Baseball's Complete Players: Ratings of Total-Season Performance for the Greatest Players of the 20th Century [Paperback]

Michael Hoban (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 1999

In Baseballs Complete Players, Michael Hoban shifts the criterion for greatness from the rate at which a player succeeds to the tally of actual successes. It is, the author asserts, one thing to know that when the season ended, Jim Rices batting average was hovering at the .325 mark and that he could boast a .596 slugging average, but its quite another to know that despite the ups and downs of a six-month season, the All-Star actually contributed 369 total bases, 117 runs scored, 57 walks, and 130 RBIs to the teams offensive production. Averages, after all, reveal nothing of actual achievement: A player who hits .400 seems the obvious MVP for his teamuntil you discover that he broke his leg 45 at-bats into the season and that a light-hitting reserve filled in for four-fifths of the campaign. Shunning the indecipherable formulas so much in vogue over recent years, Michael Hoban presents a mathematically valid yet comprehensible method for ranking the games best players and, in the process, makes it fun and productive once again for the average fan to argue baseball.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Michael Hoban is a professor of mathematics and dean of the Schlaefer School at Monmouth University in New Jersey. He lived in the shadow of the Polo Grounds in the late forties and early fifties and has been a student of baseball ever since. He lives in Toms River, New Jersey.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Mcfarland & Co Inc Pub (December 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 078640633X
• ISBN-13: 978-0786406333
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,385,063 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This book does not offer any insight for most baseball fans., June 10, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Baseball's Complete Players: Ratings of Total-Season Performance for the Greatest Players of the 20th Century (Paperback)

This is one of the most frustrating books on baseball ratings I have ever read. The only reason I gave it two stars instead of one is that the author raises some good points about effectiveness versus potential.

I have several problems with the methods used in this book and I will site just a few. First of all, the rating explained in the book claims to be the "first objective total-season statistic." This claim is countered by the author in the initial explanation of his system when he states "it is important to realize that some of these decisions were somewhat arbitrary on my part." I hate to nitpick, but when the author goes on ad infinitum about what a brilliant system he has devised, this bothers me.

Many reviewers have stated that the author clearly defines his rationale for his rating. This is simply not true. For instance, why does he multiply walks by .5? Why are RBI weighted as much as stolen bases? He never states these reasons, and those are just a couple of examples. When the author poses a question about how he came up with his system, he doesn't provide a very scientific answer. For instance, when he raises the question of whether adding in runs and RBI is in essence adding home runs two more times, he defends this by saying "I finally determined that the home run is the ultimate offensive weapon and ought to be very special." I agree with that statement, but it says nothing about his reasons that substantiate this claim. This seems very sloppy to me.

His work with defensive statistics, while admirable, is far from perfect. His attitude is exemplified in a statement he makes in his chapter on Hall of Fame Numbers. Regarding his system he says, "No one sat down ahead of time and said, 'Now how much weight should we give to hitting and how much to fielding?'" Doesn't this seem like an important question to ask when adding these two elements together to create an all-encompassing statistic?

As stated by a couple of other reviewers he does not add in any park or yearly effects to his system. He justifies this by stating that park factors are "essentially a subjective notion." Subjective notion? We have many statistics that prove that certain parks have effects on statistics. Road vs. Home hitting. The fact that the outfield fences are different distances in most parks should be some clue that this might effect statistics. Is there a perfect way to figure this out? Probably not, but you can't just ignore it.

I have many other problems with the system he has created, but I want to touch on a few of the other issues that bother me. One sentence he writes sums up one these issues. The author states, "The HEQ study lays no claim to being the definitive comparison of players. It is essentially a simpler and more complete approach... than any existing system." In one sentence he says it isn't the definitive system, but it is the best system ever developed. Although not exactly the exact same things, it seems to me he wants to set the system up so that it won't be challenged either way.

The final problem that I have is a little frivolous, but another reviewer mentioned it so I feel it is legitimate. The fact that author mentions that he his a mathematician so many times and the fact that he names the system after himself, just seems way too self-aggrandizing to me.

In closing I just want to mention that according to the author's system, the greatest season by a baseball player ever was Chuck Klein's in 1930.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Outs Don't Count In This System, August 30, 2001

By 

Mark W. (Bellaire, Texas USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Baseball's Complete Players: Ratings of Total-Season Performance for the Greatest Players of the 20th Century (Paperback)

Outs don't count; no league adjustments; no park adjustments. These are "counting stats" amalgamated. As such, this might be one of the better counting systems around. You know, in a counting system, longevity is everything. So if you have a lot of hits and runs for many years you do well. I imagine Harold Baines will do very well in this system.

Who wouldn't do comparatively well? A productive player who didn't have a lot of longevity and who didn't make a lot of outs while playing in the Astrodome or Dodger Stadium in a strong pitching era.

You can bet Jim Wynn, who does well in Bill James' Runs Created system, will rank comparatively low in HEQ.

Readers should be aware that this book was roundly skewered on the listserve of the Society for American Baseball Research.

My suggestion: don't waste your money. Check it out of the library.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Disappointing Book, May 13, 2000

By 

Tom Ruane (Poughkeepsie, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Baseball's Complete Players: Ratings of Total-Season Performance for the Greatest Players of the 20th Century (Paperback)

I found much to dislike and little to like about Baseball's Complete Players. It presents a new player evaluation system (called HEQ) that purports to gives fans a simple and accurate idea of a player's overall effectiveness. Unfortunately, I did not find HEQ to be nearly as good as those currently in wide use among baseball fans and researchers. In my opinion, Batting Runs, Runs Created, Extrapolated Runs and Total Player Rating all give fans a much better idea of what a player accomplished on the field than HEQ.

I also found the book to be poorly written and very tedious, and I definitely would not recommend this title to another baseball fan.