The Boston Red Stockings won the National Association championship for the 4th consecutive year in 1875 and had the top 3 position players in the league and the top Pitcher in the league as well.  In 1876 everything will change, and remember the names of my 4 all stars for 1875.

Ross Barnes regains his MVP crown again with another dominate season.  Defensively, he regains his past form and prevents 45.7 runs for his team, and leads the league in that category, while he loses the best hitter crown just barely to Red Stockings 1^st Baseman Cal McVey.  Barnes hits for a higher average and gets more stolen bases, while McVey has more doubles, triples, and homeruns.  Meanwhile, Deacon White hit higher than either Barnes or McVey with a .367 average but less stolen bases or total bases than either, but was a plus defender and had the best single season of any catcher in the National Association. 

Al Spaulding was again the best pitcher in the league, posting a 54-5 record, keeping the baseball in the ball park, walking few batters, and striking out 75 batters, and being among the elite hitting batters (but not the silver slugger) for pitchers, and 7^th best batter on his very talented team.

On the season, Boston scored 10.1 runs a game, and teams that were not Boston scored 5.55 runs a game.  Meanwhile they gave up only 4.2 runs a game, leading to a 71-8 record and a .899 winning percentage, establishing a record that has never been beaten and will almost certainly never be beaten.  To break this record in a 162 game schedule, a team would have to win 146 games, 30 games better than the 116 win Seattle Mariners in 2001.  Aside from the 4 all stars above, Boston could have played with 5 wooden Indians as the expression goes, and still won the championship.  (A supposition that would be challenged and confirmed in 1876 in the first season of the National League.) 

My Choice for rookie of the year for 1875 is Bill Harbidge, who played for the 3^rd place Hartford Dark Blues.  The 20 year old batted .240 and played 5 positions, splitting his time between catcher and everywhere else.  Most rookies in 1875 played for teams that folded during the year or during the previous year, and many batters were not able to get the requisite 135 at bats. 

During the season of 1875 All 4 of my 1875 all-stars signed contracts for the 1876 season with the Chicago White Stockings.  I wonder how that will all come out.

	Best By Position	Silver Slugger	Fantastic Fielders
P	Al Spalding	George Bechtel
C	Deacon White	Deacon White	Deacon White
1B	Cal McVey	Cal McVey	Tim Murnane
2B	Ross Barnes	Ross Barnes	Ross Barnes
3B	Ezra Sutton	Bill Craver	Ezra Sutton
SS	Davy Force	George Wright	Davy Force
OF	Lip Pike	Andy Leonard	Count Gedney
OF	Paul Hines	Lip Pike	Tom York
OF	Joe Battin	Jim O'Rourke	Paul Hines
MVP	Ross Barnes	Cal McVey	Ross Barnes

Derek Jeter is literally the very worst fielder in the history of professional baseball by my estimation.  Don’t get me wrong, has been a great hitter, but it would have been better to put him at DH.  By my estimation he is also the best hitting shortstop of all time and somewhere around the 200^th best player of all time, making him what should be a border line Hall of Fame candidate, but unfortunately they have not yet made me king of the universe.  See here for more details about my calculation for defensive runs.

Calling Jeter the worst fielder in the history of professional baseball is a little unfair, I admit.  To make this list, you have to be a negative defender for a lot of years, ie you have to be a good hitter.  Mediocre hitters who are a train wreck on the field don’t get to make this list, but here are the 25 players who have failed to prevent the most runs (thus creating runs for the opposition) of all time.

Player	Start	End	CRP
Derek Jeter	1995	2013	-280.272
Harry Heilmann	1914	1932	-276.499
Manny Ramirez	1993	2010	-249.144
Gary Sheffield	1988	2009	-229.766
Ed McKean	1887	1899	-227.991
Bill Madlock	1973	1987	-227.58
Larry Doyle	1907	1920	-226.304
Tommy Dowd	1891	1901	-217.048
Jason Giambi	1995	2012	-216.156
Harmon Killebrew	1954	1975	-212.2
Bobby Murcer	1965	1983	-211.946
Dave Winfield	1973	1995	-211.599
Rogers Hornsby	1915	1937	-210.467
Sam Crawford	1899	1917	-208.011
Jack Rowe	1879	1890	-206.661
Jim Bottomley	1922	1937	-204.286
Babe Herman	1926	1945	-204.263
Chipper Jones	1993	2012	-202.975
Jeff Burroughs	1970	1985	-202.311
Greg Luzinski	1970	1984	-200.275
Doggie Miller	1884	1896	-198.624
Carney Lansford	1978	1992	-196.492
Pinky Higgins	1930	1946	-194.786
Ruben Sierra	1986	2006	-194.107
Howard Johnson	1982	1995	-193.664

