MOD Please Lock--wrong Forum

JD

Member
Nov 13, 1999
174
0
0
A little (but tedious) baseball analysis...soon to be buried after the thread becomes locked ;)

So what's different about Barry Bonds' hitting this season that distinguishes it not only from his other seasons but also from Mark McGwire's 70-HR season?

GroundBall-to-FlyBall ratio and conversion rate of Fly-balls-to-Home-Runs (last column under "Miscellaneous Statistics"):

Barry Bonds*

Mark McGwire


*Bonds, over the past 8 games, has seen his GB/FB ratio increase from .39 to .45...in other words, he may be in a "flyball slump"...hurting his HR chances...at least temporarily.

(Prior to this past week Bonds had been converting about 39%(!!!) of the balls he puts into-the-air into HRs...After the past 8 games, it's down to 36%. These stats weren't kept during the time of Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. A GB/FB ratio difference of .4 to .7 for a season is a difference of about 60 Fly Balls over a season, which -- at a HR-conversion-rate of 39% -- translates into 23+ more Home runs per season. Bonds' previous best HR season was 49 in 2000, when his all-time best GB/FB ratio was .57 and his HR/FB-conversion-rate was a "mere" 23% (49 HRs off 214 FlyBalls). Mark McGwire's HR/FB-conversion rate in 1998 was "Ruthian" 39.5%...when he hit 70 HRs off of 177 FlyBalls. Bonds has 107 FlyBalls half-way thru this season, on a pace to hit the same amount as last year...but now his HR-conversion-rate is 36% instead of 23%...which, if his flyballs total 214 this year, would translate into 77 home runs. Problem for Bonds: Base-on-Balls coming more frequently, and he may not have the opportunity to put an additional 107 balls into the air during the 2nd-half of this season.** Solution: Jeff Kent has to heat up, like the MVP he was in 2000.)

**Re Base-On-Balls: Bonds Last-14-game (06/14-07/01) OnBasePercentage: (OBP~=(Hits+BaseOnBalls)/Plate-Appearances = 12Hits+23BB / 42AB+23BB = .538...Compare to Historical All-Time Best-Career OBPs and these Season-Best-Ever OBPs: Ted Williams-.551-1941, John McGraw-.547-1899, Babe Ruth-.545-1923.

(Bonds' 2001 Game Log: 2001 Stats, Game-by-Game)
(Babe Ruth Career Log: Stats Year-by-Year)
(Ted Williams Career Log: Stats Year-by-Year)
(John McGraw Career Log: Stats Year-by-Year)
Single-Season Best-Ever OBPs

In his offseason conditioning, Bonds concentrated on flexibility rather than strength, as per his father's (Bobby Bonds') advice. The strike zone was "raised" this year also. For a pictorial of year-to-year changes in the distribution of HRs by Barry Bonds from 1987 to 2001:

Leave "Against"=ALL and "Count"=ALL but change "Result"=Home Run...then successively and quickly reset "When"=1987...=1988...=1989...=1990...etc...=2001...like "flipping" cards to make a movie

Leonard Koppett: I think he'd appreciate this info...although I'm sure he could develop it more extensively.

Oh, forgot to add: Barry Bonds' best HR months historically are August and September. His worst month is June: Bonds' combined-HR-total for June '98, '99 & '00 was...13! Bonds hit 11 HRs in June 2001.