I’ve had this on my to-do list for a while. Now’s as good a time as any…

Using Baseball-Reference’s Play Index tool, I found the top 300 single-game performances by Padres hitters as measured by RE24 and WPA. One of these measures runs, the other wins… so they’re not on the same scale. It makes no sense to add the two figures (just as it makes no sense to add OBP and SLG to create OPS), but I like the idea of having a context-dependent component and a context-independent component.

Because RE24 and WPA are on different scales, I chose to adjust the values so they would have equal weight. The best Padres hitting performance as measured by RE24 is 6.851. The best as measured by WPA is 1.054. Divide 6.851 by 1.054 and you get 6.5, so that is our multiplier. In other words, we multiply every WPA by 6.5 to put it on the same scale as RE24. Then we add the two numbers, i.e., RE24 + 6.5 * WPA, to get a mess that roughly answers our question.

Like OPS, it isn’t elegant but it works well enough to give us a starting point for discussion. Although there may be better methods of determining this sort of thing, I’m comfortable with the current one for now. We’re not definitively answering the most meaningful questions on the planet here, we’re just having fun… with numbers.

Top 10 by RE24

Player               Date Opp Result  AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K  RE24  WPA OPS+
Ken Caminiti     09/19/95 Col W 15-4   4 2 4  1  0  2   8  1 0 6.851 .238 137
Bubba Trammell   08/23/02 Fla W 18-2   5 4 4  0  0  2   4  0 0 6.686 .362 105
Nate Colbert     08/01/72 Atl W 11-7   4 4 3  0  0  3   8  1 0 6.445 .201 145
Brian Giles      05/17/06 Ari W 14-10  6 2 4  1  0  1   7  0 0 6.193 .420 107
Benito Santiago  09/13/91 SF  W 13-2   5 3 5  1  0  1   5  0 0 5.981 .244  93
Bobby Tolan      07/17/74 Phi W 15-1   4 3 3  0  0  2   6  0 1 5.979 .211 101
Cito Gaston      05/23/70 SF  W 17-16  5 3 3  0  0  1   3  4 0 5.888 .466 144
John Kruk        08/04/87 Atl L  7-12  5 2 3  0  0  2   7  0 0 5.505 .268 140
Ramon Hernandez  09/27/05 SF  W  9-6   4 1 2  0  1  1   7  0 1 5.400 .669 107
Ryan Klesko      05/21/01 Hou W  7-6   3 3 3  0  0  2   5  1 0 5.386 .702 145

Note: OPS+ is for season in which game occurred; all other stats are for game in question.

• These tend not to be hugely clutch performances, with most coming in blowouts.
• Klesko has the highest WPA (.702) among the players on the RE24 list.
• What’s up with that 17-16 game against the Giants in 1970?

Top 10 by WPA

Player               Date Opp Result  AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K   WPA  RE24 OPS+
Steve Finley     09/10/96 Pit W  6-5   5 2 4  1  0  1   3  0 0 1.054 1.677 135
Johnny Jeter     08/21/72 ChN W  6-5   3 1 2  0  0  1   3  2 1  .928  .459  71
Mark Parent      09/28/88 LA  W  2-1   1 1 1  0  0  1   2  0 0  .914  .000  72
Bip Roberts      07/25/91 Mtl W  6-5   5 3 3  0  0  1   2  0 0  .910  .912  92
Dave Winfield    07/23/79 Phi W  6-5   5 1 4  0  0  1   3  0 0  .870 2.299 166
Carmelo Martinez 06/10/88 LA  W  4-3   1 0 1  1  0  0   2  0 0  .844  .000 106
Scott Hairston   08/03/07 SF  W  4-3   3 2 2  0  0  2   4  0 0  .828 2.364  94
Joe Lefebvre     09/13/82 LA  L  3-4   8 1 6  1  0  1   2  0 0  .821 4.354  77
Ron Gant         08/08/02 Phi W  7-4   5 1 3  0  1  1   4  0 0  .813 1.492 125
Carmelo Martinez 09/14/86 Hou W  3-2   1 1 1  0  0  1   2  0 0  .804  .000 101

Note: OPS+ is for season in which game occurred; all other stats are for game in question.

