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Originally Posted by BDBohnzie
jsarno - just a head's up. Total Bases does not factor in walks, but base hits (singles + doubles *2 + triples * 3 + HRs * 4). So you look at On Base Percentage as a factor to include his base on balls, which Bonds is currently at .497, which means Bonds is getting on 1 out of every 2 trips to the plate.
Bonds has definitely lost a step, so walking him is much better than letting him swing, as you'll potentially have him run into more DPs with little to no protection behind him. All the while, he's a career .298 hitter. Now, steroids may help you hit the ball further, it doesn't help you actually hit the ball...
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Correct. If a player is hitting a dinger one of every eleven times and has an OBP of .497, he's a top player in baseball even if he's lost a step or two. I'd love for my team to get him. We'd go to World Series again. Imagine a lineup with Fields, Thome, Bonds, Konerko, and Dye in it. Stuff of dreams.
By the way, comparing players from different seems ludicrous to me. There's no way Aaron, or Ruth, or Bonds accomplished their deeds under the same conditions. Bonds accomplished his in an era when pitchers have been juiced and only pitch a few innings a game, usually at night, when they are least likely to tire and the ball is difficult to see. Also, they throw harder than pitchers Aaron played against, even when not chemically enhanced.
Pitchers today are more racially diverse, come from all over the world, not just the U.S., are better trained, coached, fed, and are better physical specimens than they were in Aaron's day, as well as more likely to pitch fewer innings, every five days instead of four, and pitch during the day.
Aaron also had far better players hitting before and after him than Bonds has had. The same can be said, of course, for Ruth.
Ruth played in a era of day games, pitchers were only white, were paid next to nothing, had no training regime, played with hangovers, were expected to go nine innings in four day rotations, and usually coped by letting batters hit. There was a few flame throwers but most tried to get outs by forcing ground balls and fly balls.
Also, Ruth played at a time when the American League was essentially managed, the Yankees being the only real draw, and the other teams stocked with inferior players.
The games were called "exhibitions" for a reason.
So whose records are more valid. Don't know. Impossible to say.