Tullie McAdoo built a career around a few good years and a reputation for defensive excellence.
For two years, McAdoo was excellent offensively: in 1911 and 1914, he was among the best 1B in the game. But for the rest of his career, he was far below league average offensively, with some absolutely atrocious years in 1912 and from 1916 on. This makes him very challenging to model: it’s very hard to believe teams would continue to hand hundreds of plate appearances to someone constantly among the worst hitters in the league, even if the promise of his performance in those two seasons looms in the mind.
McAdoo had a good eye for the strike zone, which really is what saves him from being a black hole with the bat. He did not have much power, although he would hit a few doubles. He wasn’t particularly fast on the basepaths.
We debut McAdoo in 1909, eliminating his somewhat disastrous 1906 season, and we have added seasons in 1910 and 1918. More impactfully, we cut his career short after 1919; historically, he played into his late 30s, but his offensive output continued to be poor, and it’s hard to see him warranting a career into the 1920s.
This decision has the added benefit of providing a far more positive view of McAdoo’s defense, which declines precipitously in the 1920s, making his career numbers quite poor. It is entirely possible that his reputation was wrong: defense is so very hard to assess, and the naked eye lies all the time. But we’ve decided instead to be sympathetic to Splits, assuming that, if he were bad with the glove, given his offense, there’s no chance he would have a reputation, let alone a career.
| Name | Tullie McAdoo (Splits) |
| ID / Status | mcadoo000tul / Draft |
| Pos | 1B |
| DOB / i9s Career | 11/24/1884 / 1909 - 1919 |
| Birthplace | Topeka, KS (USA) |
| Height / Weight | 5'10" / 165 |
| B / T | R / R |
Batting Projections
| Year | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | SO | SB | CS | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| 1909 | 94 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 15 | 1 | 1 | 0.106 | 0.200 | 0.181 | 0.381 |
| 1910 | 264 | 59 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 27 | 35 | 10 | 4 | 0.223 | 0.296 | 0.284 | 0.580 |
| 1911 | 432 | 139 | 21 | 4 | 2 | 43 | 60 | 21 | 9 | 0.322 | 0.383 | 0.403 | 0.786 |
| 1912 | 387 | 81 | 17 | 5 | 0 | 36 | 53 | 13 | 6 | 0.209 | 0.277 | 0.279 | 0.556 |
| 1913 | 107 | 16 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 20 | 1 | 1 | 0.150 | 0.195 | 0.224 | 0.419 |
| 1914 | 544 | 152 | 24 | 4 | 3 | 45 | 80 | 21 | 8 | 0.279 | 0.334 | 0.355 | 0.689 |
| 1915 | 496 | 111 | 21 | 6 | 1 | 52 | 75 | 16 | 9 | 0.224 | 0.297 | 0.296 | 0.594 |
| 1916 | 326 | 61 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 27 | 45 | 9 | 3 | 0.187 | 0.249 | 0.239 | 0.489 |
| 1917 | 125 | 18 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 23 | 1 | 1 | 0.144 | 0.183 | 0.200 | 0.383 |
| 1918 | 247 | 43 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 20 | 42 | 5 | 2 | 0.174 | 0.236 | 0.227 | 0.463 |
| 1919 | 218 | 41 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 55 | 3 | 2 | 0.188 | 0.244 | 0.211 | 0.455 |