Top 10 Athletics Seasons by WAR

During a quiet afternoon at work I was glancing through Baseball Reference and noticed a couple of amazing seasons by former Athletics. We have had a number of recent historically focused posts, including barryzitoforever's superb three part series on the 1929 Athletics, dwishinsky's great piece on Catfish Hunter and 69MARQUEZ's countless wonderful pieces on the teams of days gone by. Inspired by these I have put together this piece on the top 10 single season performances in the franchise's history.

I know it has its faults but I have used Baseball Reference's WAR for no other reason than I am a little lazy and it was the easiest to research by using their website. My research was basically confined to Baseball Reference, Wikipedia and a couple of articles I found on the net, however I would recommend anyone with even a passing interest in the franchise's history to go to the Philadelphia Athletics website and read some of the fascinating articles they have many of the old-time players and teams. I have only counted a player's best season in an Athletics uniform so if Barry Bonds or Babe Ruth had worn Green and Gold they would only appear on this list once.

Jose Canseco's 40/40 season in 1988 (7.6 WAR) falls somewhat short but will always have a special place in my heart. As an eight year old boy I enjoyed baseball, wore my A's cap and followed the team but I don't think I ever really loved them until that year and Canseco's season was the major reason for that. That is why when asked these days who my favourite all time A is, I am able to look past the steroid controversies and the realisation as I grew up that he is a bit of jerk and see him through my eight year old eyes as the player who really started me on this lifelong love of baseball and the Oakland A's, and say Jose Canseco.

It is no great surprise that the list is dominated by players from the numerous dynasties this franchise has enjoyed, from the early Philadelphia teams to the side that won three straight Championships in the early seventies, although there are one or two surprises you might not have been expecting. Now without further ado - here are the top 10 seasons in Athletics history by WAR. Sods law is that I have overlooked someone but I have no doubt that someone will be kind enough to point it out if I have!

JUST MISSED

Bobby Shantz - RHP - 1952 (8.4 WAR)

A bit of a journeyman pitcher, Shantz is probably the least heralded name here but he enjoyed his best season in 1952 leading the league in wins (24) with a 2.48 ERA in 279.2 innings while also topping the league in WHIP, BB/9 and K/BB. Shantz was awarded the AL MVP in what was to turn out to be the Athletics last ever winning season in Philadelphia.

Vida Blue - LHP - 1971 (8.4 WAR)

In his first full season Vida went 24-8 with a 1.82 ERA and 301 strikeouts in 312 innings winning both the Cy Young award and the MVP at the tender age of 21. Not that this was out of the blue (pardon the pun) as after a September call up the previous year Vida went on to no-hit the Twins, a reminder of what extraordinary talent he was before overuse and off field issues took its toll.

Sal Bando - 3B - 1969 (8.9 WAR)

The captain of the Moustache Gang and a criminally underrated player, Bando is the one of two players whose 1969 season appears in this piece (I am sure you have probably already guessed who the second one is). Sal had a breakout season in 1969 hitting .281/.400/.484 with 31 HR and 113 RBIs and an OPS+ of 153. He would go onto to lead the A's to three world titles and put up another six seasons with at least 5 WAR in his career.

TOP TEN

10. Rube Waddell - LHP - 1902 (9.1 WAR)

Walter Johnson described him as having more pitching ability than any man he ever saw, while Connie Mack called him "the atom bomb of baseball long before the atom bomb was discovered." George Edward Waddell was the premier strikeout pitcher off his day, leading the Major Leagues in strikeouts and strikeouts per nine innings in all six seasons he played for the Athletics (1902-1907). Over those six seasons his K/9 was 7.6 while the league average was around 3.5 to 4. In 1902, despite not joining the team until the end of June, Waddell went 24-7 with 2.04 ERA with 211 strikeouts in 276.1 innings with an ERA+ of 179. His arrival ignited the team towards its first pennant with Rube twice beating the Boston Pilgrim's ace Cy Young in the stretch run. Unfortunately the National League had not yet recognised the legitimacy of the American League so refused to take part in post season championship series.

Waddell also cuts quite a tragic figure. Described as an eccentric and immature at the time, much has been made of his idiosyncrasies. He used wrestle alligators in the off season, play marbles on the pitching mound and would reportedly be so easily distracted that opposing fans would bring puppies to the ballpark. Bill James has even gone as far as to speculate that Waddell may have suffered from some kind of developmental disability while Mack said he had the mind of a 10 year old child. He was an alcoholic who spent his entire first bonus on a drinking binge and Mack would end up try paying him his wages in dollar bills in the hope that he wouldn't be able to spend it as fast. Mack's patience with Waddell finally wore out in after the 1907 season and he sold him to the St Louis Browns for $5,000.

