McCovey/Pujols/Thomas/Bagwell/Votto/Hamilton in the 1920's-30's?

[Honus Wagner Rules]

Lets do this in reverse now. How would Willie McCovey, Albert Pujols, Frank Thomas, Jeff Bagwell, Joey Votto, and Josh Hamilton do in the 1920's-30's? Discuss!

[GiambiJuice]

We'll never know.

[pheasant]

I think the big parks and the foul ball rule that robbed hitters of homeruns would somewhat hurt Pujols HR power. However, his batting average would skyrocket.

Pujols in 1920s-1930 in playing in Yankee stadium: 32 HRs, 50 doubles, 5 triples during a 10 year peak per year, .350/.440/.625 career line. I.e, I see Pujols hitting only 8 pts lower than Hornsby for a career, but with better power.

Pujols in 1920-1930 playing in the baker Bowl: 48 HRs, 60 doubles 5 triples during 10 year peak, .390/.480/.750 career line

[3and2Fastball]

Are we pretending that Baseball is Integrated in the 20's and 30's or just transporting these players back to that time period?.

I see Pujols being the 3rd greatest player in the Negro Leagues behind Josh Gibson & Oscar Charleston. Frank Thomas would be somewhat similar to Mule Suttles, challenging Gibson (and I suppose Pujols) for the HR lead each year and wowing crowds with tape measure HR's

Lance Berkman is a player I'd love to see in the 20's/30's. With his combination of power/OBP/fielding and clutch hitting he'd be a valuable player in any era

Sad to say, I'm not sure Josh Hamilton would make it in the MLB back then. They didn't know as much then as they do now about alcoholism/drug addiction and they certainly didn't know how to treat the condition, and Hamilton would have likely been labelled as a failure and that would be that.

[Honus Wagner Rules]

Are we pretending that Baseball is Integrated in the 20's and 30's or just transporting these players back to that time period?.

I see Pujols being the 3rd greatest player in the Negro Leagues behind Josh Gibson & Oscar Charleston. Frank Thomas would be somewhat similar to Mule Suttles, challenging Gibson (and I suppose Pujols) for the HR lead each year and wowing crowds with tape measure HR's

Lance Berkman is a player I'd love to see in the 20's/30's. With his combination of power/OBP/fielding and clutch hitting he'd be a valuable player in any era

Sad to say, I'm not sure Josh Hamilton would make it in the MLB back then. They didn't know as much then as they do now about alcoholism/drug addiction and they certainly didn't know how to treat the condition, and Hamilton would have likely been labelled as a failure and that would be that.

Not sure why you have Albert Pujols in the Negro Leagues? He's not that dark...

[drstrangelove]

Not sure why you have Albert Pujols in the Negro Leagues? He's not that dark...

http://books.google.com/books?id=3uSbqUm8hSAC&pg=PA195&lpg=PA195&dq=bill+james+bobby+estalella&source=bl&ots=1lo1o88Ixo&sig=SP4nMu6B1jOQPbDR-CzGccO34F4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=uRDqT5nRHsi42QWs5uHaCA&ved=0CEkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=bill%20james%20bobby%20estalella&f=false

Bobby Estalella.

[3and2Fastball]

Not sure why you have Albert Pujols in the Negro Leagues? He's not that dark...

Were there any Dominican Republic or Caribbean players in MLB before integration? There were at least a few Cuban players in the Negro Leagues.

I'm under the impression that MLB prior to 1947 was exclusively played by White American ballplayers.

[chicagowhitesox1173]

Are we pretending that Baseball is Integrated in the 20's and 30's or just transporting these players back to that time period?.

I see Pujols being the 3rd greatest player in the Negro Leagues behind Josh Gibson & Oscar Charleston. Frank Thomas would be somewhat similar to Mule Suttles, challenging Gibson (and I suppose Pujols) for the HR lead each year and wowing crowds with tape measure HR's

Lance Berkman is a player I'd love to see in the 20's/30's. With his combination of power/OBP/fielding and clutch hitting he'd be a valuable player in any era

Sad to say, I'm not sure Josh Hamilton would make it in the MLB back then. They didn't know as much then as they do now about alcoholism/drug addiction and they certainly didn't know how to treat the condition, and Hamilton would have likely been labelled as a failure and that would be that.

Hamilton would probably fit right in back then. He wouldn't be doing drugs. As far as I know they really didn't have street drugs.

[Honus Wagner Rules]

Were there any Dominican Republic or Caribbean players in MLB before integration? There were at least a few Cuban players in the Negro Leagues.

I'm under the impression that MLB prior to 1947 was exclusively played by White American ballplayers.

It seems to me that how dark a player was the main criteria? How dark was Chief Bender? Frank Baker, in all of his photos, looks pretty swarthy to me. Of course it's hard to tell in black and white photos plus, Baker's last name was "Baker". How aobut Jim Thorpe? IMO Pujols is no darker than Thorpe.

[dominik]

today's albert pujols would hit 100 dongs in this period. this pitching is BP for him.

however if he was born then he would not have the training, medical support (whatever that means), video analysis, nutrition...
that means he would not be that huge and strong and probably in the end wouldn't have hit much better than now.

[Honus Wagner Rules]

today's albert pujols would hit 100 dongs in this period. this pitching is BP for him.

however if he was born then he would not have the training, medical support (whatever that means), video analysis, nutrition...
that means he would not be that huge and strong and probably in the end wouldn't have hit much better than now.

Can you imagine the looks of baseball folks in 1930 if Albert Pujols just showed up at a ballpark looking like this?

muscfit_may07cover.jpg

[Blackout]

today's albert pujols would hit 100 dongs in this period.

dong??


lmao that's the funniest term for a home run i've ever heard

[brett]

Pujols in a typical park would definitely have had several .370+ batting averages. His relative average in Hornsby's setting would put him at .347. If you just reduce then number of hits robbed on balls in play from today's rate to then you get about a .356 average at this point and .393 and .390 in his top 2 seasons and that doesn't include that he probably would have probably only averaged about 35-40 Ks a year against the pitchers of that day. I think he would have probably hit .400-.410 in those 2 years. I think that Cobb playing in Hornsby's setting would have hit just under .380 for his career though.

[brett]

Thomas would have just about matched Foxx's career batting average and home runs but with an extra 30-40 walks a year and in a normal park. He would have had a 170 OPS+ and his .340 seasons would be .370+. His decline would have brought his average down from a peak of about .360 after 1997.

[willshad]

Thomas would have just about matched Foxx's career batting average and home runs but with an extra 30-40 walks a year and in a normal park. He would have had a 170 OPS+ and his .340 seasons would be .370+. His decline would have brought his average down from a peak of about .360 after 1997.

I don;t think Thomas matches Foxx's home run totals. Thomas was more of a line drive hitter whose home runs were by 'accident', and Foxx was a pure power guy. I don't see Thomas matching Lou's home run totals either. I think in the huge stadiums of the 20s and 30s his batting average goes up,but his home runs go down. I picture him as a Hornsby type of hitter, but not quite as good. A lot of Hornsb'y triples would be doubles for Thomas, and a lot of his doubles would be singles.