I have done this way too often between the FBHOF and Baseball Lab blogs but I thoroughly enjoy seeing how baseball has changed through the years.  In constructing the All-Star rosters I started wondering how stats have changed across the positions year by year.  In the past I charted these statistics by the minimum value expected each year but this doesn’t tell the whole truth.  Minimums certainly change on an annual basis, but not nearly as much as maximum’s.  The key to winning fantasy baseball is grab as many elite players as possible as opposed to avoiding the replacement level players.  Though both are important of course.

In the following days I’ll be posting some charts that outline how each stat has changed during the fantasy era.  Instead of a not so instructive exercise that simply maps the league leaders, these stats will represent the averages of the positions selected to each All Star team.  This ensures at least two points of data for each year and position, and usually 3 or 4.  It also provides a better a better measure of to compare the elite players year over year.  Please note in all ‘averaging’ calculations I excluded the two strike years, 1981 and 1994.

BATTING AVERAGE

The extent of which catchers have improved stands out immediately.  From 1980 through 1993 catchers finished dead last in batting average all but once, when in 1987 they bested the middle infielders by .002 points.  Since then catchers have finished in the Top-2 six times, ahead of Middle Infielders (4 times) and just behind Corner Infielders (7 times).  The Outfielders have been the best over the last 13 years with nine Top-2 finishes.

In 1999 All Star middle infielders had a combined .343 batting average, best in the fantasy era.  This was the year in which Nomar Garciaparra batted .357, Derek Jeter .349, and Roberto Alomar .323. 

The rest of the positions all top out in the modern era as well.  In 2001 both the Corner Infielders and Outfielders had their most success, batting .332 and .329 respectively.  The stars of this crew were Todd Helton, Chipper Jones, Ichiro Suzuki, and Larry Walker each of whom batted at least .330.  Four others topped .325.  Finally, catchers Brian McCann and Joe Mauer combined to bat .341 in 2006.

Here is a chart that speaks for itself, and a prime example of why so many of the modern day batters don’t score as highly as the raw stats would indicate – everyone bat’s .300 nowadays.