shifting Hank Greenberg to left field.
But the “big four” dominate the list: Dickey appears four times, Cochrane and Lombardi three times each, and Hartnett twice – but Hartnett claims two of the top three seasons.
I’m not sure this suggests that any change to the conventional wisdom is warranted, but it does make it clear that there isn’t a whole lot of difference between any of the “big four” in terms of peak offensive contribution. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been a bit surprised here at just how good a hitter Hartnett was. (And Wrigley Field didn’t play as a particular hitters’ park in this era.)
The First Basemen
We’ve long understood that in all of baseball history, there’s never been a better era for first basemen than the 1930s. You’ve got the greatest of all time (Lou Gehrig), alongside two in the same league that aren’t all that far behind (Jimmie Foxx and Hank Greenberg). How does this conventional wisdom stand up to our league-condition adjustments?
Let’s take a look at the top fifteen OPS seasons by first basemen in our 1931-41 era (minimum 475 PAs; for all positions other than catcher we’ll use 475 PAs):
Year Player AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS 1932 Jimmie Foxx 585 142 213 33 8 56 159 99 94 .364 .456 .734 1.191 1934 Lou Gehrig 580 123 211 39 6 48 158 93 31 .364 .452 .701 1.154 1939 Jimmie Foxx 464 120 165 30 9 32 97 81 71 .356 .452 .666 1.118 1936 Lou Gehrig 575 153 201 34 6 44 139 113 47 .349 .456 .661 1.117 1938 Jimmie Foxx 561 127 193 31 9 43 160 105 75 .344 .447 .660 1.106 1939 Johnny Mize 567 113 200 45 15 31 117 102 50 .353 .452 .651 1.103 1933 Jimmie Foxx 569 112 200 35 8 42 146 80 88 .351 .431 .661 1.092 1938 Johnny Mize 535 94 183 36 17 33 113 86 48 .342 .433 .653 1.087 1940 Johnny Mize 581 118 184 33 14 49 146 90 51 .317 .409 .676 1.085 1934 Jimmie Foxx 540 115 181 28 6 43 124 95 74 .336 .435 .648 1.083 1937 Dolf Camilli 478 109 164 25 8 31 86 103 81 .344 .460 .621 1.081 1931 Lou Gehrig 617 153 209 30 15 43 172 108 55 .338 .437 .643 1.080 1935 Jimmie Foxx 534 114 184 32 7 36 111 98 100 .345 .446 .630 1.076 1936 Dolf Camilli 533 117 170 31 15 32 112 137 82 .320 .459 .611 1.070 1937 Lou Gehrig 565 129 196 34 8 33 148 113 50 .347 .455 .612 1.067
Yep, that’s right. Greenberg has no season that makes the top fifteen (and his 1940 1.062 season as a left fielder, his career-best OPS by this reckoning, wouldn’t make it either). I didn’t see that coming, did you? Greenberg’s best season as a first baseman (1937, 1.055) comes in at seventeenth best in the era (Mize slips another one in there at number sixteen, with 1.059 in ’37).
Of course Gehrig has several peak seasons not captured in this time frame; he’s still number one. But he is a bit diminished; in this universe he winds up with 471 career homers, not 493.
Foxx comes across as amazing. But, spectacular though his peak remains, here he loses 35 career homers, leaving him with the unlucky total of 499.
And welcome to the pantheon, Johnny Mize. Sportsman’s Park was a good place to hit, but it was no Baker Bowl, and it was very comparable to Briggs Stadium as a hitters’ park. This exercise adds 23 homers to Mize’s career total, giving his war-shortened career a total of 382; Greenberg, meanwhile, loses 21, to drop down to a career mark of 310 (in an even more severely war-shortened career, of course). Just who was that third greatest first baseman from the 1930s again?
And: how about Dolf Camilli? Even factoring in Baker Bowl, that was some great hitting he was doing in 1936-37, as well as subsequently with the Dodgers, all the way through 1942. It’s awfully impressive to be rubbing OPS elbows over a several-year period with Gehrig, Foxx, Mize, and Greenberg.
