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HISTORY IS MADE IN MULTIPLE WAYS IN 1891!

After one year of baseball’s new-look setup there were no major off-the-field shakeups ahead of the 1891 professional and semi-pro seasons. However, the action on the field would more than make up for the relative quiet off it, as history of both the spectacular and unique kind was made across the sport during the year.

JACOB MILBURN DETHRONES THE KING

As mentioned, ahead of the 1890s various changes were made to the rules and regulations of baseball that simultaneously granted hitters minor advantages (four balls for a walk) while tamping down their raw batting and gap power (bat size, shape, etc). Jacob Milburn again won MWBA Batsman of the Year in 1890, but for the first time he won it with a batting average under .400 and he did so with an OPS under 1.000 – the changes had their desired effect. In fact, his 1890 season was a full point of WAR better (5.5) than his 1887 in which he won BotY with a .409 AVG and 1.032 OPS (4.4 WAR).

Over the winter Milburn made some tweaks to his hitting approach, and he felt going into 1891 that he could crack .400 again. What he didn’t know was that he would have the single best batting season in the history of the sport.

Here was what Milburn did against the rest of the MWBA in 1891:

.438/.505/.616, 1.122 OPS (+225 OPS+), 119 R, 209 H, 30 2B, 26 3B, 57 XBH, 294 TB, 58 BB, 31 SB (4 CS), 7.33 WPA (9.28/162), 9.2 WAR (11.6/162)

Over 128 games Milburn led the fourteen-team league in:

Runs: 119 (1st by 19)
Hits: 209 (1st by 35)
Total Bases: 294 (1st by 56)
Doubles: 30 (1st by 2)
Triples: 26 (1st by 7)
Walks: 58 (tied for 1st)
Average: .438 (1st by 52 points)
OBP: .505 (1st by 67 points)
OPS: 1.122 (1st by 196 points)
OPS Plus: 225 (1st by 65 points)
WPA: 7.33 (1st by 1.47)
WAR: 9.2 (1st by 3.1)

His 9.0 offensive WAR was the single highest ever recorded in a season in any league, and as seen above he led the league in some categories by amounts never seen before. This was especially true of his 196-point OPS margin over second place. He did this in a Midwestern Baseball Association where the batting average was 5-10 points lower and the OPS 20-25 points lower than two years ago, before the new regulations were put in place.

Milburn hit quite well over the first two months of the season, comfortably 400+ at the end of June. However, what followed was the single-best month of batting anyone had ever laid eyes on:



3.30 WPA and 3.7 WAR over the 28 games Milburn played in July would translate to 19.09 WPA and 21.4 WAR over a modern 162-game schedule. From there, he coasted a bit and “only” hit .365 (.961 OPS) in the season’s final month to finish with a year that will be written about forever.

HANS EHLE GOES THE LIMIT FOR MILWAUKEE

Milwaukee Bavarians pitcher Hans Ehle, the most dominant pitcher in the sport, added a new accomplishment to his name in the 1891 season: he became the first pitcher ever to finish 40 complete games in consecutive seasons, ones in which Milwaukee won its first MWBA title and then lost the first edition of the Lincoln Memorial Cup in seven games to Cleveland.

The Bavarians went into the '90s having finished runners up in the MWBA three times, and they asked Ehle how much further he could push his pitching arm in order to put the team over the top. He obliged, throwing nearly 800 innings over 1890-91, and as the coaching staff hoped it led to championship baseball.

Ehle’s 1891 (MWBA leader in italics):

30-15, 2 SVs, 1.63 ERA (209 ERA+), 392 IP, 40 CG, 38 BB, 301 K, 7.9 K/BB, 0.98 WHIP, 16.9 WAR (9.7 per 225 IP)

Somehow 16.9 WAR was only the third-best single season total of his career to that point, but the result was another Hurler of the Year Award – his sixth in seven pro seasons.

PETTER LUND BECOMES THE FIRST POSITION PLAYER WITH 10+ WAR IN A SEASON

In the semi-pro ranks, the Reading Athletics’ 22-year-old star center fielder Petter Lund went into 1891 already as the league’s best player. He’d hit .315 the year before (.864 OPS, 159 OPS+) and stole 71 bases while playing Golden Glove outfield defense, leading to a league-high WAR of 7.3.

