Stringbean Williams is exactly the kind of player i9s is built around. He’s also a very challenging player to project.
The historical record is clear: he makes his debut in his mid-30s and pitches into his 50s, at a high enough level to both maintain his usefulness and to earn the deep admiration of his peers.
But … nobody in baseball has ever done that. And both sides of it are difficult: a player who can be a front of rotation starter at 37 usually shows some talent in their 20s as well, and carrying a significant innings workload into your 50s is extraordinarily rare. So you have a situation where, on the one hand, Williams almost certainly deserves a decade of years added at the start of his career *and* he benefitted from the much shorter schedules of the NeL as he aged.
So what we’re looking at, essentially, is an early 20th century Terry Mulholland or Jamie Moyer type. And there just aren’t many models. There are NeL contemporaries, there are a handful of Japanese players (who, of course, had a decade of professional experience before their MLB debut). You end up with Johnny Niggeling, who is actually not a bad data point (standard “but, knuckleball” disclaimers apply).
In the end, we made Stringbean a bit of a late bloomer, but still gave him MLB service time starting in 1898 at age 24. That means a dozen years have been added to the start of his career. The goal for those years was to make him a solid rotation starter, with a few years slightly better than that. Williams always struggled with giving up the long ball, and that inflates his ERA a bit throughout his career, but 1902, 1903, and 1915 stand out as very solid seasons.
We start Stringbean out slowly, picking up steam as his historical years show up. We also end his career much earlier–it’s possible at 50 he would have been trotted out as a crowd attraction or something like that, but we just don’t see him maintaining much effectiveness after age 45. This position is both “common sense” driven and, we would claim, there in the underlying numbers, where his various rate stats start to suffer as he ages.
I would not be surprised if Stringbean requires a lot more study for future versions, but I do believe this is a reasonable draft.
| Name | Andrew Williams (Stringbean) |
| ID / Status | willia000str / Draft |
| Pos | P |
| DOB / i9s Career | 1873 / 1898 - 1921 |
| Birthplace | (USA) |
| Height / Weight | 6-0 / 165 |
| B / T | / R |
Batting Projections
Pitching Projections
| Year | G | GS | IP | HA | W | K | HRA | eD | eT | eHBP | BB/9 | H/9 | K/9 | ERA | WHIP |
| 1898 | 19 | 16 | 130.0 | 144 | 39 | 46 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 2.7 | 10.0 | 3.2 | 3.51 | 1.41 |
| 1899 | 20 | 15 | 123.0 | 156 | 40 | 30 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.9 | 11.4 | 2.2 | 4.29 | 1.59 |
| 1900 | 34 | 33 | 249.0 | 259 | 92 | 79 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.3 | 9.4 | 2.9 | 3.44 | 1.41 |
| 1901 | 42 | 40 | 302.0 | 326 | 90 | 108 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.7 | 9.7 | 3.2 | 3.47 | 1.38 |
| 1902 | 49 | 41 | 326.0 | 334 | 93 | 120 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.6 | 9.2 | 3.3 | 3.03 | 1.31 |
| 1903 | 45 | 45 | 339.0 | 331 | 78 | 114 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.1 | 8.8 | 3.0 | 3.01 | 1.21 |
| 1904 | 42 | 39 | 294.0 | 326 | 81 | 135 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.5 | 10.0 | 4.1 | 3.15 | 1.38 |
| 1905 | 46 | 45 | 333.0 | 338 | 113 | 153 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.1 | 9.1 | 4.1 | 3.14 | 1.35 |
| 1906 | 43 | 42 | 320.0 | 332 | 99 | 125 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.8 | 9.3 | 3.5 | 3.09 | 1.35 |
| 1907 | 40 | 40 | 306.0 | 317 | 92 | 132 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.7 | 9.3 | 3.9 | 2.85 | 1.34 |
| 1908 | 29 | 18 | 158.0 | 145 | 47 | 63 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.7 | 8.3 | 3.6 | 2.56 | 1.22 |
| 1909 | 12 | 5 | 56.0 | 63 | 18 | 22 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.9 | 10.1 | 3.5 | 3.31 | 1.45 |
| 1910 | 25 | 17 | 140.0 | 140 | 41 | 37 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.6 | 9.0 | 2.4 | 3.24 | 1.29 |
| 1911 | 16 | 16 | 121.0 | 121 | 50 | 38 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.7 | 9.0 | 2.8 | 3.66 | 1.41 |
| 1912 | 20 | 14 | 118.0 | 119 | 41 | 56 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.1 | 9.1 | 4.3 | 3.22 | 1.36 |
| 1913 | 29 | 24 | 190.0 | 178 | 62 | 86 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.9 | 8.4 | 4.1 | 2.88 | 1.26 |
| 1914 | 48 | 40 | 310.0 | 300 | 103 | 170 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.0 | 8.7 | 4.9 | 2.85 | 1.30 |
| 1915 | 49 | 44 | 349.0 | 301 | 100 | 158 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.6 | 7.8 | 4.1 | 2.56 | 1.15 |
| 1916 | 45 | 43 | 325.0 | 320 | 104 | 152 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.9 | 8.9 | 4.2 | 2.85 | 1.30 |
| 1917 | 38 | 38 | 281.0 | 279 | 81 | 113 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.6 | 8.9 | 3.6 | 2.87 | 1.28 |
| 1918 | 41 | 34 | 266.0 | 253 | 85 | 91 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.9 | 8.6 | 3.1 | 2.82 | 1.27 |
| 1919 | 39 | 30 | 245.0 | 281 | 81 | 60 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.0 | 10.3 | 2.2 | 3.76 | 1.48 |
| 1920 | 30 | 21 | 178.0 | 203 | 78 | 40 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.9 | 10.3 | 2.0 | 4.15 | 1.58 |
| 1921 | 26 | 11 | 112.0 | 144 | 36 | 9 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.9 | 11.6 | 0.7 | 5.04 | 1.61 |