1939 Season

Baseball Player Won-Loss Records
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The 1939 Season as seen through the Prism of Player Won-Lost Records

In its summer 2018 release, Retrosheet released complete play-by-play for two new seasons: 1939 and 1940. This article looks at the former of these.

The Best of 1939

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	Bucky Walters	22.5	14.8	4.5	6.2	1	Bucky Walters	22.5	14.8	4.5	6.2
2	Joe DiMaggio	22.0	12.6	4.3	5.7	2	Joe DiMaggio	22.0	12.6	4.3	5.7
3	Bill Dickey	17.1	10.3	3.7	4.8	3	Paul Derringer	19.4	13.6	3.5	5.0
4	Paul Derringer	19.4	13.6	3.5	5.0	4	Bill Dickey	17.1	10.3	3.7	4.8
5	Lonny Frey	19.3	12.7	3.4	4.7	5	Joe Gordon	23.1	17.0	3.1	4.8
6	George Selkirk	19.3	12.1	3.2	4.5	6	Bob Feller	20.4	15.2	3.1	4.8
7	Joe Gordon	23.1	17.0	3.1	4.8	7	Ted Williams	24.8	17.3	3.0	4.7
8	Bob Feller	20.4	15.2	3.1	4.8	8	Lonny Frey	19.3	12.7	3.4	4.7
9	Red Ruffing	16.5	11.4	3.1	4.4	9	Red Rolfe	21.8	15.4	3.0	4.6
10	Emil 'Dutch' Leonard	17.8	12.6	3.0	4.5	10	George Selkirk	19.3	12.1	3.2	4.5

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	Joe DiMaggio	21.3	13.3	3.6	5.0	1	Joe DiMaggio	21.3	13.3	3.6	5.0
2	Bucky Walters	21.1	16.2	3.1	4.8	2	Bucky Walters	21.1	16.2	3.1	4.8
3	Bob Feller	20.1	15.5	2.8	4.5	3	Bob Feller	20.1	15.5	2.8	4.5
4	Bill Dickey	16.1	11.3	2.7	3.9	4	Indian Bob Johnson	23.6	17.7	2.5	4.2
5	George Selkirk	18.8	12.6	2.7	4.0	5	George Selkirk	18.8	12.6	2.7	4.0
6	Jimmie Foxx	17.9	10.7	2.6	3.8	6	Mel Ott	19.2	13.0	2.5	3.9
7	Ted Lyons	12.2	7.7	2.6	3.5	7	Bill Dickey	16.1	11.3	2.7	3.9
8	Mel Ott	19.2	13.0	2.5	3.9	8	Jimmie Foxx	17.9	10.7	2.6	3.8
9	Indian Bob Johnson	23.6	17.7	2.5	4.2	9	Ted Williams	23.9	18.2	2.0	3.8
10	Tommy Bridges	14.7	11.0	2.2	3.4	10	Johnny Mize	20.4	13.6	2.2	3.6

Based on Player won-lost records, the MVP voters did very well in 1939.

Bucky Walters

The top player in 1939 by three of four measures above was Cincinnati Reds pitching ace, Bucky Walters. Walters led the National League in wins (27), ERA (2.29), strikeouts (137), innings pitched (319), games started (36), and complete games (31). He also batted .325/.357/.433 with 16 runs scored and 16 RBI. For all of that, Walters was elected National League MVP.

The next table shows the career record of Bucky Walters as measured by Player won-lost records. Numbers in italics include extrapolated data for games which Retrosheet is missing.