What Lund did for Reading over 110 games in 1891 was something far more spectacular:

.350/.426/.564, .990 OPS (198 OPS+), 89 R, 146 H, 62 XBH, 59 RBI, 235 TB, 90 SB (18 CS), 5.51 WPA (8.11/162), 10.0 WAR (14.7/162)

Batsman of the Year
Most Valuable Player
Golden Glove (OF)

He led the Northeastern League in hits, average, OBP, slugging, and naturally OPS, while stealing no less than 90 bases and playing more Golden Glove defense at CF. The result: 5.8 offensive WAR and 4.2 WAR from other areas for a total of 10.0, making him the first position player in baseball history to earn 10+ Wins Above Replacement in a single season.

The fact that he had only just turned 22 before the start of the season made the accomplishment even more incredible, and no doubt the APBL or the MWBA would come calling to Reading with a bag of cash and a contract offer in short order.

KNICKERBOCKERS GET APBL’S #1 RECORD & PRESIDENT’S CUP WITH NO TEAM OF THE YEAR MEMBERS

1891 wouldn’t see any truly historic individual performances in the APBL. Lindsey Christianson of Philadelphia was the Batting Champion at .349. Nobody drove in 100 runs or hit more than a handful of home runs. No starter had an ERA under 2.00. Jakob Hogh (Buffalo) and Jurgen Schultz (Pennsylvania) both won 30+ games, but given the new length of the APBL season (132 G) it was expected that at least one pitcher a year would win 30+ since teams still had three-man starting rotations.

Along the same lines, the New York Knickerbockers made history with a team full of players who performed in a similar vein, becoming the first team in baseball history to have either their league’s best record or win their league’s championship series while having zero players make the league’s official Team of the Year, and they did both.

NYK was an APBL-best 80-52 with a starting lineup full of position players that ranged from 1.5-4.5 Wins Above Replacement. Nobody hit better than .315, and they were 4th in runs scored while just 10th out of 16 teams in batting average. Their pitching staff was 3rd in ERA, 4th in WAR, and just 9th in strikeouts. All three members of the rotation won 20+ games, but their best performer was about four points of WAR off Pitcher of the Year Hogh of Buffalo.

So, how did the Knickerbockers find success? They were top-three in the APBL in runs allowed thanks to a defense that was top-three in fielding percentage and errors while topping the league in Zone Rating. Their pitchers also allowed the fewest walks in the league, and those factors led the team to be extremely successful in close games, culminating in their 4-2 President’s Cup series win over the Buffalo Blues.

SYRACUSE GOES 89-25 WITHOUT A SINGLE PLAYER HITTING .300

Back in the semi-pro ranks, the Syracuse Emeralds of the Northeastern League made some odd history of their own in 1891.

The Emeralds finished the regular season with the NEL’s best record by eleven games, going 89-25 (.781) and finishing no less than twenty-three games in the clear in the New York Conference. Yet, they did this without having a single regular position player hit .300 or better, which was the first time a league champion or division/conference winner had done so. They finished 5th out of 20 NEL teams in runs scored, average, and OPS, but the best hitter in their lineup topped out at .293 (CF Ilario Cercignani) and only two others hit above .260.

Even with that seeming lack of offensive punch, Syracuse won 78 percent of their games before the Adams Trophy series because they were easily the best in the twenty-team league in numerous other areas:

#1 in Runs Allowed (385, 3.37 p/g)
#1 in Starters’ ERA (2.43)
#1 in Relievers’ ERA (1.53)
#1 in Fielding-Independent Pitching (2.35)
#1 in Pitching WAR (28.8, 40.9/162)
#1 in Strikeouts (700, 6.14 p/g)
#1 in Errors (206, 1.81 p/g)
#2 in Zone Rating (+85.2)
#2 in Def. Efficiency (.695)

However, in the Adams Cup finals they were up against the aforementioned Petter Lund and the 78-36 Reading Athletics, where Syracuse’s relative lack of attack finally did them in. They were swept 3-0 while being outscored 16-9, and what had been a historic season ended with a crash at the final hurdle.