1957 Season

Baseball Player Won-Loss Records
Home List of Articles

The 1957 Season as seen through the Prism of Player Won-Lost Records

Next in my continuing series of looking at individual seasons through the prism of Player won-lost records is the 1957 season.

The Best of 1957

I calculate Player won-lost records two ways: pWins, which tie to team wins and eWins, which control for context and the ability of one's teammates. For players with more pWins than eWins, their Player wins contributed to more team wins than one might expect; for players with more eWins than pWins, just the opposite is true: their Player wins translated into fewer team wins than expected. Or more briefly: a player with more pWins than eWins was better in context, a player with more eWins than pWins was worse in context.

The top 10 players in pWins above Positional Average and Replacement Level were as follows.

		pWins over Positional Average Top 10 Players						pWins over Replacement Level Top 10 Players
	Player	pWins	pLosses	pWOPA	pWORL		Player	pWins	pLosses	pWOPA	pWORL
1	Mickey Mantle	24.8	12.8	5.3	6.9	1	Mickey Mantle	24.8	12.8	5.3	6.9
2	Hank Aaron	25.2	16.6	3.6	5.3	2	Hank Aaron	25.2	16.6	3.6	5.3
3	Eddie Mathews	20.8	14.7	3.0	4.5	3	Eddie Mathews	20.8	14.7	3.0	4.5
4	Nellie Fox	22.4	17.6	2.7	4.4	4	Nellie Fox	22.4	17.6	2.7	4.4
5	Gil McDougald	20.7	15.9	2.7	4.2	5	Don Blasingame	22.7	18.2	2.6	4.3
6	Don Blasingame	22.7	18.2	2.6	4.3	6	Gil McDougald	20.7	15.9	2.7	4.2
7	Billy Pierce	18.4	14.5	2.5	3.8	7	Willie Mays	24.5	18.7	2.1	3.9
8	Jim Bunning	18.0	14.1	2.5	3.8	8	Ernie Banks	22.3	18.3	2.2	3.9
9	Ted Williams	20.9	13.9	2.4	3.9	9	Ted Williams	20.9	13.9	2.4	3.9
10	Jack S. Sanford	17.7	13.8	2.4	3.6	10	Billy Pierce	18.4	14.5	2.5	3.8

The top 10 players in eWins above Positional Average and Replacement Level were as follows.

		eWins over Positional Average Top 10 Players						eWins over Replacement Level Top 10 Players
	Player	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA	eWORL		Player	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA	eWORL
1	Mickey Mantle	24.1	13.4	4.7	6.2	1	Mickey Mantle	24.1	13.4	4.7	6.2
2	Ernie Banks	23.1	17.5	3.0	4.7	2	Ernie Banks	23.1	17.5	3.0	4.7
3	Ted Williams	21.5	13.3	3.0	4.5	3	Ted Williams	21.5	13.3	3.0	4.5
4	Nellie Fox	22.4	17.5	2.7	4.4	4	Nellie Fox	22.4	17.5	2.7	4.4
5	Hank Aaron	24.2	17.6	2.6	4.4	5	Hank Aaron	24.2	17.6	2.6	4.4
6	Eddie Mathews	20.4	15.1	2.5	4.0	6	Willie Mays	24.7	18.5	2.4	4.1
7	Willie Mays	24.7	18.5	2.4	4.1	7	Eddie Mathews	20.4	15.1	2.5	4.0
8	Frank Sullivan	15.4	11.8	2.2	3.3	8	Roy Sievers	25.5	18.9	2.0	3.8
9	Roy Sievers	25.5	18.9	2.0	3.8	9	Al Kaline	21.7	16.9	1.8	3.4
10	Billy Pierce	17.8	15.1	2.0	3.2	10	Frank Sullivan	15.4	11.8	2.2	3.3

Mickey Mantle

Mickey Mantle's 1957 season was one of the greatest seasons for which I have calculated Player won-lost records. In fact, measured by pWins over replacement level, Mantle's 1957 season is the second-best season by a non-pitcher since 1947, behind only Barry Bonds's 2001 season. The top 10 seasons, as measured by pWORL, are presented in the next table, in and out of context.

