But in the light of the new baseblall analytics, Mickey Mantle's 1956 season comes off as one of the greatest in the game's history -- and part of the finest back-to-back seasons in the modern era, which started in 1947.
In 1956, Mantle won the Major League’s Triple Crown when he batted .353, hit 52 home runs and batted in 130 runs. In 1957, he batted .365 with 34 home runs and 94 RBIs. It would appear to have been a horrendous follow-up season, but it wasn't.
Mantle's on-base percentage was almost 50 points higher in 1957 than in 1956, and his OPS of 1.177 was better than the 1.169 he recorded while winning the Triple Crown.
Enter then what may be Sabermetrics' most powerful statistic -- Wins Above Replacement, known among baseball nerds as WAR -- that takes into account everything that a player accomplishes. Wins Above Replacement asks the question, “If this player were injured and his team had to replace him with a minor leaguer or someone from the bench, how much value would the team be losing?”
In his Triple Crown winning season, Mickey had a WAR of 12.9 in 1956, which ranks second only to Babe Ruth's WAR of 14.7 1923 and 14.0 in 1921. Mantle's WAR in 1957 was 12.5.
By comparison, Barry Bonds’ best three seasons produced WAR marks of 12.5, 12.4, and 12.2. Willie Mays’ best was 11.0, Lou Gehrig’s higher was 12.0 and Ted Williams’ topped out at 11.8.
