The following articles were posted to the Red Sox mailing list on August 25th, 1996. To join the list, send an email with the word "subscribe bosox" in the body of the message to majordomo@world.std.com --- As a brief diversion from the increasingly interesting wildcard race, I thought I'd present a quick study I did this weekend. We all know of the Sox's reputation to let good players get away and prosper with other teams. I decided to figure out who the worst losses have been over time. For every Sox player, I took the last year he played for Boston, and looked at the rest of his career (if any). I added up his production for all of the teams he played for after he left the Sox, and ranked them according to VORP. Note that if a player had two stints with the Sox (e.g. George Scott), this only counts his production after his final appearance for Boston, not the intervening years (though I may look at that someday). Columns should be mostly self-explanatory. MRC is marginal runs created (net runs above the overall league average). VORP is my own Value Over Replacement Player (details at my web site: http://www.best.com/~bbeng), and VORPD is VORP plus Defense, as measured by Total Baseball's Fielding Runs (FR). 1994-1996 are not included, and players are listed in descending order of VORP. Top 20 careers by position players after they left the Red Sox NAME YEARS PA AVG OBP SLG MRC VORP VORPD --------------- ---------- ------ ----- ----- ----- ------- ------- ------- Ruth,Babe 16 9156 .347 .480 .708 1617.9 1589.8 1584.8 Speaker,Tris 13 7182 .349 .433 .512 667.1 640.0 752.0 Cravath,Gavvy 10 4190 .290 .378 .486 299.7 332.1 326.1 Myer,Buddy 13 6351 .304 .393 .412 168.5 323.1 231.1 Cooper,Cecil 11 6386 .302 .342 .470 243.5 321.2 310.2 ODoul,Lefty 7 3521 .353 .413 .539 316.9 319.3 287.3 Fisk,Carlton 13 5356 .257 .321 .438 70.6 289.0 240.0 Smith,Reggie 9 3718 .294 .382 .510 266.0 283.2 299.2 Oglivie,Ben 13 6008 .276 .340 .457 175.0 270.7 314.7 Lansford,Carney 10 4921 .288 .339 .404 91.3 215.3 66.3 Lynn,Fred 10 4338 .263 .344 .456 115.6 190.0 166.0 Schang,Wally 11 3307 .289 .390 .409 66.2 179.1 139.1 Whitt,Ernie 13 4185 .249 .327 .410 2.4 160.5 196.5 Maxwell,Charlie 9 3491 .268 .365 .463 137.3 153.5 195.5 Rogell,Billy 11 5069 .272 .357 .378 -35.1 137.5 207.5 Hickman,Charlie 6 2548 .278 .307 .416 105.0 136.2 131.2 Gardner,Larry 7 3035 .298 .359 .394 45.1 133.2 128.2 LaPorte,Frank 7 3165 .287 .336 .385 81.5 131.2 113.2 Grimes,Ray 5 1736 .329 .407 .480 110.8 122.6 107.6 Henderson,Dave 6 2786 .263 .325 .445 62.3 116.5 152.5 Top 20 careers by pitchers after they left the Red Sox NAME YEARS IP W L SV ERA ERAPLUS MRC VORP VORPD --------------- ----- ----- ---- ---- ---- ------ ------- ------ ------ ------ Ruffing,Red 15 3024 219 124 7 3.47 122 334.2 771.1 744.1 Hoyt,Waite 18 3535 227 170 51 3.57 117 220.7 603.4 595.4 Cicotte,Eddie 8 2170 147 95 21 2.21 143 192.6 433.8 443.8 Jones,Sam 14 2689 161 149 23 4.02 107 70.3 388.1 383.1 Wood,Wilbur 13 2576 164 149 57 3.18 124 97.8 372.0 389.0 Mays,Carl 10 1796 126 72 19 3.44 118 120.8 356.4 399.4 Newsom,Bobo 13 2682 151 152 11 3.80 112 34.8 306.8 278.8 Tanana,Frank 12 2432 134 148 1 4.03 102 13.2 284.4 295.4 Tudor,John 7 1160 78 40 0 2.66 143 128.9 259.8 264.8 Lyle,Sparky 11 1059 77 59 169 2.89 139 100.1 220.8 216.8 Sparks,Tully 8 1690 95 94 7 2.44 113 54.6 215.4 191.4 Eckersley,Denni 9 913 49 39 272 3.02 172 90.3 192.7 188.7 Potter,Nels 7 1133 70 58 13 3.11 122 52.6 188.6 193.6 Macfayden,Danny 10 1418 73 76 4 3.75 106 45.9 183.4 190.4 Bush,Joe 7 1228 87 70 8 4.01 109 10.4 182.9 188.9 Ojeda,Bob 8 1163 71 59 0 3.25 109 55.9 182.0 194.0 Brown,Hal 9 1254 70 71 10 3.61 103 33.6 174.9 165.9 Quinn,Jack 8 994 71 56 35 3.40 124 76.3 173.7 178.7 Hughes,Tom 9 1912 90 136 16 3.06 92 -64.7 160.8 147.8 Altrock,Nick 13 1347 76 66 6 2.54 103 13.5 158.1 184.1 On Sun, 25 Aug 1996 23:52:31 -0500 (CDT), rawdon@msn.fullfeed.com wrote: >From: "Keith Woolner" >>We all know of the Sox's reputation to let good players get away and >>prosper with other teams. I decided to figure out who the worst >>losses have been over time. > >You're missing one piece of the puzzle, Keith, and it can best be summed up in >two words: > >Jeff Bagwell Ah, but remember that Bagwell never got into a major league game in a Boston uniform. He technically doesn't qualify under the search I did, though you'll get no argument from me that he is definitely "one that got away". Through 1993 (the last year in the study I did), bagwell would have bumped Dave Henderson off the list, coming in at #20 with a career VORP of about 120. With 1994-95 included, he probably ends up between Ben Oglivie and Carney Lansford for #10 on the list, and is virtually assured of ending up #3 by the time his career ends, after only Ruth and Speaker (assuming no other similar prospect who never made it to the big club before moving on qualifies). --- Keith Woolner keith@woolner.com http://www.best.com/~kwoolner