	Player	Season	pWins	pLosses	pWOPA	pWORL	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA	eWORL
1	Babe Ruth	1927	30.6	15.1	6.9	8.8	29.7	16.0	6.0	7.9
2	Babe Ruth	1923	28.0	12.9	6.8	8.4	27.2	13.6	6.0	7.7
3	Lefty Grove	1931	23.4	11.4	6.5	7.9	20.5	14.3	3.5	5.0
4	Babe Ruth	1921	28.8	14.5	6.2	7.8	27.5	15.8	4.9	6.5
5	Sandy Koufax	1965	25.0	14.5	5.9	7.6	23.0	16.6	3.9	5.6
6	Steve Carlton	1972	25.1	14.9	5.8	7.6	23.6	16.4	4.3	6.0
7	Dwight Gooden	1985	21.3	11.0	5.9	7.3	19.7	12.5	4.3	5.8
8	Lefty Grove	1930	22.2	11.5	5.8	7.3	20.2	13.4	3.8	5.3
9	Ted Williams	1946	28.4	15.5	5.5	7.2	27.9	16.0	5.0	6.7
10	Barry Bonds	2001	28.0	15.5	5.3	7.2	28.3	15.1	5.7	7.6

Hank Aaron

Hank Aaron won the only MVP award of his illustrious career in 1957. The 1957 season was Aaron's best, as measured by pWins over positional average or replacement level, although he had several better seasons measured by (context-neutral) eWins.

The next table presents Hank Aaron's career. Hank Aaron compiled more regular-season pWins and eWins in his career than any other player for whom I have calculated Player won-lost records.

Season	Team	Age	Games	pWins	pLosses	pWin Pct.	pWOPA	pWORL	eWins	eLosses	eWin Pct.	eWOPA	eWORL
Hank Aaron Basic Player Won-Lost Records
												Value Decomposition
1954	MLN	20	122	17.0	14.7	0.536	0.6	2.0	16.4	15.3	0.516	0.0	1.3
1955	MLN	21	153	21.6	18.6	0.537	1.0	2.6	22.3	17.9	0.555	1.7	3.3
1956	MLN	22	153	25.2	18.4	0.578	2.6	4.4	24.3	19.3	0.557	1.8	3.5
1957	MLN	23	151	25.2	16.6	0.602	3.6	5.3	24.2	17.6	0.579	2.6	4.4
1958	MLN	24	153	24.9	17.3	0.590	2.9	4.5	24.0	18.2	0.569	2.1	3.7
1959	MLN	25	154	25.1	17.8	0.585	2.6	4.3	24.9	18.0	0.580	2.4	4.1
1960	MLN	26	153	24.0	17.9	0.573	2.4	4.1	24.0	17.8	0.574	2.5	4.1
1961	MLN	27	155	25.4	18.6	0.577	2.4	4.4	24.8	19.3	0.562	1.8	3.7
1962	MLN	28	156	26.9	19.7	0.578	2.7	4.5	27.4	19.2	0.588	3.2	5.0
1963	MLN	29	161	25.8	19.3	0.573	2.0	3.7	26.9	18.2	0.597	3.0	4.8
1964	MLN	30	145	21.1	18.0	0.541	0.8	2.3	21.6	17.4	0.554	1.3	2.8
1965	MLN	31	150	21.9	17.9	0.550	1.2	2.7	22.6	17.1	0.570	1.9	3.5
1966	ATL	32	158	25.3	18.7	0.575	2.3	4.0	25.1	18.9	0.571	2.1	3.8
1967	ATL	33	155	26.1	19.4	0.574	2.3	4.3	25.7	19.8	0.566	2.0	3.9
1968	ATL	34	160	27.5	20.4	0.575	2.6	4.6	27.0	20.9	0.563	2.1	4.0
1969	ATL	35	147	23.9	15.7	0.603	3.0	4.7	23.6	16.0	0.596	2.7	4.4
1970	ATL	36	150	22.9	16.3	0.585	2.7	4.4	21.9	17.3	0.559	1.6	3.3
1971	ATL	37	139	20.5	13.4	0.605	2.7	4.1	20.7	13.3	0.609	2.9	4.2
1972	ATL	38	129	16.2	12.7	0.560	0.7	1.9	16.8	12.0	0.583	1.4	2.6
1973	ATL	39	120	15.0	13.2	0.531	0.3	1.5	16.0	12.2	0.569	1.4	2.5
1974	ATL	40	112	14.2	10.8	0.568	1.2	2.2	13.6	11.4	0.544	0.6	1.6
1975	MIL	41	137	9.5	10.4	0.479	-0.5	0.7	9.8	10.1	0.493	-0.3	1.0
1976	MIL	42	85	6.4	6.5	0.498	-0.1	0.7	6.8	6.2	0.523	0.3	1.0
------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			3,298	491.8	372.1	0.569	42.2	77.9	490.5	373.4	0.568	41.0	76.6
			------	------	------				------	------
PostSeason (career)			17	2.7	2.5	0.521		0.2	3.3	1.9	0.631		0.8
			------	------	------	------		------	------	------	------		------
COMBINED			3,315	494.5	374.6	0.569		78.1	493.8	375.3	0.568		77.4

