Historical Philosophy of Baseball

The way baseball is won today is different from the way it was won in the 1990s or the 1970s and definitely the 1930s, yet the greatest teams were found in early baseball. The feeling that baseball needed a new way of strategy is odd. Here is why.

1927 New York Yankees stats:

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	Pat Collins	92	251	69	.275	7	36
1B	Lou Gehrig	155	584	218	.373	47	175
2B	Tony Lazzeri	153	570	176	.309	18	102
3B	Joe Dugan	112	387	104	.269	2	43
SS	Mark Koenig	123	526	150	.285	3	62
OF	Earle Combs	152	648	231	.356	6	64
OF	Babe Ruth	151	540	192	.356	60	164
OF	Bob Meusel	135	516	174	.337	8	103

 

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
Johnny Grabowski	70	195	54	.277	0	25
Ray Morehart	73	195	50	.256	1	20
Cedric Durst	65	129	32	.248	0	25
Mike Gazella	54	115	32	.278	0	9
Benny Bengough	31	85	21	.247	0	10
Ben Paschal	50	82	26	.317	2	16
Julie Wera	38	42	10	.238	1	8

 

The strategy here is not a lot of power hitters, yet it is as many high average hitters in the lineup.  If your team average is .300 plus, you will bat around a lot.

 

 

 

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Waite Hoyt	36	256.3	22	7	2.63	86
Urban Shocker	31	200	18	6	2.84	35
Herb Pennock	34	209.7	19	8	3.00	51
Dutch Ruether	27	184	13	6	3.38	45
George Pipgras	29	166.3	10	3	4.11	81

 

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Wilcy Moore	50	213	19	7	2.28	75
Myles Thomas	21	88.7	7	4	4.87	25

 

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
Bob Shawkey	19	2	3	4	2.89	23
Joe Giard	16	0	0	0	8.00	10
Walter Beall	1	0	0	0	9.00	0

 

The point here is the Yankees had 6 pitchers with 10 plus wins and 4 pitchers with 200 plus innings pitched. 8 of the 11 pitchers had at least 20 games played. The idea is maybe we need to expand the length of the rotation to 6 or 7 pitchers. I realize that the 1927 Yankees most likely did not have a 6 man rotation, yet many pitchers got a lot of starts and had a lot of success. They won 110 games.

Another way to win games is to do it the 1971 Baltimore way.

1971 stats:

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Mike Cuellar	38	292.1	20	9	3.08	124
Pat Dobson	38	282.1	20	8	2.90	187
Dave McNally	30	224.1	21	5	2.89	91
Jim Palmer	37	282.0	20	9	2.68	184

 

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Grant Jackson	29	77.2	4	3	3.13	51
Dave Leonhard	12	54	2	3	2.83	18

 

Player	G	IP	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
Eddie Watt	35	39.2	3	1	11	1.82	26
Pete Richert	35	36.1	3	5	4	3.47	35
Tom Dukes	28	38.1	1	5	4	3.52	30
Dick Hall	27	43.1	6	6	1	4.98	26
Dave Boswell	16	24.2	1	2	0	4.38	14
Jim Hardin	6	5.2	0	0	0	4.76	3
Orlando Peña	5	14.2	0	1	0	3.07	4

 

All 4 starting pitchers are well over 200 innings pitched and have the ERA ranges from 2.68 to 3.08. Also none of them have 10 loses. Look at the relief pitchers and only one pitcher is over 50 innings pitched. The strategy here can be have reliable pitchers and not have to go to the bullpen that much. Also when I get to the hitters you’ll see that the offense is not that great, so the great pitching strategy is very reliant on everything.

 

 

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	Elrod Hendricks	101	316	79	.250	9	42
1B	Boog Powell	128	418	107	.256	22	92
2B	Davey Johnson	142	510	144	.282	18	72
3B	Brooks Robinson	156	589	160	.272	20	92
SS	Mark Belanger	150	500	133	.266	0	35
LF	Don Buford	122	449	130	.290	19	54
CF	Paul Blair	141	516	135	.262	10	44
RF	Frank Robinson	133	455	128	.281	28	99

 

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
Merv Rettenmund	141	491	156	.318	11	75
Andy Etchebarren	70	222	60	.270	9	29
Chico Salmon	42	84	15	.179	2	7
Jerry DaVanon	38	81	19	.235	0	4
Tom Shopay	47	74	19	.257	0	5
Curt Motton	38	53	10	.189	4	8
Clay Dalrymple	23	49	10	.204	1	6
Bobby Grich	7	30	9	.300	1	6
Terry Crowley	18	23	4	.174	0	1
Don Baylor	1	2	0	.000	0	1

 

Offence is okay but you’re going to win games with your pitching.