Baseball Player Won-Loss Records
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Eric Chavez

2020 Hall of Fame Ballot Series: Eric Chavez

Five facts about Eric Chavez: The first two tables below present Eric Chavez'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
1998OAK20
16
1.81.20.80.6
1999OAK21
115
10.29.61.70.7
2000OAK22
153
15.413.23.62.2
2001OAK23
151
21.713.310.28.4
2002OAK24
153
21.015.77.25.3
2003OAK25
156
21.316.96.34.5
2004OAK26
125
17.413.25.64.1
2005OAK27
160
19.917.44.12.3
2006OAK28
137
16.313.54.02.6
2007OAK29
90
9.810.50.1-0.8
2008OAK30
23
2.62.50.2-0.0
2009OAK31
8
0.41.2-0.8-0.9
2010OAK32
33
2.22.5-0.0-0.3
2011NYA33
58
4.33.90.90.4
2012NYA34
113
6.77.20.3-0.5
2013ARI35
77
8.16.32.41.7
2014ARI36
44
1.72.0-0.1-0.3
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
CAREER (reg. season)
1,612
180.8150.146.530.0
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
PostSeason (career)
34
2.93.9-0.7-1.1
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
COMBINED
1,646
183.7154.045.728.9


Expected Player Won-Lost Records
Value Decomposition
Season Team Age Games eWins eLosses eWORL eWOPA
1998OAK20
16
1.51.40.30.1
1999OAK21
115
10.09.81.30.3
2000OAK22
153
14.813.92.41.0
2001OAK23
151
19.815.26.44.6
2002OAK24
153
19.617.24.32.4
2003OAK25
156
20.717.45.33.4
2004OAK26
125
17.213.45.23.7
2005OAK27
160
19.817.63.82.0
2006OAK28
137
15.714.12.81.4
2007OAK29
90
10.39.91.30.4
2008OAK30
23
2.52.7-0.0-0.3
2009OAK31
8
0.51.1-0.6-0.7
2010OAK32
33
2.32.50.0-0.3
2011NYA33
58
3.84.30.1-0.3
2012NYA34
113
7.46.51.60.9
2013ARI35
77
7.66.81.40.7
2014ARI36
44
1.91.80.40.1
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
CAREER (reg. season)
1,612
175.5155.435.919.5
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
PostSeason (career)
34
3.13.7-0.3-0.7
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
COMBINED
1,646
178.6159.135.618.8


This is Eric Chavez's first year on the Hall-of-Fame ballot.

Vote Prediction
Eric Chavez had a better career than probably most of the other players debuting on this ballot. But even so, it is an honor for Eric Chavez simply to appear on a Hall-of-Fame ballot.

Player Won-Lost Records and Eric Chavez
Eric Chavez was very good for a brief time. In particular, his 2001 season was outstanding. It was so outstanding, as measured by Player won-lost records, that I wrote about it in my article about the 2001 season. With apologies to those who already read that article, I'll repeat what I wrote there here.

As measured by pWins over positional average, Eric Chavez's 2001 season was one of the top 10 single-season performances by a third baseman for whom I have calculated Player won-lost records.

Top 10 Third Base Seasons, ranked by single-season pWOPA (at third base only)
Player Season pWins pLosses pWOPA
1Al Rosen195326.717.18.8
2Scott Rolen200423.013.88.7
3Eric Chavez200121.713.08.6
4Alex Rodriguez200724.616.08.4
5Joe Torre197126.217.18.3
6George Brett198018.310.18.1
7Alex Rodriguez200525.217.08.1
8Adrian Beltre200424.716.37.8
9Robin Ventura199923.315.37.6
10Ken Caminiti199623.816.07.4


At first glance, Eric Chavez's 2001 season was certainly very good but not exactly "one of the five best seasons of the past 100 years" good. He batted .288/.338/.540 with 43 doubles, 32 home runs, 91 runs scored, and 114 RBI. He also won a Gold Glove - which Player won-lost records agree he deserved. That's a good season, perhaps even great. But one of the best all-time? In context, yes. But context is doing a lot of work here.

By leverage, Chavez batted .333/.393/.543 in high-leverage situations compared to .265/.309/.537 in low-leverage plate appearances. He batted .333/.402/.552 in late and close situations, .325/.384/.587 in tie games, .320/.366/.584 in one-run games, but .239/.307/.582 when the A's were either leading or trailing by four or more runs. And here's the most remarkable split: in A's wins, Chavez batted .339/.378/.670 with 98 RBI in 94 games. In A's losses, Chavez batted .199/.268/.313 with 16 RBI in 57 games. All of which led to Eric Chavez's performance translating into 1.9 more wins for the Oakland A's than would have been expected if Chavez's performance had been more evenly distributed across all situations.

Article last updated: November 24, 2019

2020 Hall of Fame Ballot Series




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