Baseball Player Won-Loss Records
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Arky Vaughan

Hall-of-Famers as Seen Through Player Won-Lost Records: Arky Vaughan

Arky Vaughan was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans' Committee in 1985.

Five highlights of Arky Vaughan's career: The first two tables below present Arky Vaughan's career as measured by Player won-lost records, in and out of context.

Basic Player Won-Lost Records
Value Decomposition
Season Team Age Games pWins pLosses pWORL pWOPA
1932PIT20
129
18.117.62.91.0
1933PIT21
152
25.319.28.96.7
1934PIT22
149
23.620.06.34.1
1935PIT23
137
23.515.810.18.1
1936PIT24
156
25.320.77.65.2
1937PIT25
126
19.814.97.05.2
1938PIT26
148
23.618.57.65.5
1939PIT27
152
21.520.83.71.4
1940PIT28
156
25.120.87.45.0
1941PIT29
106
13.412.92.20.8
1942BRO30
128
17.713.45.64.0
1943BRO31
149
21.918.85.43.4
1944-32
-
----
1945-33
-
----
1946-34
-
----
1947BRO35
64
5.83.92.31.8
1948BRO36
65
4.74.40.70.2
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
CAREER (reg. season)
1,817
269.3221.677.952.4
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
PostSeason (career)
3
0.10.10.10.1
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
COMBINED
1,820
269.5221.778.052.4


Expected Player Won-Lost Records
Value Decomposition
Season Team Age Games eWins eLosses eWORL eWOPA
1932PIT20
129
18.417.33.41.5
1933PIT21
152
24.520.07.45.2
1934PIT22
149
24.519.18.36.0
1935PIT23
137
23.815.510.78.6
1936PIT24
156
26.219.79.67.3
1937PIT25
126
18.915.85.23.4
1938PIT26
148
23.818.38.15.9
1939PIT27
152
22.519.95.63.3
1940PIT28
156
25.120.97.45.0
1941PIT29
106
14.212.13.92.6
1942BRO30
128
16.314.82.91.3
1943BRO31
149
21.219.44.12.1
1944-32
-
----
1945-33
-
----
1946-34
-
----
1947BRO35
64
5.34.41.30.8
1948BRO36
65
5.04.11.20.7
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
CAREER (reg. season)
1,817
269.7221.279.153.6
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
PostSeason (career)
3
0.10.00.10.1
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
COMBINED
1,820
269.9221.379.253.7


In his New Historical Baseball Abstract, Bill James ranked Arky Vaughan as the second-greatest shortstop in major-league history. James's number one shortstop was Honus Wagner (a fairly conventional choice) whose career almost entirely predates the seasons for which Retrosheet has released play-by-play data. And James published the New Historical Abstract in 2001, so it predates much of the career of Alex Rodriguez (if one considers him a shortstop) and Derek Jeter. So, in effect, Bill James argues (or, at least, he would have argued in 2001) that Arky Vaughan was the best shortstop of the twentieth century for whom I have calculated Player won-lost records.

Bill James named Cal Ripken as his #3 shortstop. Comparing Vaughan to Cal Ripken is an interesting exercise.

Arky Vaughan Cal Ripken
Age Games pWins pLoss WOPA WORL Games pWins pLoss WOPA WORL
2012918.117.61.0
2.9
230.60.9-0.2-0.2
2115225.319.26.7
8.9
16021.618.04.36.2
2214923.620.04.1
6.3
16224.819.46.68.7
2313723.515.88.1
10.1
16225.919.48.010.1
2415625.320.75.2
7.6
16123.120.44.16.2
2512619.814.95.2
7.0
16222.020.03.55.5
2614823.618.55.5
7.6
16219.321.4-0.71.2
2715221.520.81.4
3.7
16119.919.71.33.2
2815625.120.85.0
7.4
16222.419.64.26.2
2910613.412.90.8
2.2
16120.418.43.25.1
3012817.713.44.0
5.6
16223.220.24.26.2
3114921.918.83.4
5.4
16219.718.72.24.1
32
 
16220.419.42.34.2
33
 
11214.912.83.04.4
34
 
14417.618.30.62.3
35645.83.91.8
2.3
16320.619.42.34.3
36654.74.40.2
0.7
16219.417.12.34.1
37
 
16116.417.5-1.10.6
38
 
8610.09.30.61.6
39
 
838.77.71.01.9
40
 
12811.514.0-2.5-1.2
------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------
CAREER RECORDS1,817269.3221.652.4
77.9
3,001382.3351.649.284.5
CAREER RECORDS
(common ages)
1,817269.3221.652.4
77.9
2,125282.8252.745.370.7


Could you make a case for Vaughan over Ripken? Certainly. Could you make a case for Ripken over Vaughan? Also yes.

Both players had their best season at age 23 (1935 for Vaughan, 1984 for Ripken) with these two seasons being extremely similar in value. Ranking the remaining seasons in order, the next-best season by one of these two was probably Vaughan's 1933 season, followed by Ripken's first MVP season in 1983. Beyond those seasons, Vaughan probably had about four more seasons better than Ripken's third-best season.

One thing that might affect how one rates Vaughan versus Ripken is how one deals with Vaughan's missing age-32, 33, and 34 seasons. At first blush, one might presume that Vaughan missed these three seasons because of World War II. But the last of these seasons is 1946, after the war had ended. And, in fact, Vaughan simply retired after the 1942 season, because of a dispute with his manager, Leo Durocher (source: SABR Bio of Arky Vaughan by Ralph Moses). Personally, I am not inclined to give Vaughan any extra credit for those three seasons. Which leaves him behind Cal Ripken in career pWins over replacement level (pWORL) - and more than 100 pWins behind Ripken.

Vaughan does have a somewhat deeper peak than Ripken - having, for example, 6 of the top 8 pWORL values in the above table - although Vaughan played all but the final two partial seasons of his career in a segregated league. Forced to choose, I think that I would probably rank Ripken just ahead of Vaughan, were I to rank shortstops of the twentieth century. But Vaughan is nevertheless a clearly deserving Hall-of-Famer.

Article last updated: November 5, 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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