PUBLISHED FEB. 25, 2021, AT 6:00 AM
The Negro League Stars That MLB Kept Out — And Is Finally Recognizing
By Neil Paine, Anna Wiederkehr and Jay Boice
Illustrations by John Battalgazi
Major League Baseball’s long-overdue decision to recognize the statistics of players from the Negro Leagues means that MLB’s record book is expanding. A few high-water marks are likely to change hands: The best single-season batting average in history1 will belong to Josh Gibson, who hit .441 in 1943. Hall of Famers like Gibson and Satchel Paige are likely well-known to modern fans, but other greats may not be as familiar — and comparing them to current players and historical MLB figures is a little harder to do. Luckily, thanks to the indispensable Seamheads Negro Leagues database, we can put these players’ accomplishments into context using wins above replacement (WAR).
NEGRO LEAGUE PLAYERS COMPARED TO
CURRENT PLAYERSHALL OF FAMERSNEGRO LEAGUEPLAYERHALL OF FAMER CURRENT PLAYER TOTAL GAMES
0WAR per 162 games-4-2+2+4+6+8+10Better players
To qualify, a batter must either have played at least 300 career games (for active or Hall of Fame players) or 150 in the Negro Leagues. A pitcher’s qualification is based on his total number of games plus his number of starts; active or Hall of Fame pitchers must have at least 350 games plus starts, while Negro Leaguers must have 60. Stats are not combined for those who played in both the Negro Leagues and MLB. Current players are those who played in either 2019 or 2020, including those who have recently retired.
Roughly 3,400 men who played in seven Negro Leagues2 from 1920 to 1948 will be recognized. We wanted to get to know the most prolific of them on more of an individual level, so we created an algorithm to compare them with active players and Hall of Famers. First, we broke down each player’s skill set relative to his peers, looking at performance in a variety of categories. Then, we found the set of players whose strengths best match those of the star we’re learning about.3
The greatest pitchers of the Negro Leagues — and their current comparables
“I never threw an illegal pitch. The trouble is, once in a while I toss one that ain’t never been seen by this generation.”
— SATCHEL PAIGE
Let’s start with pitchers. Tall right-hander Satchel Paige is probably the most famous Negro Leagues player of all time, and with good reason: According to Seamheads, he was their all-time leader in pitching WAR with 39.3 in his career — or an average of 7.1 over a 162-game season.4 Paige was a true strikeout artist, whiffing 8.5 batters for every nine innings he pitched, easily making him the best of his era in that regard. He also had the best fielding-independent pitching (FIP) mark of any Negro League pitcher, which is why he compares well to the great Pedro Martínez and to Corey Kluber, Chris Sale and Jacob deGrom (among active pitchers).
Satchel Paige
212 Games 1927-1947PITCHER • STARTER
Total WAR
08116139.339.3STRIKEOUTSCONTROLFIPWHIPERA
Paige was ageless. He debuted in pro baseball at age 18 in 1926 – and didn’t play his final game until 1966, at age 59.
SIMILAR PLAYERS
Pedro Martínez
Chris Sale
Pedro Martínez
476 Games 1992-2009PITCHER • STARTER
Total WAR
08116185.285.2STRIKEOUTSCONTROLFIPWHIPERA
SIMILAR PLAYERS
Satchel Paige
Frank Bradley
Ray Brown
215 Games 1931-1945PITCHER • STARTER
Total WAR
08116137.337.3STRIKEOUTSCONTROLFIPWHIPERA
Brown won 69 percent of his decisions in 14 years with the Homestead Grays, one of the most celebrated Negro League franchises.
SIMILAR PLAYERS
Greg Maddux
Addie Joss
José Leblanc
58 Games 1920-1921PITCHER • STARTER
Total WAR
08116111.611.6STRIKEOUTSCONTROLFIPWHIPERA
Leblanc leads all qualified pitchers in the Negro Leagues with 7.8 WAR per 162 games – a better mark than even Satchel Paige had.
