The Baseball Talmud: The Definitive Position-by-Position Ranking of Baseball's Chosen Players

The Baseball Talmud: The Definitive Position-by-Position Ranking of Baseball's Chosen Players

From the icons of the game to the players who got their big break but never quite broke through, The Baseball Talmud provides a wonderful historical narration of Major League Jewish Baseball in America. All the stats, the facts, the stories, and the (often unheralded) glory. The Baseball Talmud reveals that there is far more to Jewish baseball than Hank Greenberg's powerful slugging and Sandy Koufax's masterful control. From Ausmus to Zinn, Berg to Kinsler, Holtzman to Yeager, and many others, Megdal draws upon the lore and the little-known details that increase our enjoyment of the game, including: Which Jewish player spent a portion of his retirement as a spy Who received $50,000 and a car to quit school and join the Major Leagues How many players sat out of games scheduled on Yom Kippur Which famous player chose baseball over becoming a rabbi But this is more than just stories. Megdal, a stat geek himself, uses the wealth of modern sabermetrics to determine the greatest Jewish players at each position, the all-time Jewish All-Star Team, and how they would rate against the greatest teams in baseball history, from the 1906 Chicago Cubs to the 1998 New York Yankees. The Baseball Talmud rewrites the history of Jewish baseball and is a book that every baseball fan should own. “Howard Megdal’s witty and informative book gives the definitive rabbinic commentary on the 160―Who knew?―Jews who played in the Major Leagues. These guys could pitch, field and hit. Plus, they loved their mothers.” -- L. Jon Wertheim, Senior Writer, Sports Illustrated and author of Running the Table and Blood in the Cage “What is there to say about a book that, among its many merits, invents the “value-added Judaism” statistic? With high humor and a strong grasp of his facts, Howard Megdal answers questions and addresses issues that Jewish fans have long wondered about―and fans of other faiths will also enjoy.” -- John Eisenberg, author of The Great Match Race “In the spirit of a lavish bar mitzvah, The Baseball Talmud skimps on nothing. They’re all here―the greats, the unknowns, the descendants of Abraham and the recently converted. This is the book Bill James would have written―if he were Jewish.” -- Jeremy Schaap, ESPN reporter and author of Cinderella Man Howard Megdal edits The Perpetual Post, writes for ESPN.com, Capital New York, MLBTradeRumors.com and many others. His new book, Taking The Field , is available for order, with a May 10 release from Bloomsbury. The Baseball Talmud The Definitive Position-by-Position Ranking of Baseball's Chosen Players By HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. ISBN: 9780061558436 Chapter One The Greatest Jewish Baseball Player 1. Hank Greenberg There is broad consensus on who the two best Jewish players in major league history are—Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax. But the confusion over which player is the best is perfectly understandable—the two performances are very close, and while the players played two very different positions, their careers mirror each other. Greenberg was a power-hitting first baseman in the best offensive era in baseball history, the 1930s. Koufax was a power pitcher in the best pitching era in baseball history, the 1960s. Greenberg's career numbers were limited by World War II. Koufax's career numbers were limited by injury that caused his retirement at age 30. So how do we go about determining which elite player is better? Baseball Prospectus's WARP3, which determines season value in terms of wins over a replacement-level player, adjusted for park and era, is an important tool. Through this metric, we see that Koufax put up a career total of 68.3 wins over replacement player in 12 seasons, with his first 6 seasons totaling 13.9 wins, and his final 6 seasons totaling 54.4 wins. Greenberg, meanwhile was at 77.0 wins in his career over 12 seasons (plus one at bat in 1930). Greenberg was a valuable player from the start and posted a season of eight wins in 1934, his second full year, at age 23. So for a greater portion of his career, Greenberg was an elite player. But the question becomes, was Koufax better in his prime to balance things out? The answer is: not really. Match up their best seasons, and you get the following: Koufax: 11.9, 10.6, 10.3, 8.2, 7.7, 5.7, 3.7, 3.5 Greenberg: 10.5, 9.8, 9.7, 9.6, 9.2, 8.0, 6.6, 5.5 While Koufax's 1966 stands a bit above anything Greenberg did, the next few best seasons are pretty indistinguishable—and Greenberg simply had more of them. 2. Sandy Koufax There is, amazingly enough, a statistical argument to be made for Lou Boudreau over Sandy Koufax. But there are a couple of factors that make me discount the edge Boudreau would have. Boudreau's WARP3 values are astounding—he had a 15.7 WARP3 in 1948, his signature season. And this was not as flukish as you'd expect—he also posted seasons at 12.1, 12.0, 12.0, and 11.8. His career total of 110.1 dwarfs Koufax's 68.3. But this total is built on a pair of adjustments I simpl