Losing It Semi-Quickly In Mid-to-Late 30’s Since 1973

Posted by Steve Lombardi on May 3, 2011

Via Play Index, I worked up a list of all batters since 1973 to have a season where they qualified for the Batting Title and were between the ages of 34 and 36 in that season and where they also had an OPS+ of 120 or better. Then, once I had that "set" of batters, I asked Play Index to tell me which of these batters then had a season where they qualifed for the Batting Title and were between the ages of 35 and 37 in that season where they had an OPS+ of 90 or less.

Here's that list:

Rk	Player	OPS+	Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos
1	Ray Durham	64	2007	35	SFG	NL	138	528	464	56	101	21	2	11	71	53	6	75	2	0	9	18	10	2	.218	.295	.343	.638	*4
2	Tim Wallach	67	1993	35	LAD	NL	133	522	477	42	106	19	1	12	62	32	2	70	3	1	9	10	0	2	.222	.271	.342	.612	*5/39
3	Sal Bando	83	1979	35	MIL	AL	130	543	476	57	117	14	3	9	43	57	3	42	3	6	1	17	2	0	.246	.330	.345	.674	*5D/341
4	Davey Lopes	87	1980	35	LAD	NL	141	625	553	79	139	15	3	10	49	58	2	71	1	9	4	8	23	7	.251	.321	.344	.665	*4
5	Derek Jeter	90	2010	36	NYY	AL	157	739	663	111	179	30	3	10	67	63	4	106	9	1	3	22	18	5	.270	.340	.370	.710	*6/D
6	Dave Kingman	90	1986	37	OAK	AL	144	604	561	70	118	19	0	35	94	33	3	126	3	0	7	16	3	3	.210	.255	.431	.686	*D/3
7	Steve Finley	91	2001	36	ARI	NL	140	548	495	66	136	27	4	14	73	47	9	67	1	2	3	8	11	7	.275	.337	.430	.767	*8/1
8	Paul O'Neill	92	2000	37	NYY	AL	142	628	566	79	160	26	0	18	100	51	2	90	0	0	11	17	14	9	.283	.336	.424	.760	*9/D
9	Dave Parker	92	1987	36	CIN	NL	153	647	589	77	149	28	0	26	97	44	13	104	8	0	6	14	7	3	.253	.311	.433	.744	*9/3
10	Bill Robinson	92	1978	35	PIT	NL	136	552	499	70	123	36	2	14	80	35	8	105	5	2	11	7	14	11	.246	.296	.411	.707	*7589/3
11	Jeromy Burnitz	94	2005	36	CHC	NL	160	671	605	84	156	31	2	24	87	57	3	109	3	1	5	12	5	4	.258	.322	.435	.757	*9/8
12	Bret Boone	94	2004	35	SEA	AL	148	658	593	74	149	30	0	24	83	56	2	135	3	2	4	18	10	5	.251	.317	.423	.740	*4
13	Andre Thornton	94	1985	35	CLE	AL	124	514	461	49	109	13	0	22	88	47	1	75	0	0	6	14	3	2	.236	.304	.408	.711	*D

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/3/2011.

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Some of these guys bounced back to have some decent years after that down year. Can Derek Jeter do the same? Looking at his stats so far this year, he's already in a hole.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011 at 6:09 pm and is filed under Season Finders. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

23 Responses to “Losing It Semi-Quickly In Mid-to-Late 30’s Since 1973”

Dan Says:
May 3rd, 2011 at 6:23 pm
I think you meant an OPS+ of 95 or less, right? A lot of those guys are over 90.
Thomas Says:
May 3rd, 2011 at 6:33 pm
First thing I thought of was Raul Ibanez but his ages don't match up. His OPS+ at age 37 was 132, his OPS+ this year, at age 39, (with a lot of season to play of course) is 24.
Malcolm Says:
May 3rd, 2011 at 8:19 pm
Leave it to Dave Kingman to hit 35 homers and still have an OPS under .600...
Malcolm Says:
May 3rd, 2011 at 8:19 pm
Err, make that .700.
Random Sports Guy Says:
May 3rd, 2011 at 8:29 pm
Dave Parker had a decent season.
Paul Drye Says:
May 3rd, 2011 at 9:10 pm
@Random Sports Guy: Not so much. That was 1987 -- everybody was hitting better than .253/.311/.433 that year.
kenh Says:
May 3rd, 2011 at 9:12 pm
Wow. Kingman at 37 still hit 35 homers. With Ibanez, his tailspin was weird. He had that great first half and then an atrocious second half. Almost like someone said to him, "Um, Raul, you know you're 37 years old." Or did he lose more than just his quick reflexes?
Carl Says:
May 3rd, 2011 at 9:48 pm
One difference between Jeter and all those guys:

Jeter's going to the HOF. None of those guys are.

