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Charlie Hoke

Entry posted by Charlie Hoke in Great Sox ·

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Manager Don Zimmer was so enthusiastic about Bob Bailey, naming him the first player to make the club during Spring Training and saying "He'll win us 6 games off the bench" before the start of the season.

Rob Refsnyder was the Red Sox's primary right-handed batter against left-handed pitchers for 4 years and after leaving in free agency was a consensus great pickup for the Mariners in the off season.

Both Bailey and Refsnyder bat right-handed and predominantly face left-handed pitchers with the platoon advantage.

Bob Bailey hit .191 for the year, hit .130 in the 2nd half and did not have a hit in September and October.

Rob Refsnyder now has the same number of plate appearances at this point in the 2026 season as Bob Bailey had in all of 1978. and is hitting .133 after 49 games at the end of June.

Bob Bailey was the first player to hit 100 career home runs for the Montreal Expos, played on the 1976 World Series winning Reds, and joined the Red Sox at the end of 1977. For Bob Bailey, his final appearance was a 3-pitch strikeout to Hall of Famer Goose Gossage in the Oct 2, 1978, in a winner take all game.

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Bob Bailey Career Stats 

Season Age Team Lg WAR G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+
1962 19 PIT NL 0 14 50 42 6 7 2 1 0 6 1 1 6 10 0.167 0.271 0.262 0.533 44
1963 20 PIT NL 2.7 154 640 570 60 130 15 3 12 45 10 9 58 98 0.228 0.303 0.328 0.632 82
1964 21 PIT NL 2.5 143 582 530 73 149 26 3 11 51 10 8 44 78 0.281 0.336 0.404 0.74 109
1965 22 PIT NL 1.7 159 702 626 87 160 28 3 11 49 10 14 70 93 0.256 0.33 0.363 0.692 95
1966 23 PIT NL 2.9 126 433 380 51 106 19 3 13 46 5 3 47 65 0.279 0.36 0.447 0.807 124
1967 24 LAD NL 0.1 116 372 322 21 73 8 2 4 28 5 5 40 50 0.227 0.31 0.301 0.611 83
1968 25 LAD NL 0.5 105 365 322 24 73 9 3 8 39 1 2 38 69 0.227 0.308 0.348 0.656 104
1969 26 MON NL 1.1 111 405 358 46 95 16 6 9 53 3 3 40 76 0.265 0.337 0.419 0.756 111
1970 27 MON NL 4.4 131 429 352 77 101 19 3 28 84 5 3 72 70 0.287 0.407 0.597 1.004 167
1971 28 MON NL 3.6 157 654 545 65 137 21 4 14 83 13 7 97 ## 0.251 0.359 0.382 0.741 112
1972 29 MON NL 1.5 143 560 489 55 114 10 4 16 57 6 7 59 ## 0.233 0.315 0.368 0.683 93
1973 30 MON NL 4.9 151 607 513 77 140 25 4 26 86 5 8 88 99 0.273 0.379 0.489 0.868 137
1974 31 MON NL 2.6 152 614 507 69 142 20 2 20 73 4 7 100 ## 0.28 0.396 0.446 0.842 131
1975 32 MON NL 0.3 106 279 227 23 62 5 0 5 30 4 4 46 38 0.273 0.392 0.361 0.753 107
1976 33 CIN NL 0.5 69 141 124 17 37 6 1 6 23 0 0 16 26 0.298 0.376 0.508 0.884 148
1977 34 2TM 2LG -0.1 51 94 81 9 20 2 1 2 11 1 1 12 11 0.247 0.34 0.37 0.711 90
1978 35 BOS AL -0.3 43 116 94 12 18 3 0 4 9 2 1 19 19 0.191 0.328 0.351 0.679 83
17 Yrs 28.8 1931 7043 ### 772 1564 234 43 189 773 85 83 852 ## 0.257 0.347 0.403 0.75 111
162 Game Avg 2.4 162 591 510 65 131 20 4 16 65 7 7 71 94 0.257 0.347 0.403 0.75 11

Despite coming off the bench 16 times, Bob Bailey had only 1 RBI from a homer in an 8-1 blowout win.

Would Bob Bailey been allowed to stay on the roster for the whole season today, with social media and advanced stats?

In the pre-internet age, you’d have to peruse the box scores to see how players performed and if a player didn’t meet the minimum at bats to qualify for the batting title, you wouldn’t even see their cumulative stats in the published batting average lists.

A player could easily be hidden away for the whole season back in the day.

Now we see a similarly low level of performance for Rob Refsynder: a .133 average and -1.1 WAR (as of June 27, 2026).