In the interest of fairness, here are the top ten shortstops in Runs Created 

by my estimation

Player	Start	End	RC
Derek Jeter	1995	2013	1730.1
Cal Ripken	1981	1997	1547.3
Honus Wagner	1901	1917	1361.4
Barry Larkin	1986	2004	1306.5
Alan Trammell	1977	1996	1282.0
Omar Vizquel	1989	2012	1261.3
Alex Rodriguez	1994	2005	1235.0
Ozzie Smith	1978	1996	1233.8
Miguel Tejada	1997	2011	1173.8
Luke Appling	1930	1950	1157.9

1874 was business as ususal in the National Association of Baseball Players.  The Boston Redstockings won the pennent by 7.5 games with the New York Mutuals giving chase.  The best player on the team was Ross Barnes, the 2^nd best player on the team was George Wright and the best pitcher in the League was Boston’s Al Spaulding.  Ross Barnes did not dominate the league in this season, however as he had in year past.  He was among the best defenders in the league, but Warren White was a bit better, winning the defensive MVP at the hot corner for the last place Baltimore Canaries.  He prevented 29 runs in just 47 games his team played.  Barnes prevented 32 runs, but his successful Red Stocking team played 70 games. 

Also, strictly speaking, Al Spaulding was not the best pitcher in the league for the season.  That player would have been Jack Manning, also of the last place Baltimore Canaries, but Manning only pitched about half of his team’s games, and Spaulding pitched all of his team’s games, so Spaulding gets the nod.  Manning was his team’s best hitter, and along with White, the only players of professional caliber playing for the team that season.  Boston Manager George Wright must have agreed, picking up Manning for the 1875 season, and pitching him for 17 games.  White moved to Chicago for the 1875 season. 

The best hitter for the season was the 3^rd best 2^nd baseman in baseball for 1874, Levi Meyerle.  Meyerle batted .394 with 19 doubles for the Chicago White Stockings.  He was better than Lipman Pike who lead the league in HRs from 1871-1873 each season.  He had only 1 dinger in 1874 but lead the league in doubles and patrolled the infield and outfield with equal skill and was a plus defender at both center field and shortstop.  He did plenty batting the ball to be my 1874 MVP over Ross Barnes by a hair.

My third and final All-Star is another 2^nd baseman, Bill Craver.  In 1874 Craver was not quite as good as Barnes with a bat, and was not quite good as Barnes with his glove, but was the best player on his Philadelphia Whites and the third best player in the league for the season.

My 1874 rookie of the year was John Peters, batting .289 and playing plus defense for the Chicago White Stockings.

	Best By Position	Silver Slugger	Fantastic Fielders
P	Al Spalding	Jack Manning
C	Mike McGeary	Cal McVey	Mike McGeary
1B	Bill Craver	Jim O'Rourke	Wes Fisler
2B	Ross Barnes	Bill Craver	Ross Barnes
3B	Davy Force	Levi Meyerle	Warren White
SS	George Wright	George Wright	Davy Force
OF	Lip Pike	Ross Barnes	John Hatfield
OF	Levi Meyerle	Lip Pike	Johnny Ryan
OF	Cal McVey	John McMullin	Lip Pike
MVP	Lip Pike	Levi Meyerle	Warren White

In 1873 Ross Barnes continued to lead his Boston Red Stockings team that won a 2^nd championship while other players got the credit.  He won a 2^nd batting title, and led the league in plate appearances, runs, doubles, triples, stolen bases and walks.  Boston did not play the sterling defense of the year before, possibly because they did not need to, putting 5 players on the silver slugger list and scoring 12.3 runs per game.  Barnes added another fantastic fielder award but lost out for the Defensive MVP to Chick Fulmer of the Philadelphia Whites.  He was however by far the league’s most effective hitter, creating 70 runs.

Joining Barnes on the 4 player 1873 all-star team is Boston Shortstop and Manager George Wright.  Like Barnes, his batting proficiency increased while his defense suffered.  He was a plus defender on the season, but he did not come close to Chick Fulmer’s performance getting to 5.69 balls per game vs. Fulmer’s 6.19.  Wright was the only shortstop for his team, while Fulmer was subbed for often.  Wright batted .387 and lead his team in Home Runs with 3.  He was the league’s 2^nd most effective hitter with 50 run created.

