Honoring the best hitters of 2020
Juan Soto picks up a pair of awards, and Freddie Freeman gets the third
Never has baseball had a stranger calendar than in 2020, what with two versions of spring training (the second occurring in early summer), opening day in late July, and a playoff schedule that was simultaneously expanded and compressed.
But the chronology is returning to normal in the postseason. November is here, and that means it’s time for awards. Major League Baseball will be announcing the Rookies of the Year next Monday, Cy Young Award winners a week from Wednesday, and Most Valuable Players on Thursday, November 12 — all at the usual time.
I’ll be enhancing this postseason experience with my own set of awards, based not on votes, but on specialized statistics. The first three winners will be unveiled below, with more to follow on the next couple of Tuesdays.
First on the agenda are a trio of awards named for famous hitters.
Ted Williams Award (batting)
Ted Williams frequently proclaimed, often with an obscenity or two tossed in, that he was the greatest hitter in baseball history.
He had a strong case. His career batting average of .344 ranks as only the seventh-highest in baseball history, though it’s easily the best for anybody who played in the postwar era, when black players were finally admitted to the majors, night ball became commonplace, and relief pitchers gained prominence. Williams, to put it plainly, excelled in the most competitive era in big-league history.
He also proved to be the all-time best at a batter’s primary task — getting on base. His career on-base percentage of .482 ranks as the greatest for any hitter in any era. Babe Ruth holds second place at .474, eight points behind.
But the Ted Williams Award isn’t based on batting average or on-base percentage. It’s determined by bases per out (BPO), a newer stat that encompasses Williams’ related abilities to hit for average, hit for power, and reach base in any way possible.
This year’s winner — by a wide margin — is Juan Soto, the 22-year-old left fielder for the Nationals. Soto led the majors in on-base percentage (.490) and slugging average (.695), and his .351 put him second to the Yankees’ D.J. LeMahieu in batting average.
Soto piled up 155 bases in 2020’s truncated season, while making only 103 outs. That’s roughly a base and a half for every out — or, to be precise, a BPO of 1.505. Nobody else came close, with Freddie Freeman the only other batter to climb above 1.200.
That makes Soto the easy winner of this year’s Ted Williams Award for highest BPO. Here is the top 10:
Juan Soto, Nationals, 1.505
Freddie Freeman, Braves, 1.272
Marcell Ozuna, Braves, 1.187
Ronald Acuna Jr., Braves, 1.153
Bryce Harper, Phillies, 1.107
Jose Ramirez, Indians, 1.106
Mike Trout, Angels, 1.094
D.J. LeMahieu, Yankees, 1.086
Trea Turner, Nationals, 1.054
Mike Yastrzemski, Giants, 1.043
Lou Gehrig Award (scoring)
I noted a couple of months ago that Lou Gehrig holds a record that nobody in baseball is aware of.
Gehrig generated 302 runs for the Yankees in 1931. He scored 163 and drove in another 185. If we subtract his 46 home runs (since an HR is counted in both the R and RBI columns), we wind up with a total of 302.
Nobody else in baseball history has been directly responsible for 300 runs in a single season — or even 290, for that matter. Gehrig’s 302 is uncelebrated, though it deserves to be one of the immortal numbers of the game.
This year’s totals are a mere fraction of Gehrig’s prodigious output — given the short schedule and all — but Freddie Freeman emerges as 2020’s winner of the Lou Gehrig Award, given to the scoring leader for the major leagues. The Atlanta first baseman racked up 51 runs scored and 53 runs batted in. His 13 homers were subtracted to yield his scoring total of 91, seven better than anybody else:
Freddie Freeman, Braves, 91
Jose Abreu, White Sox, 84
Fernando Tatis Jr., Padres, 78
Marcell Ozuna, Braves, 76
Manny Machado, Padres, 75
Trea Turner, Nationals, 75
Jose Ramirez, Indians, 74
Dansby Swanson, Braves, 74
Luke Voit, Yankees, 71
Mookie Betts, Dodgers, 70
Mike Trout, Angels, 70
Babe Ruth Award (power)
No lengthy introduction is needed for the name of this award. His single-season and career home run records may have been eclipsed, but Babe Ruth remains the epitome of baseball power, the acknowledged Sultan of Swat.
This award is given to the hitter with the greatest ability to wallop not just homers, but extra-base hits of all varieties. Ruth is renowned for his 714 home runs, but he also piled up 506 doubles and 136 triples in his 22-year career. He truly was an extra-base machine.
The Babe Ruth Award goes to the batter with the highest average for isolated power, an obscure stat that actually is easy to comprehend. Isolated power is calculated the same way as batting average, though you substitute extra bases for hits. A batter gets one base for each double, two for each triple, and three for each homer. Add them up, then divide by at-bats.
The resulting math shows that Juan Soto is our winner once again. He pounded 14 doubles and 13 homers — not a triple in the bunch — and accumulated 53 extra bases for the Nationals in 2020. That yielded an isolated power average of .344, slightly better than one-third of an extra base every time up.
Here are the top 10 finishers in the Babe Ruth Award standings:
Juan Soto, Nationals, .344
Luke Voit, Yankees, .333
Ronald Acuna Jr., Braves, .331
Mike Trout, Angels, .322
Wil Myers, Padres, .318
Jose Ramirez, Indians, .315
Jose Abreu, White Sox, .300
Kole Calhoun, Diamondbacks, .300
Freddie Freeman, Braves, .299
Dominic Smith, Mets, .299