24 thoughts on “Messing Around with the 1987 Bill James Abstract”

1. Cool stuff, Pirate. Those 1980s Abstracts completely changed the way I looked at baseball.

   Was this written during the time Harrelson was the White Sox' GM?

   1. Was this written during the time Harrelson was the White Sox' GM?
      Looks like it. He was the GM for the 1986 season. From The Repository:

      During his one season as GM, Harrelson fired field manager Tony LaRussa (who was soon hired by the Oakland Athletics) and assistant general manager Dave Dombrowski (who became baseball's youngest general manager with the Montreal Expos just two years later). Harrelson also traded rookie Bobby Bonilla, later a six-time All-Star, to the Pittsburgh Pirates for pitcher Jose DeLeon.

      1. That's one heckuva legacy. I wonder if he also designed the uniforms with the shorts and the big lapels.

         1. I believe that was Bill Veeck. Veeck had some great ideas, but when he came up with a bad one, it was a doozy.

      2. They totally need to hire him again.

         1. And get him out of the booth?! Absolute boo!

      3. Matt Millenesque.

   2. Yes, the Twins section followed the White Sox section in which he just eviscerated Hawk. Here's the rundown on the ways Hawk apparently was a disaster (AT THE TIME, not in hindsight):
      1) He moved the fences at Old Comiskey back because he claimed he was building a team built on speed and defense. This team featured Harold Baines, Ron Kittle, Carlton Fisk, and Greg Walker: all slow and powerful hitters.
      2) Despite this, Hawk released Rudy Law (the only outfielder even capable of faking CF on the team and despite Tony LaRussa imploring him not to) and installing John Cangelosi in CF (who would put together an OPS+ of 76 and, despite being only 23 years old and lasting in the Majors for thirteen more years, would never come within 200 plate appearances of his season total again).
      3) Additionally, Hawk presided over the decision to move Fisk, at thirty-eight years old, to left field full time to get Joel Skinner's bat in the lineup. Apparently, no one ever took credit for the move, but it was attributed to Hawk, LaRussa, and Dave Duncan at various times (Duncan supposedly didn't like the way Fisk called pitches). James sums the move up perfectly:

      [B]efore making this move the White Sox had:
      1) One of the league's best offensive and defensive catchers in Carlton Fisk, who had hit 37 homers and driven in 107 runs in 1985; and
      2) A slow, slugging right-handed hitting left fielder/DH named Ron Kittle.
      After making this move, the White Sox had:
      1) No proven catcher;
      2) Two slow, slugging right-handed hitting left fiedler/DHs, and as a special bonus:
      3) One very unhappy veteran player, who just coincidentally had been the team MVP in two of the previous three years.

      4) Every trade Hawk made (besides trading Britt Burns who was too injured to ever pitch again - which infuriated the Yankees who had traded for damaged goods) hurt the White Sox. Here's the WAR for his trades:

      Players traded	future WAR
      Ed Correa	1.2
      Scott Fletcher	22.1
      Jose Mota	-0.2
      Britt Burns	0.0
      Ron Hassey	1.5
      Matt Winters	-0.7
      Scott Bradley	-1.4
      Tom Seaver	1.8
      Al Jones	0.0
      Bobby Bonilla	26.7
      Ron Kittle	2.1
      Wayne Tolleson	0.7
      Joel Skinner	-0.4
      Total	53.4

      Players received	future WAR
      Dave Schmidt	1.9
      Wayne Tolleson	0.9
      Ron Hassey	2.6
      Joe Cowley	0.2
      Neil Allen	2.4
      Scott Bradley	-0.1
      Ivan Calderon	10.0
      Steve Lyons	1.5
      Ray Searage	2.6
      Jose DeLeon	12.3
      Carlos Martinez	-3.1
      Pete Filson	-0.7
      Total	30.5

      Ron Hassey's total is confusing because Hawk traded for him in the offseason. Then traded him away during the same offseason. Then traded for him again at the next trade deadline. Bizarre, right? Likewise, Scott Bradley's total in the bottom column was that he accumulated while with the White Sox. The top column is his total after he was traded away again by Hawk. Apparently, Hawk loved trading left-handed hitting catchers. Good thing he didn't have access to Joe Mauer.