1957 Postseason

In 1957, the postseason ended for the first (and, so far, only) time with a World Series winner from Milwaukee. The hero of the 1957 World Series was Lew Burdette who pitched three complete games, two of them shutouts, one a 1-0 victory and the second in Game 7 on two days' rest.

	1957 World Series: Top Player Performances
		pWins	pLosses	pWORL
Lew Burdette	MLN	2.4	1.0	0.9
Eddie Mathews	MLN	1.6	0.5	0.7

Lew Burdette's 1957 performance is the best World Series performance as measured by pWins, pWins over positional average (pWOPA), or pWins over replacement level (pWORL) for any World Series for which I have calculated Player won-lost records (i.e., since 1947).

Best of 1957 by Factor and Position

Next, let's look at the top players in (context-neutral, teammate-adjusted) eWins over Positional Average in various aspects of the game.

Best by Factor: Batting, Baserunning, Pitching, Fielding

There are four basic factors for which players earn Player won-lost records: Batting, Baserunning, Pitching, and Fielding. The top players in 1957 in eWOPA by factor were as follows.

	Batting
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Mickey Mantle	16.8	8.1	4.1
Ted Williams	15.5	7.4	3.9

Positional Average excludes pitcher offense

	Baserunning
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Don Blasingame	2.1	1.3	0.4
Jim Gilliam	2.3	1.5	0.4
Nellie Fox	1.7	0.9	0.4
Luis Aparicio	1.8	1.0	0.4

Positional Average excludes pitcher offense

	Pitching
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Frank Sullivan	12.5	9.3	3.2
Billy Pierce	13.6	11.0	2.6

	Fielding, P
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Don Drysdale	0.6	0.2	0.3
Bobby Shantz	0.5	0.2	0.3

	Fielding, C
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Del Crandall	1.2	0.9	0.3
Cal Neeman	1.5	1.3	0.3
Roy Campanella	1.1	0.9	0.3

	Fielding, 1B
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Gil Hodges	2.4	1.9	0.5

	Fielding, 2B
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Nellie Fox	6.1	5.0	1.1

	Fielding, 3B
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Bubba Phillips	3.5	3.0	0.5
George Kell	2.0	1.5	0.5

George Kell led the major-leagues in net fielding wins at 3B in this, his final major-league season, despite only 80 games played there.

	Fielding, SS
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Johnny Logan	6.9	6.2	0.7

	Fielding, LF
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Charlie Maxwell	6.8	5.8	0.9

	Fielding, CF
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Jim Piersall	7.2	5.6	1.6

	Fielding, RF
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Al Kaline	5.4	4.0	1.4

Best by Position

Next, we look at 1957 Major-League leaders in eWOPA by position. The figures shown here only include Player decisions earned while playing this particular position, and include no contextual adjustments (expected or actual).