Season	Team	Age	Games	pWins	pLosses	pWOPA	pWORL
Basic Player Won-Lost Records
1931	BSN	22	9	0.7	1.2	-0.2	-0.2
1932	BSN	23	22	1.5	2.6	-0.5	-0.3
1933	BOS	24	52	5.7	6.4	-0.4	0.1
+– 1934		25	106	10.2	11.4	-0.5	0.4
	BOS		23	1.8	2.3	-0.3	-0.1
	PHI		83	8.4	9.0	-0.3	0.5
1935	PHI	26	49	9.2	9.6	0.1	1.0
1936	PHI	27	64	14.3	22.0	-3.4	-1.7
1937	PHI	28	56	15.9	15.1	0.9	2.2
+– 1938		29	51	15.0	15.1	0.4	1.6
	CIN		36	9.9	8.7	0.9	1.6
	PHI		15	5.1	6.4	-0.5	-0.0
1939	CIN	30	40	22.5	14.8	4.5	6.2
1940	CIN	31	37	19.7	16.4	2.3	3.8
1941	CIN	32	39	19.2	16.8	1.7	3.3
1942	CIN	33	40	16.7	13.7	2.0	3.2
1943	CIN	34	37	16.7	15.5	1.1	2.4
1944	CIN	35	37	19.3	13.0	3.7	5.1
1945	CIN	36	24	11.3	9.5	1.2	2.2
1946	CIN	37	24	9.5	8.8	0.6	1.5
1947	CIN	38	20	8.4	9.5	-0.3	0.4
1948	CIN	39	7	1.7	2.4	-0.3	-0.2
1950	BSN	41	1	0.0	0.1	-0.0	-0.0
			------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			715	217.3	203.8	12.8	31.1
			------	------	------	------	------
PostSeason (career)			4	1.9	1.7	0.2	0.3
			------	------	------	------	------
COMBINED			719	219.3	205.5	13.0	31.5

Joe DiMaggio

Walters was first in three of the four tables above. The player who led in the fourth table, eWins over positional average (eWOPA), was Joe DiMaggio. DiMaggio led the American League in batting average at .381 with an on-base percentage of .448 and a slugging percentage of .671. He added 30 home runs, 126 RBI, and 108 runs scored. He was also the best defensive center fielder in the major leagues (at least as measured by Player won-lost records). This earned DiMaggio the first of his three American League MVP awards.

The next table shows the career record of Joe DiMaggio as measured by Player won-lost records. Numbers in italics include extrapolated data for games which Retrosheet is missing.

Season	Team	Age	Games	pWins	pLosses	pWOPA	pWORL
Basic Player Won-Lost Records
1936	NYA	21	138	22.2	15.6	2.8	4.5
1937	NYA	22	151	28.8	17.6	5.2	7.2
1938	NYA	23	145	23.7	17.1	3.0	4.7
1939	NYA	24	120	22.0	12.6	4.3	5.7
1940	NYA	25	132	22.0	15.1	2.9	4.4
1941	NYA	26	139	25.0	15.5	4.0	5.7
1942	NYA	27	154	25.4	17.0	3.9	5.6
1946	NYA	31	132	19.1	16.6	1.0	2.4
1947	NYA	32	141	21.6	14.6	3.1	4.5
1948	NYA	33	153	25.7	18.0	3.1	4.9
1949	NYA	34	76	12.5	8.2	1.9	2.7
1950	NYA	35	139	20.9	15.2	2.4	3.8
1951	NYA	36	116	16.2	13.4	1.1	2.3
			------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			1,736	285.2	196.6	38.7	58.3
			------	------	------	------	------
PostSeason (career)			51	7.5	5.6	0.8	1.3
			------	------	------	------	------
COMBINED			1,787	292.7	202.2	39.5	59.6

1939 Postseason

The 1939 postseason was a matchup of contrasts. Representing the American League for the fourth consecutive season was the New York Yankees. Representing the National League was the Cincinnati Reds, making their first World Series appearance in twenty years. The Yankees won their fourth consecutive World Series, their second consecutive World Series sweep. The top performances of the 1939 World Series, as measured by Player won-lost records, are presented in the next table.

	1939 World Series: Top Player Performances
		pWins	pLosses	pWORL
Charlie Keller	NYA	1.5	0.3	0.7
Red Ruffing	NYA	0.7	0.2	0.3
Bill Dickey	NYA	0.7	0.3	0.3

The most valuable player of the 1939 World Series, by a wide margin, was Yankees' rookie outfielder Charlie Keller. Keller batted .438/.471/1.188 with 3 home runs, 6 RBI, and 8 runs scored in the four-game sweep. Keller scored the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning in Game 1, hit two 2-run home runs in the Yankees' 7-3 Game 3 win, and scored 3 runs in the Yankees' 7-4 Game 4 win

Best of 1939 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. The numbers in this section have all been normalized to extrapolate player games for which I am missing play-by-play data. As above, this adjustment is based on individual player games for which I have play-by-play data.

