1899 MLB Season Leaders

2 leagues · 151 team games · 31 ranking tables

Awards

None of these awards existed yet. The earliest award in this database is from 1911, so a 1899 season has no award to show. That is a fact about the calendar, not about the players on this page.

National League

Led the National League — the first row of every table below.

Batting13 categories

RunsR

1	Willie Keeler	140
1	John McGraw	140
3	Roy Thomas	137
4	Ed Delahanty	135
5	Jimmy Williams	126
6	Fred Clarke	122
6	Chick Stahl	122
8	George Van Haltren	118
9	Billy Hoy	117
10	Jesse Burkett	116

HitsH

1	Ed Delahanty	238
2	Jesse Burkett	221
3	Jimmy Williams	220
4	Willie Keeler	216
5	Fred Tenney	209
6	Fred Clarke	206
7	Chick Stahl	202
8	Honus Wagner	196
9	Emmet Heidrick	194
9	Billy Hoy	194

Doubles2B

1	Ed Delahanty	55
2	Honus Wagner	45
3	Ducky Holmes	31
4	Herman Long	30
5	Hugh Duffy	29
6	Pearce Chiles	28
6	Jimmy Collins	28
6	Kip Selbach	28
6	Bobby Wallace	28
6	Jimmy Williams	28

Triples3B

1	Jimmy Williams	27
2	Buck Freeman	25
3	Chick Stahl	19
4	Jack McCarthy	17
4	Fred Tenney	17
6	Jake Beckley	16
6	Bill Keister	16
6	Sam Mertes	16
9	Emmet Heidrick	14
9	Joe Kelley	14
9	Bobby Wallace	14

Home RunsHR

1	Buck Freeman	25
2	Bobby Wallace	12
3	Ed Delahanty	9
3	Sam Mertes	9
3	Jimmy Williams	9
6	Jesse Burkett	7
6	Dan McGann	7
6	Chick Stahl	7
6	Honus Wagner	7
10	Mike Donlin	6
10	Danny Green	6
10	Joe Kelley	6
10	Nap Lajoie	6
10	Herman Long	6
10	Jack O'Brien	6
10	Tom O'Brien	6

Runs Batted InRBI

1	Ed Delahanty	137
2	Buck Freeman	122
3	Jimmy Williams	116
4	Honus Wagner	114
5	Bobby Wallace	108
6	Hugh Duffy	102
7	Herman Long	100
8	Jake Beckley	99
9	Elmer Flick	98
10	Joe Kelley	93

WalksBB

1	John McGraw	124
2	Roy Thomas	115
3	George Van Haltren	75
4	Cupid Childs	74
5	Billy Hamilton	72
5	Chick Stahl	72
7	Joe Kelley	70
7	Kip Selbach	70
9	Tom Daly	69
10	Jesse Burkett	67
10	Bill Dahlen	67

Stolen BasesSB

1	Jimmy Sheckard	77
2	John McGraw	73
3	Emmet Heidrick	55
4	Ducky Holmes	50
5	Fred Clarke	49
6	Gene DeMontreville	47
7	Willie Keeler	45
7	Sam Mertes	45
9	Tom Daly	43
10	Roy Thomas	42

Wins Above ReplacementWAR

1	Ed Delahanty	8.8
2	Jimmy Williams	8.3
3	John McGraw	8.1
4	Jesse Burkett	7.1
5	Roy Thomas	6.3
6	George Davis	6.2
7	Tom Daly	5.9
8	Fred Clarke	5.7
8	Bobby Wallace	5.7
10	Honus Wagner	5.7

Batting Averagemin 468 PA

1	Ed Delahanty	.410
2	Jesse Burkett	.396
3	John McGraw	.391
4	Willie Keeler	.379
5	Jimmy Williams	.354
6	Ginger Beaumont	.352
7	Chick Stahl	.351
8	Fred Tenney	.347
9	Elmer Flick	.342
10	Honus Wagner	.341

