Willie McCovey

Baseball Player Won-Loss Records
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Willie McCovey

Hall-of-Famers as Seen Through Player Won-Lost Records: Willie McCovey

Willie McCovey was elected to the Hall of Fame in his 1st year of eligibility, 1986, with 81.4% of the vote.

Five highlights of Willie McCovey's career:

Willie McCovey made his major-league debut on July 30, 1959. In that game, McCovey went 4-for-4 against Hall-of-Fame pitcher Robin Roberts with two triples and two RBI in a 7-2 Giants win over the Philadelphia Phillies.

McCovey won the 1959 National League Rookie of the Year award unanimously despite playing in only 52 games that season. Over those 52 games, McCovey batted .354/.429/.656 with 13 home runs and 38 RBI.

Willie McCovey won the 1969 National League MVP award. In 1969, McCovey led the National League in on-base percentage (.453), slugging percentage (.656), home runs (45), and RBI (126).

In his career, Willie McCovey led the National League in home runs three times (1963, 1968, and 1969), in slugging percentage three times (1968 – 1970), in RBI twice (1968 and 1969), and in walks once (in 1970). McCovey led the National League in fewest at bats per home run five times (1963, 1967 – 1970).

Willie McCovey led the National League in intentional walks four times (1969 – 1971, 1973). Willie McCovey drew 45 and 40 intentional walks in 1969 and 1970. These were the two highest single-season intentional walks totals before Barry Bonds (since intentional walks became an official statistic in 1955). McCovey’s 260 career intentional walks are the fourth-most all-time, behind Bonds, Albert Pujols, and Hank Aaron.

The first two tables below present Willie McCovey'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
1959	SFN	21	52	7.4	4.5	3.1	2.5
1960	SFN	22	101	9.1	6.9	2.5	1.7
1961	SFN	23	106	10.4	8.5	2.1	1.1
1962	SFN	24	89	9.3	6.4	3.2	2.4
1963	SFN	25	152	22.1	16.4	6.4	4.5
1964	SFN	26	129	13.3	11.2	2.6	1.3
1965	SFN	27	160	21.2	13.1	8.4	6.7
1966	SFN	28	149	19.7	12.4	7.5	5.9
1967	SFN	29	135	18.5	11.5	7.2	5.7
1968	SFN	30	148	21.5	14.4	7.1	5.3
1969	SFN	31	149	22.2	12.3	10.1	8.3
1970	SFN	32	152	21.7	12.6	9.2	7.5
1971	SFN	33	105	12.4	8.2	4.2	3.2
1972	SFN	34	81	6.6	7.7	-1.5	-2.2
1973	SFN	35	130	14.7	10.5	4.3	3.0
1974	SDN	36	128	11.4	9.8	1.7	0.7
1975	SDN	37	122	11.6	12.2	-0.8	-1.9
+– 1976		38	82	6.0	6.7	-0.5	-1.2
	OAK		11	0.3	0.8	-0.4	-0.5
	SDN		71	5.8	6.0	-0.1	-0.7
1977	SFN	39	141	13.8	12.9	0.9	-0.4
1978	SFN	40	108	11.5	10.0	1.5	0.5
1979	SFN	41	117	9.2	9.5	-0.1	-1.1
1980	SFN	42	48	3.2	3.1	0.3	-0.1
			------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			2,584	296.7	220.6	79.1	53.2
			------	------	------	------	------
PostSeason (career)			8	1.1	1.1	0.1	-0.0
			------	------	------	------	------
COMBINED			2,592	297.8	221.7	79.2	53.2

Season	Team	Age	Games	eWins	eLosses	eWORL	eWOPA

Expected Player Won-Lost Records
						Value Decomposition
1959	SFN	21	52	7.3	4.6	2.9	2.3
1960	SFN	22	101	9.1	6.9	2.5	1.7
1961	SFN	23	106	10.3	8.6	1.9	0.9
1962	SFN	24	89	9.2	6.6	3.0	2.2
1963	SFN	25	152	21.9	16.7	5.8	3.9
1964	SFN	26	129	12.5	12.0	1.0	-0.3
1965	SFN	27	160	20.2	14.1	6.3	4.6
1966	SFN	28	149	19.2	12.9	6.5	5.0
1967	SFN	29	135	17.9	12.1	6.1	4.6
1968	SFN	30	148	21.4	14.5	7.3	5.5
1969	SFN	31	149	21.5	13.0	8.5	6.8
1970	SFN	32	152	20.6	13.7	6.9	5.2
1971	SFN	33	105	11.8	8.8	3.0	2.0
1972	SFN	34	81	7.3	7.0	-0.3	-1.0
1973	SFN	35	130	14.6	10.6	4.1	2.8
1974	SDN	36	128	12.3	8.9	3.6	2.5
1975	SDN	37	122	12.4	11.3	1.0	-0.1
+– 1976		38	82	6.2	6.6	-0.2	-0.9
	OAK		11	0.4	0.6	-0.2	-0.2
	SDN		71	5.8	6.0	-0.1	-0.7
1977	SFN	39	141	14.2	12.4	1.9	0.5
1978	SFN	40	108	10.7	10.7	0.1	-1.0
1979	SFN	41	117	9.8	8.9	1.2	0.2
1980	SFN	42	48	2.7	3.5	-0.5	-0.8
			------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			2,584	293.0	224.3	72.4	46.5
			------	------	------	------	------
PostSeason (career)			8	1.2	0.9	0.4	0.2
			------	------	------	------	------
COMBINED			2,592	294.2	225.2	72.7	46.7

Willie McCovey was one of the best first basemen in baseball history. The top 10 first basemen since MLB integration, as measured by eWins over positional average (eWOPA) at first base only, are shown in the next table.


	Top 10 First Basemen, since 1947 (Ranked by Career Wins over Positional Average, First Base Only)
		eWins	eLosses	eWORL
1	Jeff Bagwell	271.0	203.0	44.3
2	Mark McGwire	212.4	154.2	43.8
3	Albert Pujols	238.3	177.9	43.3
4	Willie McCovey	244.2	186.8	35.4
5	Frank E. Thomas	125.1	88.3	29.2
6	Will Clark	225.4	177.9	28.6
7	Joey Votto	199.3	157.3	26.3
8	Todd Helton	248.4	200.0	26.1
9	Norm Cash	211.1	166.1	25.4
10	Jim Thome	129.7	95.9	24.6

Willie McCovey made his major-league debut in 1959. The earliest debut by any of the three players ahead of McCovey in the above table was by Mark McGwire in 1986. Hence, there is clearly a time period - and a fairly lengthy one at that - over which Willie McCovey was the best first baseman in baseball.

In fact, there turns out to be (at least) a 50-year time period over which Willie McCovey was the best first baseman in baseball. The same table as above is repeated, but only for seasons from 1947 through 1996.


	Top 10 First Basemen, 1947 - 1996 (Ranked by Career Wins over Positional Average, First Base Only)
		eWins	eLosses	eWORL
1	Willie McCovey	244.2	186.8	35.4
2	Mark McGwire	134.9	100.9	25.5
3	Norm Cash	211.1	166.1	25.4
4	Will Clark	179.2	140.3	23.7
5	Gil Hodges	200.1	162.5	22.6
6	Frank E. Thomas	96.0	68.1	22.3
7	Eddie Murray	287.6	245.1	21.4
8	Jeff Bagwell	111.1	82.8	19.0
9	Fred McGriff	161.3	129.2	18.6
10	Orlando Cepeda	199.3	162.2	18.1

Article last updated: October 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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