	Catcher
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Gus Triandos	11.3	9.9	0.9
Yogi Berra	12.4	11.1	0.9

	First Base
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Stan Musial	16.8	12.6	1.4

	Second Base
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Nellie Fox	22.4	17.9	2.6

	Third Base
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Eddie Mathews	21.8	16.5	2.5

	Shortstop
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Ernie Banks	15.3	12.0	1.9

	Left Field
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Ted Williams	19.9	13.2	2.3

	Center Field
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Mickey Mantle	23.2	13.5	4.2

	Right Field
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Hank Aaron	14.0	10.0	1.7

The best players of 1957 by position are all Hall-of-Famers except for catcher and pitcher.

	Starting Pitcher
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Frank Sullivan	12.7	9.6	1.5
Billy Pierce	13.7	10.9	1.4

	Relief Pitcher
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Art Ditmar	4.0	2.7	0.6
Gerry Staley	5.5	4.4	0.6
Larry Jackson	3.0	1.9	0.6
Arnie Portocarrero	1.7	0.6	0.6

For relief pitchers, context-neutral records may not be the best measure of how good they are, as context can matter a great deal, depending on how a pitcher is used. Here are the top relief pitchers of 1957 in context, in terms of pWins and pWOPA.

Player	pWins	pLosses	pWin Pct.	pWOPA	pWORL
	Top Relief Pitchers of 1957, based on pWORL
Turk Farrell	5.3	2.7	0.663	1.3	1.9
Bob Grim	7.0	5.2	0.574	1.0	1.8
Cal McLish	7.2	6.1	0.540	0.8	1.5
Art Ditmar	7.2	5.9	0.547	0.8	1.4
Clem Labine	7.4	6.6	0.529	0.5	1.4

Finally, here are the best at three oft-forgotten positions that can nevertheless matter: pitcher offense, pinch hitting, and pinch running.

	Pitcher Offense
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Jack Harshman	1.2	0.9	0.4
Cal McLish	1.1	1.0	0.4
Don Newcombe	1.4	1.6	0.4

	Pinch Hitter
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Joe Cunningham	1.3	0.6	0.4

	Pinch Runner
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Al Pilarcik	0.2	0.0	0.1
Dick Schofield Sr.	0.3	0.1	0.1

Noteworthy Players of 1957

Finally, let's take a look at some players who had noteworthy 1957 seasons.

Notable Debuts

There are no Hall-of-Famers who made their major-league debut in 1957. Three players who debuted in 1957 earned more than 30 pWORL for their careers. These three players all have some connection to Hall-of-Famers.

Roger Maris broke perhaps the most famous record held by the most famous Hall-of-Famer when he hit 61 home runs in 1961.

Milt Pappas was traded for an "old 30" year-old Frank Robinson on December 9, 1965. Robinson won a Triple Crown and led the Baltimore Orioles to the 1966 World Series.

Claude Osteen was the only member of the 4-man pitching rotation for the Orioles' opponents in that World Series who is not in the Hall of Fame.

The career Player won-lost records for Maris, Pappas, and Osteen are shown below.

