Derek Jeter and Career Wins by Franchise

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A discussion started on yesterday’s Strikeout Milestone post concerning players who have appeared in the most games on the winning side. That topic arose in response to media coverage of Derek Jeter appearing in his 1500th winning game last week.

After the break are the top 5 winningest players for each franchise, during the game-searchable era (since 1918).

Here’s the table. You can sort and search according to your preferences.

[table id=64 /]

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 7/2/2012.

Some things I spotted.

No player appears for more than one team
Trevor Hoffman is the only pitcher in the table
Early this season, Jimmy Rollins passed Larry Bowa for 2nd place on the Phillies list
Paul Konerko just recently passed Frank Thomas for 3rd place on the White Sox list
Every player on the Rays list is still active
The Atheltics and Indians have no players appearing in 1000 wins, but seven expansion teams (including the Rockies) have such a player
The greatest gap between first and second is 514 wins between Tony Gwynn and Trevor Hoffman for the Padres
The smallest gap between first and fifth is 85 wins between Jim Hegan and Ken Keltner for the Indians. The Cubs have just 87 wins between Ernie Banks and Stan Hack.

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11 years ago

Yaz holds the single team record with 1718. What’s the over/under on Jeter breaking that record???

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Ed

I’ll take the over.

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

You’re probably right Doug. Still I wonder how long the Yankees will persist in assuming he should be in the lineup everyday. He hasn’t hit righties in 3 years, he’s a defensive liability, and after his hot start this year he’s been in the midst of a 2 month slump. The Yankees can obviously “hide” players in their lineup easier than most teams, but even they have to eventually realize that playing Jeter everyday is costing them victories.

Voomo Zanzibar

11 years ago

Reply to Ed

His May slashes were .293 .339 .353 .692
So, no, not a two month slump.

June was .232 .295 .313 .608

Here’s DH numbers for 38 PA:
.455 .500 .576 1.076

And here is this awful player when leading off the game:
.365 .382 .581 .963

Those are some numbers.
Don’t really have any conclusions or solutions.
But Ed, if you know of a good replacement so that Jeter could be relegated to a lefty platoon and occasional DH work, who is he?

nightfly

11 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

Since when is a .339 OBP and .353 SLG all that -especially for a .293 hitter? BRef gives his May OPS as a 92. And that .060 ISO? Yikes.

11 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

1) Yes, it’s a 2 month slump. Check out his game log: http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.cgi?id=jeterde01&t=b&year=2012 He more or less peaked on May 6th and started slumping on May 8th, the beginning of a 14 game stretch during which he only had one multi hit game and no extra base hits. 2) Echoing Nightfly, I don’t consider a .693 OPS to be anything to brag about, particularly for someone who hurts his team defensively. 3) His numbers leading off the game are nice but that just means he’s been really bad the rest of the time. There is a reason that he’s only… Read more »

Voomo Zanzibar

11 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

Obviously .693 is nothing to brag about.
Just offering the counterpoint to the idea that “he has stunk for two months, why do they keep putting him out there?”

It is a lot of hyperbole, because it is Jeter.
Jeter has a 101 ops+

The ops+ of the other five division leaders’ shortstops:

114 Washington
82 Cincy
57 Chicago
109 Tex
74 SF

BryanM

11 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

Jeter can clearly still hit; I think the general feeling is that he is costing a win or two in the field over the course of a year- I don’t know who the Yankees replacement would be – but hard to think there’s a major upgrade there somewhere

11 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

No doubt there are teams that have bigger issues at SS than the Yankees. But most teams also don’t have the resources to solve issues that the Yankees do. Of course, the Yankees are in a difficult position: 1) No one wants to tell Jeter that he needs to sit against most righties and/or play more DH/less SS 2) When you’re paying someone $16 million a year to play full time, it’s hard to wrap your mind around the fact that you may need to play that person less and bring in someone else and spend mor $$$, 3) For… Read more »

bstar

11 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

Nightfly @9, I’m not sure where you got that Jeter’s May OPS+ was 92. I see from his splits that his May sOPS+ was 92, but that’s not the same as OPS+. sOPS+ is kind of hard to put into words; basically it’s saying Jeter’s May OPS compared to his overall OPS was 92% of the league average’s May OPS relative to the league’s overall OPS(that’s hard to wrap your head around, and I’m not sure my wording necessarily captures it). We can take a decent stab at computing Jeter’s May OPS+. Click on ‘More Stats’ and go to ‘Advanced… Read more »

MikeD

11 years ago

Reply to Ed

I’d probably take the under on it. He needs another 218 wins. Jeter has been such a constant and durable player, and the Yankees such a consistently high-winning team, that it’s easy at first glance to take the over, but I’m not so sure. In fact, I’d bet against it. He has a half a season this year, and another full contract season in 2013. He has a player option for 2014, but depending on how he’s playing over the next year-and-a-half, and what the Yankees plans are for him in 2014 will heavily influence if he actually triggers the… Read more »

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Ed

Derek may eclipse Yaz for the single team record, but Pete Rose is safe for the career mark of playing in 1972 winning games. At least, I think that would be the record.

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

I suppose A-Rod has an outside shot at passing Rose. He’s at 1335 and signed through 2017. So 5.5 more years. If he stays healthy (a BIG if) he’d probably be close by the end of his contract. He’s need to play another year or two beyond that to pass Rose.

