Sammy Sosa

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Sammy Sosa

2020 Hall of Fame Ballot Series: Sammy Sosa

Five facts about Sammy Sosa:

Sammy Sosa was named to seven All-Star teams. He received MVP votes nine (consecutive) times with seven top-10 finishes. Sosa won the National League MVP award in 1998.

Sosa had 100 or more RBI nine consecutive seasons from 1995 through 2003. He led the league in RBI twice with 158 in 1998 and 160 in 2001. Sosa had 100 or more runs scored five consecutive times from 1998 through 2002, leading the league three times (1998, 2001, and 2002).

Sammy Sosa is the only player to hit 60 or more home runs in three different seasons. He did this within a four-year stretch from 1998 – 2001. Ironically, the only one of these four seasons in which Sosa led his league in home runs was 2000, the only one of these four seasons in which Sosa hit fewer than 60 home runs (he hit 50). Sosa also led his league in home runs in 2002 with 49 – meaning that over a five-year stretch from 1998 – 2002, Sosa either hit 60 home runs or led his league in home runs every season, but never both.

Sosa hit a home run in 45 different major-league stadiums, which is a record.

Sosa had 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases in the same season twice, in 1993 and 1995.

The first two tables below present Sammy Sosa'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
+– 1989		20	58	4.6	5.7	-0.7	-1.2
	CHA		33	2.9	3.4	-0.3	-0.6
	TEX		25	1.8	2.3	-0.4	-0.6
1990	CHA	21	153	18.6	17.2	2.5	0.8
1991	CHA	22	115	9.5	8.5	1.5	0.6
1992	CHN	23	67	7.9	8.0	0.3	-0.4
1993	CHN	24	159	21.4	20.9	1.4	-0.6
1994	CHN	25	105	15.3	13.7	1.9	0.5
1995	CHN	26	144	20.9	17.1	4.3	2.4
1996	CHN	27	124	20.3	15.8	5.0	3.3
1997	CHN	28	162	21.9	21.4	0.8	-1.3
1998	CHN	29	159	25.7	18.3	8.2	6.0
1999	CHN	30	162	23.8	20.5	4.0	1.8
2000	CHN	31	156	23.3	20.2	3.8	1.7
2001	CHN	32	160	26.2	19.2	7.9	5.7
2002	CHN	33	150	20.9	20.2	1.5	-0.6
2003	CHN	34	137	20.5	15.2	5.8	4.1
2004	CHN	35	126	16.3	14.4	2.5	0.9
2005	BAL	36	102	8.7	11.3	-2.1	-3.2
2006	-	37	-	-	-	-	-
2007	TEX	38	114	10.7	9.9	1.6	0.3
			------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			2,353	316.6	277.5	50.1	20.7
			------	------	------	------	------
PostSeason (career)			15	1.8	1.6	0.3	0.1
			------	------	------	------	------
COMBINED			2,368	318.4	279.1	50.3	20.8

Season	Team	Age	Games	eWins	eLosses	eWORL	eWOPA

Expected Player Won-Lost Records
						Value Decomposition
+– 1989		20	58	5.0	5.4	-0.0	-0.5
	CHA		33	3.2	3.1	0.4	0.1
	TEX		25	1.8	2.3	-0.4	-0.6
1990	CHA	21	153	18.1	17.8	1.3	-0.4
1991	CHA	22	115	8.8	9.1	0.0	-0.8
1992	CHN	23	67	8.3	7.6	1.1	0.3
1993	CHN	24	159	22.4	19.9	3.5	1.5
1994	CHN	25	105	15.9	13.1	3.3	1.9
1995	CHN	26	144	20.3	17.7	3.1	1.3
1996	CHN	27	124	20.5	15.5	5.6	3.8
1997	CHN	28	162	22.1	21.2	1.3	-0.8
1998	CHN	29	159	24.6	19.4	5.7	3.5
1999	CHN	30	162	24.8	19.5	6.0	3.9
2000	CHN	31	156	24.6	18.9	6.7	4.6
2001	CHN	32	160	26.9	18.5	9.2	6.9
2002	CHN	33	150	23.0	18.1	5.4	3.4
2003	CHN	34	137	19.4	16.3	3.6	1.8
2004	CHN	35	126	16.4	14.3	2.6	1.1
2005	BAL	36	102	9.3	10.7	-0.9	-1.9
2006	-	37	-	-	-	-	-
2007	TEX	38	114	10.4	10.3	0.9	-0.3
			------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			2,353	321.0	273.1	58.6	29.2
			------	------	------	------	------
PostSeason (career)			15	1.8	1.6	0.2	-0.0
			------	------	------	------	------
COMBINED			2,368	322.7	274.8	58.7	29.2

This is Sammy Sosa's eighth year on the Hall-of-Fame ballot. I have been writing articles about Hall-of-Fame candidates since 2013 - Sammy Sosa's first year on the ballot. Much of these earlier articles are somewhat obsolete due to changes to my Player won-lost records over time. But, for the sake of posterity, these old articles are linked at the end of my general article on Player won-lost records and the Hall of Fame.

Vote Prediction

Last year, Sammy Sosa received 36 votes, good for 8.5% of the vote. After debuting in 2013 at 12.5%, Sosa's support in the last six years has ranged from 31 to 41 votes and from 7.0% to 8.6%. In 2017, Sosa got 38 votes for 8.6% of the total vote; in 2019, he got 36 votes for 8.5% of the total vote.

That doesn't look like much of a trend there - in either direction. So, I'm going to predict that Sosa's vote percentage holds constant at 8.5%.

Player Won-Lost Records and Sammy Sosa

Sammy Sosa's career is, perhaps, more interesting than his Hall-of-Fame case. Sosa's Hall-of-Fame case rests almost entirely on home runs: 609 in his career, 60+ three times, leading his league twice. But when Sammy Sosa first broke into the major leagues (at the age of 20), he was a five-tool player. For example, Sosa had more stolen bases than home runs in each of his first five seasons and through 1995, Sosa's career highs in home runs and stolen bases were identical - 36 - and he'd had two 30-HR/30-SB seasons.

And Sammy Sosa was also an excellent defensive right fielder. He was in the top 3 in his league in outfield assists five times in eight years from 1990 through 1997 and finished in the top 5 in his league in range factor in right field, leading the league twice.

Put all of that together, and Sammy Sosa was, in fact, an excellent defensive right fielder for much of his career. In fact, as measured by Player won-lost records, Sammy Sosa was the best defensive right fielder of the 1990s.


Top Right Fielders of the 1990s, Net Fielding eWins
	Player	eWins	eLosses	Net eWins
1	Sammy Sosa	50.3	45.3	5.0
2	Brian Jordan	22.2	18.8	3.4
3	Reggie L. Sanders	23.2	19.9	3.3
4	Paul O'Neill	46.2	43.1	3.1
5	Raul Mondesi Sr.	32.5	29.9	2.6
6	Mark Whiten	26.4	23.8	2.6
7	Jermaine Dye	14.3	12.0	2.3
8	Bobby Abreu	13.2	11.0	2.2
9	Tim Salmon	33.0	31.0	2.0
10	Rob Deer	18.5	16.7	1.8

Article last updated: December 26, 2019

2020 Hall of Fame Ballot Series

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