Al Spaulding had an off season batting, unlike most of his teammates in Boston, but made up for it by being the best pitcher in the league.  He was also the league’s Silver Slugger, but not by the margin he had been in the previous year, batting .328 and creating 27 runs.  His defense was very bad going from being a plus defender in 1872 to giving up 10 extra runs due to poor defense while committing 22 errors.  On the season he struck out 50 and walked 36 and is my Most Valuable Pitcher for the season.

Rounding out the 1873 all-star team, for a 2^nd year is Davy Force, playing the entire season for the 3^rd place Baltimore Canaries.  He did not hit quite as well as Levi Merle (.586 vs .596 Runs Per Game) or field quite as well as Bob Ferguson (36.1 Runs Prevented vs 23.8) but he was the best combined 3^rd baseman in the league and the 3^rd best position player in the league.  He in fact finished just above Wright with 1.069 Runs per game vs Wright’s 1.032.

In 1873 Ross Barnes continued to lead his Boston Red Stockings team that won a 2^nd championship while other players got the credit.  He won a 2^nd batting title, and led the league in plate appearances, runs, doubles, triples, stolen bases and walks.  Boston did not play the sterling defense of the year before, possibly because they did not need to, putting 5 players on the silver slugger list and scoring 12.3 runs per game.  Barnes added another fantastic fielder award but lost out for the Defensive MVP to Chick Fulmer of the Philadelphia Whites.  He was however by far the league’s most effective hitter, creating 70 runs.

Joining Barnes on the 4 player 1873 all-star team is Boston Shortstop and Manager George Wright.  Like Barnes, his batting proficiency increased while his defense suffered.  He was a plus defender on the season, but he did not come close to Chick Fulmer’s performance getting to 5.69 balls per game vs. Fulmer’s 6.19.  Wright was the only shortstop for his team, while Fulmer was subbed for often.  Wright batted .387 and lead his team in Home Runs with 3.  He was the league’s 2^nd most effective hitter with 50 run created.

Al Spaulding had an off season batting, unlike most of his teammates in Boston, but made up for it by being the best pitcher in the league.  He was also the league’s Silver Slugger, but not by the margin he had been in the previous year, batting .328 and creating 27 runs.  His defense was very bad going from being a plus defender in 1872 to giving up 10 extra runs due to poor defense while committing 22 errors.  On the season he struck out 50 and walked 36 and is my Most Valuable Pitcher for the season.

Rounding out the 1873 all-star team, for a 2^nd year is Davy Force, playing the entire season for the 3^rd place Baltimore Canaries.  He did not hit quite as well as Levi Merle (.586 vs .596 Runs Per Game) or field quite as well as Bob Ferguson (36.1 Runs Prevented vs 23.8) but he was the best combined 3^rd baseman in the league and the 3^rd best position player in the league.  He in fact finished just above Wright with 1.069 Runs per game vs Wright’s 1.032.

According to baseball’s rules, a player is eligible as a rookie as long as they bat less than 130 times and have less than 50 Innings pitched.  In 1872 there were players who played in every game and still had less than 130 at bats, and so I did not give out a rookie of the year.  In 1872 there were, in general more games and so I feel confident in giving out the first rookie of the year award to Jim O’Rourke.  He batted .349 for the Boston Red Stockings a year after posting 103 at bats for the 1872 for Midland.  He was the 2^nd best 1^st baseman in the league behind Cap Anson, and the 7^th best hitter overall.  I’m sure Jim has a bright future.

Best By Position Silver Slugger Fantastic Fielders P Al Spalding Al Spalding C Cal McVey Deacon White Pop Snyder 1B Chick Fulmer Cap Anson Joe Start 2B Ross Barnes Ross Barnes Ross Barnes 3B Davy Force Levi Meyerle Bob Ferguson SS George Wright George Wright Chick Fulmer OF Count Gedney Charlie Pabor Count Gedney OF Tom York Jim O'Rourke Tom York OF Dave Eggler Cal McVey George Bechtel MVP Ross Barnes Ross Barnes Chick Fulmer

Al Spaulding played with the 1871 Boston Red Stockings and would continue to play with them until 1875.  The play of Ross Barnes would put him in the Hall of Fame. 

