1960 Season

The 1960 Season as seen through the Prism of Player Won-Lost Records

The next season in my continuing series on looking at individual seasons through the prism of Player won-lost records is 1960. The 1960 season was the last major-league season before expansion and the last season when both leagues played 154-game seasons.

The Best of 1960

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	23.3	13.5	4.2	5.6	1	Mickey Mantle	23.3	13.5	4.2	5.6
2	Roger Maris	22.5	13.8	3.8	5.2	2	Roger Maris	22.5	13.8	3.8	5.2
3	Eddie Mathews	22.5	14.8	3.4	4.9	3	Eddie Mathews	22.5	14.8	3.4	4.9
4	Ron Hansen	21.5	15.5	3.3	4.8	4	Ron Hansen	21.5	15.5	3.3	4.8
5	Vern Law	18.5	13.5	3.0	4.3	5	Vern Law	18.5	13.5	3.0	4.3
6	Woodie Held	15.9	11.2	2.6	3.7	6	Hank Aaron	24.0	17.9	2.4	4.1
7	Ernie Broglio	15.9	11.5	2.6	3.8	7	Warren Spahn	19.0	15.0	2.6	4.0
8	Warren Spahn	19.0	15.0	2.6	4.0	8	Roberto Clemente	22.2	16.2	2.4	3.9
9	Lindy McDaniel	9.6	4.9	2.5	3.4	9	Ernie Broglio	15.9	11.5	2.6	3.8
10	Hank Aaron	24.0	17.9	2.4	4.1	10	Willie Mays	25.2	19.5	2.0	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	Ernie Banks	24.7	19.4	3.1	4.8	1	Ernie Banks	24.7	19.4	3.1	4.8
2	Roger Maris	21.7	14.5	3.0	4.4	2	Roger Maris	21.7	14.5	3.0	4.4
3	Mickey Mantle	21.7	15.1	2.6	4.0	3	Hank Aaron	24.0	17.8	2.5	4.1
4	Eddie Mathews	21.6	15.7	2.5	4.0	4	Mickey Mantle	21.7	15.1	2.6	4.0
5	Hank Aaron	24.0	17.8	2.5	4.1	5	Eddie Mathews	21.6	15.7	2.5	4.0
6	Ron Hansen	20.3	16.8	2.1	3.5	6	Ron Hansen	20.3	16.8	2.1	3.5
7	Jim Bunning	15.8	12.7	2.0	3.2	7	Willie Mays	24.9	19.8	1.7	3.5
8	Frank Robinson	19.0	13.5	1.9	3.2	8	Ken Boyer	21.1	16.6	1.9	3.4
9	Larry Jackson	18.6	16.0	1.9	3.3	9	Larry Jackson	18.6	16.0	1.9	3.3
10	Ken Boyer	21.1	16.6	1.9	3.4	10	Don Drysdale	18.0	15.4	1.8	3.2

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.

Two sets of players in the previous tables seem to warrant further comment.

The M&M Boys: Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris

The voting for the 1960 AL MVP Award was one of the closest ever, with Roger Maris edging out teammate Mickey Mantle 225-222, despite Mantle winning more 1st place votes (10-8, with 3 other players splitting 6 additional first-place votes).

Maris and Mantle hold the top two spots among American League players in all four of the above tables.

Both Maris and Mantle look better in pWins (over positional average and replacement level) than eWins. This is mostly because they had very good teammates (including each other) so that more of Mantle's and Maris's positive contributions contributed to Yankee wins and Maris and Mantle's negative contributions were often overcome by strong performances by their teammates and the Yankees were able to win anyway, minimizing the cost of Maris's and Mantle's "losses".

Although both Maris and Mantle benefitted from putting their performance in context, Mantle benefitted much more so. This is because, while Maris's performance did not necessarily improve in more "clutch" situations (e.g., his OPS was 1.247 in high-leverage vs. 1.010 in low-leverage situations, 0.918 in late and close situations, 0.473 in extra innings), Mantle's performance generally improved as the situation became more "clutch": OPS of 1.171 in high-leverage vs. 0.852 in low-leverage, 1.201 in late and close situations, 1.462 in extra innings.

The effect of Mickey Mantle's "clutch" performance vis-a-vis Roger Maris's "clutch" performance wasn't huge, but it was just enough to flip their positions, with Maris showing up as the most valuable player in the American League when context is neutralized but Mantle just passing him as the most valuable player in the American League (and major leagues) when his performance is put into context.

NL Infielders: Eddie Mathews and Ernie Banks

Looking at context-neutral statistics, the most valuable player in the National League was Ernie Banks, who (deservedly) won the two previous NL MVP awards. Putting his performance into the context of team wins (of which the 1960 Chicago Cubs managed only 60), however, Banks falls out of the major-league top 10 entirely with the top spot for a National League player held instead of fellow Hall-of-Fame infielder Eddie Mathews.

