There are the old-school Lively Ball (it wasn't) Era hitters likeand, Hall of Famers all and deservedly so, but it needs to be understood just how much offense increased in the 1920s and 1930s--this chart shows the batting average leap beginning in 1920 through around 1941 when World War II affected everything from available players to materials to make baseballs:

The National League average batting average was .303 in 1930, a full 50 points above what it will likely be for both leagues in 2013. In 1930hit .386 when the league batted .303, or about 27.4% better than the league. Cabrera's .359 compared to the AL's .256 is 40.2% better--Cabrera is hitting over 100 points better than the league. Some day I'll follow up on THAT to see how often it occurs, but I suspect it won't be often.

Since this is a small list I can use advanced metrics from FanGraphs to give a fuller picture. This chart adds two very useful numbers, Weighted On-Base Average (wOBA) and Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+) for the 17 seasons in the chart above:

wOBA is a Tom Tango creation that moves beyond traditional hitting metrics by measuring value they deliver instead of just counting them. Scaling it to resemble traditional hitting metrics helps to understand how good a season a player had. Suffice it to say that any season with an wOBA of .400 or higher is excellent, which makes these 17 seasons simply stellar.

wRC+ is another Tom Tango creation that allows comparisons of offensive production across parks and eras. Any time there is a "+" after a number (usually OPS+ for offensive players, ERA+ for pitchers) it means the number is normalized. If you know and understand this, skip to the next paragraph. All normalization means is how much better the player was compared to the league. For example, Cabrera has an OPS of 1.137 and an OPS+ of 202. You can see the calculation for yourself here , but in essence this states that Cabrera's OPS+ is twice as good as the league's. Here are the pertinent numbers:

If you actually follow the formula and do the math, well, I got an OPS+ of 210 vs. his actual 202, but I chalk that up to me. The League values do NOT include Cabrera's production, so that's not it--let's just leave it aside for now since the important point remains the same--his production is DOUBLE the league's average, and this is historic.

wRC+, with a "+" behind it, is another normalized stat with a league average of 100. Cabrera's wRC+ is 206, again showing that his production is twice the league average. This chart shows every season since 1901 in which a player had a wRC+ of 200 or higher:





These 32 seasons can be grouped:

Frank Thomas excepted) 1. Enhanced offense years from 1994-2004 (excepted)

Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle and Stan Musial 2. The absolute best hitters in baseball between 1940-1960 inand

3. The Lively Ball hitters already discussed

Ty Cobb and Ruth (and no one else) were able to transcend the lack of home runs and still generate tremendous offensive production. Not that I care all that much for RBI, but Cobb drove in 102 with only 6 home runs in 1917. 4. The Dead Ball Era in whichand Ruth (and no one else) were able to transcend the lack of home runs and still generate tremendous offensive production. Not that I care all that much for RBI, but Cobb drove in 102 with only 6 home runs in 1917.

And then there's Cabrera, the first such season since 1957 (I'll discount Thomas's 1994 slightly because it was a strike-shortened year and the others between 1994-2004 have their well-known issues)--the first such season in FIFTY-SIX YEARS .

A season is a season, and by this point it's safe to state that Cabrera's 2013 isn't a fluke, After the discussion of these seasons, Dan Bernstein mentioned that Cabrera has averaged around .320 and 33 home runs in his last 10 seasons--how many stretches in baseball history matched this?





Albert Pujols, Vladimir Guerrero, Frank Thomas and Manny Ramirez, this level of sustained excellence will have to be taken into consideration. There will be other factors as Mike Piazza already discovered and at some point baseball will have to make some kind of determination on how to handle players from approximately 1990-2007, but that's a different post. In an age where virtually anything is labeled "historic," it is very important to recognize the truly stunning when it is seen. This is very solid company and helps put modern players in their proper historical context. I'll discuss this in far greater depth when we get closer to Hall of Fame balloting but there is a tendency to place greater emphasis on numbers for players we DIDN'T see play vs. those we did. It's a spin on the old "familiarity breeds contempt" notion that we discount and take for granted what we can see, but when the time for evaluation comes forand, this level of sustained excellence will have to be taken into consideration. There will be other factors as Mike Piazza already discovered and at some point baseball will have to make some kind of determination on how to handle players from approximately 1990-2007, but that's a different post. In an age where virtually anything is labeled "historic," it is very important to recognize the truly stunning when it is seen.





Chris Davis will cross that threshold in 2013. In this day and age we can't automatically assume Cabrera will be able to continue his offensive production into his late 30s, but it's very important to remember that he's only 30 now--if he puts up 3 more solid-to-spectacular seasons (and not even equal to this year--we're entering an era where .300/30 HR/100 RBI will again be special), he'll have achieved a level of sustained excellence that is extremely rare in baseball history. It used to be rare to hit 40 home runs, and around 1995 it became far more prevalent, but that incidence has shrunk again. How much this is due to reduced PED use vs. other factors won't be known for a long time, but it appears only Cabrera andwill cross that threshold in 2013. In this day and age we can't automatically assume Cabrera will be able to continue his offensive production into his late 30s, but it's very important to remember that he's only 30 now--if he puts up 3 more solid-to-spectacular seasons (and not even equal to this year--we're entering an era where .300/30 HR/100 RBI will again be special), he'll have achieved a level of sustained excellence that is extremely rare in baseball history.