SIMILAR PLAYERS
Madison Bumgarner
Zack Greinke
Madison Bumgarner
298 Games 2009-2020PITCHER • STARTER
Total WAR
08116131.331.3STRIKEOUTSCONTROLFIPWHIPERA
SIMILAR PLAYERS
Juan Padrón
José Leblanc
On a per-game basis, however, there were some other pitchers who were close to (or even better than) Paige’s 7.1 WAR per 162 games. In fact, José Leblanc’s 7.8 rated higher, though he didn’t pitch as long — he died tragically after an on-field fight in 1922. Among more tenured Negro League pitchers, Ray Brown’s 6.8 WAR per 162 challenged Paige as well. Brown won 122 games in 14 seasons, best in the Negro Leagues, establishing himself as ace of the storied Homestead Grays … and as a talented outfielder, too, on days between starts.
“So confident was Ray in all of his pitches that he would throw a curve with a 3-0 count on the batter. He had good control of all of his pitches.”
— JAMES RILEY, NEGRO LEAGUES HISTORIAN
The greatest batters of the Negro Leagues — and their current comparables
“Oscar Charleston was the Willie Mays of his day. Nobody ever played center field better than Willie Mays. Suppose they had never given Willie a chance, and we said that, would anybody believe there was a kid in Alabama who was that good? Or there was a Black guy in Atlanta who might break Babe Ruth’s home run record? No.”
— MONTE IRVIN
On the batting side, the Negro Leagues’ most valuable position player was the brilliant Oscar Charleston — 48.9 total WAR — a blazing-fast outfielder who was also one of the greatest ever when it came to hitting for both average and power. Among current players, Charleston’s two most similar comparables are Mike Trout and Ronald Acuña Jr., while his most similar fellow Hall of Famer is Tris Speaker. His addition to the official ranks of MLB players instantly makes Charleston one of the greatest major leaguers ever to play the game — not that he needed the affirmation to cement his status as a legend.
Oscar Charleston
916 Games 1920-1941BATTER • OUTFIELDER
Total WAR
08116148.948.9POWERSPEEDBATTING AVG.PATIENCEDEFENSE
The Willie Mays of his era, Charleston was widely regarded as the best all-around player in the history of the Negro Leagues.
SIMILAR PLAYERS
Tris Speaker
Mike Trout
Mike Trout
1252 Games 2011-2020BATTER • OUTFIELDER
Total WAR
08116175.475.4POWERSPEEDBATTING AVG.PATIENCEDEFENSE
SIMILAR PLAYERS
Rap Dixon
Cristóbal Torriente
Dobie Moore
453 Games 1920-1926BATTER • MIDDLE IF
Total WAR
08116129.029.0POWERSPEEDBATTING AVG.PATIENCEDEFENSE
Moore is tied with Willie Wells as the career leader in defensive WAR among shortstops in the Negro Leagues, adding 11.0 wins with his glove.
SIMILAR PLAYERS
Javier Baez
Ozzie Albies
Josh Gibson
598 Games 1930-1946BATTER • CATCHER
Total WAR
08116140.240.2POWERSPEEDBATTING AVG.PATIENCEDEFENSE
Gibson is best known for his mammoth power, but he also likely set MLB’s single-season batting average record with his .441 mark in 1943.