The Second Basemen
Conventional wisdom holds that Charlie Gehringer was the second baseman of the era, with Billy Herman a distant second. How about we look at the top fifteen OPS seasons from second basemen in our 1931-41 era:
Year Player AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS 1934 Charlie Gehringer 603 128 216 49 7 11 122 85 25 .358 .437 .516 .953 1936 Charlie Gehringer 637 132 223 56 11 13 106 72 13 .350 .416 .534 .950 1937 Charlie Gehringer 560 124 205 37 1 12 89 80 25 .366 .445 .502 .947 1939 Charlie Gehringer 404 80 130 28 6 15 80 62 16 .322 .412 .527 .939 1937 Billy Herman 568 114 193 38 12 9 70 64 22 .340 .407 .497 .904 1935 Charlie Gehringer 609 118 200 31 7 19 104 68 16 .328 .396 .496 .892 1936 Billy Herman 636 111 215 62 8 6 103 70 29 .338 .404 .487 .891 1938 Buddy Myer 434 72 144 21 8 5 65 82 31 .331 .437 .451 .888 1935 Buddy Myer 615 111 214 35 10 5 96 82 40 .348 .425 .462 .887 1932 Tony Lazzeri 510 74 153 28 15 14 106 70 63 .300 .385 .498 .883 1935 Billy Herman 667 118 228 59 6 7 86 50 29 .342 .388 .482 .870 1938 Charlie Gehringer 564 121 170 30 5 17 98 98 21 .302 .405 .464 .869 1932 Charlie Gehringer 618 105 184 44 10 18 100 58 33 .298 .358 .491 .849 1940 Charlie Gehringer 513 102 159 31 3 9 76 93 16 .310 .416 .433 .849 1939 Billy Herman 626 121 194 35 20 8 76 73 31 .310 .382 .466 .848
Well, then. It looks like the CW has this one pretty much nailed.
What a tremendous player Gehringer was.
The Shortstops
Okay, let’s see … shortstops from the era who have made the Hall of Fame have been Joe Cronin (elected 1956), Luke Appling (1964), and Arky Vaughan (1985). Why don’t we take a look at how that rank ordering looks against our top fifteen list:
Year Player AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS 1935 Arky Vaughan 500 112 193 35 11 19 103 116 18 .386 .502 .615 1.116 1936 Arky Vaughan 572 134 194 32 13 10 86 140 21 .339 .469 .493 .961 1934 Arky Vaughan 557 120 185 42 11 12 98 113 38 .332 .445 .513 .957 1936 Luke Appling 522 102 200 29 6 5 117 74 25 .383 .459 .493 .953 1938 Joe Cronin 526 89 168 48 5 15 86 80 59 .320 .409 .513 .923 1938 Arky Vaughan 545 98 178 37 5 8 75 121 21 .327 .449 .460 .909 1933 Arky Vaughan 577 96 184 31 22 11 109 80 24 .319 .401 .504 .905 1941 Cecil Travis 604 100 214 37 16 6 96 49 25 .354 .402 .501 .903 1941 Joe Cronin 515 93 158 36 7 15 90 77 55 .307 .397 .488 .885 1937 Arky Vaughan 472 77 154 19 18 6 78 62 22 .327 .405 .480 .885 1939 Joe Cronin 517 90 157 32 3 17 99 79 47 .304 .397 .477 .874 1940 Arky Vaughan 596 120 180 42 17 8 101 96 26 .303 .400 .470 .869 1932 Joe Cronin 557 89 177 43 17 6 109 56 44 .318 .381 .487 .867 1931 Joe Cronin 609 96 185 43 13 11 118 75 51 .304 .380 .471 .851 1940 Joe Cronin 546 98 154 33 5 21 105 76 62 .282 .370 .480 .850
As another famous shortstop might say: Holy Cow! The Hall might have gotten the right three shortstops in, but they sure didn’t get them in the right order.
