Contributor analyst Bill Gilbert presents his conclusions on the most productive MLB hitters of 2016. Thanks for the effort, Bill!
Who Were the Most Productive Offensive Players in 2016?
By Bill Gilbert
Numerous methods have been devised to measure offensive performance. The most common are batting average, on-base percentage and slugging average. Since none of these averages provides a complete picture by itself, a more comprehensive measure of offensive performance is useful. Such a measure would include the following elements:
- The ability to get on base.
- The ability to hit with power.
- The ability to add value through baserunning.
The first two elements are measured by on-base percentage and slugging average. A measure of offensive performance, which encompasses both as well as baserunning achievements, is Bases per Plate Appearance (BPA). This measure accounts for the net bases accumulated by a player per plate appearance. It is calculated as follows:
BPA = (TB + BB + HB + SB – CS – GIDP) / (AB + BB + HB + SF)
Where: BPA = Bases per Plate Appearance
TB = Total Bases
BB = Bases on Balls
HB = Hit by Pitch
SB = Stolen Bases
CS = Caught Stealing
GIDP = Grounded into Double Plays
AB = At Bats
SF = Sacrifice Flies
The numerator accounts for all of the bases accumulated by a player, reduced by the number of times he is caught stealing or erases another runner by grounding into a double play. The denominator accounts for the plate appearances when the player is trying to generate bases for himself. Sacrifice hits are not included as plate appearances, since they represent the successful execution of the batter’s attempts to advance another runner.
Major league BPA for the past fifteen years is shown below along with the number of players with BPA over .550 and .600:
Year 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
BPA .457 .461 .468 .456 .470 .463 .458 .461 .446 .442 .447 .440 .426 .440 .456
.550 39 42 33 34 46 34 41 42 19 25 12 14 9 20 23
.600 17 15 18 13 14 15 11 16 7 7 5 3 4 6 7
Offensive production peaked in 2000 before declining in the early years of this century. BPA declined significantly from .481 in 2000 to .426 in 2014 before significant upticks in 2015 and 2016.
In the 1990s, there were 14 individual .700 BPA seasons. In the eight year period from 2000 to 2007, there were 18. The highest BPA in the 1990s was recorded by Mark McGwire in 1998 (.799). Barry Bonds shattered that with .907 in 2001, the highest figure ever recorded, topping Babe Ruth’s best two years (1920 and 1921). Bonds followed that with .869 in 2002, .818 in 2003 and .882 in 2004. There have not been any hitters with a BPA of .700 since 2007. The last player to make it was Alex Rodriguez (.702) in 2007. Surprisingly, Albert Pujols has not had a .700 BPA in his sixteen seasons. His highest was .696 in 2009.
The .700 BPA seasons in 2000-2015 are listed below:
Player Team Year BPA
Barry Bonds San Francisco 2001 .907
Barry Bonds San Francisco 2004 .882
Barry Bonds San Francisco 2002 .869
Barry Bonds San Francisco 2003 .818
Sammy Sosa Chicago Cubs 2001 .758
Barry Bonds San Francisco 2000 .745
Jim Thome Cleveland 2002 .728
Manny Ramirez Cleveland 2000 .726
Todd Helton Colorado 2000 .720
Luis Gonzalez Arizona 2001 .713
Todd Helton Colorado 2001 .709
Carlos Delgado Toronto 2000 .707
Larry Walker Colorado 2001 .707
Jason Giambi Oakland 2000 .706
Travis Hafner Cleveland 2006 .703
Alex Rodriguez NY Yankees 2007 .702
Jason Giambi Oakland 2001 .700
Ryan Howard Philadelphia 2006 .700
The yearly leaders since 1992 are as follows:
1992 Bonds .734 1993 Bonds .740 1994 Bagwell .768
1995 Belle .692 1996 McGwire .765 1997 Walker .770
1998 McGwire .799 1999 McGwire .735 2000 Bonds .745
2001 Bonds .907 2002 Bonds .869 2003 Bonds .818
2004 Bonds .882 2005 D. Lee .699 2006 Hafner .703
2007 A. Rodriguez .702 2008 Pujols .685 2009 Pujols .696
2010 Bautista .671 2011 Bautista .681 2012 Trout .665
2013 C. Davis .670 2014 Trout .623 2015 Harper .694
2016 Trout .681
The benchmark for an outstanding individual season is .600. Following is a list of the seven players with enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title and with a BPA of .600 in 2016. The list is topped by Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels with a BPA of .681, the third time he has finished in front. He has had a BPA over .600 in all five years that he has played a full season.