SIMILAR PLAYERS
Mickey Cochrane
Roger Bresnahan
Francisco Lindor
777 Games 2015-2020BATTER • MIDDLE IF
Total WAR
08116128.828.8POWERSPEEDBATTING AVG.PATIENCEDEFENSE
SIMILAR PLAYERS
Dick Lundy
Pythias Russ
On a per-game basis, several stars of the Negro Leagues were even better than Charleston’s 8.6 WAR per 162. Hall of Fame catcher Josh Gibson, who racked up 10.9 WAR per 162, hit nearly 800 home runs in his long career across multiple pro leagues, and he has a well-deserved reputation as one of the most feared sluggers in baseball history. But the others — Dobie Moore with 10.4, Charlie Smith with 10.3 and Willard Brown with 9.3 — aren’t talked about as much. Moore was a Francisco Lindor-like shortstop with all the tools at his disposal before an injury ended his career early. Smith, meanwhile, was the Mookie Betts of his day; his life was cut short by yellow fever at the age of 30. And Brown was a type of great player we don’t see quite as much in today’s game — a fast outfielder with a great bat who didn’t walk much — but he had a lot of Hall of Fame company with Andre Dawson and Roberto Clemente as top comparables.
“[Dobie] Moore was one of the best shortstops that will ever live! That fella could stand up to the plate and hit right-handed, he could hit line drives out there just as far as you want to see.”
— CASEY STENGEL
Pick a Hall of Famer
Who among the newly recognized Negro Leaguers is comparable to those enshrined in Cooperstown? Select a Hall of Famer5 and find the most similar Negro Leaguers based on their skill sets.6 Several players best known during the post-integration era — such as Hank Aaron and Willie Mays — played in the Negro Leagues as well, but they are also included in the Hall of Famer list below. Statistics are given according to league qualification: Aaron’s stats are all from his MLB career, while Paige’s are from his Negro Leagues days.
Addie JossAl KalineAl SimmonsAlan TrammellAndre DawsonAndy CooperArky VaughanBabe RuthBarry LarkinBen TaylorBert BlylevenBill DickeyBill MazeroskiBill TerryBilly HermanBilly WilliamsBiz MackeyBob FellerBob GibsonBob LemonBobby DoerrBobby WallaceBrooks RobinsonBruce SutterBuck LeonardBullet RoganBullet RoganBurleigh GrimesCal Ripken Jr.Carl HubbellCarl YastrzemskiCarlton FiskCatfish HunterCharlie GehringerChick HafeyChief BenderChipper JonesChristy MathewsonChuck KleinCool Papa BellCool Papa BellCraig BiggioCristóbal TorrienteCy YoungDave BancroftDave WinfieldDazzy VanceDennis EckersleyDerek JeterDizzy DeanDon DrysdaleDon SuttonDuke SniderEarl AverillEarle CombsEarly WynnEd DelahantyEd WalshEdd RoushEddie CollinsEddie MathewsEddie MurrayEddie PlankEdgar MartínezElmer FlickEnos SlaughterEppa RixeyErnie BanksErnie LombardiFergie JenkinsFrank ChanceFrank RobinsonFrank ThomasFrankie FrischFred ClarkeFreddie LindstromGabby HartnettGary CarterGaylord PerryGeorge BrettGeorge DavisGeorge KellGeorge SislerGoose GoslinGreg MadduxHack WilsonHal NewhouserHank AaronHank GreenbergHarmon KillebrewHarold BainesHarry HeilmannHarry HooperHeinie ManushHerb PennockHigh Pockets KellyHilton SmithHome Run BakerHonus WagnerHoyt WilhelmIván RodríguezJack ChesbroJack MorrisJackie RobinsonJake BeckleyJeff BagwellJesse BurkettJesse HainesJim BottomleyJim BunningJim PalmerJim RiceJim ThomeJimmie FoxxJimmy CollinsJoe CroninJoe DiMaggioJoe GordonJoe KelleyJoe McGinnityJoe MedwickJoe MorganJoe SewellJoe