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Our blogs annual transition from basketball to baseball was set for today. We culminated earlier with the breakthrough blog producing 300 pdf links to our great men's and women's college basketball teams. Our NL Statis-Pro baseball commissioner provided the update further down in this blog on his great season playing out to transition us to baseball when the news broke that Willie Mays has passed away at 93. (Our Statis-Pro instructions are here).
We pulled up our 60 all-time Statis-pro teams and went to the 1954 New York Giants and anyone who plays Statis-Pro baseball needs just one look to see why sports commentators tonight are discussing if he was the greatest player of all-time. For those of you who don't know, in Statis-Pro the pitcher tries to keep the action on his own card where batters still sometimes get a walk or single but never an extra base hit. Better pitchers keep it on their cards more often, lesser pitchers allow it on the batters cards more often, meaning about half the time Willie Mays came to the plate the action ended up on this incredible card:
The only weird thing about this card is the B/C on-base running speed that year, because he only stole 8 of 13 bases this first year back from the military. Within two years he was leading the league in steals year after year so would be an A/A for several straight years, but a B/C this year but that is the only thing about his 1954 card that is not incredible.
Make a mistake to Mays and their was a 50-50 chance he reached base, on half of the 64 possible numbers in the base-8 random number from 11 to 88. On the first 11 numbers (11-23) he singled, on the next 7 numbers (24-32) he doubles.
Then I hit the incredible part - THREE numbers result in triples. I looked through the 60 all-time great teams in our game to see how many other players had three or more triples on their card. There are some reserves with few at bats, then then there were 16 players with three triples but no home runs from the dead ball era. But only nine players have had three triples that high (33-35 or three higher numbers) and I list them below.
| All-Time Great | Team | Bats | 1b | 2b | 3b | HR | Deep | K | W | HPB | Out | BA | OPS |
|---|
| Melky Cabrera# | SFG 2012 | SN | 11'-32 | 33-38 | 41-43 | 44 | 45-47 | 48-54 | | | 55-88 | 0.346 | 0.906 |
| Lou Brock* | StL 1968 | LN | 11'-27 | 28-32 | 33-35 | 36 | 37-41 | 42-54 | 54 | 55 | 56-88 | 0.279 | 0.746 |
| Willie Mays | NYG 1954 | RP | 11'-23 | 24-32 | 33-35 | 36-43 | 44-46 | | 47-48 | | 51-88 | 0.345 | 1.078 |
| Goose Goslin* | Was 1924 | LN | 11'-28 | 31-36 | 37-41 | 42-43 | 44-46 | | 47-48 | 51-52 | 53-88 | 0.344 | 0.937 |
| Eddie Collins* | PhA 1910 | LN | 11'-33 | 34-36 | 37-41 | 42 | 42-44 | | | 45-46 | 47-88 | 0.324 | 0.800 |
| Rube Oldring | PhA 1910 | RN | 11'-27 | 28-35 | 36-38 | 41 | 42-44 | | | 45 | 46-88 | 0.308 | 0.771 |
| Danny Murphy | PhA 1910 | RN | 11'-25 | 26-33 | 34-37 | 38 | 41-43 | | | | 44-88 | 0.300 | 0.774 |
| Sam Crawford* | Det 1909 | LN | 11'-26 | 27-35 | 36-38 | 41 | 42-44 | | | | 45-88 | 0.314 | 0.817 |
Notice that only one other player with three triples also has more than one home run number - Goose Goslin of the 1924 Washington Senators, and he has TWO homers. Mays has 3 triples AND one of the greatest home run ranges in the game with 6 home run numbers (36-43 keeping in mind it is base 8 so there is no 39 or 40). Players also get some homers off the three numbers in their DEEP range - and if they are playing a dead ball era game those are almost all caught for deep flies whereas if playing in the live ball era they are almost all homers.
There is simply not other player on our great 60 teams who is both an all-time elite triples hitter AND an all-time elite home run hitter - but Mays is as that's why his OPS was 1.078. His CD-5 (top clutch defensive rating) is an understatement as WAR (wins above replacement) indicates Mays was the top defensive player as well as offensive player in baseball that year - and I'm not sure if that has happened in the past. As this season was all coming off spending two years in the military.
