Salon.Com’s Allen Barra makes the case that in all of the hype over Barry Bonds’ incredible home run numbers (for those who don’t follow baseball, he’s on track to break Mark McGwire’s already ridiculous record of 70), sports reporters are missing the bigger picture: Bonds is on track to have one of the best seasons every by a hitter.
Barra is measuring hitters by what he thinks is the formual that best measures hitter performance (and I tend to agree) — Slugging Average multiplied by On Base Percentage (sometimes called SLOB or alternatively Batter Run Average). Other measures like RBIs, and Runs Scored are too dependent on the players hitting before and after a player in the lineup, and there isn’t necessarily much of a factor in determining overall contribution to scoring by a given batter.
Anyway, at this point in the season, Bonds SLOB rating is an incredible .4418. Only one player has ever maintained a higher rating over an entire season — Babe Ruth who in 1920 managed an amazing .4506.
Barra doesn’t think Bonds has a chance of maintaining this pace. But then who thought McGwire would ever hit 70. Either way, Bonds is putting on a show unlikely to be repeated anytime soon. Enjoy.