TinkerJoe WilliamsJohn Henry LloydJohn SmoltzJohnny BenchJohnny EversJohnny MizeJosh GibsonJosé MéndezJuan MarichalJud WilsonJudy JohnsonKen Griffey Jr.Kiki CuylerKirby PuckettLarry DobyLarry WalkerLee SmithLefty GomezLefty GroveLeon DayLloyd WanerLou BoudreauLou BrockLou GehrigLuis AparicioLuke ApplingMariano RiveraMartín DihigoMartín DihigoMax CareyMel OttMickey CochraneMickey MantleMike MussinaMike PiazzaMike SchmidtMonte IrvinMonte IrvinMordecai BrownMule SuttlesNap LajoieNellie FoxNolan RyanOrlando CepedaOscar CharlestonOzzie SmithPaul MolitorPaul WanerPedro MartínezPee Wee ReesePete AlexanderPete HillPhil NiekroPhil RizzutoPie TraynorRabbit MaranvilleRalph KinerRandy JohnsonRay BrownRay BrownRay DandridgeRay SchalkRed FaberRed RuffingRed SchoendienstReggie JacksonRich GossageRichie AshburnRick FerrellRickey HendersonRoberto AlomarRoberto ClementeRobin RobertsRobin YountRod CarewRoger BresnahanRogers HornsbyRollie FingersRon SantoRoss YoungsRoy CampanellaRoy CampanellaRoy HalladayRube MarquardRube WaddellRyne SandbergSam CrawfordSam CrawfordSam RiceSam ThompsonSandy KoufaxSatchel PaigeStan CoveleskiStan MusialSteve CarltonTed LyonsTed SimmonsTed WilliamsTim RainesTom GlavineTom SeaverTony GwynnTony LazzeriTony PérezTravis JacksonTrevor HoffmanTris SpeakerTurkey StearnesTy CobbVic WillisVladimir GuerreroWade BoggsWaite HoytWalter JohnsonWarren SpahnWhitey FordWillard BrownWillie FosterWillie KeelerWillie MaysWillie McCoveyWillie StargellWillie WellsYogi BerraZack WheatRANDOM PLAYER
Derek Jeter
2747 Games 1995-2014BATTER • MIDDLE IF
Total WAR
08116172.172.1POWERSPEEDBATTING AVG.PATIENCEDEFENSE
SIMILAR PLAYERS
Sammy Hughes
John Henry Lloyd
Sammy Hughes
417 Games 1930-1946BATTER • MIDDLE IF
Total WAR
0811619.69.6POWERSPEEDBATTING AVG.PATIENCEDEFENSE
SIMILAR PLAYERS
Yoán Moncada
Chris Taylor
John Henry Lloyd
433 Games 1921-1929BATTER • MIDDLE IF
Total WAR
08116112.012.0POWERSPEEDBATTING AVG.PATIENCEDEFENSE
SIMILAR PLAYERS
Ketel Marte
Xander Bogaerts
Harry Williams
342 Games 1931-1946BATTER • MIDDLE IF
Total WAR
0811614.34.3POWERSPEEDBATTING AVG.PATIENCEDEFENSE
SIMILAR PLAYERS
Ian Desmond
Jorge Polanco
Walter Cannady
459 Games 1922-1945BATTER • MIDDLE IF
Total WAR
0811619.59.5POWERSPEEDBATTING AVG.PATIENCEDEFENSE
SIMILAR PLAYERS
Aledmys Díaz
Yoán Moncada
These comparisons help offer a glimpse into baseball’s biggest, and most shameful, unanswered question: What if the game had not been segregated for nearly half of the 20th century, and instead these Negro Leaguers were able to play alongside the rest of the game’s greats, free from the discrimination of the color line? It’s a legacy that MLB cannot — and should not — ignore, nor gloss over with this recent change in major league status. Countless exceptional players were robbed of the opportunity to achieve the same fame as their white counterparts, and this data shows the kinds of performances that should have been in MLB’s record book all along if not for the ugly structural racism in baseball’s history.
Meet the stars of the Negro Leagues
Choose which position to focus on, and use the filters to reorder the players from the best in each stat to the worst.
Satchel Paige
212 Games 1927-1947PITCHER • STARTER
Total WAR
08116139.339.3STRIKEOUTSCONTROLFIPWHIPERA
Paige was ageless. He debuted in pro baseball at age 18 in 1926 – and didn’t play his final game until 1966, at age 59.