I like playing board games because they let me "see" how good a player was. That 1954 he led the league not only in WAR on offense and defense, but in triples, batting average, OPS, OPS+ and the next year he also led the league with 9 double plays from the outfield - the first of three straight years in which he led the league in double plays which I assume resulted in runners not tagging up to try to advance on fly balls to him later.
We stopped producing statis-pro baseball cards because we don't want to compete with others keeping the game alive with great cards like those you find on Statis-Pro Advanced, so we just provide players in sheet form to get players used to playing the game so they see investing in cards is worth while.
Here are our 2024 Statis-Pro cards in sheet form to get you going if you have yet to play the game, and the following are the results from the NL commission based in Montana who rotates Statis-Pro leagues with me each year (this year I have the AL and he has the NL).
2024 Statis-Pro So Far with 10 Teams Selected to Play
I modified the injury policy. (got tired of so many stars dropping)
I’ll go back to the “what if” policy. (was doing the 60-day IL)
So, I’m keeping the injured stars in play instead of taking them out. (just using Z plays for injuries)
Statis-Pro National League
NL “East”
Atlanta 20-14 .588 -
Milwaukee 19-15 .559 1
Chicago 17-16 .515 2.5
Philadelphia 16-18 .471 4
Miami 10-23 .303 10
NL “West”
Los Angeles 25- 9 .735 -
Arizona 17-16 .515 7.5
Cincinnati 17-17 .500 8
San Diego 16-18 .471 9
San Francisco 14-19 .424 11
The Dodgers are rolling and the statistics support their winning. (helps having Kershaw in rotation)
With their healthy stars, it is surprising the Braves are only six games over .500. (Acuna, Strider)
After their slow start, will the Phillies catch fire at the end of the season?
Who will emerge out of the jumble of wild card teams in the playoffs?
In our inter-league play the NL leads the AL 32-26 so far.
Statis-Pro NL MVP Race
Shohei Ohtani
Mookie Betts
Ozzie Albies
Statis-Pro NL Cy Young Race
Spencer Strider
Zack Wheeler
And here are the leaders so far in Statis-Pro play
Statis-Pro National League
Statistics—32 games
OPS
Shohei Ohtani, LA 1.153
Mookie Betts, LA 1.086
Ozzie Albies, Atl 1.014
Ketel Marte, Arz 0.997
Batting Average
Noelvi Marté, Cin 0.362
Bryce Harper, Phl 0.361
Ketel Marte, Arz 0.348
Shohei Ohtani, LA 0.346
Luis Arráez, SD 0.336
Slugging
Shohei Ohtani, LA 0.731
Mookie Betts, LA 0.691
Patrick Wisdom, Chi 0.689
Ozzie Albies, Atl 0.628
Stolen Bases
Ronald Acuña Jr., Atl 22-22
Christian Yelich, Mil 18-26
Corbin Carroll, Arz 14-15
Home Runs
Patrick Wisdom, Chi 15
Mookie Betts, LA 14
Shohei Ohtani, LA 11
Austin Riley, Atl 10
RBI’s
Shohei Ohtani, LA 37
Austin Riley, Atl 36
Patrick Wisdom, Chi 33
Nick Castellanos, Phl 31
Batting Avg RISP
Noelvi Marté, Cin 0.4
Shohei Ohtani, LA 0.382
Harper, Phl 0.381
Two-Out RBI’s
Shohei Ohtani, LA 14
Nick Castellanos, Phl 13
Marcell Ozuna, Atl 12
Runs
Mookie Betts, LA 34
Corbin Carroll, Arz 31
Shohei Ohtani, LA 31
Total Bases
Mookie Betts, LA 96
Shohei Ohtani, LA 95
Ketel Marte, Arz 83
Strikeouts
Christopher Morel, Chi 63
Max Muncy, LA 53
Nick Castellanos, Phl 47
Doubles
Shohei Ohtani, LA 13
Noelvi Marté, Cin 13
Orlando Arcia, Atl 11
Jason Heyward, LA 10
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