Must Click: MLB Stat Speak Pirates Column Proves Special Season

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MLB writer Roger Schlueter put together a very interesting piece on the Pirates in his MLB Stat Speak article.

Some of the highlights

include:

"….there have been 1,216 National League teams to play a season. Of those 1,216, exactly five could claim at least four players who1. Were in their age-24 season or younger2. Had an OPS+ of 100 or better3. Had at least 20 doubles"

"Those five teams were the 1978 Expos (with five such players), the ’28 Giants (four), the ’73 Padres (four), the 2007 Brewers (four) and the 2010 Pirates (four.)"

It’s a fantastic look at some historical research including comparing Jose Tabata to Roberto Clemente.

Roger also ranks thirdbaseman since 1920 with the most homers in their first 95 at-bats.  Take a guess who is included?

One more cool thing before you go check it out is he has an interesting fact about Andrew McCutchen which looks back to 1901 and finds that ten outfielders through their age 23 season have had multiple seasons with an OPS+ of at least 120, with 20 stolen bases and 40+ extra-base hits.  The list is rather remarkable.

The big question for us was did this lead to magical seasons with these special players?  Does this mish mash of stats mean the Pirates are going to set MLB on fire?  Is history on their side?

Some of you already know the answer…..but let’s take a look at each of those teams performance a year before and several years after each had completed this statistical accomplishment.  Stats are courtesy of Baseball Reference:

So, what’s the moral to this story?