On-Base Percentagemin 468 PA

1	John McGraw	.547
2	Ed Delahanty	.464
3	Jesse Burkett	.463
4	Roy Thomas	.457
5	Chick Stahl	.426
6	Willie Keeler	.425
7	Ginger Beaumont	.416
7	Jimmy Williams	.416
9	Fred Tenney	.411
10	Joe Kelley	.410

Slugging Percentagemin 468 PA

1	Ed Delahanty	.582
2	Buck Freeman	.563
3	Jimmy Williams	.530
4	Honus Wagner	.501
5	Jesse Burkett	.500
6	Chick Stahl	.493
7	Sam Mertes	.467
8	Jake Beckley	.464
9	Bobby Wallace	.454
10	Willie Keeler	.451

On-Base Plus Sluggingmin 468 PA

1	Ed Delahanty	1.046
2	John McGraw	.994
3	Jesse Burkett	.963
4	Jimmy Williams	.946
5	Buck Freeman	.925
6	Chick Stahl	.919
7	Honus Wagner	.895
8	Willie Keeler	.876
9	Ginger Beaumont	.860
9	Joe Kelley	.860

Pitching10 categories

WinsW

1	Jay Hughes	28
1	Joe McGinnity	28
3	Vic Willis	27
4	Cy Young	26
5	Jesse Tannehill	24
6	Jack Dunn	23
6	Noodles Hahn	23
6	Wiley Piatt	23
6	Jack Powell	23
10	Clark Griffith	22
10	Brickyard Kennedy	22
10	Frank Kitson	22

SavesSV

1	Sam Leever	3
2	Jack Dunn	2
2	Brickyard Kennedy	2
2	Joe McGinnity	2
2	Jack Taylor	2
2	Vic Willis	2
7	Bill Dammann	1
7	Bill Donovan	1
7	Jack Fifield	1
7	Pink Hawley	1
7	Charlie Hickman	1
7	Bill Hill	1
7	Harry Howell	1
7	James McJames	1
7	Kit McKenna	1
7	Ralph Miller	1
7	Kid Nichols	1
7	Al Orth	1
7	Bill Phillips	1
7	Deacon Phillippe	1
7	Bill Phyle	1
7	Bill Reidy	1
7	Jesse Tannehill	1
7	Rube Waddell	1
7	Joe Yeager	1
7	Cy Young	1

StrikeoutsSO

1	Noodles Hahn	145
2	Cy Seymour	142
3	Sam Leever	121
4	Ed Doheny	120
4	Vic Willis	120
6	Cy Young	111
7	Kid Nichols	108
8	James McJames	105
9	Jay Hughes	99
10	Gus Weyhing	96

Innings PitchedIP

1	Sam Leever	379.0
2	Jack Powell	373.0
3	Cy Young	369.3
4	Joe McGinnity	366.3
5	Bill Carrick	361.7
6	Jack Taylor	354.7
7	Kid Nichols	343.3
8	Vic Willis	342.7
9	Gus Weyhing	334.7
10	Frank Kitson	326.7

Complete GamesCG

1	Bill Carrick	40
1	Jack Powell	40
1	Cy Young	40
4	Jack Taylor	39
5	Joe McGinnity	38
6	Kid Nichols	37
7	Clark Griffith	35
7	Sam Leever	35
7	Vic Willis	35
10	Frank Kitson	34
10	Gus Weyhing	34

ShutoutsSHO

1	Vic Willis	5
2	Red Donahue	4
2	Chick Fraser	4
2	Ned Garvin	4
2	Noodles Hahn	4
2	Sam Leever	4
2	Joe McGinnity	4
2	Kid Nichols	4
2	Cy Young	4
10	Jimmy Callahan	3
10	Bill Carrick	3
10	Jay Hughes	3
10	Al Orth	3
10	Jesse Tannehill	3

Wins Above ReplacementWAR

1	Cy Young	9.6
2	Noodles Hahn	8.6
3	Kid Nichols	7.8
4	Joe McGinnity	7.5
5	Sam Leever	7.5
6	Jesse Tannehill	7.4
7	Frank Kitson	7.4
8	Jack Powell	7.0
9	Clark Griffith	7.0
10	Vic Willis	7.0