• Parent’s pinch-homer ended one of the great Padres pitchers duels.
• Martinez is the only player to make either list twice, and he does so both times as a pinch-hitter.
• Jeter just misses joining Martinez, placing 11th on the WPA list.
• Lefebvre has the highest RE24 (4.354) of any of the players on the WPA list.

Top 11 by Mess (RE24 + 6.5 * WPA)

Player          Date      Mess  RE24  Rk   WPA  Rk
Ryan Klesko     05/21/01 9.949 5.386  10  .702  32
Ramon Hernandez 09/27/05 9.749 5.400   9  .669  45
Joe Lefebvre    09/13/82 9.691 4.354  55  .821   8
Reggie Sanders  08/27/99 9.351 4.989  18  .671  43
Bubba Trammell  08/23/02 9.039 6.686   2  .362 N/A
Brian Giles     05/17/06 8.923 6.193   4  .420 N/A
Cito Gaston     05/23/70 8.917 5.888   7  .466 269
Dave Kingman    07/03/77 8.674 5.027  15  .561 129
Dave Winfield   06/10/78 8.554 4.719  34  .590  91
Steve Finley    09/10/96 8.528 1.677 N/A 1.054   1
Ken Caminiti    09/19/95 8.398 6.851   1  .238 N/A

Note: I went to 11 for this one so we could include both Caminiti’s monster RE24 game and Finley’s monster WPA game.

There you have it: one man’s idea of the best single-game offensive performances in Padres history. One of these days, we’ll look at the pitchers…

* * *

• Selig: Moorad’s stake in D-backs sold (MLB.com). Up until last week, Jeff Moorad still owned 8% of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Like the rest of us, now he’ll have to admire Geoff Blum and his hair from afar.
• Forsythe brings versatility, fresh mindset (Padres.com). Logan Forsythe has been getting some looks at shortstop this spring. He isn’t super young (24), but I remain cautiously optimistic about his chances to contribute in some way.
• MLB Integration, 1947 to 1986 (SABR Baseball Biography Project). Terrific stuff from Mark Armour: “In 1965 when black players made up 20% of major league players, they accounted for 28% of the value, a huge difference when considering the size of the pool.”
• Why the Game Needs More Story, Less Sabermetrics (Bleacher Report). MLB official historian John Thorn pens a curious piece that includes this curious passage:
  

  OK, maybe Abe Lincoln did not urge Abner Doubleday with his dying breath to “keep baseball alive; America will need it in the trying days ahead.” So what?

  Frankly, in today’s baseball writing I miss such Sternian balderdash: the wink and the nudge of a Barnum or the tall-tale bluster of a Davy Crockett. Amid today’s mix of straight-on account and sabermetric analysis, I miss the fun.

  So, when did analysis and fun become mutually exclusive? And why would we sacrifice one in favor of the other? Craig Calcaterra offers his thoughts

  The point of any worthwhile sabermetric analysis is to answer a human question, not to traffic in numbers for numbers’ sake.

  Amen, brother. Answering human questions is a worthwhile endeavor. So is having fun, as I hope we did above when we examined the best single-game hitting performances in Padres history. Lots of good stories right there, I’d imagine.

• T-Padres go old school with uniforms (Ballpark Digest). The Tucson Padres have unveiled their caps and unis. Beautiful.
• Why We Have Halls of Fame (Joe Blogs). Former Padres Darrell May (yuck) and Joe Randa (yuck) show up here, as does USD alum John Wathan (not yuck) and a few personal faves (Al Cowens, Bo Jackson, Darrell Porter).
• Who’s the greatest living player for each team? (HardballTalk). See, here’s another “fun” discussion that benefits from use of statistics. Interesting list… I agree with most, but would go with Jim Thome for the Indians, Nolan Ryan for the Angels, Mike Piazza or Sandy Koufax for the Dodgers (tough call), and Luis Gonzalez for the D’backs. Craig Biggio probably deserves some love for the Astros, too… Honestly, this is harder than you might think.

Tagged as: abner doubleday, benito santiago, bip roberts, bobby tolan, brian giles, bubba trammell, bud black, carmelo martinez, cito gaston, darrell may, dave kingman, dave winfield, geoff blum, horsefeathers, jeff moorad, joe lefebvre, john kruk, john wathan, johnny jeter, ken caminiti, logan forsythe, mark parent, nate colbert, ramon hernandez, reggie sanders, ron gant, ryan klesko, scott hairston, steve finley, tucscon padres, will venable