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 1939 in eWOPA by factor were as follows.

	Batting
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Jimmie Foxx	14.9	8.2	3.1
Johnny Mize	16.8	10.2	3.0

Positional Average excludes pitcher offense

	Baserunning
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Ben Chapman	1.6	1.0	0.3
Gee Walker	1.6	1.0	0.3

Positional Average excludes pitcher offense

	Pitching
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Bob Feller	16.3	12.7	3.6
Ted Lyons	9.1	5.9	3.1
Tommy Bridges	10.6	7.8	2.7
Bucky Walters	15.3	12.6	2.7
Lefty Grove	10.1	7.5	2.6

	Fielding, P
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Danny MacFayden	0.7	0.4	0.3
Alex Carrasquel	0.4	0.2	0.3
Kirby Higbe	0.5	0.2	0.3

	Fielding, C
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Bill Dickey	1.6	1.2	0.5

	Fielding, 1B
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Dolph Camilli	3.1	2.6	0.4

	Fielding, 2B
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Lonny Frey	5.1	4.4	0.7

	Fielding, 3B
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Ken Keltner	5.5	4.6	0.9

	Fielding, SS
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Frankie Crosetti	7.4	6.3	1.2

	Fielding, LF
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Augie Galan	7.4	6.7	0.7

	Fielding, CF
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Joe DiMaggio	4.8	3.7	1.1

	Fielding, RF
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Enos Slaughter	8.6	6.5	2.1

Best by Position

Next, we look at 1939 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
Bill Dickey	15.3	10.8	2.5

	First Base
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Jimmie Foxx	18.0	11.2	2.4

	Second Base
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Lonny Frey	18.2	15.0	1.6

	Third Base
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Billy Werber	20.6	18.0	1.1

	Shortstop
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Arky Vaughan	23.3	21.0	1.7

	Left Field
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Indian Bob Johnson	19.4	15.3	1.7

	Center Field
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Joe DiMaggio	19.6	12.7	3.1

	Right Field
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Mel Ott	14.7	10.1	1.8

	Starting Pitcher
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Bob Feller	16.4	12.9	1.8
Bucky Walters	15.7	12.6	1.6

	Relief Pitcher
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Clint Brown	6.4	5.2	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 1939 in context, in terms of pWins and pWOPA.

Player	pWins	pLosses	pWin Pct.	pWOPA	pWORL
	Top Relief Pitchers of 1939, based on pWORL
Clint Brown	7.9	5.7	0.579	1.2	2.1
Joe Heving	7.1	5.1	0.582	1.1	1.9
Johnny Murphy	4.7	3.0	0.611	0.9	1.5
Emerson Dickman	6.1	4.9	0.554	0.7	1.4
Clyde Shoun	4.9	3.7	0.575	0.7	1.3

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
Bucky Walters	2.7	2.4	0.7
Curt Davis	2.2	1.7	0.7

	Pinch Hitter
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Lou Finney	1.4	0.9	0.3
Chuck Klein	1.1	0.6	0.3

	Pinch Runner
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Johnny Cooney	0.1	0.0	0.0

Notable Debuts

Three players debuted in 1941 who would go on to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame: Stan Musial, Bob Lemon, and Phil Rizzuto.

This article concludes with the career records of these three players, as measured by Player won-lost records.