I know I’m far from the first person to say this, but Arky Vaughan is one of the most underrated players of all time. He was far and away the best shortstop of his era. He was pretty much the Joe Morgan of his day: true, he didn’t steal bases like Morgan, but then Morgan didn’t have the arm to play shortstop, either. Their overall profiles were remarkably similar: compact left-handed-hitting middle infielders with excellent speed, surprising power, and uncanny on-base ability.
Vaughan didn’t have a real long career; it pretty much stopped after age 31 due to the complications of World War II (though it appears he still had a lot of mileage left). Under circumstances more favorable to show him off, Vaughan would have become generally regarded as the all-time great he genuinely was.
The Third Basemen
This wasn’t much of an era for third basemen, probably because the practice still prevailed of deploying mostly good-field-no-hit types at the Hot Corner. The only Hall of Fame third baseman from this period is Pie Traynor, and he doesn’t really count, since he only played for a few years past 1930.
I’ve generally considered Harlond Clift to be the best of a lackluster bunch from the period. Let’s see what our top fifteen OPS exercise shows us:
Year Player AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS 1938 Mel Ott 531 129 168 24 6 43 129 137 48 .316 .456 .630 1.087 1938 Harlond Clift 531 108 152 24 7 29 108 104 66 .286 .402 .521 .923 1937 Harlond Clift 567 96 171 33 7 26 110 87 81 .302 .395 .520 .915 1936 Harlond Clift 573 133 171 37 10 18 67 100 69 .298 .402 .491 .893 1934 Mike Higgins 544 85 180 36 6 16 86 48 69 .331 .385 .506 .892 1933 Pepper Martin 603 138 193 39 14 9 64 83 49 .320 .403 .477 .879 1939 Red Rolfe 645 129 210 45 9 13 74 74 40 .325 .394 .483 .877 1938 Stan Hack 613 121 199 36 11 5 74 109 40 .325 .427 .444 .871 1941 Stan Hack 590 118 190 35 6 8 48 106 40 .322 .425 .440 .866 1935 Stan Hack 428 78 134 24 10 4 67 78 17 .313 .418 .442 .860 1934 Bill Werber 624 123 201 40 10 11 64 66 37 .323 .387 .471 .858 1936 Odell Hale 616 115 192 46 12 13 80 55 44 .312 .369 .486 .855 1939 Buddy Lewis 533 81 168 23 15 9 69 65 27 .316 .390 .464 .854 1936 Red Rolfe 564 106 177 36 13 9 64 59 39 .314 .379 .474 .853 1939 Ken Keltner 584 78 188 34 10 12 90 46 40 .322 .372 .476 .848
What’s that? What’s Mel Ott doing in there, you ask?
Well, Master Melvin did play regularly at third base that year – or in 113 games, anyway, which certainly qualifies him as his team’s regular. I don’t know what kind of a defensive third baseman Ott was, but this makes it clear that he sure hit a hell of a lot better than anybody else playing third in those days (or any other days, for that matter).
Clift is indeed the best of a rather motley crew, none of whom are in the Hall of Fame (besides Ott, obviously), and none of whom deserve to be. Clift himself had the first half of a Hall of Fame career, but that was it.