While his career totals are not as impressive as some of his peers due in part to his alcoholism and personality issues, he was certainly one of the most naturally gifted pitchers of his time and one of the games first superstars. His 348 strikeouts in 1904 are still an AL record by a left-handed pitcher. Waddell died in 1914 aged just 37 and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1946.

=8. Lefty Grove - LHP - 1931 (9.4 WAR)

Hall of Famer Lefty Grove was the top power pitcher of his day and is considered one of the greatest left-handed pitchers of all time. He did not appear in the majors until the age of 25 because the owner of Baltimore Orioles (then an independent minor league team) had refused all offers to sell him, finally agreeing to sell his rights to Mack in 1925 for a record $100,600. Grove led the league in strikeouts for his first seven seasons with the Athletics and throughout his career he would win nine ERA titles and top the league in wins four times. In 1931 Grove had his best season winning the AL MVP and the pitching triple crown going 31-4 with a 2.06 ERA (good for a league leading 220 ERA+) and 175 strikeouts in 288.2 innings, while also leading the league in complete games, shutouts, WHIP and K/BB. The Athletics would end up failing to three-peat, falling to the Browns 4-3 in the World Series although Grove went 2-1 with 2.43 ERA. He was traded to the Redsox after the 1933 season and would go on to win 300 games in his career (195 of them with the Athletics).

=8. Nap Lajoie - 2B - 1901 (9.4 WAR)

In late 1900 when the American League was established the new teams needed find quality players to fill their rosters and the National League proved to abundant source thanks to their self imposed a league wide salary cap of $2,400. Already one of the stars of the NL, Lajoie jumped across town from the Phillies are he was offered a $4,000 salary by Mack. In 1901 Lajoie won the triple crown hitting a phenomenal .426/.463/.643 with 14 homeruns and 125 RBIs, also leading the league in hits (232), runs (145), and doubles (48). His .426 average is fourth highest in history and an AL record. However, unhappy with losing many of their star players, the Phillies obtained an injunction in April 1902 preventing Lajoie from playing in Pennsylvania for any team other than the Phillies. Mack responded by trading him to Cleveland who after one season would end up changing their name to the Naps to honour their star player. Lajoie is perhaps most famous for his rivalry with Ty Cobb, in particular the 1910 batting race when with Cobb sitting out the final two games confident his average would be enough to win the title, the much more popular Lajoie went 8-8 in a season ending double header which included 5 bunt singles to the deep playing third baseman and a fly ball that was apparently lost in the sun and went for a triple. Lajoie ended up winning the batting title by less than 0.001 points.

=6. Jack Coombs - RHP - 1910 (9.7 WAR)

I think having a cool nickname was a prerequisite for being a player in the dead ball era. When "Colby Jack" or "Iron Man Jack" was signed by Mack in 1906 he was only one of a handful of players at that time to have attended college, which earned him his Colby Jack moniker after his alma mater. He was pitching in the majors three weeks after graduating and his rookie season included a marathon 24 inning complete game victory over 4 hour 47 minutes against the Redsox where he only gave up one run.

Spending a lot of his time in Philadelphia's rotation overshadowed by future Hall of Famers such as Eddie Plank, Rube Waddell and Chief Bender, in 1910 Coombs was in a class of his own and did more than anyone in helping the franchise to win its first ever Championship. Not only did he win 31 games (a franchise record that would later be equalled by Lefty Grove) with a 1.30 ERA (another franchise record) in 353 innings with 35 complete games and 13 shutouts without giving up a homerun the entire season, he would be just as instrumental in deciding the World Series. Starting games 2, 3 and 5 (Bender started 1 and 4 and they would be the only two pitchers Mack would use the entire series) Coombs went 3-0 with three complete games while also batting .385 for the series, behind only Frank Baker and Eddie Collins.

1910 was the only season in his career that Coombs had a WAR above 3, amazingly more than tripling his second highest total. He did go onto win 28 and 21 games in 1912 and 1913 before a severe bout of typhoid fever more or less wiped out his next two seasons and subsequently his Athletics career. He did make a successful comeback with the Brooklyn Dodgers winning another World Series game in 1916 but never reached the heights of his 2010 season again.

=6. Reggie Jackson - RF - 1969 (9.7 WAR)

This man probably doesn't need any introductions. My only memories of Jackson are of the aged slugger who returned to Oakland in the twilight of his career. He was a little before my time but I still knew he was a pretty big deal, partly because I used to study the backs of baseball cards and memorise anything involving the A's, and partly just because he was Reggie. In 1969 Reggie was the face of a young upstart A's team full of swagger that would be destined to dominate the league for the next half a decade and that season boy did Reggie dominate - hitting .275/.410/.608 with 47 homeruns, 118 RBIs, leading the league in HR, runs, OPS and OPS+ (189).