      Anyway, it's pretty clear that while Bobby Bonilla was his worst decision (although DeLeon wasn't a terrible return), he was not making the team better despite making a ridiculous number of trades in just one year at the helm.

      So, in short, the White Sox chapter was pretty hilarious.

      1. Carlton Fisk's second worst offensive year was his second to last, at age 44. His worst? 1986 where he was twenty runs worse than when he was 44, six years later.

   3. yeah, you should generally not let the on-air talent mess with daily operations.

2. What in the world was Boston doing with him? He hit over .300 in AA as a 20 year-old so they . . . make him repeat AA?! Then, they finally promote him after two years of hitting .300 at AA, he hits .300 at AAA. So they make him repeat it again?! What was that all about?

   I believe Boggs wasn't a very good defender early on. He didn't hit for a lot of power and was slow on the basepaths, so all he had was his high average to offer. Plus, GMs of the time didn't appreciate walks as much as they do now, especially in Boston.

3. One other crazy thing I discovered was just how amazing Eric Davis was. His peak occurred a little too early and in the wrong league for me to remember, but my goodness...27 homers and 80 steals in just 132 games in 1986?! That's beyond silly. Oh, and he was only caught stealing 11 times. The next year he hit 37 homers, but stole just 50 bases while being caught 6 times in 129 games.

   1. In 1986, Davis finished 12th on the NL MVP ballot. 1987 season, he finish 9th on the NL MVP ballot.

      1. He was 6th in rWAR among NL position players in 1986 at 5.0 (Tony Gwynn was first at 6.4). In 1987, Davis was second in NL rWAR at 7.7 (Gwynn was first at 8.3).

         Gwynn finished 9th and 8th, respectively, in NL MVP voting those two seasons (despite hitting a ridiculous 370/447/511 in 1987).

         1. How did he never finish above third in the MVP balloting? Video Game-esque batting averages, gold gloves, and steals by a universally loved player.

            1. I'm going to blame lack of RBIs.

               1. And HRs. That seems to be the reason he lost to Mike Schmidt and Andre Dawson in '86 and '87 respectively.

                  1. plus playing in San Diego -- flyover territory with beaches.

            2. I don't recall Eric Davis as a universally loved player. Memory is a funny thing, but my recollection is that in many people's eyes, he was a disappointment no matter what he did because he wasn't the next Willie Mays, like he was supposed to be.

               1. the "universally loved" bit was about Gwynn.

                  1. Wow, I really did not clarify who I was talking about, did I? Apologies for that, Padre.

                     1. Ironically, I also discovered that Tony Gwynn was not universally beloved while reading another antique shop Bill James book (possible rundown forthcoming a month or two from now). Apparently he sniped at his teammates throughout the 1990 season so much that it became a huge negative. (After 1986, BTW, James gave him a 28% chance at 3,000 hits.)

                        1. From The Baseball Book 1991 it runs down Gwynn's problems. Apparently they festered for two seasons. In 1989, he complained about moaned about being underpaid all season.

                           In mid-May [of 1990] Mike Pagliarulo told a New York writer about an unnamed teammate. "If we win and he goes 0 for 4, forget it," said Pagliarulo. "He's ticked. If he gets his hits and we lose, that's fine with him. He doesn't give a damn about this team, and that's weak."

                           Sports Illustrated then reported that Gwynn was blasted in a players-only clubhouse meeting primarily by Jack Clark and Garry Templeton for caring more about his batting average than winning.

                           On September 8, 1990, "Gwynn found a toy figurine of himself . . . hanging by a chain in the Padres' dugout." The Sporting News reported:

                           Before the figurine was discarded, Gwynn asked a photographer to take a picture of it. He then hung the photo in his locker. "I want it there so people who didn't see it can see what it looked like," Gwynn said. "I know I'm never going to forget about it."

                           A week later, Gwynn broke a finger on a defensive play knocking him out for the rest of the season. He promptly cleaned out his locker and went home rather than remaining with the team at all.

                           1. Huh. The stuff that people gloss over later.

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