Season	Team	Age	Games	pWins	pLosses	pWin Pct.	pWOPA	pWORL	eWins	eLosses	eWin Pct.	eWOPA	eWORL
Stan Musial Basic Player Won-Lost Records
												Value Decomposition
1941	SLN	20	12	1.8	1.1	0.625	0.3	0.4	1.7	1.1	0.618	0.3	0.4
1942	SLN	21	140	20.6	13.1	0.612	3.0	4.4	19.4	14.3	0.576	1.8	3.2
1943	SLN	22	157	27.8	17.6	0.612	4.2	5.9	26.2	19.1	0.578	2.7	4.4
1944	SLN	23	146	25.2	15.6	0.617	4.0	5.6	24.8	16.0	0.607	3.5	5.2
1946	SLN	25	156	22.7	16.2	0.584	2.2	3.7	22.6	16.3	0.580	2.0	3.6
1947	SLN	26	149	19.9	13.8	0.590	2.1	3.5	18.8	14.9	0.559	1.1	2.4
1948	SLN	27	155	27.9	18.4	0.602	3.8	5.6	27.8	18.5	0.600	3.7	5.5
1949	SLN	28	157	25.0	16.8	0.598	3.5	5.2	24.3	17.5	0.581	2.8	4.5
1950	SLN	29	146	20.5	16.0	0.562	1.5	3.0	20.1	16.4	0.551	1.1	2.6
1951	SLN	30	152	23.3	16.4	0.587	2.7	4.3	23.3	16.4	0.587	2.7	4.3
1952	SLN	31	154	22.7	16.8	0.575	2.4	4.0	22.5	16.9	0.570	2.2	3.8
1953	SLN	32	157	25.9	18.4	0.585	2.9	4.7	25.6	18.7	0.578	2.5	4.4
1954	SLN	33	153	23.3	19.2	0.547	1.7	3.4	24.0	18.5	0.565	2.4	4.1
1955	SLN	34	153	20.4	15.3	0.571	1.8	3.3	20.3	15.3	0.570	1.8	3.2
1956	SLN	35	156	18.4	17.3	0.515	-0.2	1.2	19.3	16.3	0.542	0.7	2.2
1957	SLN	36	134	17.8	11.6	0.604	2.4	3.6	16.9	12.6	0.573	1.5	2.7
1958	SLN	37	135	13.3	11.1	0.545	0.6	1.5	13.3	11.0	0.548	0.7	1.6
1959	SLN	38	115	9.1	9.7	0.483	-0.7	0.1	9.7	9.1	0.518	-0.0	0.7
1960	SLN	39	116	12.5	9.6	0.567	1.0	1.9	12.0	10.1	0.543	0.5	1.4
1961	SLN	40	123	14.2	12.9	0.523	0.3	1.5	14.3	12.8	0.528	0.4	1.6
1962	SLN	41	135	16.6	14.5	0.534	0.3	1.5	17.2	13.9	0.552	0.9	2.1
1963	SLN	42	124	12.0	10.1	0.542	0.5	1.3	11.4	10.7	0.516	-0.1	0.8
------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			3,025	420.8	311.5	0.575	40.1	69.6	415.7	316.6	0.568	35.1	64.6
			------	------	------				------	------
PostSeason (career)			23	2.9	2.2	0.570		0.4	2.6	2.5	0.517		0.2
			------	------	------	------		------	------	------	------		------
COMBINED			3,048	423.7	313.7	0.575		70.1	418.4	319.0	0.568		64.8

