Top Ten Years Position Players - 1870s

Stat Geek Baseball presents the Top Ten of the Decade blog series. This blog is the 1st in our series of Top Ten Position Player Lists, first starting with the best of the 1870s. A new article will appear every two days through the end of May, counting down each decade from 1870 through the present day. Stop back and find out who the best players were in the decade of your choice, where they ranked overall in the history of baseball, and how the decade ranked as well.

First, we'll start out with an explanation of the PEVA player rating system. First off, it's complicated, and based on what types of production, plus fielding, produce how players have been paid since 1995. The PEVA system is based from 0 (actually 0.200) to 64.000. No player, over an entire season, has ever reached the maximum 64.000 level. It's hard, although not impossible to do. How would a player reach that level? He would have to rank at the top of the year's stats in three PEVA categories (Games, Plate Appearances, Runs + RBI) and play in a home park with a Park Factor even or below average Park Factor over the last three years. He would have to have a Slugging Percentage and On Base Percentage that dominated the year, and a Fielding Value (when modified by that dominance) would rank at the top of the year's stats as well.

But when you say dominance, what do you mean? The entire PEVA system is based on maximum and average yearly values and how a player rates below and above that level, then modified for park factor. So in those six categories mentioned, as far as a position player goes, (Games, Plate Appearances, Runs+RBI, Slugging Percentage, On Base Percentage, Field Value), the more dominant a player is between the average and the maximum, the higher his PEVA Rating Score. It is not, however, a purely 1:1 relationship, as certain value are modified based on how other factors dominant. Sorry, but it is complicated, (5,000 hours worth) but in the end produces a PEVA value that correlates to salary. And it does not matter what the era of the player was; PEVA is valid in a comparative basis from one era to the next.

PEVA Scoreboard
Above 32.000 - Fantastic, MVP candidate
Above 20.000 - All League Player
Above 15.0000 - All Star Player
Above 10.000 - Very Good Player
3.500 - Average Player

Now past the boring part, and on to the lists.

Best Batting Years of the 1870s

Not household names today, and often not highly regarded in the Hall of Fame discussions due to a low amount of games played and counting stats during the seasons of the decade, the decade of the 1870s produced 12 players with a PEVA score about 32.000 and player that should get a lot of credit for the years they produced. Folks, Ross Barnes, Deacon White, and Paul Hines should be in the Hall of Fame. It's not their fault they didn't play 162 game seasons and with a ball that could soar out of small ballparks.

What position player had the best year of the 1870s. Orator Shaffer played for the Indianapolis Blues in 1878, in a park so hard to hit in, South Street Park, that it's Park Factor was 87. Kinda like playing in Petco Park today. In a year when the maximum number of games played was 63, the most HRs hit was 4 and the total amount of homers was 23 for the entire league. Orator Shaffer did not hit a Home Run in 1878, but he dominated the year in other categories, ... he played the most games, 63, had an OBP and SLG percentages that when adjusted for playing in the tough hitting park, placed him above the Max Dominant Factor for those categories, and was one of the best fielding outfielders in baseball, with good range and a good arm. All in all, Orator Shaffer had the best year of all position players in the 1870s, at 50.240 PEVA rating score, which ranks #12 overall in baseball history. And all this for a player with 0 home runs.

TOP TEN YEARS - BATTING - 1870s

D/ARank Name First Year Team Lg HR RBI AVG Age PEVA-B
1 /12 Shaffer Orator 1878 IN1 NL 0 30 0.338 27 50.240
2 /19 Barnes Ross 1876 CHN NL 1 59 0.429 26 46.554
3 /25 Jones Charley 1879 BSN NL 9 62 0.315 29 44.728
4 /27 Hines Paul 1879 PRO NL 2 52 0.357 24 43.731
5 /34 Barnes Ross 1873 BS1 NA 2 62 0.425 23 42.762
6 /77 Hines Paul 1878 PRO NL 4 50 0.358 23 38.405
7 /110 White Deacon 1877 BSN NL 2 49 0.387 30 36.179
8 /125 McVey Cal 1875 BS1 NA 3 87 0.355 26 35.627
9 /137 White Deacon 1875 BS1 NA 1 60 0.367 28 35.065
10 /192 Barnes Ross 1871 BS1 NA 0 34 0.401 21 32.973

Code: D/A Rank - Decade/All-Time Rank
Age: Age at end of year