Andre Dawson

Baseball Player Won-Loss Records
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Andre Dawson

Hall-of-Famers as Seen Through Player Won-Lost Records: Andre Dawson

Andre Dawson was elected to the Hall of Fame in his ninth year of eligibility, 2010, with 77.9% of the vote.

Five highlights of Andre Dawson's career:

Andre Dawson was named to eight All-Star teams in his career. He started seven All-Star games for the National League, five in center field and two in right field. He won eight Gold Gloves, won four Silver Sluggers, and received MVP votes nine times.

Dawson was voted National League Rookie of the Year in 1977. Eddie Murray won the American League Rookie of the Year award that year. This is the most recent season in which both Rookie-of-the-Year award winners have subsequently been elected to the Hall of Fame (this is likely to change when 2001 Rookie-of-the-Year winners Ichiro Suzuki and Albert Pujols become eligible for the Hall of Fame).

Dawson finished second in MVP voting twice, in 1981 and 1983. He won the National League MVP award in his first year in Chicago, 1987, when he led the National League in home runs (49), RBI (137), and total bases (353). Dawson was the first player to win an MVP award while playing for a last-place team.

On May 22, 1990, Dawson set a major-league record when he received five intentional walks in a 16-inning game against the Cincinnati Reds. Dawson received his fifth intentional walk with runners on first and third and one out in the bottom of the sixteenth inning. Dave Clark followed with an RBI single to score Ryne Sandberg and give the Cubs a 2-1 victory.

Dawson finished his career with 438 home runs and 314 stolen bases. He is one of five players in major-league history with more than 400 career home runs and 300 career stolen bases.

The first two tables below present Andre Dawson's career as measured by Player won-lost records, in and out of context.

Season	Team	Age	Games	pWins	pLosses	pWORL	pWOPA

Basic Player Won-Lost Records
						Value Decomposition
1976	MON	21	24	2.5	3.4	-0.8	-1.0
1977	MON	22	139	16.4	15.4	1.8	0.3
1978	MON	23	157	22.5	18.7	4.9	2.9
1979	MON	24	155	22.8	18.5	5.4	3.4
1980	MON	25	151	22.3	18.6	4.9	2.9
1981	MON	26	103	18.1	13.2	5.8	4.2
1982	MON	27	148	24.1	16.9	8.4	6.5
1983	MON	28	159	23.2	19.8	4.6	2.6
1984	MON	29	138	20.1	18.1	2.4	0.6
1985	MON	30	139	21.0	17.4	4.3	2.4
1986	MON	31	130	16.5	16.5	0.4	-1.1
1987	CHN	32	153	23.2	20.1	3.6	1.6
1988	CHN	33	157	22.2	18.7	4.2	2.2
1989	CHN	34	118	15.5	12.8	3.1	1.7
1990	CHN	35	147	20.1	20.0	0.9	-1.0
1991	CHN	36	149	16.9	16.6	0.8	-0.8
1992	CHN	37	143	18.3	17.5	1.4	-0.4
1993	BOS	38	121	11.2	11.1	1.1	-0.4
1994	BOS	39	75	5.8	7.0	-0.7	-1.6
1995	FLO	40	79	5.9	7.5	-1.4	-2.1
1996	FLO	41	42	1.7	1.9	-0.0	-0.2
			------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			2,627	350.4	309.7	55.1	22.8
			------	------	------	------	------
PostSeason (career)			15	1.2	2.3	-1.0	-1.2
			------	------	------	------	------
COMBINED			2,642	351.7	312.0	54.1	21.6

