Baseball Player Won-Loss Records
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Billy Williams

Hall-of-Famers as Seen Through Player Won-Lost Records: Billy Williams

Billy Williams was elected to the Hall of Fame in his sixth year of eligibility, 1987, with 85.7% of the vote.

Five highlights of Billy Williams's career: The first two tables below present Billy Williams'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
1959CHN21
17
0.51.0-0.5-0.6
1960CHN22
12
1.31.4-0.1-0.2
1961CHN23
146
16.218.3-1.7-3.5
1962CHN24
159
20.919.51.8-0.2
1963CHN25
161
24.819.35.93.8
1964CHN26
162
23.019.63.91.7
1965CHN27
164
24.719.45.83.6
1966CHN28
162
19.420.1-0.5-2.4
1967CHN29
162
23.718.65.63.5
1968CHN30
163
26.218.77.95.7
1969CHN31
163
23.319.84.01.8
1970CHN32
161
25.718.87.45.1
1971CHN33
157
23.517.56.64.6
1972CHN34
150
23.716.87.55.5
1973CHN35
156
20.618.91.9-0.0
1974CHN36
117
13.413.00.6-0.7
1975OAK37
155
13.710.44.63.1
1976OAK38
118
7.87.21.40.5
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
CAREER (reg. season)
2,485
332.4278.262.131.2
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
PostSeason (career)
3
0.10.4-0.3-0.3
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
COMBINED
2,488
332.5278.661.930.9


Expected Player Won-Lost Records
Value Decomposition
Season Team Age Games eWins eLosses eWORL eWOPA
1959CHN21
17
0.60.9-0.3-0.3
1960CHN22
12
1.41.30.20.0
1961CHN23
146
17.417.00.9-0.9
1962CHN24
159
21.718.73.31.3
1963CHN25
161
25.019.06.54.3
1964CHN26
162
23.119.54.12.0
1965CHN27
164
24.919.26.34.1
1966CHN28
162
20.519.11.6-0.3
1967CHN29
162
22.919.34.01.9
1968CHN30
163
24.820.15.12.9
1969CHN31
163
22.920.23.10.9
1970CHN32
161
25.119.46.23.9
1971CHN33
157
22.818.25.13.1
1972CHN34
150
23.417.16.74.7
1973CHN35
156
21.218.33.31.3
1974CHN36
117
14.312.12.41.2
1975OAK37
155
12.911.22.91.4
1976OAK38
118
7.57.60.7-0.3
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
CAREER (reg. season)
2,485
332.4278.262.231.3
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
PostSeason (career)
3
0.10.4-0.3-0.3
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
COMBINED
2,488
332.5278.661.931.0


Billy Williams's career started with a bang - he was named National League Rookie of the Year in 1961. He made six All-Star teams, starting for the NL in left field in 1964 and in right field in 1973. He received MVP votes eight times, finishing second in MVP voting twice, in 1970 - when he led the NL in hits (205), total bases (373), and runs scored (137), while batting .322/.391/.586 - and 1972 - when he led the NL in total bases (348), batting average (.333), slugging percentage (.606), and OPS (1.005).

Williams also set a National League record (since broken) for consecutive games played, 1,117, from 1963 through 1970.

Put it all together, and you're left with one of the best left fielders in major-league history, or at least since MLB integration.

The next table shows the top 10 left fielders since 1947, ranked by eWins over positional average earned exclusively while playing left field (which was Williams's primary position for the vast majority of his career).

Top 10 Left Fielders since 1947
(Ranked by eWins over Positional Average, RF only)
eWins eLosses eWinPct eWOPA
1Barry Bonds424.6296.00.589109.1
2Ted Williams236.1167.20.58555.6
3Rickey Henderson344.8285.70.54744.9
4Carl Yastrzemski279.9234.40.54428.7
5Willie Stargell178.0141.20.55825.1
6Billy Williams243.3202.80.54522.8
7Ralph Kiner187.8153.90.55021.8
8Manny Ramirez150.5123.30.55021.2
9Matt Holliday235.1202.30.53720.8
10Tim Raines Sr.267.1234.10.53318.8


Article last updated: October 14, 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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