What a remarkably great player Mel Ott was. Don’t believe me? Read on …
The Right Fielders
Let’s give them a whirl:
Year Player AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS 1931 Babe Ruth 532 139 197 30 3 43 153 118 50 .370 .484 .679 1.163 1932 Babe Ruth 457 113 156 13 5 39 129 111 61 .342 .470 .648 1.119 1936 Mel Ott 538 132 179 30 7 37 149 131 40 .332 .463 .621 1.085 1933 Chuck Klein 611 114 228 47 8 33 135 70 38 .373 .437 .638 1.075 1932 Chuck Klein 650 163 226 50 16 40 146 72 50 .348 .413 .657 1.070 1939 Mel Ott 398 92 124 23 2 30 87 111 51 .312 .462 .608 1.070 1932 Mel Ott 566 127 180 30 9 40 132 120 40 .318 .438 .612 1.049 1934 Mel Ott 581 125 189 29 10 36 141 102 43 .325 .426 .595 1.021 1939 Ted Williams 562 121 182 43 10 28 134 97 63 .324 .424 .587 1.010 1936 Paul Waner 589 118 222 57 10 6 104 88 28 .377 .458 .538 .996 1935 Mel Ott 594 118 192 34 6 31 119 98 57 .323 .419 .560 .980 1934 Paul Waner 597 128 215 33 16 14 94 82 24 .361 .438 .541 .979 1937 Mel Ott 548 107 163 31 2 35 103 117 68 .298 .421 .555 .977 1933 Babe Ruth 456 87 135 20 3 30 92 95 85 .296 .418 .546 .963 1932 Babe Herman 577 93 188 38 20 17 93 72 46 .326 .401 .549 .950
That’s right, The Splendid Splinter played right field his rookie year.
Chuck Klein was a legitimately tremendous hitter (who waited far too long to be elected to the Hall of Fame), but you do have to knock his stats down a peg or two for the Baker Bowl factor. And Ott, as we know, spent perhaps his best offensive year playing third base.
All things considered, the only better-hitting right fielder than Mel Ott in this era was Babe Ruth. And if the only better hitter than you is Babe Ruth, you might have to be considered a pretty fair hitter. (Ruth, incidentally, emerges here with 705 career homers rather than 714.)
Ott is the single player upon whom this exercise shines the most favorable light. His two particular strengths were hitting home runs and drawing walks, and those are the two things the National League, through the great heart of his career, most suppressed. This exercise credits him with 33 additional career homers and 162 additional career walks; had he actually hit the 544 homers (way ahead of the 499 that this exercise indicates for Jimmie Foxx, remember) and drawn the 1,870 walks (currently fifth on the all-time list, vaulting him ahead of Mickey Mantle, Carl Yastrzemski, and Joe Morgan) that a neutral 1931-41 major league environment would suggest, Mel Ott would reside on most short lists of all-time greats.
In his day, Ott was hugely popular and very highly regarded, but it’s pretty clear that even then, few people really comprehended just how tremendous he truly was. He didn’t do nearly as well in MVP voting as he should have; I think it’s fair to conclude that the walks (as they so often are) were either taken for granted or overlooked entirely. And in recent decades, Ott’s 511 home runs have come to seem a less towering achievement than they once did (he was third all-time in homers when he retired), and in general he’s sort of receded into the background.
When Ott’s name does come up these days, he often seems to be dismissed as something of a Polo Grounds oddity, a beneficiary of a flood of cheap home runs: of his 511 career total, 323 were hit at home, by far the highest proportion of any great slugger. Clearly his pull-hitting swing was a great fit for his home ballpark. But I think this is a faulty premise upon which to dismiss Ott: while the Polo Grounds giveth home runs, it also significantly taketh away batting average (Ott hit .311 lifetime on the road versus .297 at home). Overall, the Polo Grounds was not a high scoring environment; Ott created tremendous offensive value over a long period of time. Hopefully this little exercise will help to give his reputation the some of the luster it deserves.
The Center Fielders
The Hall of Famers from this era are Joe DiMaggio (1955), Lloyd Waner (1967), and Earl Averill (1975). And, sort of Earle Combs (1970), who was a regular in 1931-33.