Season	Team	Age	Games	eWins	eLosses	eWORL	eWOPA

Expected Player Won-Lost Records
						Value Decomposition
1976	MON	21	24	2.7	3.2	-0.4	-0.7
1977	MON	22	139	16.8	15.1	2.7	1.1
1978	MON	23	157	22.5	18.7	4.9	2.9
1979	MON	24	155	21.9	19.5	3.4	1.4
1980	MON	25	151	22.6	18.2	5.6	3.6
1981	MON	26	103	18.2	13.1	6.1	4.5
1982	MON	27	148	22.9	18.2	5.8	3.9
1983	MON	28	159	23.8	19.2	5.8	3.8
1984	MON	29	138	20.1	18.1	2.3	0.5
1985	MON	30	139	19.8	18.6	1.9	0.0
1986	MON	31	130	17.3	15.7	2.0	0.5
1987	CHN	32	153	23.4	19.9	4.1	2.1
1988	CHN	33	157	22.0	18.9	3.7	1.7
1989	CHN	34	118	14.8	13.5	1.9	0.6
1990	CHN	35	147	21.0	19.1	2.7	0.8
1991	CHN	36	149	17.5	15.9	2.1	0.5
1992	CHN	37	143	19.0	16.9	2.6	0.9
1993	BOS	38	121	10.8	11.5	0.3	-1.1
1994	BOS	39	75	5.7	7.0	-0.8	-1.7
1995	FLO	40	79	6.1	7.3	-0.8	-1.5
1996	FLO	41	42	1.7	1.9	0.0	-0.2
			------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			2,627	350.7	309.4	56.0	23.6
			------	------	------	------	------
PostSeason (career)			15	1.5	2.0	-0.5	-0.7
			------	------	------	------	------
COMBINED			2,642	352.2	311.5	55.4	23.0

Andre Dawson's Career

Player wins are generally on the same scale as traditional pitcher wins, so that 300 career pWins is somewhat comparable to 300 pitching wins. So far, there are a total of 82 major-league players who have accumulated 300 or more pWins over games for which Retrosheet has released play-by-play data.

As can be seen in the first table of this article, this includes Andre Dawson, who amassed more than 350 career pWins. The next table shows the top 40 players in career pWins among players for whom I have calculated Player won-lost records.

	Player	pWins	pLosses	pWOPA	pWORL
1	Hank Aaron	496.7	369.1	98.5	142.5
2	Barry Bonds	466.8	310.6	136.5	174.4
3	Willie Mays	465.3	329.8	116.5	156.6
4	Pete Rose Sr.	439.3	394.7	23.6	64.5
5	Carl Yastrzemski	430.9	360.2	45.5	85.7
6	Rickey Henderson	428.4	350.3	62.5	100.5
7	Stan Musial	424.1	311.3	88.2	126.2
8	Mel Ott	419.7	295.2	103.6	140.8
9	Babe Ruth	410.9	236.0	161.2	195.2
10	Frank Robinson	398.0	302.5	70.9	106.8
11	Dave Winfield	397.3	339.8	38.7	75.5
12	Cal Ripken	382.3	351.6	49.2	84.5
13	Al Kaline	380.5	299.2	58.6	93.2
14	Alex Rodriguez	373.8	298.7	81.2	114.9
15	Ted Williams	373.0	250.0	104.3	136.6
16	Joe L. Morgan	371.9	293.9	84.9	117.6
17	Reggie Jackson	370.0	295.8	58.4	92.6
18	Derek Jeter	367.7	323.1	61.2	94.8
19	Robin Yount	366.7	345.7	31.9	66.5
20	Paul Waner	363.4	303.7	36.2	70.9
21	Albert Pujols	359.9	267.3	71.8	104.3
22	Adrian Beltre	358.5	318.3	35.3	68.5
23	Craig Biggio	357.7	325.7	34.0	67.3
24	Roberto Clemente	357.0	295.1	37.8	70.5
25	Nolan Ryan	354.6	329.6	38.1	81.0
26	Mickey Mantle	354.1	227.5	112.2	141.9
27	Brooks Robinson	352.3	310.6	32.0	64.9
28	Warren Spahn	351.1	294.8	74.3	113.8
29	Andre Dawson	350.4	309.7	22.8	55.1
30	Lou Brock	347.6	328.7	-7.4	26.1
31	Eddie Murray	346.7	285.5	38.6	70.7
32	Gary Sheffield	343.2	288.0	41.0	72.7
33	Ken Griffey Jr.	342.1	297.2	38.3	69.8
34	Mike Schmidt	338.5	257.6	71.0	99.7
35	Chipper Jones	336.2	257.6	69.6	98.6
36	Steve Carlton	335.6	305.9	49.2	86.9
37	Ozzie Smith	333.3	312.5	35.6	66.5
38	Billy Williams	332.4	278.2	31.2	62.1
39	Carlos Beltran	331.4	290.0	32.4	63.6
40	Dwight Evans	330.1	271.9	45.6	75.3

Raw pWins are not necessarily the best measure for comparing players. Earning 350 career pWins is an impressive accomplishment, but, when looking at pWins over either positional average (pWOPA) or replacement level (pWORL), Dawson looks somewhat less impressive than many of those around him in the above table. This is, however, perhaps somewhat misleading, as Andre Dawson's career lasted long beyond the time when he was an above-average player, but it seems wrong to "punish" Dawson for playing major-league baseball until he was 41 years old.

