Darrell Evans

Baseball Player Won-Loss Records
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Darrell Evans

Darrell Evans as Seen Through Player Won-Lost Records

Darrell Evans has come up twice in articles that I've written in the past week. First, I briefly profiled him in my article on the 1973 season, which was arguably Evans's finest season. Then, my most recent game story was a game in 1982 in which Evans was the star.

Two years ago, I self-published a book, BASEBALL PLAYER WON-LOST RECORDS: 150 Players, 50 Years, which is available as a free PDF on my website (here). As the name suggests, the book looks at 150 players over a 50-year period (1961 - 2010). Darrell Evans made the book at number 133. This article tries to take a somewhat different look at Evans than in the book. Five highlights of Darrell Evans's career:

Darrell Evans made two All-Star teams in his career, in 1973 and 1983.

Evans received MVP votes four times, in 1973, 1983, 1985, and 1987.

Darrell Evans hit 414 home runs in his career. This was the fourth-most home runs by any player over the 21 seasons in which he played (1969 - 1989). Evans's 1,605 walks were the most in MLB over these 21 seasons.

Darrell Evans was the second player in major-league history to hit at least 100 home runs with three different teams.

In 1987, at the age of 40, Evans hit 34 home runs, scored 90 runs, and had 99 RBI. Evans is the only player in major-league history to hit at least 30 home runs with at least 90 runs scored and 90 RBI in a season at age 40 or older.

The first two tables below present Darrell Evans'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
1969	ATL	22	12	0.4	0.9	-0.4	-0.5
1970	ATL	23	12	1.2	1.6	-0.4	-0.5
1971	ATL	24	88	9.3	7.5	2.4	1.6
1972	ATL	25	125	16.2	13.9	3.4	1.9
1973	ATL	26	161	22.0	16.6	6.5	4.6
1974	ATL	27	160	22.9	17.0	7.2	5.3
1975	ATL	28	156	21.0	18.5	3.8	1.9
+– 1976		29	135	12.1	11.3	0.9	-0.2
	ATL		43	3.7	4.1	-0.4	-0.7
	SFN		92	8.4	7.2	1.3	0.5
1977	SFN	30	144	16.7	14.7	2.7	1.1
1978	SFN	31	159	20.7	17.6	4.2	2.4
1979	SFN	32	160	18.8	18.2	1.8	-0.0
1980	SFN	33	154	20.2	19.1	2.3	0.4
1981	SFN	34	101	11.7	9.9	2.5	1.4
1982	SFN	35	141	15.4	13.3	2.9	1.6
1983	SFN	36	142	18.1	14.4	4.1	2.6
1984	DET	37	131	10.9	9.7	2.0	0.8
1985	DET	38	151	15.9	12.7	3.9	2.5
1986	DET	39	151	16.1	11.9	4.9	3.5
1987	DET	40	150	15.5	11.1	5.0	3.6
1988	DET	41	144	11.0	10.6	1.1	-0.1
1989	ATL	42	106	7.3	8.9	-1.3	-2.1
			------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			2,683	303.5	259.5	59.5	31.6
			------	------	------	------	------
PostSeason (career)			13	1.1	1.3	-0.2	-0.3
			------	------	------	------	------
COMBINED			2,696	304.5	260.8	59.3	31.3

Season	Team	Age	Games	eWins	eLosses	eWORL	eWOPA

Expected Player Won-Lost Records
						Value Decomposition
1969	ATL	22	12	0.4	0.8	-0.4	-0.4
1970	ATL	23	12	1.5	1.4	0.2	0.1
1971	ATL	24	88	8.9	7.9	1.6	0.7
1972	ATL	25	125	16.2	13.9	3.3	1.8
1973	ATL	26	161	22.6	15.9	7.8	5.9
1974	ATL	27	160	22.1	17.9	5.6	3.6
1975	ATL	28	156	20.8	18.7	3.4	1.5
+– 1976		29	135	12.1	11.4	0.8	-0.3
	ATL		43	3.8	4.0	-0.2	-0.6
	SFN		92	8.3	7.3	1.1	0.3
1977	SFN	30	144	16.6	14.8	2.5	0.9
1978	SFN	31	159	20.5	17.8	3.9	2.1
1979	SFN	32	160	19.1	17.8	2.5	0.7
1980	SFN	33	154	21.0	18.4	3.8	1.9
1981	SFN	34	101	11.7	9.8	2.5	1.5
1982	SFN	35	141	15.4	13.4	2.8	1.4
1983	SFN	36	142	18.4	14.1	4.6	3.1
1984	DET	37	131	11.0	9.7	2.0	0.8
1985	DET	38	151	15.7	12.9	3.4	1.9
1986	DET	39	151	15.3	12.7	3.3	1.8
1987	DET	40	150	14.5	12.0	3.1	1.7
1988	DET	41	144	11.0	10.5	1.1	-0.1
1989	ATL	42	106	8.0	8.3	-0.0	-0.8
			------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			2,683	302.7	260.2	57.8	29.9
			------	------	------	------	------
PostSeason (career)			13	1.1	1.3	-0.2	-0.3
			------	------	------	------	------
COMBINED			2,696	303.8	261.5	57.6	29.6

Somewhat ironically, Darrell Evans is probably most famous for Bill James description of him in the New Historical Baseball Abstract:

"Darrell Evans is, in my opinion, the most underrated player in baseball history, absolutely number one on the list."

James went on to list "ten characteristics of an underrated player" and show how seven of these applied to Evans. For this article, I decided to use the last of these as my jumping-off point.

"There are at least ten characteristics of an underrated player....