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Rob Refsynder Career Stats (through June 27, 2026)

Season Age Team Lg WAR G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+
2015 24 NYY AL 0.5 16 47 43 3 13 3 0 2 5 2 0 3 7 0.302 0.348 0.512 0.859 132
2016 25 NYY AL -0.2 58 175 152 25 38 9 0 0 12 2 1 18 30 0.25 0.328 0.309 0.637 73
2017 26 2TM AL -0.5 52 98 88 8 15 2 1 0 0 4 1 8 17 0.17 0.247 0.216 0.463 25
2017 26 NYY AL -0.3 20 40 37 3 5 1 1 0 0 2 0 3 8 0.135 0.2 0.216 0.416 10
2017 26 TOR AL -0.2 32 58 51 5 10 1 0 0 0 2 1 5 9 0.196 0.281 0.216 0.496 36
2018 27 TBR AL -0.1 40 103 84 10 14 3 0 2 5 0 2 18 26 0.167 0.314 0.274 0.588 66
                                             
2020 29 TEX AL 0 15 34 30 4 6 1 0 0 1 0 0 2 11 0.2 0.265 0.233 0.498 40
2021 30 MIN AL -0.1 51 157 139 21 34 7 0 2 12 1 0 17 40 0.245 0.325 0.338 0.663 86
2022 31 BOS AL 1.2 57 177 153 25 47 11 0 6 21 1 1 15 46 0.307 0.384 0.497 0.881 143
2023 32 BOS AL 0.4 89 243 202 31 50 9 1 1 28 7 2 33 47 0.248 0.365 0.317 0.682 87
2024 33 BOS AL 0.9 93 307 272 32 77 16 1 11 40 2 2 28 78 0.283 0.359 0.471 0.83 133
2025 34 BOS AL 1.2 70 209 182 29 49 12 0 9 30 3 0 24 54 0.269 0.354 0.484 0.838 133
2026 35 SEA AL -1.1 49 119 105 8 14 0 0 3 9 0 0 7 32 0.133 0.203 0.219 0.422 21
11 Yrs 2.4 590 1669 ### 196 357 73 3 36 163 22 9 173 ## 0.246 0.333 0.375 0.708 96
162 Game Avg 0.7 162 458 398 54 98 20 1 10 45 6 2 48 ## 0.246 0.333 0.375 0.708 9

 

Today, we have the ability to measure down to an individual at bat’s launch angle to see if a player is off his game?

Rob Refsynder Advanced Stats (through June 27, 2006)

Season Age Pitches Batted Balls Barrels Barrel % Barrel/PA Exit Velocity Max EV Launch Angle LA Sweet Spot% xBA xSLG wOBA xwOBA xwOBA con Hard Hit% K% BB%
2015 24 184 36 2 6.3 4.3 89.5 106.7 1.4 33.3 0.286 0.426 0.363 0.329 0.373 44.4 14.9 6.4
2016 25 673 125 1 0.9 0.6 88.9 108.9 4.3 32 0.265 0.342 0.282 0.303 0.323 39.2 17.2 10.3
2017 26 354 71 3 4.5 3.1 85.5 108.9 6 22.5 0.229 0.323 0.209 0.276 0.295 32.9 17.3 8.2
2018 27 429 58 4 7.4 3.9 88.2 110.2 12.6 32.8 0.22 0.35 0.276 0.324 0.356 33.3 25.5 17.6
2020 29 149 20 0 0 0 93 104.7 15 30 0.208 0.305 0.229 0.261 0.341 50 32.4 5.9
2021 30 669 100 7 7 4.5 89.2 111 9.3 40 0.258 0.45 0.296 0.342 0.419 41 25.5 10.8
2022 31 732 110 12 10.9 6.8 89.9 109.9 13.1 49.1 0.283 0.493 0.381 0.378 0.476 44.5 26 8.5
2023 32 1004 157 6 3.9 2.5 87.7 106.8 11.9 42 0.257 0.388 0.314 0.342 0.358 34.4 19.3 13.6
2024 33 1202 195 19 9.8 6.2 89.6 111.5 10.7 32.8 0.248 0.417 0.358 0.327 0.4 43.1 25.4 9.1
2025 34 887 130 16 12.3 7.7 92 112.2 12.1 34.6 0.243 0.457 0.359 0.338 0.413 52.3 25.8 11.5
2026 35 477 77 5 6.5 4.2 86.1 109.6 19.1 23.4 0.169 0.289 0.195 0.249 0.294 33.8 26.9 5.9
Player   6760 1079 75 7.1 4.5 89 112.2 10.6 35.2 0.247 0.401 0.313 0.325 0.378 40.8 23.3 10.4
MLB         7.6 4.9 88.6 122.9 12.5 33.3 0.243 0.408 0.316 0.316 0.369 37.1 22.2 8.4

Source: Statcast

We can see that Refsnyder's Barrel %, Hard Hit% is down as his Launch Angle Sweet Spot % meaning he's not hitting the ball as well as in previous seasons.

Would knowing this in the past have made a decision to keep a player playing easier?

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Brock Beauchamp

Brock Beauchamp 170

Posted

Charlie, do you listen to Effectively Wild? The hosts, who are great, often bring up old examples of managers or players making outlandish statements about how many games Player X will win them in a season. It's often about guys like Bailey, and the numbers are genuinely funny in the context of today's game.

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