The Most Basic Baseball Stat

I think anyone who is still reading this blog is familiar with the batting average/on base percentage/ slugging average statistical trio.  It gives us a good summary of offensive production combining the ability to hit for average, to get on base and to hit for power.  In many ways, it is batter than the traditional combination of batting average/ home runs/ runs batted in. One drawback, however, is that all three components are rate statistics that do not reward players for playing time.  Certainly a player who hits .300/.360/.500 in 600 plate appearances contributes more to his team than a player with the same line in 200 plate appearances.

Whereas rates statistics measure a players excellence during the time he played, counting statistics such as hits (instead of batting average) and total bases (instead of slugging) give a player credit for durability.  We are familiar with the popular hit milestones such as 200 hits in a season and 3,000 hits for a career.  It would make sense that we also look at Times On Base (TOB), as it would tell us more about a player's value to his team; yet this measure is not tracked on any popular web site on a regular basis.

There are surely more complex metrics such as Batting Runs and  Weighted Runs Created that do consider playing time as well as excellence.  They will tell you more about a player's overall production than Times On Base, but sometimes it is good to step back and look at more basic numbers not requiring fancy weights and adjustments.  And what could be simpler or more basic than the number of times a player reaches base?

How often do the best hitters get on base?  Last year, there were 19 players in MLB who reached base on a hit, a walk or a hit batsman 250 or more times.  Reaching base 300 times is very difficult and has happened only 144 times since 1871.  That comes out to about one player per year.  As seen in Table 1, nobody reached that mark last year.  Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols came the closest with 290.  Pujols reached base 310 times in 2009.    

Table 1: MLB Times On Base Leaders, 2010

Player	Team	PA	H	BB	HBP	TOB
Albert Pujols	SLN	700	183	103	4	290
Prince Fielder	MIL	714	151	114	21	286
Rickie Weeks	MIL	754	175	76	25	276
Joey Votto	CIN	648	177	91	7	275
Miguel Cabrera	DET	648	180	89	3	272
Adrian Gonzalez	SDN	692	176	93	2	271
Daric Barton	OAK	686	152	110	3	265
Robinson Cano	NYA	696	200	57	8	265
Billy Butler	KCA	678	189	69	5	263
Matt Holliday	SLN	675	186	69	8	263

The highest single season TOB total in the history of baseball was Babe Ruth's 379 in 1923.  The top ten list (Table 2) is dominated by Ruth, Barry Bonds and Ty Cobb. 

Table 2: All-Time MLB Single Season Times On Base Leaders

Player	Team	Year	PA	H	BB	HBP	TOB
Babe Ruth	NYA	1923	699	205	170	4	379
Barry Bonds	SFN	2004	617	135	232	9	376
Ted Williams	BOS	1949	730	194	162	2	358
Barry Bonds	SFN	2002	612	149	198	9	356
Billy Hamilton	PHI	1894	679	220	126	9	355
Babe Ruth	NYA	1921	693	204	145	4	353
Babe Ruth	NYA	1924	681	200	142	4	346
Ted Williams	BOS	1947	693	181	162	2	345
Wade Boggs	BOS	1988	719	214	125	3	342
Barry Bonds	SFN	2001	664	156	177	9	342

You may know that there are 27 players who have reached 3,000 hits.  You probably haven't heard that there are 42 players with 4,000 TOB lifetime.  Pete Rose has the most hits (4,256) and TOB (5,929) lifetime largely because he had such a long career.  After Rose, the hit and TOB leaders start to look different. Bonds, Rickey Henderson,and Ruth, are not near the top of the all-time hit leaders, but finished second fourth and ninth respectively on the TOB list largely due to their high walk totals.  


Table 3: Lifetime MLB Times On Base Leaders 

Player	First year	Last year	PA	H	BB	HBP	TOB
Pete Rose	1963	1986	15,861	4,256	1,566	107	5,929
Barry Bonds	1986	2007	12,606	2,935	2,558	106	5,599
Ty Cobb	1905	1928	13,072	4,189	1,249	94	5,532
Rickey Henderson	1979	2003	13,346	3,055	2,190	98	5,343
Carl Yastrzemski	1961	1983	13,991	3,419	1,845	40	5,304
Stan Musial	1941	1963	12,712	3,630	1,599	53	5,282
Hank Aaron	1954	1976	13,940	3,771	1,402	32	5,205
Tris Speaker	1907	1928	11,988	3,514	1,381	103	4,998
Babe Ruth	1914	1935	10,616	2,873	2,062	43	4,978
Eddie Collins	1906	1930	12,037	3,315	1,499	77	4,891

 Obviously, we don't want to use Times On Base in isolation any more than we would use hits or home runs alone to define a player.  However, I do think it's nice to know which players reached base the most often in a given year before getting to the more complex metrics.  I'll look at the Tigers in a later post.  

Note: The raw data used to calculate Times On Base came from Lahman's database.