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The WAR Against Age |
by Team  Baseball Analysts 07.30.2010 06:17 |
In this article I examine at what ages baseball"s very best hitters had their best seasons as measured by wins above replacement ( WAR I looked at the top 40 position players in career WAR and plotted their top 5 seasons against their age during that season.
See more: http://blodic.us/sports/the-war-against-age-70-0.htm
Thus, with 200 data points in all, I created the below chart plotting a player"s personal top 5 season against his age. 
Among superstar position players, personal top 5 seasons occurred anywhere between ages 20 and 39. The median age of a top 5 season is 28, although among the players selected, a top 5 season was generally as likely to occur during the age 26, 27, 28 or 31 seasons. Presumably, the relative lack of age 29 and 30 seasons among the 200 seasons looked at has more to do with small sample size, but the decline in the chart is worth noting nonetheless.
Obviously, looking just at the numbers is not that enlightening, so I also noted some of the more interesting results as they pertain to individual players. For example, the three 20-year old seasons that were among the personal top 5"s of the players on the list belonged to Mel Ott, Al Kaline, and Alex Rodriguez. I, for one, would not have guessed that one of A-Rod"s best seasons was his first complete season. The four 21-year old seasons that make the list belong to Rickey Henderson, Eddie Matthews, Jimmie Foxx and Ken Griffey Jr. |
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