Willie Mays San Francisco Giants

Age: 89 (May 06, 1931) | aka Say Hey | 5' 11" | 180lbs. | Bats: Right
Tm Lg YEAR G AB R H BB SO 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BA OBP SLG BB% SO% BABIP G/L/F % $4x4 $5x5
NY1 NL 1951 121 464 59 127 57 60 22 5 20 68 7 4 .274 .356 .472 11 11 .279 n/a
NY1 NL 1952 34 127 17 30 16 17 2 4 4 23 4 1 .236 .326 .409 11 12 .245 n/a
NY1 NL 1954 151 565 119 195 66 57 33 13 41 110 8 5 .345 .411 .667 10 9 .325 n/a
NY1 NL 1955 152 580 123 185 79 60 18 13 51 127 24 4 .319 .400 .659 12 9 .282 n/a
NY1 NL 1956 152 578 101 171 68 65 27 8 36 84 40 10 .296 .369 .557 10 10 .281 n/a
NY1 NL 1957 152 585 112 195 76 62 26 20 35 97 38 19 .333 .407 .626 11 9 .324 n/a
SF NL 1958 152 600 121 208 78 56 33 11 29 96 31 6 .347 .419 .583 11 8 .344 n/a
SF NL 1959 151 575 125 180 65 58 43 5 34 104 27 4 .313 .381 .583 10 9 .299 n/a
SF NL 1960 153 595 107 190 61 70 29 12 29 103 25 10 .319 .381 .555 9 10 .319 n/a
SF NL 1961 154 572 129 176 81 77 32 3 40 123 18 9 .308 .393 .584 12 12 .296 n/a
SF NL 1962 162 621 130 189 78 85 36 5 49 141 18 2 .304 .384 .615 11 12 .286 n/a
SF NL 1963 157 596 115 187 66 83 32 7 38 103 8 3 .314 .380 .582 10 12 .309 n/a
SF NL 1964 157 578 121 171 82 72 21 9 47 111 19 5 .296 .383 .607 12 11 .268 n/a
SF NL 1965 157 558 118 177 76 71 21 3 52 112 9 4 .317 .398 .645 12 11 .286 n/a
SF NL 1966 152 552 99 159 70 81 29 4 37 103 5 1 .288 .368 .556 11 13 .279 n/a
SF NL 1967 141 486 83 128 51 92 22 2 22 70 6 0 .263 .334 .453 9 17 .283 n/a
SF NL 1968 148 498 84 144 67 81 20 5 23 79 12 6 .289 .372 .488 12 14 .302 n/a
SF NL 1969 117 403 64 114 49 71 17 3 13 58 6 2 .283 .362 .437 11 15 .313 n/a
SF NL 1970 139 478 94 139 79 90 15 2 28 83 5 0 .291 .390 .506 14 16 .303 n/a
SF NL 1971 136 417 82 113 112 123 24 5 18 61 23 3 .271 .425 .482 21 23 .339 n/a
SF NL 1972 19 49 8 9 17 5 2 0 0 3 3 0 .184 .394 .224 25 8 .205 n/a
NYN NL 1972 69 195 27 52 43 43 9 1 8 19 1 5 .267 .402 .446 18 18 .306 n/a
NYN NL 1973 66 209 24 44 27 47 10 0 6 25 1 0 .211 .303 .344 11 20 .242 n/a
Career 22yrs 2992 10881 2062 3283 1464 1526 523 140 660 1903 338 103 .302 .384 .557 12 12 .299 n/a

MLB | Baseball Reference | Baseball Prospectus
Welcome! You are invited to wander around and read all of the comments that have been posted here at Patton & Co., but as soon as you register you can see the bid limits that Alex, Peter and Mike propose for each player, and you can post your own comments. Registering is free, so please join us!
Sept 10, 14, and 15 1961 the Cubs did something that possibly hasn't been matched and almost certainly not surpassed since................ had 5 future Hall of Famers bat in the same game:

Ashburn
Brock
Billy Williams
Santo
Banks

They never quite got all 5 in the game at the same time defensively.
van wilhoite LVW
Dec 28 '13
Very possibly. In 1960, now with the Cubs, he hit .292/.415/.338 in 151 games, stole 16 bases in 20 attempts, and scored 99 runs. It was the fourth time he led the league in on-base percetnage.

His dWAR improved from -1.8 to -0.2. He played 58 games in left field, an indication that managers understood dWAR long before it had a name.

It's a shame we don't have Richie Ashburn in the database, because that's where I'd be posting this if we did. We'd see that as a Whiz Kid in 1950 he hit .303/.372/.402. Scored 84 runs in 151 games.

Continuing our research at Baseball-Reference, we'd see he had a 0.2 dWAR. Grounded into 11 double plays, had 11 sacrifice bunts, and stole 14 bases in... even Baseball Reference can't say with any certainty how many attempts.

He hit .176 in the 1950 World Series and earned $339,339 in his career.
Alex Patton Alex
Dec 28 '13
Fangraphs shows Mays with 191 defensive runs better than average and Ashburn at 77. Blair was at 176.

I wonder if Ashburn played with some kind of injury to his feet or legs in 1959. In 1958 he hit 13 triples, was 30-42 in steals and his defensive runs above avg was 4. In 1959- 2 three-baggers, just 9 steals with 11 CS, 17 defensive runs below avg. and had the worst OPS of his career.
van wilhoite LVW
Dec 28 '13
After posting under Paul Blair, comparing Richie Ashburn to Willie Mays, I went to Baseball-Reference to see if dWAR concurs that Willie was the far better center fielder.

Indeed it does.

Career dWAR for Mays: 18.1

For Ashburn: 5.3

Both players fall into the minus realm in their twilight seasons.

Ashburn playing for the Cubs and the Mets: -2.6

Mays in his two partial seasons with the Mets: -0.4

Willie began his minus run three years earlier, in1969 with the Giants.

It's pretty impressive that dWAR measures these old-timers with such apparent accuracy long before video records were kept for each game and video scorers existed.

Paul Blair, by the way, has a career dWAR of 18.6.

One reason it's so high is when he stopped being a plus on defense he only played in 87 more games.

That's what happens when your career oWAR is 18.7.
Alex Patton Alex
Dec 28 '13
After posting under Paul Blair, comparing Richie Ashburn to Willie Mays, I went to Baseball-Reference to see if dWAR concurs that Willie was the far better center fielder.

Indeed it does.

Career dWAR for Mays: 18.1

For Ashburn: 5.3

Both players fall into the minus realm in their twilight seasons.

Asburn playing for the Cubs and the Mets: -2.6

Mays in his two seasons with the Mets: -0.4

Willie began his minus run three years earlier, 1969 with the Giants.

It's pretty impressive that dWAR seems to measure these old-timers with such accuracy, long before video records were kept for each game and video scorers existed.

Paul Blair, by the way, has a career dWAR of 18.6.

One reason it's so high is when he stopped being a plus on defense he only played in 87 more games.

That's what happens when your career oWAR is 18.7.
Alex Patton Alex
Dec 28 '13