Tony Oliva

Baseball Player Won-Loss Records
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Tony Oliva

2015 Veterans' Committee HOF Ballot: Tony Oliva

The Baseball Hall of Fame recently announced their 2015 Veterans' ballot. One player on the ballot is Tony Oliva.

The first table below presents Tony Oliva's career as measured by Player won-lost records.

Season	Team	Age	Games	pWins	pLosses	pWin Pct.	pWOPA	pWORL	eWins	eLosses	eWin Pct.	eWOPA	eWORL
Tony Oliva Basic Player Won-Lost Records
												Value Decomposition
1962	MIN	23	9	0.4	0.2	0.651	0.1	0.1	0.4	0.2	0.684	0.1	0.1
1963	MIN	24	7	0.3	0.3	0.496	0.0	0.1	0.3	0.2	0.564	0.1	0.1
1964	MIN	25	161	20.8	17.4	0.544	0.7	2.3	21.2	17.0	0.556	1.2	2.7
1965	MIN	26	149	22.5	14.8	0.604	3.0	4.5	21.2	16.0	0.570	1.8	3.2
1966	MIN	27	159	22.5	18.3	0.551	1.2	2.7	22.7	18.1	0.556	1.4	2.9
1967	MIN	28	146	21.0	17.4	0.547	0.9	2.6	21.4	17.0	0.557	1.3	2.9
1968	MIN	29	128	18.9	15.4	0.552	1.1	2.5	19.3	15.0	0.563	1.5	2.9
1969	MIN	30	153	22.6	18.7	0.547	0.8	2.6	22.6	18.7	0.547	0.8	2.6
1970	MIN	31	157	25.9	18.1	0.589	3.2	5.1	24.3	19.8	0.551	1.5	3.4
1971	MIN	32	126	17.8	16.5	0.520	0.1	1.4	18.6	15.7	0.541	0.8	2.1
1972	MIN	33	10	0.7	1.1	0.401	-0.2	-0.1	0.8	0.9	0.471	-0.1	-0.0
1973	MIN	34	146	13.6	12.8	0.516	0.4	2.1	13.4	13.0	0.507	0.2	1.9
1974	MIN	35	127	9.9	10.8	0.479	-0.5	0.7	10.2	10.5	0.492	-0.2	1.0
1975	MIN	36	131	9.7	10.7	0.476	-0.6	0.6	10.1	10.3	0.496	-0.2	1.1
1976	MIN	37	66	2.2	2.9	0.431	-0.3	-0.0	2.0	3.0	0.409	-0.4	-0.1
------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			1,675	208.8	175.2	0.544	9.9	27.1	208.5	175.5	0.543	9.7	26.9
			------	------	------				------	------
PostSeason (career)			13	1.8	2.0	0.479		-0.0	2.2	1.5	0.591		0.4
			------	------	------	------		------	------	------	------		------
COMBINED			1,688	210.6	177.1	0.544		27.1	210.7	177.0	0.543		27.3

From 1964 - 1971, Tony Oliva led the American League in hits 5 times, in doubles 4 times, in batting average three times, and in runs scored, total bases, and slugging percentage once each. Oliva made the All-Star team and received MVP votes in all eight of those seasons, including two second-place MVP finishes (in 1965 and 1970). In terms of traditional statistics and awards, that is certainly a Hall-of-Fame peak.

Unfortunately, Oliva suffered a serious knee injury in 1971 from which he never fully recovered. The introduction of the DH in the American League allowed him to hang around through 1976, but he played his last game in the outfield in 1972 and, after ending the 1972 season with a career batting average of .313, he never batted .300 again, with his batting average declining every season from 1973 (.291) through 1976 (.211).

The next table shows the players most similar to Tony Oliva from ages 25 - 32, which, for Oliva were the 1964 - 1971 seasons.

Player	Games	pWins	pLosses	pWOPA	pWORL	Batting	Baserunning	Pitching	Fielding
						Wins over Baseline
Tony Oliva	1179	172.1	136.6	11.1	23.7	10.3	0.3	0.0	5.2
Minnie Minoso	1189	182.7	143.7	12.7	25.9	10.7	0.7	0.0	3.8
Al Kaline	1089	155.0	122.1	10.0	21.2	11.6	0.7	0.0	3.8
Bobby Grich	1053	136.5	115.5	13.9	23.6	8.2	0.2	0.0	5.1
Arky Vaughan	965	143.8	119.4	13.5	24.2	6.7	0.7	0.0	4.6
Robinson Cano	1273	171.2	145.7	14.4	26.3	7.5	0.1	0.0	3.9
Roberto Clemente	1194	181.5	146.7	10.0	23.1	10.2	0.6	0.0	3.2
Ken Boyer	1214	161.3	138.2	9.4	21.3	8.2	0.7	0.0	3.6
Jim Edmonds	1043	137.9	112.8	11.7	21.9	9.2	0.2	0.0	4.0
Toby Harrah	1177	148.8	127.7	13.1	23.8	7.7	1.1	0.0	4.5
Brooks Robinson	1263	170.3	139.8	12.7	25.1	4.5	0.5	0.0	5.9

The above table features three Hall-of-Famers - Kaline, Clemente, and Robinson - and nine players who have been elected to the Hall of Merit (everybody except for Toby Harrah).

On the one hand, this list certainly hints at what Tony Oliva might have done were it not for the knee injury. On the other hand, Oliva's prime is actually relatively short on both ends. For example, Al Kaline was a Hall-of-Fame level player at ages 20-24, ages which are not included in the above table.

The next table removes the lower age limit and identifies the players most similar to Tony Oliva through age 32 (as measured by Player won-lost records).

Player	Games	pWins	pLosses	pWOPA	pWORL	Batting	Baserunning	Pitching	Fielding
						Wins over Baseline
Tony Oliva	1195	172.7	137.1	11.2	23.8	10.4	0.3	0.0	5.2
Roger Maris	1362	179.7	142.5	11.6	24.6	10.6	0.3	0.0	4.9
Andy Van Slyke	1470	181.7	151.9	10.9	23.6	8.5	0.5	0.0	4.3
Ken Boyer	1361	177.9	154.1	9.4	22.7	8.2	0.6	0.0	4.1
Paul Waner	1262	195.7	160.0	10.3	25.1	10.7	0.3	0.0	4.7
Jim Edmonds	1155	148.5	123.8	11.3	22.4	8.7	0.2	0.0	4.6
Minnie Minoso	1198	183.3	144.4	12.6	25.9	10.7	0.7	0.0	3.8
Evan Longoria	1560	193.1	168.5	11.4	25.0	8.5	-0.0	0.0	5.5
Fred Lynn	1300	173.2	148.3	10.8	23.2	12.4	0.2	0.0	3.3
George Foster	1305	179.8	141.5	13.9	26.4	12.4	0.3	0.0	3.6
Bernie Williams	1383	183.4	162.5	10.2	24.1	10.1	-0.1	0.0	3.2

That is probably a more accurate set of comparisons to Oliva's pre-injury career. This list still includes four players in the Hall of Merit, including one Hall-of-Famer (Paul Waner).

Tony Oliva was very, very good at his best. But was his best long enough?

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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