Kiner's Korner Kloses

Ralph Kiner has died at age 91. People remember him as a longtime Mets TV announcer, but in his day, he was a devastating hitter.

Kiner played from 1946 to 1955, a fairly short career. Here are the leaders in various batting categories during those years:
    Home Runs                Runs Scored    
1. Ralph Kiner      369    1. Stan Musial    1,178
2. Stan Musial      289    2. Pee Wee Reese    978
3. Ted Williams     267    3. Ralph Kiner      971
4. Gil Hodges       239    4. Ted Williams     921
5. Hank Sauer       238    5. Jackie Robinson  886

    Runs Batted In           Slugging Percentage
1. Stan Musial    1,107    1. Ted Williams    .642
2. Del Ennis      1,029    2. Stan Musial     .595
3. Ralph Kiner    1,015    3. Duke Snider     .552
4. Ted Williams     955    4. Ralph Kiner     .548
5. Yogi Berra       898    5. Ted Kluszewski  .511

    On Base Percentage       On Base Plus Slugging
1. Ted Williams    .490    1. Ted Williams   1.131
2. Stan Musial     .431    2. Stan Musial    1.027
3. Ferris Fain     .424    3. Ralph Kiner     .946
4. Elmer Valo      .414    4. Duke Snider     .935
5. Jackie Robinson .411    5. Larry Doby      .892
6. Ralph Kiner     .398

In 1951, Kiner batted .309 and led the league in home runs, runs scored, walks, extra base hits, on base percentage, slugging percentage, and on base plus slugging. He was second in total bases and runs batted in. He finished tenth in the MVP vote. Among those ahead of him was his teammate, Murry Dickson, a pitcher who went 20-16 despite a worse-than-average ERA.

Why doesn't he get more recognition for being a great hitter? I think there are four reasons:

1. He played at the same time as Ted Williams and Stan Musial. As you can see, they completely dominated the mid-40s to the mid-50s, even though Williams missed all but 43 games in 1952-53 when he served in the Korean War.
2. As I noted, he played for only ten years. He was just 32 when back problems forced him into retirement.
3. He didn't hit for a high batting average: .279 lifetime, over .300 only three times. People focus on batting average, even though, as I've shown, on base percentage, slugging percentage, and on base plus slugging are all truer measures of run generation.
4. He played for some bad ball clubs. From 1946 to 1952, he was with the Pirates, who had one winning season during that span and a remarkable 42-112 record in 1952. In 1953 he was traded from the last-place Pirates to the second-to-last-place Cubs, who were 7th in 1954 as well. He ended his career with a good Indians team in 1955 that finished three behind the Yankees. He never played in the postseason.

He led the NL in homers every year from 1946 to 1952. Nobody's matched that streak. He hit 51 homers in 1947 and 54 in 1949, making him one of only five clean players to top 50 twice (Ruth, Griffey, Mantle, Mays).

As I said, people remember Kiner as a TV announcer. They should remember him as a great hitter as well.

Peyton Manning, Alex Rodriguez, and Joe DiMaggio

There was apparently a football game the other day, and some people think the guy who played quarterback for the losing team choked. I know this because I heard on MLB Network Radio and saw on the internet comparisons between the quarterback and the ultimate post-season choker and all-around villain, Alex Rodriguez.

I don't pretend to know enough about the NFL to comment on whether Peyton Manning falls apart in big games. But as for baseball...In 75 postseason games, Alex Rodriguez has batted .263 with 13 homers. He has a .369 on base percentage and a .464 slugging percentage, giving him an .833 OPS (that's on base plus slugging). An .833 OPS is pretty good. It would have ranked 30th among what would be 141 batting title qualifiers in 2013, right between Yadier Molina (.836) and Carlos Santana (.832). And, of course, in the postseason, Rodgriguez faced better pitching than Molina and Santana did over the course of the season.

I was going to write something about how if Rodriguez is a choker, then Ty Cobb (.262/.315/.354, .668 OPS) and Ted Williams (.200/.333/.200, .533 OPS) were completely useless in the postseason. But it's not really fair to base that on 17 games (Cobb) or 7 games (Williams). So I decided to make a list of all players with 200 or more postseason plate appearances. Note: There is no good list of this, so I probably missed a few compiling it more or less by hand. That's OK. I'm sure I got most of them. I wound up with 51 players with 200 or more postseason plate appearances. 

Where do you think Rodriguez' .833 OPS ranked among the 51? Well, some guys are infielders like Omar Vizquel and Mark Lemke and David Eckstein who aren't really paid to hit, so maybe Rodriguez was 30th? Or 35th? I mean, he defines choke, right?

Nope. Eighteenth. He's nowhere near Carlos Beltran (1.128 OPS), Albert Pujols (1.046), or David Ortiz (.962). But he's ahead of most players. Ahead of almost two-thirds of them, to be precise.

Hall of Famers he's behind: Mickey Mantle (.908), Reggie Jackson (.885).

Hall of Famers he's ahead of: Rickey Henderson (.831), Roberto Alomar (.829), Yogi Berra (.811), Joe DiMaggio (.760), Frankie Frisch (.711), Joe Morgan (.671), Phil Rizzuto (.650).

Other Yankees he's behind: Hideki Matsui (.933), Bernie Williams (.850), Derek Jeter (.838). 

Other Yankees he's ahead of: Paul O'Neill (.828), Johnny Damon (.775, mostly not as a Yankee), Jorge Posada (.745), David Justice (.717, same comment as Damon), Scott Brosius (.696), Gil McDougald (.689), Robinson Cano (.686), Tino Martinez (.672), Chuck Knoblauch (.663).

As I said, I can't speak to Peyton Manning. But the whole Alex Rodriguez, Choke Artist thing has been totally overplayed. Unless we're prepared to call Paul O'Neill and Joe DiMaggio and Joe Morgan choke artists too. For that matter, give Rodriguez just one more single in the postseason, and he has a better OPS than Jeter. That could cause some heads to explode.