Post by tonyo on Feb 17, 2007 0:00:27 GMT -5
I just finished reading the book “Tony C.” The Triumph and Tragedy of Tony Conigliaro. It was well written by author David Cataneo and it got me thinking. How good was Tony Conigliaro? He was one of my favorite players so I decided to compare him statistically with two of my other favorites, Tony Oliva and Rocky Colavito. I decided since Tony C. really only had five “productive” years, I would pick the best five years for Oliva and Colavito. Ironically the years I picked for Oliva coincided with Conigliaro’s. They were years 1964, 1965, 1966, 1969, and 1970. For “The Rock” I chose 1958, 1959, 1961, 1964, and 1965. In that five years stint Oliva batted 3,135 times with 994 hits. An outstanding .317 average. Colavito batted 2,840 times hitting at a respectable .282 clip and Conigliaro batted 2,549 times averaging .255. To bring everything up to par, I brought Rocky and Tony C’s at bats up to 3,135 to match Oliva’s then I adjusted the rest of their statistics in the line with each ones performance per at bat. In Conigliaro’s case he had 586 less at bats then Oliva. By adding these at bats and adjusting his stats accordingly it gave Tony C. 32 more home runs, 97 RBI’s, 25 doubles, 4 triples, and 3 stolen bases. For Colavito he was 295 at bats shy of Oliva. Upon making adjustments, Rocky added 20 home runs, 59 RBI’s, 15 doubles, 1 triple, and 1 stolen base.
So now here are the final adjusted stats for Colavito and Conigliaro along with Oliva’s pace setting statistics;
Oliva AB-3135 H-994 D-190 T-32 HR-120 RBI-487 SB-59
Conigliaro AB-3135 H-833 D-134 T-22 HR-172 RBI-522 SB-15
Colavito AB-3135 H-887 D-151 T-10 HR-208 RBI-633 SB- 9
This now breaks down to six categories; batting average, doubles, triples, home runs, RBI’s, and stolen bases. Oliva was the leader in four of the six with Colavito taking the lead in home runs and RBI’s. Who was the better of the three overall based on these statistics? Below is the breakdown. As you will see in some areas the differences are quite notable.
Average: Oliva .317, Colavito .282 (-.035), Congliaro .255 (-.062)
Doubles: Oliva-190,. Colavito 151 (-39), Congliaro 134 (-56)
Triples: Oliva-32, Congliaro 22 (-10), Colavito 10 (-22)
HR’s: Colavito 208, Congliaro, 172 (-36), Olivo 120 (-88)
RBI’s: Colavito-633, Conigliaro-522 (-111), Oliva-487 (-146)
SB’s Oliva-59, Conigliaro-15 (-44), Colavito-9 (-50)
In the final analysis Oliva was by far the best contact hitter. His superior speed enabled him to stretch would be singles into doubles and doubles into triples. He was also by far the best base stealer. Still Colavito’s power numbers cannot be ignored. In the adjusted five-year period he averaged over 41 HR’s and 126 RBI’s per season. That would draw mega-bucks in today’s outlandish salary market. In comparison Oliva would average 24 HR’s and 97 RBI’s per season. Along with his .317 average he was the complete package.
As for Tony C., his yearly averages would read 34 HR’s and 104 RBI’s. Although he would exceed Oliva by 10 HR’s and 7 RBI’s per year in power it would not make up for being 62 points behind in batting average. In comparison to Colavito, Rocky would average 7 more HR’s and 22 more RBI’s per season plus hold a 27-point margin in batting average. Conigliaro’s numbers are solid and who knows what he would have accomplished if fate had not intervened