Season	Team	Age	Games	pWins	pLosses	pWin Pct.	pWOPA	pWORL	eWins	eLosses	eWin Pct.	eWOPA	eWORL
Bob Lemon Basic Player Won-Lost Records
												Value Decomposition
1941	CLE	20	5	0.0	0.1	0.208	-0.0	-0.0	0.0	0.1	0.378	-0.0	-0.0
1942	CLE	21	5	0.0	0.1	0.062	-0.0	-0.0	0.0	0.1	0.156	-0.0	-0.0
1946	CLE	25	54	5.1	6.2	0.453	-0.4	0.3	5.4	5.9	0.475	-0.2	0.5
1947	CLE	26	47	10.4	8.0	0.565	1.5	2.3	9.2	9.1	0.503	0.4	1.2
1948	CLE	27	52	19.8	15.7	0.558	2.7	4.2	20.0	15.6	0.562	2.9	4.3
1949	CLE	28	46	21.4	14.6	0.594	4.1	5.4	20.0	15.9	0.557	2.7	4.1
1950	CLE	29	72	23.0	18.9	0.550	2.8	4.7	21.3	20.6	0.509	1.1	3.0
1951	CLE	30	56	18.7	15.9	0.541	1.9	3.4	17.7	16.8	0.513	0.9	2.4
1952	CLE	31	54	20.3	15.9	0.561	2.9	4.5	19.8	16.4	0.547	2.4	4.0
1953	CLE	32	50	19.9	18.4	0.520	1.4	3.0	19.3	18.9	0.504	0.8	2.5
1954	CLE	33	40	17.7	12.7	0.582	3.1	4.4	16.5	13.8	0.545	1.9	3.3
1955	CLE	34	49	14.7	12.9	0.532	1.3	2.3	13.7	13.9	0.497	0.3	1.4
1956	CLE	35	43	19.1	15.7	0.549	2.3	3.9	18.3	16.5	0.527	1.5	3.1
1957	CLE	36	25	7.2	9.3	0.437	-0.8	-0.1	7.2	9.2	0.440	-0.8	-0.1
1958	CLE	37	15	1.0	1.3	0.446	-0.1	0.1	0.9	1.4	0.385	-0.2	-0.1
------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			613	198.3	165.4	0.545	22.3	38.3	189.5	174.2	0.521	13.5	29.5
			------	------	------				------	------
PostSeason (career)			5	2.0	1.9	0.507		0.3	1.9	2.0	0.496		0.2
			------	------	------	------		------	------	------	------		------
COMBINED			618	200.3	167.4	0.545		38.6	191.4	176.2	0.521		29.8

Season	Team	Age	Games	pWins	pLosses	pWin Pct.	pWOPA	pWORL	eWins	eLosses	eWin Pct.	eWOPA	eWORL
Phil Rizzuto Basic Player Won-Lost Records
												Value Decomposition
1941	NYA	23	133	16.9	15.2	0.526	1.0	2.4	16.3	15.8	0.507	0.4	1.8
1942	NYA	24	144	21.1	16.1	0.567	2.7	4.2	19.3	17.8	0.521	1.0	2.5
1946	NYA	28	126	15.7	15.4	0.504	0.3	1.6	15.2	15.8	0.491	-0.1	1.2
1947	NYA	29	153	20.4	17.6	0.537	1.4	2.9	19.5	18.5	0.513	0.4	1.9
1948	NYA	30	128	15.2	15.4	0.497	0.1	1.3	15.1	15.5	0.494	-0.0	1.2
1949	NYA	31	153	20.8	17.8	0.540	1.8	3.3	19.7	18.9	0.509	0.6	2.1
1950	NYA	32	155	22.3	17.6	0.558	2.7	4.2	21.8	18.0	0.547	2.2	3.8
1951	NYA	33	144	19.9	16.9	0.541	1.9	3.4	18.3	18.6	0.496	0.3	1.7
1952	NYA	34	152	20.1	18.0	0.528	1.2	2.7	18.9	19.2	0.497	0.0	1.6
1953	NYA	35	134	15.1	12.8	0.542	1.4	2.6	14.4	13.6	0.514	0.7	1.8
1954	NYA	36	127	10.5	10.0	0.511	0.4	1.3	9.6	10.9	0.468	-0.5	0.4
1955	NYA	37	81	4.9	4.9	0.500	0.1	0.5	4.9	5.0	0.497	0.1	0.5
1956	NYA	38	31	1.9	1.8	0.504	0.1	0.2	1.7	2.0	0.451	-0.1	0.0
------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			1,661	204.8	179.6	0.533	15.1	30.6	194.7	189.7	0.507	5.0	20.5
			------	------	------				------	------
PostSeason (career)			52	6.1	5.7	0.517		0.7	6.0	5.8	0.508		0.6
			------	------	------	------		------	------	------	------		------
COMBINED			1,713	210.9	185.3	0.533		31.3	200.7	195.4	0.507		21.1

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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