Andre Dawson's Peak

In fact, Andre Dawson, at his best, was an outstanding ballplayer - a .300 hitter with 25-30 HR power, a brilliant baserunner, and a Gold Glove centerfielder. Unfortunately, Dawson's knees began to give out on him (hurt at least in part by the artificial turf at Olympic Stadium in Montreal), his baserunning deteriorated, he moved from center field to right field, and he spent most of his 30's as a pretty good, but not exactly Hall-of-Fame caliber, player.

But at his best, Andre Dawson was every bit a Hall-of-Fame centerfielder. The next table shows the top 10 players in pWins over positional average and replacement level from 1978 through 1982.

		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	Mike Schmidt	107.9	77.3	27.7	36.7	1	Mike Schmidt	107.9	77.3	27.7	36.7
2	Robin Yount	97.9	80.7	23.2	31.8	2	Robin Yount	97.9	80.7	23.2	31.8
3	Steve Carlton	84.9	67.4	22.8	31.5	3	Steve Carlton	84.9	67.4	22.8	31.5
4	Eddie Murray	91.3	66.5	20.5	28.1	4	Andre Dawson	109.8	86.0	19.9	29.3
5	Amos Otis	90.0	68.4	20.1	27.8	5	Eddie Murray	91.3	66.5	20.5	28.1
6	Ron Guidry	67.9	48.6	20.0	27.6	6	Amos Otis	90.0	68.4	20.1	27.8
7	Andre Dawson	109.8	86.0	19.9	29.3	7	Ron Guidry	67.9	48.6	20.0	27.6
8	George Brett	85.4	66.9	17.7	25.1	8	Gorman Thomas	94.2	75.1	17.4	25.6
9	Gorman Thomas	94.2	75.1	17.4	25.6	9	George Brett	85.4	66.9	17.7	25.1
10	Fred Lynn	84.5	67.3	16.1	23.4	10	George Foster	102.2	81.3	15.1	24.0

Andre Dawson was one of the best players in major-league baseball over this 5-year stretch. As measured by pWORL, he was the 4th-best player in MLB over this time period. Like Dawson, the three players ahead of him have all been elected to the Hall of Fame.

Andre Dawson's Place in Montreal History

Andre Dawson's Hall-of-Fame plaque shows him wearing a Montreal Expos cap. I lived in Chicago when Dawson was elected to the Hall of Fame and when it was announced that Dawson would wear an Expos cap on his plaque, there was a great deal of disappointment that he wouldn't wear a Chicago Cubs cap. While it's true that Dawson won his only MVP award with the Cubs (in 1987), the top 5-7 seasons of Dawson's career came as a member of the Montreal Expos.

The next table shows the top 10 players in Montreal Expos history, as measured by career pWins over replacement level earned as a member of the Expos.

Player	pWins	pLosses	pWOPA	pWORL
Andre Dawson	209.7	176.6	23.6	42.1
Steve Rogers	170.0	160.7	20.5	39.9
Tim Raines Sr.	204.4	172.9	20.1	38.1
Gary Carter	163.3	144.7	20.1	34.9
Vladimir Guerrero Sr.	152.6	128.7	13.7	27.6
Dennis Martinez	95.8	89.7	12.9	24.1
Tim Wallach	208.9	197.3	4.6	23.9
Larry Walker	91.9	71.2	15.4	23.2
Marquis Grissom	92.4	77.5	11.6	19.8
Pedro J. Martinez	52.0	44.6	11.1	17.2

Andre Dawson rates as the best player in Montreal Expos history.

Andre Dawson's Hall-of-Fame Case

So, in summary, Andre Dawson was one of the top 40 players of the past 100 years in terms of his raw contributions to team wins. He was one of the top 5 or 10 players in major-league baseball during his 5-year peak. And, he was the best position player in the history of the Montreal Expos franchise.

All of which adds up to a deserving Hall-of-Famer.

Article last updated: January 28, 2020

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.

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