Here’s our top fifteen OPS list:
Year Player AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS 1939 Joe DiMaggio 459 100 173 31 6 27 117 47 20 .377 .435 .647 1.083 1941 Joe DiMaggio 537 115 189 41 9 27 118 71 13 .352 .428 .616 1.044 1937 Joe DiMaggio 617 141 211 32 14 41 156 57 38 .342 .397 .638 1.036 1936 Earl Averill 609 124 227 36 13 25 115 56 36 .373 .426 .600 1.027 1940 Joe DiMaggio 506 88 177 27 8 28 125 56 29 .349 .414 .598 1.012 1941 Pete Reiser 540 124 188 41 21 16 81 49 71 .348 .402 .586 .989 1933 Wally Berger 532 95 169 40 9 32 120 51 82 .317 .377 .605 .982 1934 Earl Averill 599 123 188 47 6 30 108 85 44 .314 .399 .565 .964 1931 Mel Ott 499 112 147 24 8 31 123 88 45 .294 .400 .563 .963 1931 Earl Averill 625 131 207 35 10 30 134 63 37 .331 .392 .561 .953 1932 Earl Averill 631 109 198 37 13 31 116 64 39 .314 .377 .560 .937 1938 Earl Averill 479 92 156 26 14 12 85 71 47 .325 .412 .514 .927 1938 Joe DiMaggio 595 118 190 30 13 27 128 52 21 .319 .374 .551 .924 1935 Wally Berger 590 95 175 41 4 34 135 60 79 .296 .361 .554 .915 1931 Wally Berger 619 101 201 45 8 21 90 60 72 .325 .385 .524 .909
That’s right, Ott played mostly in center field in 1931. Did I mention what a great player he was?
Joltin’ Joe comes through this exercise looking pretty darn good, doesn’t he? So does Averill. It’s sure easy to see why everyone made such a fuss about Pete Reiser. And how about a little love for Wally Berger, putting up those numbers in a lousy hitters’ park.
Oh, by the way: Lloyd Waner’s best OPS in the 1931-41 period, as indicated by this exercise? .807, in 1932. “Little Poison” indeed.
The Left Fielders
The list of Hall of Fame left fielders from this era is long, but it requires a number of caveats: Al Simmons (1953), Hank Greenberg (1956), Heinie Manush (1964), Ted Williams (1966), Goose Goslin (1968), Joe Medwick (1968), Chick Hafey (1971), and Chuck Klein (1980). Of all these, only Greenberg, Medwick, and Klein were elected primarily for what they did between 1931 and 1941, and neither Greenberg nor Klein was primarily a left fielder.
Year Player ABl R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS 1941 Ted Williams 452 128 181 30 3 34 114 136 27 .401 .539 .700 1.240 1937 Joe Medwick 638 120 242 61 11 35 166 47 49 .379 .422 .676 1.097 1931 Al Simmons 511 98 198 36 13 20 120 43 44 .387 .435 .628 1.063 1940 Hank Greenberg 570 122 192 47 7 37 141 86 72 .337 .424 .638 1.062 1931 Chuck Klein 596 130 202 35 10 34 130 65 50 .339 .404 .601 1.005 1940 Ted Williams 558 126 190 41 13 20 106 88 52 .341 .431 .570 1.001 1936 Joe Medwick 641 127 228 69 15 20 152 40 32 .355 .393 .604 .998 1931 Chick Hafey 452 101 159 36 8 17 102 43 44 .352 .408 .582 .990 1932 Lefty O'Doul 595 128 219 32 9 22 96 60 20 .368 .426 .561 .987 1935 Joe Medwick 635 137 225 48 14 23 131 36 58 .354 .389 .583 .972 1939 Bob Johnson 541 107 181 29 8 21 106 90 58 .335 .430 .535 .965 1941 Charlie Keller 504 97 148 23 9 30 115 96 65 .294 .406 .551 .958 1938 Jeff Heath 498 95 168 29 17 18 102 29 54 .338 .374 .575 .949 1938 Joe Medwick 594 111 194 50 8 25 135 49 42 .327 .378 .566 .944 1931 Goose Goslin 589 107 192 41 10 22 98 74 40 .326 .401 .542 .943
There’s quite a bit of terrific hitting going on here, but no one really stands out as dominant over the breadth of the period. Forced to choose one, I would take Medwick.
He wasn’t able to sustain his peak production for a very long time, but this exercise dramatically illustrates that for a few years there, Joe Medwick was one astonishing hitter.
