Jayson Stark wrote an article last week about how strange it was that Carlos Delgado had fallen off the Hall of Fame ballot after one year. And it is strange because Delgado came within shouting distance of 500 homeruns. For a long time, of course, 500 homers was a magic number that guaranteed (eventual) enshrinement. It meant you were one of the greatest power hitters of all time. But the high offense era that took hold in the latter half of the 1990s changed the way writers and fans view career homerun totals. There are now several players with more than 500 career homeruns (and one with more than 600) that have fallen short of election. Another, Rafael Palmeiro, has fallen off the ballot completely.

And yes, the assumption that a lot of these guys used PED's -- or the presence of a positive test -- is an easy excuse to vote no, but even players who are presumed to have been clean are seeing their homerun totals ignored. Delgado is one. Fred McGriff is another. They may have been drug free, but when everyone is clubbing dingers, there's no longer a reliable yard stick. We don't know what constitutes "a lot of homeruns" anymore.

This isn't a very original idea, perhaps, but I thought I'd put together a stat. I used Sean Lahman's database, which is available for free on his website, and is a great resource. The latest version only includes data through 2013, so these numbers aren't totally up to date.

Rather than just look at a player's raw homerun totals, I calculated the sum of the differences between his season totals and the league average for each season of his career. For the league average I only included players that qualified for the batting title, and I did not differentiate between leagues. If a player's total fell below the average, I rounded up to zero. I could have then calculated a rate per plate appearance, but I wanted to keep it a counting stat, like raw homeruns.

So for example:

In 2013, Alfonso Soriano hit 34 HR.

The average number in 2013 was 17 HR.



Soriano's adjusted HR total is 34 HR - 17 HR = 17 HR.

So we would add 17 HR to his adjusted career total.

Here are the Top 30 adjusted homerun totals in Major League history (through 2013):

Player Name Adjusted Homeruns Babe Ruth 572 Hank Aaron 407 Barry Bonds 383 Jimmie Foxx 368 Lou Gehrig 358 Willie Mays 343 Mel Ott 333 Mark McGwire 331 Mike Schmidt 320 Frank Thomas 316 Harmon Killebrew 315 Alex Rodriguez 312 Sammy Sosa 312 Reggie Jackson 286 Ted Williams 280 Frank Robinson 278 Ken Griffey Jr. 273 Jim Thome 265 Mickey Mantle 254 Eddie Mathews 253 Rafael Palmeiro 246 Albert Pujols 244 Ernie Banks 240 Manny Ramirez 236 Dave Kingman 235 Ralph Kiner 233 Hank Greenberg 224 Willie Stargell 223 Willie McCovey 219 Joe DiMaggio 211

I have a few of takeaways from this.

1. There were a lot of homeruns hit during the "steroid era", but the average wasn't so high that guys like McGwire and Sosa and Bonds didn't tower over the game. They're still high on this list. Even viewed in the context of the time, they hit a lot of long balls.

2. But they're not all bunched up at the top. And while Bonds isn't that far from Aaron, neither of those guys is anywhere near Ruth.

3. Frank Thomas and Mark McGwire were big time power hitters across two different eras. That's why Thomas and his 521 career homeruns ranks 10th while Jim Thome's 612 career homeruns is only good enough for 18th. Also, you can't pad your stats with mediocre years at the end of your career. If you don't surpass the average, it's like that year never happened.

4. McGriff (199) and Delgado (198) would be 35th and 36th respectively. Delgado is tied with Jose Canseco and Juan Gonzalez.

Anyway, it's a little something to chew on while we wait for spring.