Richie Ashburn

Baseball Player Won-Loss Records
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Richie Ashburn

Hall-of-Famers as Seen Through Player Won-Lost Records: Richie Ashburn

Richie Ashburn was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans' Committee in 1995.

Five highlights of Richie Ashburn's career:

Richie Ashburn was named to an All-Star team in five seasons. He received MVP votes eight times with two top-10 finishes.

Ashburn led the National League in batting average twice and in on-base percentage four times.

Ashburn led the National League in hits three times, in walks four times, and in times on base five times.

Ashburn led the National League in putouts by an outfielder nine times, in assists by an outfielder three times, and in double plays turned by an outfielder three times. His 6,089 outfield putouts are the sixth-most in major-league history. His career range factor (PO+A per 9 IP), 2.98, is the second-highest in major-league history for an outfielder.

Ashburn hit 29 home runs in his career. He hit over half of these, 15, in the Polo Grounds. The Polo Grounds were Ashburn's home ballpark for only one season of his career (he was the first center fielder in New York Mets history). For his career, Ashburn hit a home run every 44.9 plate appearances at the Polo Grounds vs. one home run every 647.3 plate appearances outside the Polo Grounds.

The first two tables below present Richie Ashburn'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
1948	PHI	21	117	17.3	15.6	2.5	0.8
1949	PHI	22	154	20.4	21.1	0.5	-1.7
1950	PHI	23	151	20.0	17.3	3.8	1.9
1951	PHI	24	154	22.7	20.2	3.8	1.5
1952	PHI	25	154	21.3	19.5	2.9	0.7
1953	PHI	26	156	22.2	19.8	3.5	1.2
1954	PHI	27	153	21.7	18.5	4.2	2.0
1955	PHI	28	140	18.0	16.8	1.9	0.1
1956	PHI	29	154	20.3	20.9	0.2	-1.9
1957	PHI	30	156	21.1	20.4	1.5	-0.6
1958	PHI	31	152	20.7	19.3	2.2	0.2
1959	PHI	32	153	16.8	21.4	-4.0	-5.9
1960	CHN	33	150	18.0	19.1	-0.5	-2.4
1961	CHN	34	109	8.0	10.1	-1.6	-2.5
1962	NYN	35	135	12.1	13.8	-1.1	-2.4
			------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			2,188	280.6	273.7	19.6	-9.0
			------	------	------	------	------
PostSeason (career)			4	0.1	0.6	-0.5	-0.5
			------	------	------	------	------
COMBINED			2,192	280.7	274.4	19.2	-9.5

Season	Team	Age	Games	eWins	eLosses	eWORL	eWOPA

Expected Player Won-Lost Records
						Value Decomposition
1948	PHI	21	117	17.5	15.3	3.2	1.5
1949	PHI	22	154	19.7	21.8	-0.9	-3.1
1950	PHI	23	151	18.8	18.5	1.4	-0.6
1951	PHI	24	154	22.7	20.2	3.7	1.5
1952	PHI	25	154	20.4	20.4	1.1	-1.1
1953	PHI	26	156	22.0	20.0	3.2	0.9
1954	PHI	27	153	21.0	19.1	2.8	0.6
1955	PHI	28	140	18.5	16.3	2.9	1.2
1956	PHI	29	154	21.1	20.2	1.8	-0.3
1957	PHI	30	156	21.3	20.2	1.8	-0.3
1958	PHI	31	152	21.4	18.6	3.6	1.6
1959	PHI	32	153	17.3	20.9	-2.9	-4.8
1960	CHN	33	150	18.9	18.2	1.4	-0.5
1961	CHN	34	109	8.5	9.5	-0.5	-1.5
1962	NYN	35	135	13.2	12.7	1.1	-0.2
			------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			2,188	282.5	271.8	23.6	-5.1
			------	------	------	------	------
PostSeason (career)			4	0.3	0.5	-0.2	-0.2
			------	------	------	------	------
COMBINED			2,192	282.8	272.3	23.4	-5.3

Player won-lost records are calculated across nine components.

