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1890s IN REVIEW: BEST OF THE DECADE

TEAM OF THE DECADE

Providence Saints (American Professional Baseball League)





1890: 74-58, 2nd place in Colonial Conference (5 GB)
1891: 66-66, 5th place in Colonial Conference (13 GB)
1892: 90-42, won President’s Cup 4-2 over Brooklyn
1893: 91-41, won President’s Cup 4-1 over N.Y. Athletics
1894: 90-42, won President’s Cup 4-2 over Pennsylvania
1895: 79-53, won President’s Cup 4-0 over Pennsylvania
1896: 90-42, won President’s Cup 4-1 over Excelsior
1897: 94-38, won President’s Cup 4-1 over Excelsior
1898: 83-49, 2nd place in Colonial Conference (4 GB)
1899: 86-46, won President’s Cup 4-0 over Brooklyn

1890s: 843-477 record (.639 WIN%), 7 President’s Cup victories in 7 appearances

After regressing from second place to fifth in the C.C. in 1891, the Providence Saints won seven of the last eight President’s Cup trophies of the 1890s. Their winning percentage over the last eight years of the decade: .667.

What made the Saints the team of the decade wasn’t just the fact that their incredible run of cup wins took place in the oldest and highest-spending league in existence. It was that their cup runs came on the back of late-season form that gradually took on nearly mythical status, with their most famous late summer surge taking place in 1895, when they went 17-2 to end the season to vault from third to first in the C.C. After that, they proceeded to sweep the Pennsylvania Quakers, holders of the most dominant offense in league history, while allowing a total of four runs over the four games.

To make the Saints' run of seven titles in eight years even more impressive, during that time they saw the man who managed the team to its first four titles – Stephen Lochhead – retire, the staff ace for their first five cup runs – Charles Wilkerson – leave, their outfield retooled every couple of years, and the expansion of starting rotations from three men to four. It didn’t matter – they kept winning. This was more than likely because of the core of their position player group – C Ray Leonard, 2B Charles Woodram, 3B Brogan Williams, SS Charley Rankins, and OF Daniel Snell – was present the entire time.

In the Midwestern Baseball Association, the Milwaukee Bavarians actually finished the decade with a better winning percentage (.650) and more cup final appearances than Providence, as the Bavarians managed to make it to all ten editions of the Lincoln Memorial Cup during the decade. However, they “only” took home the cup five times as they spent much of the decade alternating championships with the Indianapolis Indians. Providence’s superior cup final record of seven wins in seven appearances put them over the top.


BATSMAN OF THE DECADE

Jacob Milburn – St. Louis Saints (MWBA, 1890-94), Penn. Quakers (APBL, 1895-98), Peoria Cardinals (GLBC, 1899)








1,892 H, 264 2B, 186 3B, 29 HR, 773 RBI, 647 BB, 252 K, 303 SB, 2,615 TB, .394/.466/.544, 1.010 OPS (183 OPS+)

53.46 WPA (6.93 per 162 G) – most of any player in the 1890s, 63.8 WAR (8.3 per 162 G)

7x Batsman of the Year (4x MWBA, 2x APBL, 1x GLBC)
5x Most Valuable Player (3x MWBA, 1x APBL, 1x GLBC)
8x Team of the Year (5x MWBA, 2x APBL, 1x GLBC)
5x Batting Champion (3x MWBA, 1x APBL, 1x GLBC)

3x League leader in Position Player WAR (2x APBL, 1x GLBC)
7x League leader in On-Base % (4x MWBA, 2x APBL, 1x GLBC)
7x League leader in Slugging % (5x MWBA, 1x APBL, 1x GLBC)
7x League leader in OPS (5x MWBA, 1x APBL, 1x GLBC)
6x League leader in Hits (4x MWBA, 1x APBL, 1x GLBC)
3x MWBA leader in Doubles (1891, 93, 94)
3x League leader in Runs (1x MWBA, 1x APBL, 1x GLBC)
2x APBL leader in Runs Batted In (1895, 96)

5x Average over .400 (1891, 93-94, 96, 99)
5x OPS over 1.000 (1891, 93-94, 96, 99)
4x On-base % over .500 (1891, 93, 96, 99)
1x Double-digit WAR (1896: 10.1)

1893: 1.140 OPS – single-season record at any level
1899: First position player with over 100 Career WAR (101.6)

Jacob Milburn repeated as Batsman of the Decade, as he was the best technical hitter in the sport until he finally started to tail off a bit during the 1898 season, during which he turned 38. By the end of the 1890s he’d won Batsman of the Year for the thirteenth time, taken home his sixth league Most Valuable Player award, and been nominated to his fifteenth league Team of the Year – all in the American Baseball Association ranks. Of course, when he went home to Illinois and played for semi-pro Peoria in 1899 he added GLBC Batsman of the Year, Most Valuable Player, and Team of the Year honors as well.