The 1960 season is something of a microcosm of Banks's and Mathews's career in this regard. Mathews spent the first half of his career playing for very good Braves teams with very good teammates, such as Hank Aaron and Warren Spahn. As result his career was worth about 5 more wins (over positional average and replacement level) as measured by pWins than as measured by eWins. The exact opposite is true for Ernie Banks, who toiled on terrible Cubs teams for the better part of his career, and consequently was worth about 5 fewer wins (over positional average and replacement level) as measured by pWins than as measured by eWins. The relative values of Banks and Mathews in 1960 and in their careers are shown in the next table.

	Games	pWins	pLosses	pWin Pct.	pWOPA	pWORL	eWins	eLosses	eWin Pct.	eWOPA	eWORL
Ernie Banks, 1960	156	23.0	21.1	0.522	1.4	3.1	24.7	19.4	0.560	3.1	4.8
Eddie Mathews, 1960	153	22.5	14.8	0.603	3.4	4.9	21.6	15.7	0.578	2.5	4.0

	Games	pWins	pLosses	pWin Pct.	pWOPA	pWORL	eWins	eLosses	eWin Pct.	eWOPA	eWORL
Ernie Banks, career	2,525	310.4	279.1	0.527	11.9	35.8	317.3	272.2	0.538	18.8	42.7
Eddie Mathews, career	2,389	320.9	240.8	0.571	34.3	57.0	317.8	243.9	0.566	31.2	53.9

The 1960 Postseason

The 1960 World Series, between the New York Yankees and the Pittsburgh Pirates, was one of the most remarkable World Series ever.

The Yankees set records for most runs scored in a World Series, 55, and for largest run differential for a series, 28 runs (55-27). The Yankees won games 2, 3, and 6 of the 1960 World Series by scores of 16-3, 10-0, and 12-0, respectively. As a team, the Yankees batted .338/.383/.528 for the series with Pirates pitchers amassing a combined ERA of 7.11.

But Bill Mazeroski led off the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7 with a home run to left field to win the World Series for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

If you look at player performance in the 1960 World Series independent of context, the best players in the 1960 World Series were, not surprisingly, mostly New York Yankees:

	1960 World Series: eWins
		eWins	eLosses	eWORL
Mickey Mantle	NYA	1.2	0.5	0.4
Bobby Richardson	NYA	1.4	1.0	0.3
Whitey Ford	NYA	0.9	0.4	0.3
Elston Howard	NYA	0.6	0.2	0.2
Bill Mazeroski	PIT	1.0	0.9	0.2

If, however, you put players' performances into context and tie them to team results, suddenly the list of the best players in the 1960 World Series includes a fair number of Pittsburgh Pirates:

	1960 World Series: pWins
		pWins	pLosses	pWORL
Roy Face	PIT	1.0	0.3	0.4
Whitey Ford	NYA	0.9	0.4	0.3
Vern Law	PIT	1.2	0.8	0.3
Mickey Mantle	NYA	1.1	0.6	0.3
Hal W. Smith	PIT	0.6	0.1	0.3
Roberto Clemente	PIT	1.1	0.6	0.3
Bill Virdon	PIT	1.1	0.7	0.2
Bill Mazeroski	PIT	1.1	0.9	0.2
Elston Howard	NYA	0.6	0.2	0.2
Bob Turley	NYA	0.7	0.5	0.2
Bobby Richardson	NYA	1.2	1.2	0.2
Harvey Haddix	PIT	0.6	0.4	0.2
Bob Skinner	PIT	0.4	0.1	0.2
Smoky Burgess	PIT	0.5	0.3	0.2

Best of 1960 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 1960 in eWOPA by factor were as follows.

	Batting
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Eddie Mathews	16.7	10.4	2.9

Positional Average excludes pitcher offense

	Baserunning
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Luis Aparicio	2.3	1.3	0.5
Maury Wills	2.0	1.3	0.4

Positional Average excludes pitcher offense

	Pitching
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Jim Bunning	14.0	11.1	2.9
Bob Friend	13.9	11.1	2.9
Larry Jackson	15.4	13.0	2.4
Don Drysdale	14.8	12.7	2.1
Mike McCormick	12.8	10.7	2.1
Lindy McDaniel	6.4	4.4	2.0
Lew Burdette	13.5	11.6	1.9

Next, we look at the major-league leaders in net fielding wins in 1960 by fielding position.