10. Anything which 'breaks up' a player's career tends to cause him to be underrated....

7. Evans career is broken up into three almost equal phases (Atlanta, San Francisco, and Detroit) and split between two defensive positions."

Darrell Evans played for the Atlanta Braves for 7+ seasons, for the San Francisco Giants for 7+ seasons, and for the Detroit Tigers for five seasons, before ending his career with one final season back in Atlanta. Evans was a third baseman for most of the first 14 seasons of his career, although he mixed in one season at first base (1976) and one season in left field (1977) during that stretch. Evans moved to first base in his final season in San Francisco (1982) and was primarily a first baseman for his final seven seasons, although he also played a fair bit of DH in his time in the AL.

Evans's time at first base works against him in a table of the top third basemen for whom I've calculated Player won-lost records and his time at third base hurts him in a table of the top first basemen.

In terms of seasons, he played longest in Atlanta, but that includes his first three seasons where he played a total of 113 games and his final season, at age 42, when he played on 107 games. He played the most games of his career as a San Francisco Giant (1,094 games vs. 866 as a Brave and 727 as a Tiger). But his performances with the three teams were remarkably similar. His home run totals were 142-141-131 (Giants-Tigers-Braves), his batting line for the Braves was .246/.368/.426; for the Giants, .255/.358/.422; for the Tigers, .238/.357/.450.

Darrell Evans was elected to Baseball Think Factory's Hall of Merit in "1995" (his first year of eligibility). They give him a Giants cap, which I guess I would agree with - most games, most home runs - but to be honest, the Giants are probably the last team I associate Evans with, probably because they're the only one of his three teams for whom he never hit 40 home runs in a season.

The bottom line is to get Darrell Evans onto best-of tables, you either have to extend your table out pretty far (e.g., as I mentioned above, Darrell Evans was #133 in my book Baseball Player Won-Lost Records: 150 Players, 50 Years) or narrow the focus.

Here, then, are three tables that "narrow the focus".

First, the top third basemen in Atlanta Braves history.

		Top Third Basemen in Atlanta Braves History (sorted by eWOPA)
		pWins	pLosses	pWin Pct.	pWOPA
1	Chipper Jones	274.4	207.2	0.570	61.2
2	Darrell Evans	93.0	76.6	0.548	13.6
3	Terry Pendleton	81.4	67.8	0.545	11.6
4	Bob Horner	88.6	77.6	0.533	8.0
5	Josh Donaldson	19.8	15.8	0.557	3.3
6	Charlie Culberson	2.9	1.2	0.711	1.7
7	Johan Camargo	18.0	15.8	0.532	1.5
8	Eddie Mathews	14.4	12.5	0.535	1.4
9	Brooks Conrad	4.4	3.4	0.560	0.9
10	Wes Helms	2.5	1.7	0.605	0.8

Darrell Evans was no Chipper Jones. And if I'd included the Milwaukee (and Boston) Braves, you'd also see that Evans was no Eddie Mathews. But Evans was, nevertheless, a damn fine third baseman in his time in Atlanta.

Evans transitioned from third base to first base at his next stop, San Francisco. So, the next table looks at corner infielders in San Francisco Giants history.

		Top Corner Infielders in San Francisco Giants History (sorted by eWOPA)
		pWins	pLosses	pWin Pct.	pWOPA
1	Willie McCovey	221.3	156.7	0.585	46.1
2	Will Clark	143.7	105.0	0.578	26.7
3	Matt D. Williams	136.5	111.4	0.550	21.6
4	Orlando Cepeda	103.8	80.1	0.565	15.2
5	Jim Ray Hart	87.5	72.9	0.545	11.6
6	Darrell Evans	115.8	100.9	0.534	9.9
7	Pablo Sandoval	118.9	107.9	0.524	6.9
8	Brandon Belt	100.9	86.9	0.537	5.6
9	Kevin Mitchell	23.2	18.3	0.559	4.3
10	Jim Davenport	100.0	92.9	0.518	3.9

The Giants have a longer history in San Francisco than the Braves have in Atlanta. And adding first base to the mix essentially doubles the candidate pool. So, Evans is not quite as high on this list. But he is still one of the best corner infielders in San Francisco Giants history.

Finally, Evans was almost exclusively a first baseman with the Tigers, for whom he only played five full seasons. The Detroit Tigers have a much longer history in their current city than do the Atlanta Braves and San Francisco Giants. And that history includes two players who won multiple MVP awards who were primarily first basemen (although Hank Greenberg played mostly left field when he won the award in 1940).

		Top First Basemen / Designated Hitters in Detroit Tigers History (sorted by pWOPA)
		pWins	pLosses	pWin Pct.	pWOPA
1	Hank Greenberg	142.4	95.7	0.598	35.1
2	Norm Cash	209.1	163.4	0.561	26.3
3	Miguel Cabrera	154.4	125.8	0.551	19.7
4	Rudy York	116.7	93.6	0.555	13.2
5	Darrell Evans	65.1	51.2	0.560	10.5
6	Prince Fielder	40.2	31.2	0.563	6.9
7	Lu Blue	57.4	48.6	0.541	4.4
8	Jason D. Thompson	65.4	57.2	0.533	4.2
9	Roy Cullenbine	18.9	14.0	0.575	3.6
10	Cecil Fielder	105.0	94.7	0.526	3.1

Given the caveats above, Evans's ranking in this last table may be the most impressive of the three. Although each of the last two tables highlight the issue with evaluating and appreciating Evans's career: not everybody ahead of him in these tables is a Hall-of-Famer, and everybody below him is not one.

So there you have him: Darrell Evans, subtle superstar.

Article last updated: May 22, 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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