In 1872, Ross Barnes would hit .430 and lead the league in offensive runs created for the 39-8 first place Boston Team, and only *Cap Anson would come anywhere close (45.3 for Barnes vs 40.1 for Anson) but Barnes would also lead the league in defensive runs prevented with 44.3.  His teammate as Shortstop (Barnes played 2^nd base) would have 43.0.  This Pair of defenders helped Boston turn .643 of balls hit into play into outs.  While that number would make any team playing today blush, Boston did this without gloves of any kind, and, the next best team converted at .620  In 1872, any pitcher pitching behind the Boston Fielders would have looked spectacular. 

Not that Al Spaulding was terrible.  He was not the best pitcher in the league that season. 

That honor would have gone to Dick McBride of the 2^th place 30-14 Philadelphia Athletics.  McBride had more strikeouts (44-26) less walks (27-26) and less Wild Pitches (10-39)  Spaulding was more valuable to his team however with a .354 batting average vs. McBride’s .287 and Spaulding had 14 errors on the mound vs. McBride’s 24.  Spaulding was the most valuable Pitcher.

Have I made is clear, that for the 2^nd year in a row, Ross Barnes was the Most Valuable Player.  Good, just making sure.  Ranking just behind him was George Wright, who, by 1872 standards was a star hitter and by current standards was a bit of a weak hitter, but by 1872 standards, he was a wizard in the field.  We can’t know what he would have done if he had had a baseball glove, but I am sure he would have done well.  He just wasn’t quite as good as his teammate. 

The 4th all-star for 1872 is Davy Force, playing for both the Troy Haymakers and Baltimore Canaries.  He hit .418 with 2 walks for his teams, but was only a plus hitter in my estimation, but a very good defender.  Think Evan Longoria perhaps.  In 1872 he was 22 years old, so definitely a player to watch.

Catching is hard, and in 1872 as today, teams carry more catchers than any other position player.  Catchers will make my all-star teams in proportion to their contributions on the field, and in 1872 my all-star selection is Mike McGeary.  Although McGeary was a part time catcher (and part time shortstop) he played his position well and hit well enough to be included as an all-star.

Note: a player’s inclusion on the list below does not make him an all-star, even if he is the best for his position.

Note: Since the baseball glove has not yet been invented, I list players as Fantastic Fielders instead of Gold Glovers.

	Best By Position	Silver Slugger	Fantastic Fielders
P	Al Spalding	Al Spalding
C	Mike McGeary	Scott Hastings	Mike McGeary
1B	Denny Mack	Denny Mack	Charlie Gould
2B	Ross Barnes	Ross Barnes	Ross Barnes
3B	Davy Force	Cap Anson	Bob Ferguson
SS	George Wright	Davy Force	George Wright
OF	Tom York	Dave Eggler	Tom York
OF	John McMullin	George Hall	John McMullin
OF	Dave Eggler	Dick Higham	Dave Eggler
MVP	Ross Barnes	Ross Barnes	Ross Barnes

*Correction Cap Anson was referred to a rookie in 1872 because according to Major League Baseball's current rules, he was; he had less than 130 at bats the previous season of 1871, but since he played in all 25 of his team's games that season, it seems to me to be stretching the definition.  Certainly he was young though.

The First in a 144+ part series, the 1871 season.

The 1871 baseball season is the first season of the “National Association” and the first season where we have reliable statistics.  It is also the start of the Ross Barnes era in my humble opinion. 

Barnes had a season that was arguably the best of the year, especially according to modern sensibilities and, also according to my sensibilities on defense.  He did not win a batting title, but he did finish 3^rd in times on base and first in runs scored for his 3^rd place 22-10 Boston Red Stocking’s baseball team.  While he was doing this at the plate, able to prevent more runs than most other players in the league, making less errors (.854 fielding percentage vs a league average .833) and exhibiting more range at both 2^nd base and shortstop giving him, by my calculations 23.5 offensive runs – the most in the league and 20.5 defensive runs – the 2^nd most in the league.  The combined total of 44.1 runs created also led the league.  He wins his first 1871 MVP award, voted on by me.

In 1871 Jimmy Woods was equally adept in the field, with 19.0 runs in his 2^nd place 19-8 Chicago White Stockings team.  That is more defensive runs per game than Barnes and a slightly lower offensive runs per game.  He batted .378 and had 11 walks on the season.  Barnes played 2^nd Base most of the season, but I will move him to SS to make room on my all star team for Woods.