Earned Run Averagemin 151 IP

1	Vic Willis	2.50
2	Cy Young	2.58
3	Joe McGinnity	2.68
4	Noodles Hahn	2.68
5	Jay Hughes	2.69
6	Frank Kitson	2.78
7	Clark Griffith	2.79
8	Brickyard Kennedy	2.79
9	Jesse Tannehill	2.82
10	Ned Garvin	2.85

Walks and Hits per Inningmin 151 IP

1	Cy Young	1.12
2	Noodles Hahn	1.13
3	Vic Willis	1.15
4	Kid Nichols	1.19
5	Frank Kitson	1.20
6	Ned Garvin	1.23
7	Joe McGinnity	1.23
7	Deacon Phillippe	1.23
9	Clark Griffith	1.23
10	Sam Leever	1.25

Fielding Independent Pitchingmin 151 IP

1	Noodles Hahn	2.88
2	Cy Young	3.09
3	Ned Garvin	3.12
4	Jesse Tannehill	3.31
5	George Cuppy	3.41
6	Frank Kitson	3.42
7	Clark Griffith	3.42
8	Jerry Nops	3.47
9	Kid Nichols	3.49
10	Harry Howell	3.57

Independent Black clubs in 1899

8 more ranking tables from 1899. These clubs played a much shorter league schedule than the American and National Leagues did, so the counting statistics are not on the same scale as the ones above.

The Negro Leagues had none of these awards. There was no Most Valuable Player vote, no Cy Young Award, no Gold Glove and no Silver Slugger in Black baseball, so no player in those sections below could appear in the award list above however he played. A blank there says something about how the leagues were organised and nothing at all about the players.

Independent Black clubs

Led the Independent Black clubs — the first row of every table below.

There is no batting average table in this section, and that is not a gap in the record. Rate statistics need a qualifying line, and the one this site uses for 1899 is 468 plate appearances — three point one per team game across a 151-game schedule. The Independent Black clubs played a far shorter league season than that, so no player in it reaches the line and no rate table can be built without comparing a handful of games to a full year. The counting tables above are unaffected: those are simply what the players did.

Batting8 categories

RunsR

1	Clarence Williams	9
2	Willis Jones	8
2	Sol White	8
4	Bill Monroe	7
5	Frank Grant	6
6	Billy Holland	5
6	Harry Hyde	5
6	Andy Jackson	5
6	Ray Wilson	5
10	George Hopkins	4
10	Robert Jackson	4
10	Will Jackson	4
10	Grant Johnson	4
10	Bob Jordan	4
10	Harry Moore	4

HitsH

1	Bob Jordan	14
2	Clarence Williams	13
3	Sol White	12
4	Frank Grant	10
4	Harry Hyde	10
4	Bill Monroe	10
7	Grant Johnson	9
8	George Hopkins	8
8	Robert Jackson	8
10	Will Jackson	7
10	Bert Jones	7
10	John Patterson	7
10	James Robinson	7
10	Ray Wilson	7

Doubles2B

1	Frank Grant	3
2	Will Horn	2
2	Harry Hyde	2
2	John Nelson	2
2	Sol White	2
2	Ray Wilson	2
7	Harry Buckner	1
7	Charlie Grant	1
7	Andy Jackson	1
7	Chappie Johnson	1
7	Grant Johnson	1
7	Bert Jones	1
7	Willis Jones	1
7	Bob Jordan	1
7	Bill Monroe	1
7	Harry Moore	1
7	John Patterson	1
7	William Selden	1

Triples3B

1	Frank Grant	2
2	Doc Howard	1
2	Willis Jones	1
2	Bob Jordan	1
2	Bill Monroe	1

Home RunsHR

1	Bill Monroe	3
2	Grant Johnson	2
2	Bob Jordan	2
2	Clarence Williams	2
5	Robert Jackson	1
5	Chappie Johnson	1
5	John Nelson	1