Pujols might have a better shot. Currently at 997 and signed for another 9.5 years. Like A-Rod, he’d probably need another year or two beyond that but I imagine he’s got a better shot at staying healthy.

MikeD

11 years ago

Reply to Ed

If the record is 1972 wins and A’Rod’s at 1335, then he’s looking at 638 wins over 5.5 years. The Yankees would have to win about 118 games every year and A-Rod would have to be in the lineup every game. He’s well short, especially since I believe the last couple years of the deal he may turn into a part-time DH.

Pujols maybe, although I’m not sure he’s going to be a productive player six years down the line. Not sure what the Angels will do.

11 years ago

Reply to MikeD

Well as I said, A-Rod would need to stay healthy and play a year or two beyond his current contract. A definite longshot but not impossible.

MikeD

11 years ago

Reply to MikeD

I missed the “play another year or two” beyond his current contract. That said, he’ll be 42 at the end of his current contract. A-Rod is no longer an elite player and hasn’t been since his hip surgery, and he gets older every day, but he is still a good player. Yet I think there’s a greater chance the Yankees will end up eating the last year of his contract than A-Rod playing an additional two years until he’s 44, and even if he did, I still think he’d fall short. I never write off a great players quickly when… Read more »

Albanate

11 years ago

Nice to see that Kranepool still holds a Met record.

deal

11 years ago

Off topic, but since we are talking about Jeter…

Can the Database be used to tie specific players to the attendance for games in which they played?

Who do you think more people saw play, Derek Jeter or Pete Rose? Rose has 1000 more games but I would think Jeter played in front of more packed houses.

Perhaps Cal Ripken would also be a candidate for highest “Career Attendance”

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to deal

Sorry. I don’t see Attendance on any of the drop-down statistics lists in the Play Index.

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Just noticed something a little interesting. Duke Snider and Gil Hodges are pretty much exact contemporaries for the Dodgers (Snider had one more season than Hodges, on the 102-63 team in 1962). But, Hodges went .581 versus .568 for Snider. May not seem like a lot, but that difference is 2 extra wins per 154 games.

no statistician but

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

Doug:

Toward the end at LA Snider did a lot of pinch hitting, whereas Hodges came in as a defensive replacement. Pinch hitters are probably more prevalent in losing situations, defensive replacements more prevalent when a team is ahead.

It’s one explanation, anyway.

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to no statistician but

Good thought, nsb.

Here’s another one. Like Hodges and Snider, Sam Rice and Joe Judge were almost exact contemporaries on the Senators. Rice was .469, but Judge only .455. Late in their careers, neither was used a great deal as a defensive replacement, but it was Rice who was used more frequently as a pinch-hitter.

Interestingly, their OBP and SLG for their careers are almost identical. Rice had more hits and runs (in about 1000 more PAs), and had a slight edge in WAR, 48.0 to 42.2.

CursedClevelander

11 years ago

Man, the Tribe does really poorly on all of these lists. I always think of them as having a lot of great players in their history, but even in the era of the Reserve Clause, they just didn’t hold onto guys for the long run. Well, they held onto a few pitchers, but few position players.

Lawrence Azrin

11 years ago

Reply to CursedClevelander

Yeah, Jim Hegan holding the “most games WON as an Indian” record is as unexpected as Terry Turner (look him up…) holding the “most games PLAYED as an Indian”. I’d bet if pre-1918 seasons were searchable, Turner would hold that record too.

Then again, with your handle, it should’nt surprise you _too_ much, right?

11 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

Hegan missed 3 years due to WWII or else he’d likely be over 1,000 wins.

CursedClevelander

11 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

In a lot of ways, Hegan is the perfect guy to hold the record for the Tribe. A team known for its pitching should be represented by a no-hit catcher with a reputation as one of the all-time great defensive catchers.

He played in a very different time. I can’t imagine a guy like Hegan being a 5-time All-Star in today’s MLB.

BryanM

11 years ago

Interesting that 8 teams have at least 5 players with 1000+ wins, but they don’t include the Giants and Cardinals – the giants are the second most successful franchise at about 1500 games over .500 , the Cards have been pretty consistently good for a long time. – some less successful teams just held onto their stars longer , I guess,

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to BryanM

Pujols would have been the Cardinals’ fifth 1000 win player, had St. Louis secured his services for this season. Albert has appeared in 953 winning games for the Redbirds.

Richard Chester

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

Frankie Frisch had 582 for the Giants and 751 for the Cards. Had he been on one team other other for his entire career he almost certainly would have 1000 for that team.

Brandon

11 years ago

Ed, great points on Jeter. I was thinking along te same lines. It’s not so easy to tell a future HOF’er to sit down. Especially one of Jeter’s status among his teammates, fans, etc…

It would be like someone telling a legendary retired NASCAR driver he’s too senile to drive to
the corner store and back.

MikeD

11 years ago

Reply to Brandon

Jeter is not the guy who was hitting .400 in early May, not is he the guy hitting .230 whatever since then. He is the player who hit: .297/.355/.388/.743 in 2011, or .298/.348/.404/.752 in 2012, or .297/.352/.394/.746 combined over two years. Jeter produced a 2.3 fWAR in 2011. He’ll come in somewhere around a 2.0 fWAR again this year. If you’re breaking down Jeter by parts and months to make an argument, then you’ve lost your argument. Sure, the Yankees could replace him and spend more money and go find a 3.0 WAR SS, meanwhile still paying him his contract.… Read more »

Win on Qubids

11 years ago

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