Component 1: Basestealing (stolen bases, caught stealing, pickoffs, balks)

Component 2: Wild pitches and passed balls

Component 3: Balls not in play: strikeouts, walks, hit-batsmen

Component 4: Balls in play, including home runs

Component 5: Hits vs. Outs on balls in play

Component 6: Singles vs. Doubles vs. Triples on hits in play

Component 7: Double Plays

Component 8: Baserunner Outs

Component 9: Baserunner Advancement

Offensively, Richie Ashburn excelled at four of these.

Component 3 Batting

Richie Ashburn is 60th in major-league history in walks, led his league in walks four times in his career, and finished his career with more than twice as many walks (1,198) as strikeouts (571). This corresponds to Component 3 of Player won-lost records. A strikeout-to-walk ratio of less than 0.5 (0.48 to be precise) is outstanding for a batter. In fact, it is historically great.

The next table shows the top 25 players in Component 3 batting wins above non-pitcher average.

		Top 25 Batters (Component 3)
		eWins	eLosses	eWinPct	eWOPA
1	Ted Williams	61.5	15.1	0.803	45.8
2	Mel Ott	58.8	17.9	0.767	40.2
3	Babe Ruth	62.3	22.2	0.737	39.4
4	Joe L. Morgan	60.9	21.1	0.743	39.1
5	Eddie Yost	55.6	20.0	0.735	34.8
6	Lou Gehrig	50.1	15.2	0.767	34.4
7	Barry Bonds	68.3	32.8	0.676	34.3
8	Charlie Gehringer	40.3	7.1	0.849	32.9
9	Luke Appling	44.4	11.1	0.799	32.8
10	Stan Musial	46.8	15.0	0.757	31.2
11	Rickey Henderson	67.6	36.4	0.650	30.9
12	Paul Waner	38.5	7.8	0.832	30.4
13	Max Bishop	38.8	8.5	0.820	30.0
14	Stan Hack	38.3	9.3	0.804	28.6
15	Joe Sewell	30.5	2.3	0.929	28.1
16	Pete Rose Sr.	52.1	23.9	0.685	27.3
17	Augie Galan	34.9	7.9	0.816	26.8
18	Arky Vaughan	32.6	5.9	0.847	26.5
19	Eddie Stanky	34.3	7.6	0.818	26.4
20	Richie Ashburn	38.2	12.1	0.760	25.6
21	Rick Ferrell	31.5	5.7	0.847	25.6
22	Elmer Valo	31.8	6.1	0.840	25.5
23	Willie Randolph	39.5	14.4	0.732	25.0
24	Mickey Cochrane	29.2	4.3	0.872	24.8
25	Ferris Fain	30.5	5.7	0.842	24.5

Component 5 Batting

Richie Ashburn ended his career with a career batting average of .308 and a career BABIP (Batting Average on Balls in Play) of .327. Ashburn had limited power (29 career home runs) but was excellent at slapping hits to the outfield and beating out bunts and infield hits. Ashburn is 33rd in major-league history in career singles (2,119). In Player won-lost records, this translates to Component 5 - the ability to convert balls-in-play into hits.

The next table shows the top 30 players in Component 3 batting wins above non-pitcher average.