=4. Rickey Henderson - LF - 1990 (10 WAR)

I do not think many people will disagree (Rickey certainly wouldn't) that Rickey is probably the greatest player ever to wear an Oakland uniform and one of the most exciting players to ever play the game of baseball. Enough has been written about Rickey on this site that there isn't much more I can add but asked if Rickey belonged in the Hall, Bill James' response was if you could split him in two, you'd have two Hall of Famers.  In 1990, fresh after galvanising the A's towards the 1989 World Series title against their Bay Area rivals, Rickey hit .325/.439/.577 leading the league in OBP, OPS, OPS+ (188), stolen bases (65) and runs while also hitting a career high 28 homeruns. Although the A's would go onto be swept by the Reds in the World Series, this was no fault of Rickey's - he hit .333/.444/.677 with 3 stolen bases in the series. Rickey also put up another 10 WAR season in 1985 whilst wearing pinstripes.

=4. Frank Baker - 3B - 1912 (10.0 WAR)

Part of the famous $100,000 infield, Bill James rated the 1914 lineup as the greatest infield of all time while the 1911 and 1912 versions also made the top five. Frank "Home Run" Baker was the master of the longball during an era where if you got into double figures there was a good chance you would lead the league. He earned his nickname in the 1911 World Series, leading the Athletics to the title against the Giants with a go ahead homerun in Game 2 off Hall of Famer Rube Marquard and following that up in Game 3 by hitting a game timing homerun off another Hall of Famer, Christy Mathewson.

The Athletics had so many future Hall of Famers themselves during their first 30 years of existence that Baker sometimes gets overlooked but he was the premier slugger of his day, leading the league in homeruns for four straight seasons from 1911. In 1912 he hit .347/.404/.541 with an OPS+ of 173 while hitting 10 homeruns and 130 RBIs (which also led the league). After hanging up his spikes Baker became a minor league manager for a couple of seasons and is credited with discovering one James Emory Foxx and recommending him to Mack.

3. Jason Giambi - 1B - 2001 (10.3 WAR)

There is not much point in writing too much about Giambi as everyone will be fully aware of what he achieved but in an era of inflated numbers and inflated biceps it is easy to forget how remarkable Giambi's 2001 season was, even if it was chemically enhanced. Giambi was coming of a MVP season but his following year was arguably even better as he hit .342/.477/.660 leading the league in on-base and slugging percentage, doubles (47) and OPS+ (198) while hitting 38 homeruns and 120 RBIs. We all know what happened after the season so I will leave it at that.

2. Jimmie Foxx - 1B - 1932 (10.7 WAR)

By all accounts Foxx was a colossus of a man. Nicknamed The Beast, Yankee pitcher Lefty Gomez once said even his hair had muscles. In a career that would lead to him becoming the heir apparent to the Babe and end as a true inner circle Hall of Famer, Foxx joined the Athletics as a 17 year old in 1925. He spent parts of four seasons as a utility player (thanks in part to future Hall of Famer Mickey Cochrane already being entrenched at catcher) before breaking out as the regular first baseman in 1929 at 21 years old. In 1932, the first of his back to back MVPs (he would win three overall - only Barry Bonds has more), Double X had one of the best offensive seasons in history putting up an insane .364/.469/.749 line for an OPS+ of 205 leading the league in homeruns (58), RBIs (169), runs (151), slugging, OPS and OPS+, just missing out on the Triple Crown by three points (he would go on to win it the following year).

In 1936, in what was by now a regular occurrence, Mack sold his star player to the Redsox following a contract dispute. He would go onto finish his career with the second most homeruns in history at the time of his retirement, even trying his hand at pitching aged 37 putting up a 1.59 ERA in 22.1 innings. After he retired Foxx spent a season managing a team in the American Girls Professional Baseball League and the Tom Hanks character in a League of Their Own is meant to be have been partially based on him.

1. Eddie Collins - 2B - 1914 (11.3 WAR)

Not the person I expected to be topping the ranking when I started making this list but Collins, another member of the $100,000 infield, was ranked by Bill James as the greatest second baseman ever to play the game and 1914 was probably his greatest ever single season. Leading the Athletics to the American League Championship while picking up the MVP for his troubles, Collins hit .344/.452/.452 for an OPS+ of 176 with a league leading 122 runs before they were swept by the Boston Braves in the World Series.

Following the season Collins entered into negotiations with Connie Mack who offered him a five year guaranteed contract which was the longest ever contract offered to a player at that time. However they could not agree terms and Mack ended up selling him to the Chicago Whitesox for $50,000, another record at the time. After he moved to Windy City, Collins picked up where he left off - during 1913-15 Collins was worth an incredible 31.8 WAR putting up totals of 10.4 and 10.1 either side of 1914. He would go on to play for Chicago for twelve seasons, including the infamous 1919 series - although he was not a part of the Blacksox scandal, before returning to the Athletics aged 40.