The Pitchers
The list of Hall of Fame pitchers from this era is quite lengthy. However, many of them, while they pitched some in the early ‘30s, are really in for what they did in the 1920s (leaving aside the question of how deserving they might be): Herb Pennock, Dazzy Vance, Burleigh Grimes, Waite Hoyt, and Jesse Haines. They really don’t register on the radar screen here. (Neither, very regrettably, does the guy who was very possibly the best pitcher of the era: Satchel Paige.)
Ted Lyons is an odd case. He was past his peak by 1931, yet pitched all through this era, and had some remarkable years in the late ‘30s/early ‘40s as a limited-workload “Sunday only” pitcher. But he was never a top ace in this period.
This leaves us with six Hall of Famers who had a good number of peak seasons in 1931-41: Lefty Grove, Carl Hubbell, Dizzy Dean, Bob Feller, Red Ruffing, and Lefty Gomez.
There’s a stat I play around with to try and capture the combination of pitching effectiveness and durability: innings pitched minus earned runs. How about we take a look at the top fifteen adjusted 1931-41 seasons by these six Hall of Famers according to this stat:
Year Pitcher G IP W L Sv H BB SO HR ERA H/9 BB/9 WH/9 SO/9 IP-ER 1933 Carl Hubbell 45 309 23 12 5 262 59 166 7 1.88 7.63 1.71 9.33 4.83 244 1940 Bob Feller 43 320 27 11 4 242 109 250 12 2.46 6.79 3.05 9.85 7.03 233 1941 Bob Feller 44 343 25 13 2 278 182 260 14 2.98 7.31 4.77 12.08 6.81 229 1934 Carl Hubbell 49 313 21 12 8 284 45 119 17 2.41 8.17 1.28 9.45 3.43 229 1931 Lefty Grove 41 289 31 4 5 246 57 171 9 1.93 7.67 1.78 9.45 5.33 227 1936 Cark Hubbell 42 304 26 6 3 270 67 121 8 2.55 8.01 2.00 10.00 3.57 218 1934 Dizzy Dean 50 312 30 7 7 286 90 197 14 2.78 8.26 2.61 10.87 5.69 215 1934 Lefty Gomez 38 282 26 5 1 225 82 156 12 2.23 7.17 2.62 9.80 4.99 212 1937 Lefty Gomez 34 278 21 11 0 228 83 197 9 2.17 7.38 2.67 10.05 6.38 211 1935 Dizzy Dean 50 325 28 12 5 326 92 188 16 3.17 9.01 2.55 11.56 5.20 211 1939 Bob Feller 39 297 24 9 1 223 129 242 12 2.64 6.77 3.92 10.69 7.35 210 1932 Lefty Grove 44 292 25 10 7 269 67 184 12 2.67 8.31 2.08 10.39 5.67 205 1932 Carl Hubbell 40 284 18 11 2 260 48 140 21 2.68 8.23 1.53 9.76 4.45 200 1935 Lefty Grove 35 273 20 12 1 268 56 122 6 2.60 8.82 1.84 10.66 4.04 194 1936 Dizzy Dean 51 315 24 13 11 316 63 191 24 3.50 9.04 1.79 10.83 5.47 193
Ruffing doesn’t make the top fifteen. In fact he doesn’t come close; his best performance was 177 in 1937.