		Top 30 Batters (Component 5)
		eWins	eLosses	eWinPct	eWOPA
1	Roberto Clemente	88.8	65.4	0.576	20.9
2	Rod Carew	91.3	70.1	0.566	20.4
3	Lou Brock	89.0	68.5	0.565	17.9
4	Stan Musial	96.2	76.2	0.558	17.1
5	Derek Jeter	97.4	81.6	0.544	15.5
6	Kirby Puckett	64.0	49.5	0.564	14.5
7	Rogers Hornsby	62.3	46.9	0.570	13.8
8	Mickey Rivers	53.5	39.7	0.574	13.6
9	Willie McGee	70.9	55.5	0.561	13.4
10	Tony Gwynn Sr.	91.5	75.5	0.548	13.2
11	Ichiro Suzuki	92.7	79.3	0.539	12.7
12	Paul Molitor	93.0	80.5	0.536	12.5
13	Willie Wilson	66.3	54.6	0.549	11.7
14	Vada Pinson	81.8	67.9	0.546	11.5
15	Lou Gehrig	64.0	50.7	0.558	11.4
16	Willie Mays	78.7	64.9	0.548	11.3
17	Heinie Manush	65.4	52.8	0.554	10.8
18	Joe Medwick	70.4	57.7	0.550	10.6
19	Enos Slaughter	71.5	58.7	0.549	10.5
20	Babe Ruth	53.3	41.6	0.562	10.3
21	Matty Alou	55.5	43.7	0.559	10.2
22	Jose Cruz Sr.	66.6	54.4	0.551	10.2
23	Larry Walker	53.4	41.8	0.561	10.2
24	Ken Griffey Sr.	61.0	50.0	0.550	9.7
25	Ted Williams	62.1	50.6	0.551	9.6
26	Ralph Garr	46.6	36.4	0.562	9.3
27	Wade Boggs	82.1	72.9	0.530	9.2
28	Richie Ashburn	78.3	66.6	0.541	9.1
29	Andres Galarraga	59.0	48.2	0.551	9.1
30	Reggie Jackson	64.6	54.9	0.540	9.1

Component 8 & 9 Baserunning

Richie Ashburn was an excellent baserunner. He finished in the top 10 in the National League in stolen bases 12 times in his career, leading the league once. But, for most of Ashburn's career, stolen bases totals were fairly low: e.g., he led the National League in stolen bases in 1948 with 32.

There is, however, more to baserunning than just basestealing and Richie Ashburn was very good at the other aspects of baserunning which helped contribute to his scoring 90 or more runs 9 times in his career. Outside of Component 1, the key baserunning components of Player won-lost records are Components 8 - baserunner outs - and Component 9 - baserunner advancements.

The final table of this article, then, shows the top 25 players in net Component 8 and 9 baserunning wins for whom I have calculated Player won-lost records.

		Baserunning, Components 8 and 9
		eWins	eLosses	eWinPct	eWOPA
1	Robin Yount	12.9	8.8	0.594	4.1
2	Willie Davis	11.2	7.2	0.608	4.0
3	Max Carey	10.2	6.8	0.601	3.4
4	Tim Raines Sr.	11.2	7.8	0.588	3.4
5	Mickey Mantle	9.9	6.6	0.601	3.3
6	Bert Campaneris	10.7	7.4	0.592	3.3
7	Kenny Lofton	10.5	7.3	0.591	3.2
8	Red Schoendienst	10.7	7.5	0.588	3.2
9	Rickey Henderson	14.6	11.5	0.559	3.1
10	Johnny Damon	10.6	7.5	0.585	3.1
11	Willie Wilson	9.1	6.1	0.600	3.0
12	Maury Wills	10.1	7.2	0.585	2.9
13	Al Kaline	12.1	9.1	0.569	2.9
14	Kiki Cuyler	9.9	7.0	0.584	2.8
15	Davey Lopes	7.9	5.1	0.608	2.8
16	Willie Mays	13.2	10.5	0.559	2.8
17	Paul Molitor	13.1	10.4	0.558	2.7
18	Bill Bruton	7.6	4.9	0.608	2.7
19	Frank Robinson	12.5	9.8	0.560	2.7
20	Tommy Harper	8.0	5.4	0.599	2.7
21	Arky Vaughan	10.0	7.3	0.577	2.7
22	Richie Ashburn	12.5	9.9	0.559	2.7
23	Rod Carew	13.6	11.0	0.553	2.6
24	Larry Bowa	9.9	7.3	0.576	2.6
25	Ryne Sandberg	10.1	7.5	0.573	2.6

Article last updated: May 19, 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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