Bases per Plate Appearance (BPA) of .600+ in 2016
————————————————-
No. of 2016 2015 .600+
Player BPA BPA LG Seasons Comments
- Mike Trout .656 .623 A 5 Does it every year.
- David Ortiz .631 .533 A 6 Led MLB in OPS (on-base plus slugging).
- Freddie Freeman .616 .530 N 1 Big power improvement in 2016.
- Daniel Murphy .612 .450 N 1 2015 post season was not a fluke.
- Kris Bryant .611 .555 A 1 Does it all for Cubs.
- Josh Donaldson .609 .594 A 1 Slightly better than 2015 MVP season.
- Joey Votto .606 .633 N 4 Led NL in OBP.
Near misses were Charlie Blackmon with .597 and Brian Dozier at .594.
Four other players had a BPA over .600 in 2015 but failed to reach it in 2016.
No2016 2015 .600+
Player BPA BPA LG Seasons Comments
1 Bryce Harper .533 .694 N 1 Production fell way off.
2 Paul Goldschmidt .587 .638 N 1 Consistent with career BPA of .589.
3. Chris Davis .528 .607 A 2 Led MLB in strikeouts and batted .221.
4. Nelson Cruz .577 .600 A 1 Third straight year with 40+ HR.
Two active players have a BPA of .600 for their careers:
2016 Career Player Age BPA BPA Comments
————- — —- —- —————————
Mike Trout 24 .656 .638 Leader by far.
Alex Rodriguez 39 .383 .600 End of the line.
Another list of interest is of players with a BPA of over .600 in 2016 who did not have enough plate appearances (PA) to qualify for the batting title.
Player Age BPA PA Comments
————— — —- — ————————–
Gary Sanchez 23 .672 229 Higher BPA than Trout
Trea Turner 23 .664 324 Also higher than Trout
Trevor Story 23 .603 415 Season cut short by injury. Looking at the other end of the spectrum, seven players who earned enough playing time to qualify for the batting title had a BPA less than .400 in 2016. Last year, sixteen players were on this list and in 2014, there were twenty five.
Player BPA Team Comments
——————– — ———- —————–
Kevin Pillar .399 Blue Jays Compensates with strong defense.
Yonder Alonso .395 A’s Too low for a first baseman.
Yunel Escobar .392 Angels Fifth time on this list.
Jason Heyward .382 Cubs Cubs committed 184M for this?
Alcides Escobar .372 Royals Career BPA of .386.
Jose Iglesias .364 Tigers Career BPA of .382.
Adeiny Hechavarria .336 Marlins Has never had a .400 BPA season.
Four players had a batting average over .300, an on-base average over .400, a slugging percentage over .500 and bases per plate appearance over .600 in 2016.
Player BAVG OBA SLG BPA OPS
Mike Trout .315 .441 .550 .656 .991
David Ortiz .315 .401 .620 .631 1.021
Freddie Freeman .302 .400 .569 .612 .969
Joey Votto .326 .434 .550 .606 .984
Trout is the only one with these numbers for his career.
Mike Trout–Career .306 .405 .557 .638 .984
While Trout did not lead MLB in batting or slugging average, he led in most other measures including OBP, BPA, Total Average (Bases per Out) and WAR (Wins above Replacement). He was clearly the best offensive and all-around player in the Major Leagues in 2016, even though he played for a losing team.
Bill Gilbert
12/19/16
Source of statistics used in this report is the ”Lee Sinins 2017 Complete Baseball Encyclopedia”.
The Pecan Park Eagle 
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