Baseball Player Won-Loss Records
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Nellie Fox

Hall-of-Famers as Seen Through Player Won-Lost Records: Nellie Fox

Nellie Fox was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans' Committee in 1997 after missing election by two votes in his final year on the BBWAA ballot (in 1985).

Five highlights of Nellie Fox's career: The first two tables below present Nellie Fox'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
1947PHA19
7
0.00.00.0-0.0
1948PHA20
3
0.20.6-0.4-0.5
1949PHA21
88
7.38.9-0.7-1.5
1950CHA22
130
11.515.2-2.1-3.5
1951CHA23
147
20.018.33.91.9
1952CHA24
152
20.219.13.51.5
1953CHA25
154
19.818.33.91.8
1954CHA26
155
21.318.85.12.9
1955CHA27
154
21.117.95.73.7
1956CHA28
154
19.520.61.6-0.4
1957CHA29
155
22.217.86.94.9
1958CHA30
155
20.518.74.52.5
1959CHA31
156
22.116.28.36.4
1960CHA32
150
20.918.25.43.4
1961CHA33
159
18.018.92.00.1
1962CHA34
157
17.918.42.10.2
1963CHA35
137
14.016.5-0.3-1.8
1964HOU36
133
14.215.01.4-0.1
1965HOU37
21
0.81.4-0.4-0.5
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
CAREER (reg. season)
2,367
291.6278.750.521.2
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
PostSeason (career)
6
0.90.80.20.1
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
COMBINED
2,373
292.5279.450.721.3


Expected Player Won-Lost Records
Value Decomposition
Season Team Age Games eWins eLosses eWORL eWOPA
1947PHA19
7
0.00.1-0.0-0.0
1948PHA20
3
0.30.6-0.1-0.2
1949PHA21
88
7.58.6-0.2-1.1
1950CHA22
130
11.914.7-1.2-2.6
1951CHA23
147
19.618.73.11.1
1952CHA24
152
19.919.42.90.8
1953CHA25
154
18.919.32.0-0.0
1954CHA26
155
20.919.24.22.0
1955CHA27
154
20.218.84.02.0
1956CHA28
154
18.621.50.2-1.9
1957CHA29
155
22.417.67.55.4
1958CHA30
155
20.019.23.51.5
1959CHA31
156
20.517.85.23.3
1960CHA32
150
19.719.43.21.2
1961CHA33
159
16.720.2-0.5-2.4
1962CHA34
157
17.319.00.9-0.9
1963CHA35
137
13.117.4-1.5-3.0
1964HOU36
133
14.115.11.1-0.3
1965HOU37
21
0.91.2-0.2-0.3
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
CAREER (reg. season)
2,367
282.5287.833.94.7
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
PostSeason (career)
6
0.90.70.30.2
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
COMBINED
2,373
283.4288.534.24.8


Top Fielding Second Basemen
Gold Gloves were first awarded in 1957, Nellie Fox's 9th full season in the major-leagues (and his age-29 season). In the first year, a single set of Gold Gloves were awarded for all of major-league baseball. Nellie Fox won the first Gold Glove awarded to a second baseman. He then won 2 more Gold Gloves in 1959 and 1960.

The next table shows the top 10 second basemen in fielding wins over replacement level for whom I have calculated Player won-lost records.

Top Ten Fielding Second Basemen
(Fielding wins over Replacement)
eWins eLosses WORL_f
1Willie Randolph81.575.014.0
2Nellie Fox85.179.713.9
3Frank White80.674.513.5
4Bill Mazeroski85.580.912.9
5Frankie Frisch80.475.812.7
6Lou Whitaker82.178.111.7
7Ryne Sandberg78.874.611.5
8Red Schoendienst69.865.311.5
9Hughie Critz67.062.511.2
10Dustin Pedroia51.044.810.7


1959 American League MVP
Nellie Fox won the American League MVP award in 1959 as he helped the Chicago White Sox win their first American League pennant in 40 years.

The next table shows the top 10 players in the 1959 American League as measured by pWins over positional average and replacement level.

pWins over Positional Average
Top 10 Players
          pWins over Replacement Level
Top 10 Players
Player pWins pLosses pWOPA pWORL           Player pWins pLosses pWOPA pWORL
1Nellie Fox22.116.26.4
8.3
1Nellie Fox22.116.26.4
8.3
2Minnie Minoso23.716.85.7
7.7
2Minnie Minoso23.716.85.7
7.7
3Early Wynn20.115.55.3
7.4
3Early Wynn20.115.55.3
7.4
4Tito Francona15.610.24.7
6.0
4Rocky Colavito23.717.34.7
6.7
5Rocky Colavito23.717.34.7
6.7
5Mickey Mantle20.314.84.6
6.3
6Bob Shaw14.911.04.6
6.2
6Bob Shaw14.911.04.6
6.2
7Mickey Mantle20.314.84.6
6.3
7Tito Francona15.610.24.7
6.0
8Camilo Pascual16.213.14.1
5.8
8Camilo Pascual16.213.14.1
5.8
9Yogi Berra15.711.94.1
5.5
9Harmon Killebrew22.217.93.6
5.6
10Harmon Killebrew22.217.93.6
5.6
10Yogi Berra15.711.94.1
5.5


As measured by pWOPA and pWORL - which put a player's performance in context and tie to team wins - the 1959 AL MVP voters got it right. In context, Nellie Fox was the best player in the American League in 1959 and a key reason why the White Sox were able to end their 40-year pennant drought.

Article last updated: May 12, 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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