There really is no other player who came close to Milburn’s accomplishments at the plate in the 1890s. If there was a second pick it would probably be Milwaukee second baseman Thierry Moreau. He didn’t join the MWBA until 1892, but in eight years he won four cup titles, put up a slash line of .373/.459/.507 for an OPS of .966 (161 OPS+) and finished the decade with a WAR of 48.4 (7.7/162 G). He also hit over .400 in 1898 (.430).

Bottom line: Jacob Milburn had seasons where he hit .430 with an OBP north of .500 in the MWBA and then he repeated the trick in the APBL, where the pitching was notably harder to deal with.


HURLER OF THE DECADE

Hans Ehle – Milwaukee Bavarians (1890-99)








307-108, 14 SV, 2.09 ERA (171 ERA+), 3,737 IP, 369 CG, 47 SHO, 586 BB (1.4 BB/9), 2,392 K, (5.8 K/9), 4.1 K/BB, 1.15 WHIP

53.2 WPA (3.2 per 225 IP), 144.7 WAR (8.7 per 225 IP)

5x Lincoln Memorial Cup winner (1890, 94-95, 97, 99)
1x Lincoln Memorial Cup MVP (1890)
7x MWBA Hurler of the Year (1890-96)
10x MWBA Team of the Year at P (1890-99)
1x MWBA Golden Glove at P (1899)

10x MWBA leader in Pitching WAR (1890-99)
7x MWBA leader in Wins (1890-96)
4x MWBA leader in ERA (1890-91, 95, 99)
8x MWBA leader in K/BB Ratio (1890-93, 95-98)
4x MWBA leader in Complete Games (1890-91, 93, 97)
4x MWBA leader in Innings Pitched (1890, 94, 96-97)
3x MWBA leader in WHIP (1892, 95-96)
2x MWBA leader in Shutouts (1893, 99)

9x Double-digit Pitching WAR (1890-98)
7x 30-game Winner (1890-96)
4x 300+ Strikeouts (1890-93)
3x Sub-2.00 ERA (1890-92)

1894: 37 Wins – single-season record at any level

307 wins in a single decade? 144.7 WAR over a span of ten years? Seven straight HotY awards? Ten appearances in the Lincoln Memorial Cup, with five titles? That’s the Hurler of the Decade.

As predicted when it came time to review the 1880s, Hans Ehle was easily the best hurler in baseball in the 1890s. While there were pitchers who put up numbers nearly as impressive as Ehle for a few seasons at a time, in the end nobody came remotely close to either his award haul or statistical output during the decade. Ehle finally showed some signs of falling off a bit during the 1899 season, during which he turned 35. In this case, “falling off” meant he led the MWBA in Pitching WAR for the fifteenth season in a row but it was the first time his WAR was under 10 - a measly 9.7. That was still 2.6 points higher than any other MWBA pitcher (Martin Kearns: 7.3). His run of HotY awards finally came to an end thanks to a pair of extraordinary seasons from Minneapolis’ Henry Danforth in 1897 & ‘98, and then Martin Kearns coming close to a pitching Triple Crown in 1899 (1st in Wins, 3rd in ERA, 1st in Ks).

Due to Ehle’s appearance in the Lincoln Memorial Cup every year of the 1890s, he threw an incredible 233.1 innings in cup final play, going 11-11 with a 2.66 ERA, 44 walks, 115 strikeouts, and 7.5 WAR. By comparison, Providence pitcher Charles Carlyle was in the rotation for all seven of the Saints’ President’s Cup wins and threw 124 innings over that span.

Thanks in no small part to his average of 31 wins per year during his time in Providence, Charles Wilkerson won 266 games during the 1890s and added a WAR of 123.7 while finishing in double-digits seven times. He also won a pair of APBL Hurler of the Year awards and five President’s Cups, with his signing being the final piece that started the Saints on their title-winning ways. Wilkerson was definitely the APBL’s Hurler of the Decade, but unfortunately for him there was a superior pitcher in the MWBA.