	Fielding, P
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Lew Burdette	0.9	0.6	0.2
Roy Face	0.4	0.1	0.2
Pedro Ramos	0.5	0.3	0.2
Don Drysdale	0.4	0.2	0.2
Ray Herbert	0.5	0.4	0.2
Jerry Walker	0.2	0.1	0.2
Jim Bunning	0.3	0.2	0.2
Mike McCormick	0.6	0.4	0.2
Glen Hobbie	0.9	0.7	0.2
Juan Pizarro	0.2	0.1	0.2
Harvey Haddix	0.4	0.2	0.2
Lindy McDaniel	0.2	0.1	0.2

	Fielding, C
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Cal Neeman	0.9	0.6	0.2
El Tappe	0.6	0.4	0.2
Ed Bailey	1.3	1.1	0.2
Hank Foiles	0.5	0.3	0.2
Smoky Burgess	0.8	0.6	0.2
Hal R. Smith	1.3	1.1	0.2
Pete Daley	0.7	0.5	0.2
Lou Berberet	0.8	0.6	0.2
Del Crandall	1.8	1.6	0.2

	Fielding, 1B
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Vic Power	2.5	1.9	0.6

	Fielding, 2B
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Bill Mazeroski	5.8	5.2	0.6

	Fielding, 3B
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Brooks Robinson	5.1	3.7	1.3

	Fielding, SS
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Ron Hansen	7.1	5.8	1.3

	Fielding, LF
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Wally Moon	4.9	3.8	1.2

	Fielding, CF
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Curt Flood	4.9	4.0	0.9

	Fielding, RF
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Roger Maris	5.1	3.9	1.2

Best by Position

Next, we look at 1960 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
Del Crandall	15.1	13.3	1.4

	First Base
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Roy Sievers	14.4	10.1	1.5

	Second Base
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Bill Mazeroski	16.9	16.2	0.9

	Third Base
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Eddie Mathews	21.9	16.4	2.3

	Shortstop
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Ernie Banks	24.3	19.6	2.8

	Left Field
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Ted Williams	13.6	10.0	1.3

	Center Field
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Mickey Mantle	21.9	15.6	2.4

	Right Field
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Roger Maris	20.0	13.9	2.5

	Starting Pitcher
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Jim Bunning	14.3	11.1	1.6
Bob Friend	14.2	11.5	1.3

	Relief Pitcher
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Lindy McDaniel	5.9	3.4	1.2

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 1960 in context, in terms of pWins and pWOPA.

Player	pWins	pLosses	pWin Pct.	pWOPA	pWORL
	Top Relief Pitchers of 1960, based on pWORL
Lindy McDaniel	9.6	4.9	0.664	2.5	3.4
Turk Farrell	6.1	4.0	0.603	1.1	1.8
Mike Fornieles	7.1	5.6	0.561	0.9	1.7
Hoyt Wilhelm	9.8	8.9	0.524	0.7	1.6
Johnny Klippstein	5.2	3.5	0.596	0.9	1.5

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
Early Wynn	1.7	2.0	0.4
Don Cardwell	1.5	1.7	0.4
Vern Law	1.6	1.9	0.4

	Pinch Hitter
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Earl Torgeson	1.5	0.8	0.4

	Pinch Runner
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Al Spangler	0.4	0.1	0.1
Johnny Antonelli	0.1	0.0	0.1

Notable Debuts

Two Hall-of-Famers made their major-league debut in 1960: Ron Santo and Juan Marichal.

Here's how their careers compare in Player won-lost records.

Season	Games	pWins	pLosses	Win Pct.	pWOPA	pWORL	Games	pWins	pLosses	Win Pct.	pWOPA	pWORL
	Ron Santo						Juan Marichal
1960	95	10.4	10.3	0.501	-0.2	0.6	11	5.2	3.4	0.603	1.0	1.4
1961	154	17.3	18.8	0.480	-0.9	0.7	30	12.8	11.6	0.525	0.9	2.0
1962	162	17.2	21.7	0.442	-2.4	-0.9	38	17.9	15.5	0.536	1.8	3.2
1963	162	23.0	20.6	0.528	1.0	2.7	42	22.6	16.0	0.586	4.0	5.7
1964	161	22.9	18.7	0.550	1.7	3.3	33	18.6	12.8	0.593	3.5	5.1
1965	164	23.7	18.9	0.556	1.9	3.5	39	22.0	15.2	0.591	4.1	5.7
1966	155	21.6	18.7	0.536	1.0	2.5	37	22.8	14.1	0.617	5.1	6.6
1967	161	23.4	17.1	0.578	2.7	4.4	26	12.6	12.2	0.508	0.7	1.7
1968	162	24.0	18.2	0.569	2.7	4.4	38	20.1	16.3	0.552	2.6	4.0
1969	160	23.3	18.2	0.561	2.3	4.1	38	21.1	14.6	0.591	3.9	5.5
1970	154	20.7	17.0	0.549	1.3	2.9	34	12.9	13.1	0.496	0.3	1.4
1971	154	19.9	17.5	0.532	0.7	2.2	37	16.7	13.8	0.547	2.0	3.2
1972	133	17.0	14.5	0.540	1.1	2.4	25	9.6	12.4	0.437	-1.1	-0.1
1973	149	19.6	18.3	0.517	0.1	1.6	34	13.5	13.0	0.510	0.7	1.8
1974	117	10.1	10.9	0.481	-0.3	0.6	11	3.5	2.4	0.594	0.5	0.8
1975							2	0.3	0.9	0.231	-0.3	-0.2
------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------
CAREER RECORDS (Regular Season)	2,243	294.2	259.5	0.531	12.7	35.2	475	232.1	187.1	0.554	29.7	47.8
------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------
Postseason	0	0.0	0.0	0.000	0.0	0.0	2	0.6	0.8	0.419	-0.1	-0.0
------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------
CAREER RECORDS	2,243	294.2	259.5	0.531	12.7	35.2	477	232.7	187.9	0.553	29.6	47.7