Season	pWins	pLoss	pWOPA	pWORL	pWins	pLoss	pWOPA	pWORL	pWins	pLoss	pWOPA	pWORL
	Roger Maris				Milt Pappas				Claude Osteen
1957	13.5	13.4	-0.4	0.7	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.1	0.0	0.0
1958	18.9	18.6	-0.5	0.9	8.6	8.8	0.1	0.9
1959	15.7	14.6	-0.2	1.0	14.2	11.4	1.8	2.9	0.3	0.8	-0.3	-0.2
1960	22.5	13.8	3.8	5.2	13.4	12.6	0.7	1.8	1.0	2.6	-0.7	-0.5
1961	26.9	15.5	4.5	6.3	12.1	11.7	0.6	1.6	1.0	1.2	-0.0	0.0
1962	20.0	16.1	1.2	2.5	12.3	13.9	-0.4	0.7	10.7	10.9	0.2	1.2
1963	12.3	8.9	1.1	2.0	13.9	12.3	1.2	2.4	12.0	14.8	-1.0	0.3
1964	18.8	13.2	2.1	3.4	14.5	12.0	1.7	3.0	16.6	14.9	1.4	3.0
1965	5.6	4.9	0.1	0.6	14.5	13.0	1.1	2.3	16.5	16.9	0.3	1.8
1966	11.1	12.1	-1.0	-0.0	13.2	12.9	0.5	1.6	15.8	13.4	1.8	3.0
1967	14.4	11.5	0.9	2.0	13.0	13.4	0.2	1.3	17.7	17.8	0.7	2.1
1968	13.2	10.0	1.2	2.2	10.8	11.5	-0.1	0.9	14.2	16.8	-0.8	0.4
1969					8.6	9.4	-0.1	0.7	20.4	16.6	2.7	4.3
1970					12.0	10.6	1.1	2.1	14.6	16.4	-0.3	1.0
1971					16.8	16.9	0.4	1.9	15.4	15.4	0.5	1.8
1972					13.1	10.4	1.7	2.8	18.6	14.0	2.9	4.3
1973					9.4	11.2	-0.6	0.2	13.9	14.0	0.4	1.5
1974									9.0	10.0	-0.2	0.6
1975									10.4	12.3	-0.9	0.2
------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------
CAREER RECORDS	192.9	152.6	12.8	26.8	200.2	192.1	10.0	27.2	208.2	208.6	6.5	24.8

Last Hurrahs

Finally, 1957 was the final season for two Hall-of-Famers: Roy Campanella and George Kell. I have calculated Player won-lost records for Campanella's entire (major-league) career. I am missing play-by-play data for the first three full seasons of Kell's career, though, as well as several games from 1947 - 1950. Overall, I have play-by-play data for 1,795 of the 1,795 games (100.0%) played by George Kell in his career.

The Player won-lost records for Roy Campanella and George Kell, for the games for which I have play-by-play data and have calculated Player won-lost records, are presented in the next table.

Season	Games	pWins	pLoss	Win Pct.	pWOPA	pWORL	Games	pWins	pLoss	Win Pct.	pWOPA	pWORL
	Roy Campanella						George Kell
1947							152	20.4	17.5	0.539	1.2	2.7
1948	83	6.9	5.6	0.550	0.9	1.4	92	11.8	10.8	0.522	0.2	1.1
1949	130	11.2	9.6	0.537	0.8	1.7	134	17.8	14.5	0.551	1.4	2.7
1950	126	12.3	9.8	0.557	1.3	2.2	157	20.8	17.0	0.550	1.3	2.7
1951	143	16.2	11.5	0.586	2.5	3.6	147	19.4	17.6	0.525	0.4	1.8
1952	128	16.2	10.4	0.610	3.0	4.1	114	14.1	13.4	0.513	0.2	1.3
1953	144	19.7	10.4	0.654	4.9	6.2	134	17.7	14.5	0.549	1.0	2.4
1954	111	8.6	8.8	0.494	-0.1	0.7	97	10.2	10.4	0.497	-0.4	0.4
1955	123	14.2	10.0	0.587	2.3	3.3	128	15.8	12.3	0.561	1.3	2.5
1956	124	12.5	10.3	0.548	1.1	2.1	123	11.8	13.2	0.472	-0.9	0.1
1957	103	8.6	8.0	0.518	0.5	1.2	99	9.4	9.5	0.499	-0.1	0.7
------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------
CAREER RECORDS	1,215	126.5	94.5	0.572	17.3	26.3	1,377	169.2	150.5	0.529	5.6	18.5

All articles are written so that they pull data directly from the most recent version of the Player won-lost database. Hence, any numbers cited within these articles should automatically incorporate the most recent update to Player won-lost records. In some cases, however, the accompanying text may have been written based on previous versions of Player won-lost records. I apologize if this results in non-sensical text in any cases.

Home List of Articles