COG Round 101 Results: Sisler’s Whistling Dixie No More |

In the 101st round of COG balloting, voters gave the nod to Hall of Fame first baseman George Sisler. While lacking the power numbers expected of the prototypical first baseman, Sisler made up for it by hitting for average and with his speed, putting up 6 straight seasons (1917-22) batting .340 with 140 OPS+ and 25 steals, the longest streak of such seasons by a first baseman and tied for the second longest stretch at any position, trailing only Ty Cobb‘s incomparable 11 straight campaigns (1909-19). And, Sisler had some pop too – placing in the top 3 in extra-base hits in 3 of 4 seasons (1919-22) with 100 RBI and 125 runs scored in each of the last three of those years.

More on Sisler after the jump.

Sisler posted a career best 399 total bases in 1920, the top total by 30 bases in seasons with fewer than 20 home runs, and a mark that also beat out a certain Yankee outfielder and his 54 home runs that year. Sisler leads all first basemen with twelve 20 double/10 stolen base seasons, eight 25 stolen base seasons and four 100 run/100 RBI seasons with fewer than 20 home runs. Sisler and Keith Hernandez led all other first sackers with six 5 WAR seasons with fewer than 20 home runs. Sisler’s six 200 hit seasons and 7 seasons with a qualified (modern definition) .340 BA both trail only Lou Gehrig among first basemen.

After his peak run of 6 seasons (1917-22) totaling 43.0 WAR and 29.6 WAA, Sisler missed the entire 1923 season, suffering from a severe sinus infection that impaired his vision. He returned in 1924 but was never again the same player, totaling only 6.6 WAR the rest of his career despite three 200 hit seasons and four seasons batting .325 or better. Sisler finished his playing days in 1930, retiring with a .340 career batting average, just a tick behind Gehrig and Bill Terry, to rank 10th among post-1901 batters and 15th all-time.

Sisler is the only player with two 240 hit seasons, including his record-setting 257 hits in 1920. That mark would stand for 84 years until surpassed by Ichiro Suzuki with two hits off the Rangers’ Ryan Drese in game no. 160 of the 2004 season. Sisler’s 2812 career hits still place him in the top 50 all-time (though Adrian Beltre and Albert Pujols will likely knock him out of that select circle, probably in 2017). Among those with fewer career PA, the highest hit total belongs to Harry Heilmann who recorded 48 fewer PA but is more than 150 hits in arrears of Sisler.

Quiz: Sisler (1922), Ty Cobb (1911) and Charlie Gehringer (1929) all led their league in hits, runs, triples and stolen bases in the same season. But, who is the only player to do so twice (and in consecutive seasons to boot)?

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Howard R

8 years ago

George Stirnweiss

Doug

Reply to Howard R

Indeed it is. Snuffy posted those league-leading totals in 1944 and 1945.

Interesting that it has happened 5 times in the AL, but never in the NL over the same period.

Voomo Zanzibar

Quiz:

Snuffy

Dr. Doom

Vote update! * indicates actively on the ballot; # indicates un-elected player who is off the ballot Craig Biggio – 763 Eddie Murray – 731 Roberto Alomar – 725 John Smoltz – 658 Kenny Lofton – 608 Ryne Sandberg – 607 Harmon Killebrew – 585 Edgar Martinez – 507 Lou Whitaker – 493 *Kevin Brown – 467 Whitey Ford – 382 Roy Campanella – 396 Bobby Grich – 376 Sandy Koufax – 375 *Dennis Eckersley – 360 *Dave Winfield – 354 Tony Gwynn – 346 Willie McCovey – 336 #Minnie Minoso – 309 *Luis Tiant – 273 *Rick Reuschel –… Read more »

Hartvig

Reply to Dr. Doom

Looks like Brown has a good shot at #8 & I suppose might even climb as high as #5 on the list. I don’t see anyone else cracking the top 10. As far a Sisler goes, I assumed that I would be voting for him until I looked more closely at the numbers. That said, he was a really terrific player for about 7 years and without his non-playing related health problems might well have remained so for another decade or more. The BBWAA though highly enough of him to make him the 11th player chosen for the HOF and… Read more »

Reply to Hartvig

I think that we have an inevitability of controversial selections and non-selections. Take for example Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax. Eternally linked by Dodger-dom, both had a definitive 6-year peak. For Koufax, that was 1961-1966 (duh) and for Drysdale it was 1959-1964 – so they nearly overlapped. In Koufax’s prime, he accumulated 46.6 pitching rWAR. Impressive. In Drysdale’s, he accumulated 35.6. Impressive still, though less so. HOWEVER, Koufax was a terrible hitter – to the tune of -2.4 WAR over that span, giving him a total rWAR of 44.2. Drysdale was a very GOOD hitter, and ADDS 2.5 rWAR in… Read more »

mosc

and why is Dwight Evans the one who we leave off and feel bad about as opposed to hall of famer and more deserving Andre Dawson? Is anyone going to argue Evans over Dawson? Dawson had how many votes before this latest multi-way redemption tie?

Reply to mosc

As for my part, picking Evans wasn’t really given a ton of thought. Based on the last redemption round, I’m fairly certain Evans’ COG chances are toast, so that makes him an easy shorthand. I’m still holding out hope for Dawson (perhaps foolishly), since he’s currently on the ballot and polling better than Dave Winfield. Plus, Dawson has more “mainstream” credibility than Evans, since he’s in the ACTUAL Hall of Fame. In short, I just thought Evans was the bigger contrast.

e pluribus munu

Doom, part of the answer lies in breaking down those peak years and noting Koufax’s 10.7 and 10.3 WAR performances (minus batting, of course); Drysdale’s highest two were 8.0 and 6.9 (his third best was 6.1, compared to Koufax’s 8.1, still higher than any Drysdale produced). In Koufax’s six-year stretch, he produced 4.4 and 7.4 WAR in years where he missed 30% of his starts because of a major injury, so Koufax’s WAR margin was accomplished in 100 fewer innings. But the more pertinent matter really is that from 1963 on, no one thought Drysdale was the pitcher Koufax was,… Read more »

Reply to e pluribus munu

Look, I agree with everything you’re saying. Sandy Koufax was a better pitcher than Don Drysdale. Sandy Koufax was a better COG pick than Don Drysdale. And yet, it seems to me that there’s like an ocean between the two of them… and I just don’t see it. I see two excellent pitchers, one of whom gets elected through a LONG process, the other of whom can’t gain traction against a weaker pool. Perhaps it’s because the 60s are played out, I don’t know. But I’ve got to think that, on some level, Koufax’s credentials aren’t THAT much better than… Read more »

Fair enough, Doc. But I’m not sure your image of a CoG ocean catches what’s happened here. I wasn’t logging in last year, but from your vote tally it seems to me that Koufax had to wait over ten rounds. A CoG vote isn’t a smooth curve – it’s an in/out toggle: top three or not for each voter, and then top one or not for the vote. The ocean may lie between Koufax consistently being, say, about second on average on most people’s list – and thus eventually bound to get over the top – and Drysdale being about… Read more »

David P

Drysdale vs Koufax is basically career vs peak. Really no right or wrong answer.

At the end of the day (including hitting), Drysdale has a 36.9% edge in WAR and a 47.7% edge in playing time.

Honestly, I’d be inclined take Drysdale over Koufax. Really hard to turn down +36.9% on WAR when the playing time isn’t that much more than the WAR increase.

robbs

For what it’s worth I remember Sisler with a GIANT Singles area in All Star (spinner) baseball