SIMILAR PLAYERS
Pedro Martínez
Chris Sale
Ray Brown
215 Games 1931-1945PITCHER • STARTER
Total WAR
08116137.337.3STRIKEOUTSCONTROLFIPWHIPERA
Brown won 69 percent of his decisions in 14 years with the Homestead Grays, one of the most celebrated Negro League franchises.
SIMILAR PLAYERS
Greg Maddux
Addie Joss
Bullet Rogan
214 Games 1920-1938PITCHER • STARTER
Total WAR
08116132.432.4STRIKEOUTSCONTROLFIPWHIPERA
Rogan was the only Negro Leaguer with at least 20 WAR as both a batter and pitcher.
SIMILAR PLAYERS
Gerrit Cole
Max Scherzer
William Bell
219 Games 1923-1937PITCHER • STARTER
Total WAR
08116129.229.2STRIKEOUTSCONTROLFIPWHIPERA
SIMILAR PLAYERS
Greg Maddux
Addie Joss
Willie Foster
238 Games 1923-1937PITCHER • STARTER
Total WAR
08116129.129.1STRIKEOUTSCONTROLFIPWHIPERA
With an unhittable sidearm curve in his repertoire, Foster was considered the best lefty pitcher in the Negro Leagues for most of his career.
SIMILAR PLAYERS
Randy Johnson
Sandy Koufax
Bill Byrd
205 Games 1933-1948PITCHER • STARTER
Total WAR
08116127.527.5STRIKEOUTSCONTROLFIPWHIPERA
SIMILAR PLAYERS
Juan Marichal
Pete Alexander
Andy Cooper
287 Games 1920-1939PITCHER • STARTER
Total WAR
08116125.225.2STRIKEOUTSCONTROLFIPWHIPERA
SIMILAR PLAYERS
Addie Joss
Juan Marichal
Nip Winters
162 Games 1923-1932PITCHER • STARTER
Total WAR
08116123.823.8STRIKEOUTSCONTROLFIPWHIPERA
SIMILAR PLAYERS
Eddie Plank
Johnny Cueto
Ted Trent
202 Games 1927-1939PITCHER • STARTER
Total WAR
08116123.723.7STRIKEOUTSCONTROLFIPWHIPERA
SIMILAR PLAYERS
Jon Lester
Steve Carlton
Roosevelt Davis
300 Games 1924-1945PITCHER • STARTER
Total WAR
08116123.323.3STRIKEOUTSCONTROLFIPWHIPERA
SIMILAR PLAYERS
Waite Hoyt
Eppa Rixey
Bill Holland
211 Games 1920-1941PITCHER • STARTER
Total WAR
08116123.223.2STRIKEOUTSCONTROLFIPWHIPERA
SIMILAR PLAYERS
Rube Marquard
Jim Bunning
Rats Henderson
157 Games 1923-1931PITCHER • STARTER
Total WAR
08116121.521.5STRIKEOUTSCONTROLFIPWHIPERA
SIMILAR PLAYERS
CC Sabathia
Bob Gibson
Logan Hensley
194 Games 1922-1939PITCHER • STARTER
Total WAR
08116121.121.1STRIKEOUTSCONTROLFIPWHIPERA
SIMILAR PLAYERS
Danny Duffy
J.A. Happ
Hilton Smith
148 Games 1932-1948PITCHER • STARTER
Total WAR
08116120.120.1STRIKEOUTSCONTROLFIPWHIPERA
SIMILAR PLAYERS
Zack Greinke
Roy Halladay
Sam Streeter
178 Games 1921-1936PITCHER • STARTER
Total WAR
08116119.419.4STRIKEOUTSCONTROLFIPWHIPERA
SIMILAR PLAYERS
Gaylord Perry
Don Sutton
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