As I stand amazed at the depth and quality of our 25 man roster, I had to wonder how this team would stand up against the greatest lineups and rotations in history. Here is what I found. For the purposes of these comparisons I decided to use OPS+ for hitting and ERA+ for pitching. 1927 Yankees Ruth 225 Gehrig 220 Combs 141 Collins 116 Meusel 135 Lazzeri 125 Koenig 83 Dugan 78 Morehart 79 Grabowski 78 Gazella 115 Durst 58 AVERAGE 121.0833333 2019 Astros Springer 153 Bregman 145 Correa 138 Altuve 135 Brantley 135 Gurriel 120 Chirinos 110 Marisnick 101 Reddick 88 Diaz 114 Alvarez 190 Maldonado 72 AVERAGE 125.0833333 While the Yankees have 2 of the greatest hitters of all-time in their lineup in Ruth and Gehrig, the 2019 Astros have more lineup depth. The OPS+ average lends a 4 point nod to the 2019 Astros. 1995 Braves Maddux 260 Glavine 137 Smoltz 133 Avery 91 Mercker 102 Wohlers 204 McMichael 152 Clontz 116 Borbon 138 Bedrosian 70 Schmidt 74 Stanton 77 Pena 105 AVERAGE 127.6153846 2019 Astros Verlander 166 Cole 156 Greinke 154 Miley 146 Sanchez 78 Harris 266 Pressly 221 Peacock 108 Devenski 106 Rondon 106 Osuna 175 Biagini 123 McHugh 81 AVERAGE 145.0769231 I'm choosing and picking a little here with regards to whom I have picked as the 13 pitchers. Still, the depth of our pitching staff is absurd. Harris' 266 is crazy. Ultimately, this team will be judged on whether or not it wins the WS. If it does so, an argument can be made that we have the best 25 man roster in history.
What don’t I understand about ERA+ since it says Harris is our best pitcher. -nothing against Harris, I know he has been good this year.
Harris has the ability to control time, and start the day over. He knows the future. If you know the future, you can't lose. He's a perfectly evolved world dominating organism.
Yeah. Harris has the best ERA on the team at 1.69. (Osuna 2.56; Pressly 2.03). We all know that Harris hasn't been the best pitcher on the team, but he has limited the most run damage in about the same # of innings pitched. I think Harris isn't remembered as well because he hasn't pitched in high leverage spots nearly as often as Pressly/Osuna.
Let's put the brakes on 1927 Yankees comparisons. They won 110 out of 154 games. They still have the record for run differential at 376. 4 players had over 100 RBIs, including Ruth at 164 and Gehrig at 175. Their team batting average was .307. 5 starters and one bench guy hit over .300 with Combs and Ruth at .356 and Gehrig at .373. Muesel hit .357. Six players had over 150 hits. Gehrig and Combs had over 200 hits and Ruth came in at 192 with a record for walks on top of that. Gehrig had 18 triples and 47 HRs, Ruth, of course, had 60 HRs. Combs added 23 triples. They had 4 pitchers with over 18 wins. On July 4th, the played a double-header against Washington and won both games by the same score of 21-1.They won the pennant by 19 games and went 11-2 in post-season with a sweep in the World Series. We're good but we are not legendary. Yet.
Totally different and easier offensive environment in baseball. That was around the time Hack Wilson was driving in 190. Ops+ normalizes for park and era and makes things fair. This Astros team is awesome.
Updated Comparisons: 1927 Yankees Ruth 225 Gehrig 220 Combs 141 Collins 116 Meusel 135 Lazzeri 125 Koenig 83 Dugan 78 Morehart 79 Grabowski 78 Gazella 115 Durst 58 AVERAGE 121.0833333 2019 Astros Springer 146 Bregman 162 Correa 137 Altuve 128 Brantley 126 Gurriel 126 Chirinos 106 Marisnick 81 Reddick 88 Diaz 109 Alvarez 179 Maldonado 108 Tucker 125 AVERAGE 124.69 1995 Braves Maddux 260 Glavine 137 Smoltz 133 Avery 91 Mercker 102 Wohlers 204 McMichael 152 Clontz 116 Borbon 138 Bedrosian 70 Schmidt 74 Stanton 77 Pena 105 AVERAGE 127.6153846 2019 Astros Verlander 183 Cole 184 Greinke 154 Miley 116 Urquidy 118 Harris 308 Pressly 197 Peacock 117 Devenski 95 Rondon 123 Osuna 174 Biagini 64 James 99 AVERAGE 148.615385 A BIG IF we win the World Series, this team should dawn G.O.A.T. status.
This method of averaging is not right - it values each pitcher equally, regardless of innings pitched. Cole and JV were worth less this season than Harris, according to this.
Well, I'm using the same method on the 95 Braves. Feel free to break it down per inning, if you like!
I don't like doing this. Reminds me of the 2005 USC vs battles in history. That didn't go well for USC. But if we must, I have Verlander pitching a no hitter.
Exactly. The 2019 Astros would smoke the 1927 Yankees. You know why? Because all those Yankees are dead.