PLAYER OF THE DECADE

Charley Rankin – Providence Saints (1890-99)








1,664 H, 299 2B, 216 3B, 31 HR, 843 RBI, 647 BB, 199 HBP, 550 K, 343 SB, 2,506 TB, .328/.424/.494, .918 OPS (155 OPS+), +244 ZR at SS (+30.6/162 G)

43.06 WPA (5.35 per 162 G), 92.8 WAR (11.5 per 162 G) – most of any player in the 1890s, led APBL 9/10 seasons

7x President’s Cup winner (1892-97, 99)
1x President’s Cup MVP (1893)
2x APBL Batsman of the Year (1892-93)
6x APBL Most Valuable Player (1890, 92, 95-96, 98-99)
8x APBL Team of the Year at SS (1891-97, 99)
6x APBL Golden Glove at SS (1890, 95-99)
1x APBL Batting Champion (1892: .385)

9x APBL leader in Position Player WAR (1890-93, 95-99)
7x APBL leader in Hit by Pitch (1890-91, 93-95, 97-98)
6x APBL leader in Zone Rating at SS (1890, 95-99)
2x APBL leader in Runs (1892-93)
2x APBL leader in Runs Batted In (1892-93)
2x APBL leader in Slugging % (1892, 98)
2x APBL leader in OPS (1892, 98)

2x Double-digit WAR (1892, 96)
2x 100+ Runs Batted In (1892, 93)

1892: 11.8 Wins Above Replacement (14.8 per 162 G) – single-season record for position players at any level

The best player on the best team of the decade is a good bet for Player of the Decade, but Charley Rankin really was the best player of the 1890s. Included as evidence: he led the APBL in position player WAR no less than nine times in ten seasons, starting when he was only 21. The 1892 season where he led the league in Batting Average, OPS, and RBI while seeing a Zone Rating of +30.0 at shortstop is probably the best single season a position player has ever had. His 8.18 WPA that year would translate to 10.27 over a modern 162-game schedule, and his WAR of 11.8, the position player record, would be 14.8 over a season of a similar length. Rankin also had a bizarre knack for getting plunked at opportune times, as shown by the fact that he was hit by pitches more often than any other APBL player in seven seasons during the decade.

PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL TEAM OF THE DECADE

C: Otto Christianson (Lake Mich.) – 1x Champ, 6x TotY, 5x Golden Glove, 26.93 WPA, 42.4 WAR – 1898: .356, 3 HR, 93 RBI
1B: Lemuel Sanders (3 teams) – 3x BotY, 3x TotY, 31.2 WPA, 41.0 WAR – 1897: .400, 8 HR, 94 RBI, 1.072 OPS
2B: Thierry Moreau (Milwaukee) – 4x Champ, 1x Cup MVP, 3x MVP, 2x BotY, 8x TotY, 42.52 WPA, 48.4 WAR – 1898: .430, 228 H, 91 RBI, 1.077 OPS
3B: Simpson Cotter (3 teams) – 1x Champ, 1x Cup MVP, 4x TotY, 18.56 WPA, 31.3 WAR – 1894: .308, 7 HR, 90 RBI
SS: Charley Rankin (Providence) – 7x Champ, 6x MVP, 2x BotY, 8x TotY, 6x GG, 43.06 WPA, 92.8 WAR – 1892: .385, 205 H, 7 HR, 111 RBI, 1.046 OPS, 11.8 WAR
OF: Jacob Milburn (3 teams) – 7x BotY, 5x MVP, 8x TotY, 53.46 WPA, 63.8 WAR – 1896: .430, 105 R, 215 H, 97 RBI, 1.104 OPS, 10.1 WAR
CF: Thomas Ervin (3 teams) – 4x Champ, 3x MVP, 2x BotY, 5x GG, 7x TotY, 46.07 WPA, 63.8 WAR – 1894: .395, 140 R, 209 H, 96 RBI, 108 SB, 1.104 OPS, 10.42 WPA, 10.1 WAR
OF: Charleston Kirk (3 teams) – 4x Champ, 3x BotY, 6x TotY, 40.42 WPA, 46.5 WAR – 1895: .386, 100 RBI, 107 BB, 52 SB, 1.031 OPS, 7.32 WPA, 5.9 WAR

SP: Hans Ehle (Milwaukee) – 5x Champ, 1x Cup MVP, 7x HotY, 10x TotY, 1x GG, 144.7 WAR – 1890: 34-11, 1.58 ERA, 305 K, 19.2 WAR
SP: Charles Wilkerson (3 teams) – 5x Champ, 1x Cup MVP, 2x HotY, 7x TotY, 123.7 WAR – 1893: 34-10, 2.33 ERA, 257 K, 13.4 WAR
SP: George Patterson (NYA/Excelsior) – 1x Champ, 2x HotY, 1x TotY, 86.3 WAR – 1895: 32-11, 1.87 ERA, 156 K, 7 SHO, 12.7 WAR
SP: Martin Kearns (Detroit) – 1x HotY, 2x TotY, 10x K Champ, 114.7 WAR – 1894: 35-10, 2.03 ERA, 249 K, 13 SHO, 11.2 WAR