To make my all star team, my next player will have to be the DH?  He did lead the league in offensive runs created and played above average defense for the Boston Red Stockings, but was only able to play in ½ the teams games.  George Wright is the third and final position player to make my 1871 all star team, but I think he will have to play 3^rd base.  Levi Meyerle had more total runs created, but Meyerle was a poor fielder, while Wright was above average.  Also, Wright contributed about 20 innings pitched

In 1871, a teams’ pitcher was expected to pitch just about every inning for his team (and had to, by rule, throw underhanded), but a pitcher is still active in every play, and in days past, as in the present, a pitcher’s most important job is to pitch.  In the American League today, his only jobs are to pitch and to field his position.  In the National League 9/10s of his job is to pitch and field his position, but 1/10 now as in the past, a player’s job was and is to also hit the baseball.  In 1871 Rynie Walters was not one of the best pitchers in the League for his 16-17 New York Mutuals.  At pitching he was mediocre.  He was, however, the 2^nd best hitter in the league that season with a .370 batting average and leading the league with 44 RBIs.  This fact raised him from a run of the mill 8^th best pitcher in a league with 9 teams to the best total player at the position for his team.  Walthers was a pre National Association star, but it would be the last season where he was a star player.

These are my all-stars                               

	Best By Position	Silver Slugger	Fantastic Fielders
P	Rynie Wolters	Rynie Wolters
C	Fergy Malone	Cal McVey	Fergy Malone
1B	George Wright	George Wright	Clipper Flynn
2B	Jimmy Wood	Jimmy Wood	Ross Barnes
3B	Davy Force	Levi Meyerle	Ed Pinkham
SS	Ross Barnes	Ross Barnes	Davy Force
OF	Fred Treacey	Steve King	John Hatfield
OF	George Hall	Lip Pike	Fred Treacey
OF	Ed Pinkham	Ed Pinkham	George Hall

Writing this blog, I intend to continue to explain exactly how and where I get my stats from but I also want to get started on one of the more fun things I have in mind, which is to blog every single season of Major League Baseball from 1871 to the present.  The rules in previous years, was, of course, not the same as it is today, but the statistics record is complete enough for my purposes.  In 1871 they did not use fielding gloves, and made many more errors than players are credited for today, but they kept track of who made the errors.  The pitchers threw underhand and pitched every game unless they were injured, but they still recorded who was pitching and what the stats were against them.  The statistical rules for deciding who were the best and players seem to apply to that time almost as well as today. 

As appears on my website (but not this blog) all stats are adjusted for quality of play, and my way to judge quality of play is by pitcher’s batting average.  It is assumed that pitchers, in terms of batting represent average batters, in that if you or I (at the ages of 20-40) were to train every day to hit a baseball, and were to attempt to hit a baseball 1 day in 5, and the person reading this is not a person who has ever been paid to hit a baseball, we would perform about the same as major league pitchers.  This assumption bears out pretty well.  We do not see the dotted I graph that we see when we look at batter’s statistics with a mode high above a normal appearing graph, but that has a steeper slope before the dot of the I and a less steep right portion.  An example of a dotted i. selection graph appears in the previous post.  This chart is also in the previous post.

Another measure of quality of play is standard deviation of the players in the league.  As the quality of play increases, the difference between the average and elite player decreases and the standard deviation becomes smaller.  Here is Pitching RPO – unadjusted (for the numbers I use, pitcher ROP is set to 0) with standard deviation graphed together.  The correlation coeficent of the 2 scores (Player RPG for players with 250+ AB and all pitcher hitting) is .8601.

The Blue is Pitcher's Runs Per Game and the orange is Batter's Standard Deviation for players with 250+ At Bats.

As I said parenthetically, the way that I adjust for this is to set Pitchers RPOs to 0 and so subtract the pitcher RPO for each player for each season by a pitcher’s average RPO.  The results of this is that Babe Ruth still one of the top season of all time in 1923 (behind a couple of pre 1900 seasons and Barry Bond’s 2002) and the top seasons are a good mix of old-time and new seasons, as one might expect if one is picking evenly between top players who are 5+ standard deviations from normal. (normal being pitchers, not other batters) If one selects 2196 of the best batting seasons of all time (Giving one 15.43 batters per season.  The seasons of the 2196 are clustered near the present (There are more people in the United States today and more people in the world who want to play Professional Baseball, so this is also what one would expect.  There are less players and the game was less relatively popular, and so there are far fewer top season in the past.  When I select my all-star teams, this is reflected by those numbers.  The number of players I select will be a rolling average of the number of top seasons. (Except for the years 1943-45 when the quality of play did go down.  I will take an average for these seasons.) 

I do not at this time adjust pitcher’s records because I have no evidence that pitchers have become better over time.  I guess that is a subject for another blog post.