The GVG Report

This is my second installment in my 5 part series on steroids in MLB.

Part I:    Alex Rodriguez and the Steroids (was it really only 3 years?) Part II:    Historic player stats as a comparison Part III:    Stats of known steroid users Part IV:    The Texas Rangers 2001 to 2003 Part V:    Other players and stats that don't make sense unless...

Part II:    Historic player stats as a comparison and how they compare to A-Rod

When I was researching A-Rods steroid usage through statistics I wanted to see how his career number variation changed. Did it match up with the players of the past or are his erratic?

Now steroids have been around since 1935 but were only really abused/used by people till 1955 or so by weight lifters. On this basis I think its safe to assume that players before 1955 didn't use steroids. After that... its a different story. It could have been amphetamines or steroids.

So who played before 1955 that we can study and see what thier numbers looked like? I chose Babe Ruth because he's the best ever. Doc Camer because he was an average player with no power numbers, who had an 18 year career and we could see if there is a natural change or if things are typical. Joe Dimaggio because he was such a pure hitter with power.

Now lets look at Babe's numbers. Babe played for 18 seasons basically from 1918 to 1935. When he finally started playing regularly in 1919, he averaged an 11.6 on his AB/HR rating with a variation to from 8.5 to 16.5. Thats a pretty tight range. Also, his average slugging was 700 with a variation between 540 and 860. The point is, he mainytained a high level his entire career with very little variation. Very Stable.

Now lets look at Doc Cramer. Doc's power number are nonexistent. He averaged a 300 AB/HR rating his career (weak) and there is very little variation throughout his career. Very Stable.

Joe DiMaggio. Joe DiMaggio had a very solid typical career with a AB/HR ratio of 16.4 and a slugging percentage of 620. A strange aspect to his career is that his numbers tanked right before the war and right after the war. Probably a good excuse. but in general he had very stable numbers.

A-Rod. Looking again at A-rods numbers in comparison to these non-juiced numbers you can see some differences and some similarities. The historic players numbers are very stable, A-Rods numbers are pretty stable but look like they fall in two groups, before 99 he was a 16.5 AB/HR hitter and between 99 and 05 he was a 13. After 05 he went back up to 14.5. Its not real drastic but its there. Prediction for 2009... 15.5. Lets see.