5 Baseball Players I Wish Played Today

Baseball’s a lot different in 2020 than it was even twenty years ago.  I got to wondering what the best seasons of certain players would look like if they’d happened this past fall, so I crunched some numbers–about the only thing I didn’t take into account was home ballparks.  The stats are their stats translated into the modern launch-angle age.  With the guys who played before 1962, I did take into account they only played a 154-game schedule.  There are a couple guys I thought about and decided against–Mays and Mantle.  I went with Aaron instead.  I did decide to look at a couple pitchers.

Rob Deer:  His best season was his next-to-last, a fluke where he hit over .230.  Deer was called the original ‘Three True Outcomes” guy by Bill James–meaning it was going to be a home run, a walk, or a strikeout.  That was back in the 1980s.  What about now?  I went with his ’87 season, the year he had an ‘outrageous’ number of time struck out: 186

1987: 134 games, 113 hits, 15x2b, 28xHR, 12xSB, .238, 186xK, 86xBB, .336obp If that had happened in 2019…: 2019: 134 games, 115 hits, 16x2b, 31xHR, 15xSB, .219, 231xK, 93xBB, .324obp My God…231 times struck out.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by how similar those results look to one another.  I mean, Rob Deer gotta Rob Deer.  I also don’t know why 200 Ks shocks me.  It’s not a sacred forbidden number at this point in modern baseball.

The next player is the original Rob Deer…because he couldn’t field (Deer could).  That’d be Dave Kingman.  What would his massive 1979 season have looked like?

1979: 145 games, 153 hits, 19x2b, 48xHR, .288, 131xK, 45xBB, .343obp 2019: 145 games, 153 hits, 20x2b, 65xHR, .263, 154xK, 50xBB, .328obp

Not a ton of difference, it seems–though the all or nothing approach gets him past Ruth and Maris.

Let’s look at Hammerin’ Hank next…:

1967: 184 hits, 37x2b, 39xHR, .307, 97xK, 63xBB, .369obp 2019: 209 hits, 55x2b, 61xHR, .347, 146xK, 73xBB, .411obp

I don’t think Aaron would reach those numbers–no one would pitch to him.  Then again with Freeman, Acuna, and Albies with him in the lineup…my God, the RBI opportunities for the man.  What it really shows is just how spectacular Aaron was–his career included the entire 2nd Pitchers’ Golden Age…and he still wound up the best hitter ever.

So if we are going to do the greatest overall hitter ever, it makes sense to do the man who introduced power hitting to baseball and his year from the classic 1927 Yankees, Babe Ruth:

1927: 192 hits, 29x2b, 60xHR, 89xK, 137xBB, .486obp 2019: 174 hits, 29x2b, 105xHR, 215xK, 129xBB, .441obp

Well, that’s not how I saw things going if we let Ruth at his prime meet the launch-angle crowd.  You definitely get three-true-outcomes as 449 of 687 plate appearances (65%!) fit the category.  But, let’s also face it, it tells us quite a bit about the silliness that was offense in the late 20s/early 30s…as well as how Ruth revolutionized the sport.

It’s interesting to see the differences with Aaron/Ruth compared to Deer/Kingman in terms of the home run differences.  Of course, if we’re going to conclude this silly little exercise, we should also consider a pitcher known for strikeouts in an era when batters choked up and didn’t strike out anywhere near as much…that would be Nolan Ryan.

1973: 39gs, 326ip, 238h, 18xHR, 162xBB, 383xK, ERA: 2.87 2019: 33gs, 231ip, 148h, 14xHR, 156xBB, 363xK, ERA: 3.96 2019*: 33gs, 264ip, 184h, 18xHR, 131xBB, 311xK, ERA: 3.77

I don’t have confidence in the pitcher conversions to the modern era, not as much as I do in the other equivalencies.  It’s interesting that the home runs given up are similar even with 85 less innings pitched.  Same with the walks and strikeouts…  I think it says something about the era we live in right now.

The * is if he pitched in a five-man rotation, but was permitted to go without a pitch-count a la 1973 and used the 73 AL’s results as more of a guideline.  We actually lose strikeouts and walks, give up more hits and see the ERA drop some.  Weird.

What’s it mean?  Not a lot.  I think it suggests we are in a different era now completely in terms of how baseball’s played.  You have previous eras:

1. Deadball

2. Babe Ruth / advent of power

3. Post-WW2 meh-ball

4. Pitcher’s 2nd Golden Age

5. The Real Golden Age*

6. The Strike/Steroids Period

7. Launch Angle / Lotsa K Time

*I call it the Real Golden Age because it was–the 79s and 80s saw champions built around a variety of styles–you had teams built around pitching, getting on base, defense, speed, power…teams like the Herzog Cardinals were fun with Coleman, Herr, and a single power hitter…but the opposite was true with the Weaver Orioles and the home runs with great starting pitchers.