i9s

I think there are a few things that tend to inflate a player’s reputation that operate in the case of Candy Jim Taylor. First, there is the sustained excellence of his brother Ben; second, there is the length of his career and his success as a manager.

If you look at his career absent those influences, I think you end up with a slightly-above-average third baseman. No worse than that, but also no better.

Taylor’s career is a little odd, regardless of how strong you think it was: he had very few average years, either hitting very well or very poorly. It makes projecting his usage very challenging, as it’s not clear how long, for example, teams would stick with him after 1918 when, as a 33 year old, he starts a five year run as a below average hitter. His career could easily end in 1921, when we have him slashing 248/295/333.

If he sticks around, he probably makes it until the late 1920s, although at a steeply dwindling number of plate appearances. Again, 1926 could be his final year, but if he makes it to his highly productive 1927, he’d probably get the chance to hit a little in 1928 and 1929. That’s as far as we can see stretching his career (in real life, he found a handful of at bats most years into his early 50s, something we just can’t rationalize).

Taylor had decent power (mostly doubles and homeruns) and a little speed, and would draw the occasional walk. He struck out quite a bit, and even more over the final third of his career, with that stat being likely his only appearance on league leaderboards.

Defensively, he was above average, but never approaching gold glove level. He filled in occasionally elsewhere, but spent the vast majority of his time at the hot corner.

I could be convinced I’m being too hard on Candy Jim; if so, I could see him gaining another 20ish points of OPS in future projections, mainly from a higher BA and some more triples.

Name	Candy Jim Taylor (Candy)
ID / Status	taylor000can / Draft
Pos	3B
DOB / i9s Career	02/01/1884 / 1904 - 1919
Birthplace	Anderson, SC (USA)
Height / Weight	5'5" / 165
B / T	R / R

 

Batting Projections

Year	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
1907	114	25	3	1	0	12	23	4	2	0.219	0.294	0.263	0.557
1908	226	60	7	2	0	13	36	10	3	0.265	0.305	0.314	0.620
1909	402	132	13	5	3	37	54	20	8	0.328	0.385	0.408	0.793
1910	175	42	10	1	1	11	33	6	2	0.240	0.285	0.326	0.611
1911	307	109	19	5	5	38	38	16	7	0.355	0.426	0.498	0.924
1912	313	74	14	5	1	20	39	13	4	0.236	0.280	0.323	0.605
1913	557	144	26	7	1	37	77	26	8	0.259	0.305	0.336	0.640
1914	516	139	26	6	6	49	83	55	10	0.269	0.333	0.378	0.711
1915	600	177	21	7	4	55	76	31	13	0.295	0.354	0.373	0.728
1916	582	154	24	7	2	49	87	51	7	0.265	0.322	0.340	0.662
1917	529	145	28	8	4	52	65	38	6	0.274	0.339	0.380	0.719
1918	589	133	19	5	3	59	53	22	6	0.226	0.296	0.290	0.587
1919	535	131	16	8	0	50	66	20	6	0.245	0.309	0.305	0.614
1920	538	137	17	6	3	49	61	43	21	0.255	0.317	0.325	0.642
1921	556	138	19	8	4	37	46	13	6	0.248	0.295	0.333	0.628
1922	404	104	24	6	3	31	41	6	4	0.257	0.310	0.369	0.649
1923	434	157	20	5	11	38	51	10	6	0.362	0.413	0.507	0.920
1924	359	117	14	5	1	34	38	11	5	0.326	0.384	0.401	0.785
1925	140	33	7	2	2	13	17	2	1	0.236	0.301	0.357	0.658
1926	159	38	9	1	4	13	15	1	1	0.239	0.297	0.384	0.680
1927	83	30	3	1	1	6	17	1	1	0.361	0.404	0.458	0.862
1928	68	13	2	0	0	3	14	0	0	0.191	0.225	0.221	0.446
1929	22	4	0	1	0	1	6	0	0	0.182	0.217	0.273	0.490

 

Pitching Projections