Retirement of a Legend

Finally, 1960 was the final season in the legendary career of Ted Williams. Even at the age of 41, Williams was the best left fielder in the American League (as measured by eWins over positional average). And famously, he homered in the final at-bat of his career. That moment was memorialized by John Updike in a New Yorker essay, Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu.

Ted Williams' career began in 1939. I have only calculated Player won-lost records for complete seasons since 1937. Before that time, I am missing 0 games from the first few years of Ted Williams's career. But here is what I do have for the portion of Ted Williams's career for which Retrosheet has play-by-play data and I have calculated Player won-lost records.

Season	Team	Age	Games	pWins	pLosses	pWin Pct.	pWOPA	pWORL	eWins	eLosses	eWin Pct.	eWOPA	eWORL
Ted Williams Basic Player Won-Lost Records
												Value Decomposition
1939	BOS	20	149	24.8	17.3	0.590	3.0	4.7	23.9	18.2	0.568	2.0	3.8
1940	BOS	21	144	22.9	17.3	0.570	2.0	3.6	23.1	17.1	0.575	2.2	3.8
1941	BOS	22	143	24.4	16.4	0.597	3.3	5.1	25.4	15.4	0.623	4.3	6.1
1942	BOS	23	150	28.3	16.5	0.632	4.8	6.6	27.9	17.0	0.621	4.3	6.1
1946	BOS	27	150	28.4	15.5	0.646	5.5	7.2	27.9	16.0	0.635	5.0	6.7
1947	BOS	28	156	27.0	18.0	0.600	3.4	5.2	27.6	17.5	0.612	4.0	5.8
1948	BOS	29	137	25.6	15.6	0.621	4.1	5.7	24.8	16.4	0.601	3.3	4.9
1949	BOS	30	155	26.7	17.3	0.608	3.6	5.3	26.5	17.5	0.602	3.3	5.0
1950	BOS	31	89	14.1	11.1	0.560	1.1	2.1	14.6	10.5	0.582	1.6	2.6
1951	BOS	32	148	24.1	19.0	0.559	1.6	3.3	24.5	18.6	0.568	2.0	3.7
1952	BOS	33	6	0.9	0.2	0.788	0.3	0.4	0.8	0.3	0.734	0.3	0.3
1953	BOS	34	37	5.8	3.0	0.663	1.3	1.7	5.6	3.2	0.641	1.1	1.5
1954	BOS	35	117	18.8	13.0	0.591	2.4	3.7	19.4	12.4	0.610	3.0	4.3
1955	BOS	36	98	16.2	10.4	0.610	2.5	3.6	16.1	10.5	0.605	2.4	3.5
1956	BOS	37	136	17.9	12.8	0.583	1.9	3.2	18.1	12.6	0.589	2.1	3.4
1957	BOS	38	132	20.9	13.9	0.601	2.4	3.9	21.5	13.3	0.618	3.0	4.5
1958	BOS	39	129	17.8	15.0	0.543	0.5	1.8	18.5	14.4	0.562	1.1	2.4
1959	BOS	40	103	10.3	9.4	0.522	0.2	1.0	10.0	9.7	0.508	-0.1	0.7
1960	BOS	41	112	14.0	11.5	0.550	0.7	1.7	14.6	10.9	0.573	1.3	2.3
------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			2,291	368.9	253.1	0.593	44.4	69.7	370.7	251.4	0.596	46.1	71.4
			------	------	------				------	------
PostSeason (career)			7	0.7	0.9	0.468		-0.0	0.8	0.8	0.480		-0.0
			------	------	------	------		------	------	------	------		------
COMBINED			2,298	369.7	254.0	0.593		69.6	371.4	252.2	0.596		71.4

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