Now let’s compare this list against the top 15 IP-ER adjusted 1931-41 performances by all pitchers other than Hubbell, Feller, Grove, Dean, or Gomez:
Year Pitcher G IP W L Sv H BB SO HR ERA H/9 BB/9 WH/9 SO/9 IP-ER 1939 Bucky Walters 39 319 27 11 0 254 121 139 17 2.49 7.17 3.42 10.59 3.92 231 1941 Thornton Lee 35 300 22 11 1 253 86 130 16 2.24 7.59 2.59 10.18 3.89 225 1940 Bucky Walters 36 305 22 10 0 244 101 120 22 2.64 7.21 2.97 10.18 3.55 215 1933 Lon Warneke 36 287 18 13 1 268 93 141 9 2.27 8.39 2.93 11.32 4.32 215 1932 Alvin Crowder 50 327 26 13 1 319 66 101 16 3.13 8.79 1.81 10.60 2.77 213 1941 Whitlow Wyatt 38 288 22 10 1 228 88 176 11 2.48 7.11 2.75 9.86 5.51 209 1941 Bucky Walters 37 302 19 15 2 298 94 129 11 3.00 8.88 2.81 11.69 3.85 201 1935 Wes Ferrell 41 322 25 14 0 334 93 111 16 3.39 9.34 2.59 11.93 3.11 201 1932 Lon Warneke 35 277 22 6 0 247 77 109 13 2.53 8.02 2.51 10.52 3.53 199 1940 Claude Passeau 46 281 20 13 5 263 65 130 9 2.66 8.41 2.07 10.48 4.15 198 1938 Paul Derringer 41 307 21 14 3 322 57 134 24 3.25 9.45 1.67 11.12 3.94 196 1938 Bill Lee 44 291 22 9 2 287 86 123 22 2.95 8.89 2.66 11.55 3.81 196 1939 Paul Derringer 38 301 25 7 0 326 39 130 17 3.18 9.76 1.16 10.92 3.89 195 1933 Bump Hadley 45 317 15 20 3 302 118 141 15 3.51 8.59 3.34 11.92 3.99 193 1934 Van Mungo 45 315 18 16 3 298 125 186 15 3.53 8.51 3.58 12.09 5.32 191
Ruffing doesn’t even sniff this list either. So the first conclusion we can draw here is that if Red Ruffing hadn’t pitched for the Yankees, he almost certainly wouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame.
What else does this suggest … sorting on the IP-ER stat doesn’t show the 1930s Grove off to his best advantage, but he still comes out looking awfully impressive. Feller was amazing too, but I think that all things considered, Carl Hubbell was the greatest (white, at least) pitcher of the 1931-41 era. Grove, of course, has the better full career.
Of the non-Hall of Famers, Walters certainly had the best peak, but I’m inclined to say that given the shortness of that peak (and the wartime-padded stats that followed it), he’s appropriately not ensconced in Cooperstown. And the Hall of Fame case for Wes Ferrell doesn’t gain any ground from this exercise (sorry, Dick Thompson); I don’t see Ferrell as Hall-worthy on either peak or career grounds, purely on the basis of his pitching. The best case for Ferrell comes from his pitching-and-hitting total value package, but metrics that attempt to account for the whole player – WARP, or Win Shares – peg him as very impressive, but with only a few seasons as an elite player.
“What it All Means”
The issue we presented last April was this:
We may tend to see the best hitters of that time as being in the AL (Gehrig, Foxx, Greenberg, etc.), with the NL’s best hitters (Ott, Klein, Medwick, etc.) as not quite measuring up. Maybe the best hitters were American Leaguers, but a careful scoring-environment context assessment needs to be applied in order to be certain.
What light has this exercise shed upon it?
1. The very best hitters of the era were indeed all American Leaguers. No National Leaguer was as good a hitter through the breadth of the period as Lou Gehrig or Jimmie Foxx, nor as good as Babe Ruth and Ted Williams were at its very beginning and end.
2. But National Leaguers Johnny Mize and Mel Ott, while not quite in the class of Gehrig, Foxx, Ruth, or Williams, were better hitters than anyone else in the A.L. at the time, including Hank Greenberg and Joe DiMaggio. In addition, Arky Vaughan, Joe Medwick, Chuck Klein, and Dolf Camilli were extraordinarily good hitters, comfortably within the elite class of the era.
3. National League catching stars Gabby Hartnett and Ernie Lombardi may not have been the defensive equals of American Leaguers Mickey Cochrane and Bill Dickey, but all four were very comparable in peak offensive value.
4. Charlie Gehringer was clearly the best hitting second baseman of the era. The only better-hitting middle infielder was Vaughan.
5. The very best pitchers of the era were equally distributed between the leagues. Carl Hubbell was probably the best overall pitcher through the particular 1931-41 seasons, but in those years the trio of Hubbell, Dizzy Dean, and Bucky Walters wasn’t meaningfully better or worse than the trio of Lefty Grove, Bob Feller, and Lefty Gomez.
