Round Five Wrap Up

Round 5 has come to a close, and it is time to prepare the seeding for the Round 6 Elimination Round. Round 6 is all or nothing for the batters: Finish with a .500 record to move on to Round 7 or go home with a box of Rice-a-Roni and a case of Turtle Wax. The hitters faced these pitchers in Round 5. Here are some numbers:

• Round 5 saw 392 batters face each other in 154-game seasons
• 210 batters finished in the top 4 of their league or had a .500 record, although they might have finished below fourth (in fact, a few finished sixth!)
• 182 batters did not meet those criteria, but
• 182 is not evenly divisible by 8, the number of batters in each season, but 176 is (176/8 = 22), which means
• Round 6 will have 22 seasons and
• 6 batters will get a golden ticket to Round 7 without having to play in Round 6

The batters who will receive a golden ticket are those that have had the best combined record in the odd-numbered seasons. Those batters are:

Jake Stenzel Round One S19 Round Two Round 3 S39 Round 4 Round 5 S18 Total Wins	W – L 98-56 BYE 93-61 BYE 73-81 264
Cesar Cedeno Round One S68 Round Two Round 3 S52 Round 4 Round 5 S18 Total Wins	W – L 97-57 BYE 83-71 BYE 73-81 255
Paul Molitor Round One S15 Round Two Round 3 S42 Round 4 Round 5 S42 Total Wins	W – L 97-57 BYE 83-71 BYE 73-81 253
Ryan Klesko Round One S60 Round Two Round 3 S14 Round 4 Round 5 S30 Total Wins	W – L 87-67 BYE 84-70 BYE 75-79 246
George Davis Round One S50 Round Two Round 3 S11 Round 4 Round 5 S28 Total Wins	W – L 87-67 BYE 84-70 BYE 74-80 245
Clyde Milan Round One S21 Round Two Round 3 S11 Round 4 Round 5 S35 Total Wins	W – L 92-62 BYE 84-70 BYE 76-78 244

With Round 5 completed, I’d like to share some insights I have garnered. First of all, Babe Ruth appears to be the man to beat – I know, big shocker – but there are twenty-five hitters who are averaging at least 100 victories per season, which could at least indicate a challenge for the Bambino. Those twenty-five are some of the All-Time Greats and will not be a surprise to see on this list. But there are a few surprises.

Some hitters have benefitted from lucky seeds, facing weaker challengers in their respective leagues. Some, such as Lou Gehrig, have benefitted from having shortened careers that saved them from having the inevitable, multi-year, downward slope toward retirement. Some, such as Joe Jackson, had their careers cut off in their primes due to “other considerations.” Benny Kauff – The Ty Cobb of the Federal League – had his career numbers juiced by playing against inferior competition AND being shortened. He got kicked out of organized ball for allegedly dealing in stolen cars (he was acquitted by a jury but Kennesaw Mountain Landis saw it differently).

The other thing I noticed is that there is quite a difference in the runs produced from the top hitters compared to the others. When the top guys start facing each other, all bets are off.

But we are well on our way to number 1! We started with 600 batters and Round 6 will whittle that number further as we determine, once and for all, who is the greatest offensive player in the history of baseball.*

*Up to 2015 because that’s the version of Strat-o-Matic computer baseball I am working with.

Victory Leaders

Batter	Total Wins (Round 1, Round 2, Round 3)
Babe Ruth	396
Lou Gehrig	352
Tris Speaker	351
Ty Cobb	348
Ted Williams	336
Barry Bonds	328
Joe DiMaggio	327
Joe Jackson	326
Rogers Hornsby	321
Eddie Collins	321
Benny Kauff	321
Jimmie Foxx	320
Mickey Mantle	317
Billy Hamilton	313
Nap Lajoie	312
Jeff Heath	308
Frank Robinson	308
Charlie Keller	303
Willie Mays	302
Stan Musial	301
Johnny Mize	301
Jackie Robinson	301
Honus Wagner	300
Goose Goslin	300
Mel Ott	300

So far, I have played 248 seasons and 152,768 games and I guess I must be around the halfway point, with plenty more games to go!

In the next post, I will introduce the pitchers for Round 6 who will test the remaining hitters as we work our way toward the finals.