Gordon Knopp, By the Numbers

[KenH]

As the award was well in hand before the season had even ended. Gordon Knopp had won the 2033 IL Royal Raker award handily. In what had been the most foregone conclusion in the history of the league, Knopp walked into the post season sporting an absolutely dominant 12.7 WAR, best in PEBA history by a long shot. There are any number of accolades we can thrust on the phenom, but let’s try with some numbers.

23. Knopp was a mere babe this season. Although he is now 24, he didn’t celebrate that until well into the playoffs on October 27th. (A day in which the Farstriders lost a playoff game to the Alleghenies.) There has never been a 23 year old win this award before. The most common ages are between 26-29. I cannot stress enough that this seems to imply that we have not yet seen the best of what Gordon Knopp has to offer us. That is terrifying.

6. There have been six other players that have won both the Platinum Stick and the All-Leather awards for their prospective positions. These other six players are Cory PIerce (LF), Andres Hernandez (1b), Vincente Bernal (RF), Nathan Carter (2b), Don Mercer (LF), and Alejandro Lujan (3b). Never has there been a player that has won both the All-Leather award in premium defensive position AND the Platinum Stick award in the same year in the history of PEBA. Gordon Knopp just did that.

12.74. Gordon Knopp blew past Jeff Cline’s 2009 season this year by 2.6 WAR in a single season. That’s Jeff Cline’s season… plus another decent season by a starter. Knopps statistics were not really the best ever in any other category… just cumulatively and in tandem, they ended up far surpassing the next closest WAR accumulation.

110. It has been that many years since professional baseball has seen a season as prolific as the one put up by a single player. The man who last crested 12.7 WAR in a season? None other than George Herman “Babe” Ruth who, in 1921, put up 12.9 WAR. Of course, that may only tell a part of the story in that season, The Great Bambino was 3 years older and had an additional 70 plate appearances, meaning that, at-bat for at-bat… Knopp was actually better. But that’s not all…

0.02032. A small number. If you were to receive .02032 of a thing, the reaction would be one of confusion. Why are we talking about such a small, trivial thing? This number is how much WAR Knopp accumulated per plate appearance. To calculate this, I looked only at total plate appearances, divided by total WAR. Obviously, this factors in defensive output which, as we have already covered, Knopp was one of, if not THE best, defensive center fielders this season, but regardless, what this shows is a player’s efficiency at accumulating the most prized stat. Why does this matter? Well, for one simple reason and it goes back to the last number. 110. 112 years ago, the modern baseball era saw its best WAR accumulation ever by a single player in Babe Ruth. In 1921, the Great Bambino put up an absolutely staggering 14.2 WAR on 699 plate appearances. If you do the math, that number comes out to a number very similar to Knopp’s… 0.02031. What does this mean? It means that, if Knopp had an extra 74 at bats, and assuming consistent production over those at-bats, that he would have crested the once unreachable heights of the all time modern record… by .00699 WAR. Nice, right?

If you want to blame anyone for this, blame GM Hannahs who decided to sit Knopp for 29 games over the course of the season. You could have been privy to the best season in modern baseball history, and he ROBBED you of that. Boo him. BOO HIM!

[Sandgnats]

Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[Dinosaurs]

Knopp is most definitely terrifying. That he plays a premium defensive position well, is testament to his athleticism.

[Leones]

en français: le booooo!

[Sandgnats]

en français: le booooo!