6. Mize, Ott, and Vaughan tend to be severely underrated by most of us. Other stars from the era who tend to be overlooked and underappreciated include:
– Dolf Camilli
– Wally Berger
– Buddy Myer
– Stan Hack
– Bucky Walters
– Tommy Bridges
7. Less prominent players whom I discovered to be quite a bit better than I had realized:
– Ival Goodman
– Gus Suhr
– Mike Higgins
– Elbie Fletcher
– Johnny Allen
– Bump Hadley
– Alvin Crowder
8. Whether it sheds any light on anything at all, it was a whole lotta fun.
References & Resources
Here are the actual major league average per team/game rates for 1931-41:
Year R H 2B 3B HR BB SO 1931 4.81 9.72 1.82 0.43 0.43 3.10 3.20 1932 4.91 9.78 1.86 0.43 0.55 3.06 3.19 1933 4.48 9.37 1.61 0.39 0.44 3.00 3.03 1934 4.91 9.80 1.76 0.36 0.55 3.21 3.45 1935 4.90 9.80 1.74 0.40 0.54 3.19 3.26 1936 5.19 10.04 1.81 0.40 0.55 3.40 3.33 1937 4.87 9.59 1.70 0.40 0.58 3.40 3.63 1938 4.89 9.52 1.65 0.38 0.60 3.53 3.41 1939 4.82 9.49 1.68 0.37 0.59 3.44 3.46 1940 4.68 9.31 1.66 0.38 0.64 3.34 3.66 1941 4.49 9.06 1.59 0.35 0.53 3.57 3.55
In order to adjust both leagues to these average rates for each season, each player’s stats were multiplied by the following factors:
American Leaguers
Year R H 2B 3B HR BB SO 1931 0.936 0.989 0.971 0.994 0.928 0.920 0.978 1932 0.939 1.001 0.999 0.938 0.958 0.854 0.977 1933 0.896 0.979 0.936 0.880 0.872 0.833 0.944 1934 0.957 1.007 0.984 0.988 0.982 0.856 0.989 1935 0.962 0.995 0.959 0.935 0.994 0.857 1.012 1936 0.915 0.980 0.930 0.892 0.898 0.866 1.019 1937 0.932 0.980 0.923 0.929 0.891 0.887 1.016 1938 0.912 0.978 0.951 0.966 0.856 0.878 0.983 1939 0.926 0.984 0.981 0.919 0.907 0.909 0.985 1940 0.942 0.987 0.948 0.907 0.891 0.921 0.959 1941 0.946 0.980 0.958 0.853 0.907 0.937 0.998
National Leaguers
Year R H 2B 3B HR BB SO 1931 1.074 1.012 1.031 1.006 1.084 1.095 1.024 1932 1.069 0.999 1.001 1.070 1.046 1.205 1.024 1933 1.129 1.022 1.072 1.155 1.169 1.245 1.063 1934 1.048 0.993 1.017 1.013 1.019 1.205 1.011 1935 1.041 1.005 1.044 1.073 1.006 1.198 0.989 1936 1.102 1.021 1.081 1.138 1.127 1.183 0.982 1937 1.080 1.021 1.092 1.084 1.141 1.147 0.984 1938 1.108 1.023 1.055 1.036 1.204 1.162 1.018 1939 1.086 1.017 1.019 1.097 1.114 1.111 1.015 1940 1.065 1.014 1.059 1.115 1.140 1.095 1.045 1941 1.060 1.020 1.046 1.208 1.115 1.072 1.002
And the adjustment of batters’ at-bats followed the same principle as we did here. An impact of a greater/lesser rate of hits is an increase/decrease in at-bats. Every batter’s at-bats were increased/decreased by his number of increased/decreased hits. Outs are constant, and I assumed as well a constant rate of double plays and other baserunning outs – probably not exactly proper assumptions, but close enough for our purposes.