In affiliation with Razzball.com and the All Star Series I am writing there, over the next few days the Fantasy Baseball Hall of Fame will be reviewing the history of fantasy statistics through the eyes of these All-Stars.  We’ve reviewed batting average, and runs scored, today we investigate home runs.

 
Home Runs

Home runs are critical to success in fantasy baseball.  They are the cornerstone of every offense as each home run also contributes points in both Runs and RBI.  it is rare for a league winner to be outside the top 25% in their league home run totals. 

Historically, the long ball has come from every position, but corner infielders and outfielders routinely lead the league.  Among all-stars (the best group of players each year), corner infielders have finished 1^st or 2^nd 92% of the time; outfielders 80% of the time.  Never once in the fantasy era have both been outside the top 2. 

There have been periods of lesser success though.  Outfielders didn’t finish first from 1980 to 1986 and again from 2002 to 2007.  More often than not the corners filled the vacancy but it left the door open for several cases of oddities.

In 1982 elite catchers hit more home runs per player than any other position.  Home runs were sparse in general this year, and Gary Carter and Lance Parrish took advantage, belting 61 between them.  Given the love of speed in the early 80’s, many of the high scoring players didn’t need to hit a lot of home runs.  For example, Rickey Henderson’s 130 stolen bases were plenty to overcome a shortage of home runs (10) and place him among the league leaders.

In 1985 it was Carter again, this time with Carlton Fisk, who would lead the All-Stars.  They hit 69.  The backstops struck once more, this time in 1993 when FBHOF’er Mike Piazza hit 35 home runs and Darren Daulton 24.

Middle infielders led the league twice, back to back in 2002 and 2003.  The tandem of Alex Rodriguez and Alfonso Soriano hit 96 out in this year, and 85 a year later.  They were aided by Miguel Tejada (34 in 2002) and later Bret Boone (35 in 2003).

Recently, the corner infielders have separated themselves from the rest of baseball and the disparity between them and the worst position, reached an all time low in 2006.

I meant to add a section to each of these write-ups that outlined the players that received the most points in each statistic.  I neglected to do this for Batting Average and Run Scored, but play a bit of catch-up now.

Please note that scoring takes into consideration the a) players stat, b) the league minimum, c) the level of competition, and d) playing time for rate stats.  I say this because most believe Tony Gwynn's .394 batting average in 1994 should get the highest marks, but it doesn't

Batting Average (Year, Player, Stat, Pos. Minimum)
UT: 1985 Wade Boggs, .368 (.245)
1B: 1986 Don Mattingly, .352 (.256)
2B: 1991 Julio Franco, .341 (.262)
3B: 1985 Wade Boggs, .368 (.245)
SS: 2005 Michael Young, .331 (.273)
OF: 2004 Ichiro Suzuki, .372 (.266)
C:  1997 Mike Piazza, .367 (.248)

Runs Scored
UT: 1985 Rickey Henderson, 146 (50)
1B: 2000 Jeff Bagwell, 152 (74)
2B: 1997 Craig Biggio, 146 (59)
3B: 1982 Paul Molitor, 136 (55)
SS: 2007 Jimmy Rollins, 139 (72)
OF: 1985 Rickey Henderson, 146 (50)
C:  1996 Ivan Rodriguez, 116 (34)

Home Runs
UT: 2001 Barry Bonds, 72 (12)
1B: 1998 Mark McGwire, 70 (19)
2B: 1990 Ryne Sandberg, 40 (5)
3B: 1980 Mike Schmidt, 49 (10)
SS: 2002 Alex Rodriguez, 57 (8)
OF: 2001 Barry Bonds, 72 (12)
C:  1985 Carlton Fisk, 37 (7)