POWER by Jim Furtado

I sent a copy of this page to a couple of mailing lists which I subscribe to. I received some excellent feedback which I hope to include at some future date. Unfortunately although I seem to have an infinite number of ideas and projects, my time is in limited supply. Rather than further delay placing some of my thoughts on the net, I place this here "as is" for your review. This is a thought in progress. Hopefully after the holidays I'll be able to further explain what I'm trying to measure.

I've never liked the stats commonly used to describe a player's power. Every stat which I've seen, uses At Bats (AB) in the denominator. AB include strikeouts. How does including strikeouts help to provide a measure of a player's power? Will a player hit the ball with any less authority because he didn't make contact on a previous pitch or at bat? Simply, no.

This stat doesn't try to measure a player's total offensive contribution (I'm working on another that does). It's only designed to measure POWER. I realize that when a player hits for extra bases, it's not just his shear batting power that gets him to second or third. Speed and hit location come into play. If you peruse the list, you'll see that Lance Johnson's name is no where to be found in the leaders. Home run hitters are, as they should be, well represented.

I measure power using the following formula:

[NOTE: I realized as I finished formatting this page that I had made an error in my database formula. SF were not included. It wouldn't make a significant change to this list, so I will update this list at a latter date.]

I've included Bill James' Isolated Power (ISO) for comparison. (ISO = SLG-AVG or TB/AB-H/AB)
Mr. James tried to isolate a player's power by totaling bases gained after first base. Dan Szymborski suggested that I exclude the first base portion of extra bases in my formula. This is something that I hope examine in the future.

Rank	PosRank Team	PriPos	Name                    POWER	ISO	PA
1	1	OAK-STL 1B	Mark McGwire		.758	.520	657
2	2	Cle	1B	Jim Thome		.619	.439	627
3	1	StL	CF	Ray Lankford		.616	.449	565
4	3	Hou	1B	Jeff Bagwell		.604	.482	717
5	1	Col	RF	Larry Walker		.584	.483	664
6	4	Tor	1B	Carlos Delgado	        .579    .428	595
7	2	Sea	CF	Ken Griffey Jr.	        .579	.469	704
8	2	Det	RF	Melvin Nieves		.567	.322	405
9	1	NYM	C	Todd Hundley		.567	.413	508
10	3	Mil	RF	Jeromy Burnitz		.537	.416	577
11	4	Sea	RF	Jay Buhner		.530	.368	665
12	5	Bos	1B	Mo Vaughn		.525	.372	628
13	5	Cin	RF	Reggie Sanders		.525	.368	358
14	1	SEA-TOR LF	Jose Cruz Jr.	        .524	.369	442
15	2	SF	LF	Barry Bonds		.519	.438	690
16	3	MTL	LF	Henry Rodriguez		.517	.356	523
17	6	Tex	RF	Juan Gonzalez		.508	.400	579
18	4	Atl	LF	Ryan Klesko		.495	.357	522
19	2	LA	C	Mike Piazza		.493	.423	633
20	7	Oak	RF	Matt Stairs		.492	.403	410
21	5	Cle	LF	Dave Justice		.489	.412	582
22	8	Oak	RF	Jose Canseco		.480	.319	446
23	3	Atl	C	Javier Lopez		.477	.382	464
24	6	Col	1B	Andres Galarraga	.476	.355	674
25	7	CHW	1B	Frank Thomas		.470	.409	649
26	8	NYY	1B	Tino Martinez		.468	.408	685
27	9	SF	1B	J.T. Snow		.463	.359	637
28	3	Col	CF	Ellis Burks		.458	.370	477
29	9	LA	RF	Raul Mondesi		.457	.378	670
30	10	Sea	1B	Paul Sorrento		.445	.341	513
31	1	SF	2B	Jeff Kent		.445	.347	651
32	4	Fla	C	Charles Johnson		.442	.328	484
33	11	Pit	1B	Kevin Young		.436	.321	362
34	1	Cle	3B	Matt Williams		.432	.355	636
35	12	Cin	1B	Eduardo Perez		.428	.318	330
36	10	Cle	RF	Manny Ramirez		.425	.339	651
37	13	Det	1B	Tony Clark		.425	.321	681
38	11	CHC	RF	Sammy Sosa		.424	.312	694
39	2	SD	3B	Ken Caminiti		.419	.320	576
40	3	Sea	3B	Russ Davis		.418	.323	454
41	14	BOS-NYY 1B	Mike Stanley		.413	.327	415
42	6	CHW	LF	Albert Belle		.411	.343	701
43	1	Bos	SS	Nomar Garciaparra	.409	.354	734
44	5	Cle	C	Sandy Alomar Jr.	.406	.363	480
45	6	MTL	C	Darrin Fletcher		.404	.359	334
46	12	Bal	RF	Jeffrey Hammonds	.403	.329	434
47	4	NYY	CF	Bernie Williams		.400	.336	591
48	13	Atl	RF	Andruw Jones		.400	.292	467
49	15	Det	1B	Bob Hamelin		.399	.310	369
50	14	NYM	RF	Butch Huskey		.399	.330	505

Time willing, I'll be posting a complete list after the holidays.

Did you notice how Mo Vaughn and Jay Buhner leap past Barry Bonds when strikeouts are extracted? Is Bonds a better hitter? Yes, but I doubt he hits the ball any harder than the "Hit Dog" or the bald one from Seattle.

A surprise in the top ten was Melvin Nieves. I can understand why teams keep giving him a chance. When he makes contact the ball zooms. Don't get too excited though. I checked out his strikeout rates for the past few years and he doesn't seem to be improving.

Jose Cruz Jr. #14 ranking is quite impressive. When he cuts down on his Ks, he'll be a great player.

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