That doesn't mean he's going to bounce back, of course.
Steve Lombardi Says:
May 3rd, 2011 at 10:37 pm
Dan - Mea Culpa! I think I should have said less than 95.
Jeff Says:
May 4th, 2011 at 12:59 am
@Carl

Hey, now, don't say that. Finely's WAR is far better than guys like Maranville, Schoendienst, Hafey, Mazeroski, George Kell, or Lloyd Waner, and surely you'd never say any of those guys don't belong in the HOF, would you...?
Pete R Says:
May 4th, 2011 at 4:21 am
Hand-searching, it appears couple of these names don't quite match the title of the blog.

Wallach's bad season (age 35, OPS+ 67) came before his good season (36, OPS+ 127).

And Davey Lopes had the kind of finish that Jeter wants. At 35-37, Lopes looked done: his best OPS+ was 90. But then from 38-42 he had a total of 1536 PA, and his lowest OPS+ was 108, at which point he stopped.
Wilbratte! Says:
May 4th, 2011 at 5:25 am
if paul o'neill has that season at any other time other than the height of the steroid era...
ken Says:
May 4th, 2011 at 9:49 am
I wonder how many of these guys just had off-years? Wallach and particularly Parker bounced back with decent seasons in their later 30s.

And I think we need a whole new branch of mathematics to deal with the strange statistics and ratios that Dave Kingman's career creates.
drew weaver Says:
May 4th, 2011 at 10:26 am
As I recall, Dave Kingman hit more homers (100) from 84-86 than anyone in MLB...yet still could not find employment in 1987.
Steve Lombardi Says:
May 4th, 2011 at 10:48 am
Pete R - good catch! Thanks!
basmati Says:
May 4th, 2011 at 1:07 pm
What's the odds Jeter is an all star again in 2011?
Lawrence Azrin Says:
May 4th, 2011 at 1:52 pm
@14/ drew weaver Says: "As I recall, Dave Kingman hit more homers (100) from 84-86 than anyone in MLB...yet still could not find employment in 1987."

Drew, that might have had something to do with the whole "collusion" situation between the 1986 and 1987 seasons. See: Tim Raines, Rich Gedman, Kirk Gibson, Andre Dawson, etc...
Fourfriends Says:
May 4th, 2011 at 2:04 pm
@14 - I know he was the only American Leaguer to hit 30+ in all three years. But his BA dropped ~20-30 points each year as well - IIRC (didn't look it up) .253, .235, .210.
Losing It Semi-Quickly In Mid-to-Late 30′s Since 1973 » Stathead » Blog Archive Says:
May 4th, 2011 at 4:53 pm
[...] Losing It Semi-Quickly In Mid-to-Late 30′s Since 1973: Steve Lombardi of B-R found players who were good in the their mid-30s… until suddenly they weren’t. [...]
MIkeD Says:
May 4th, 2011 at 5:10 pm
I thought for some reason Kingman retired, but my memory might be faulty. Perhaps he did elect to retire, but it was due to collusion because he couldn't get an offer he found acceptable, so he elected to retire. Too bad. I had hoped he stick around as a DH for a couple more seasons to eclipse 500 HRs, eliminating the "automatic entry" to the HOF for 500 HRs. The steroids era seems to have accomplished it a few years later.
MIkeD Says:
May 4th, 2011 at 5:22 pm
@20, Adding to my own note. It appears Kingman did sign with his old team, the San Francisco Giants, for the 1987 season, playing 20 games down in AAA before retiring. I still to think there might have been some issue around collusion that might have led to him having to take a minor league deal, but it's not mentioned in his Wikipedia entry.
dukeofflatbush Says:
May 4th, 2011 at 7:44 pm
I remember in 1988 Dale Murphy falling off the map. He hit 20 less HRs and 70 points in average in just one year, but he was only 32.
DoubleDiamond Says:
May 5th, 2011 at 6:58 pm
@7 Are you referring to Ibanez's 2009 season (his first with the Phillies)? He got off to a great start, up among the league leaders in all three triple crown categories. But then he got hurt, and when he returned, he really went into a tailspin.

He had an zero-for-35 string that was broken two nights ago. All five of his hits in the past two games have been for extra bases - 4 doubles and a home run. The home run, a "justifiably solo" shot (my nickname for a homer that leads off an inning, as this one did, or immediately follows another one), broke a mid-game 0-0 tie and started the Phillies on the way to a 7-4 win. (Three of the Nationals' four runs scored on a 3-run homer with two out in the 9th. The other one scored on a two-out, full-count hit capping an at-bat in which a 2-2 pitch that the radio announcers thought should have been strike 3 but was called ball 3.)

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