Runs Batted InRBI

1	Bob Jordan	10
2	Bill Monroe	8
3	Grant Johnson	7
3	Bert Jones	7
3	Clarence Williams	7
6	Harry Hyde	6
7	Robert Jackson	5
8	Will Jackson	4
8	Sol White	4
10	George Hopkins	3
10	Andy Jackson	3
10	John Nelson	3
10	Ray Wilson	3

WalksBB

1	Willis Jones	5
2	Harry Hyde	3
2	Andy Jackson	3
2	Harry Moore	3
2	Sol White	3
6	George Hopkins	2
6	Chappie Johnson	2
6	Bert Jones	2
6	Bill Monroe	2
6	Ray Wilson	2

Wins Above ReplacementWAR

1	Bob Jordan	0.7
2	Clarence Williams	0.6
3	Bill Monroe	0.5
4	Grant Johnson	0.4
5	Harry Hyde	0.3
6	Sol White	0.2
7	Frank Grant	0.2
8	Chappie Johnson	0.2
9	James Robinson	0.1
10	Robert Jackson	0.1

How this page is built

The qualifying line for 1899 is 468 plate appearances and 151 innings pitched. It comes from the length of the schedule — 151 games per team, measured from the season files themselves — at the official rate of 3.1 plate appearances and one inning per team game. Batting average, on-base, slugging, OPS, earned run average and WHIP all use it; a player who came to the plate twice and got two hits does not appear at the top of the batting average table, which is exactly what that line is for. Counting statistics such as home runs and strikeouts have no minimum, because none is needed.

How the rankings were made

Wins above replacement in these tables is ours rather than the source database's, so it will not match a published figure exactly. Also: why every ranking stops at one league, and why some categories are missing on purpose.

Every ranking on this page is worked out inside one league. 1899 is counted as 2 separate leagues — National League and Independent Black clubs, and a player is ranked only against the men in his own. Leading the American League and leading baseball are different claims, and the one we can make from these files is the first. There is no combined table anywhere on this page, because adding two leagues together would produce a number that no record book recognises.

There are 31 ranking tables here, 26 places deep. Players tied on a value share a place, so a table can run past ten rows when the tenth spot is shared, and a league with fewer than ten qualified players in a category is left out rather than shown as a top ten that is not one. A player who did none of the thing is not ranked in it either — a shutout table lists the pitchers who threw one, not the hundreds who threw none tied on zero. Some categories are missing on purpose: nobody leads a league in strikeouts at the plate, in losses, or in home runs allowed. A ranking is meant to mark an achievement, so only achievements are ranked.

Wins above replacement on this page is ours, not the source database's. The hitting and pitching files carry a WAR column that we compute here from the same season lines you see, using park factors and a run environment worked out per season. Published versions elsewhere use different methods and will not match ours exactly. Every other column is the record as the database supplies it.

Names on this page lead to that player's own record. Most of them open a full career page with every season he appeared in. Some open a summary screen instead — we pre-build pages for the players people look for, and everyone else is assembled on demand from the same files, so the numbers are identical either way even though the address looks different.

Data for 1871 to 2025: Lahman Baseball Database 2025, compiled by SABR (Society for American Baseball Research) and licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported. Negro Leagues data licensed from Seamheads.com and included under SABR major-league recommendations (2021-02-11, 2024-06-03). This page ranks the 1899 season lines published on this site, league by league, with WAR worked out here. — the WAR columns are computed here — and they are published under the same CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported licence, as ShareAlike requires. That database is published once a season is complete, so the 2026 figures on this site come from a different place: the MLB Stats API, whose notice reads “Copyright 2026 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. Use of any content on this page acknowledges agreement to the terms posted here http://gdx.mlb.com/components/copyright.txt”. Those numbers are MLB Advanced Media, L.P.’s, not SABR (Society for American Baseball Research)’s, and they carry that notice rather than the CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported licence above. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Major League Baseball or any of its clubs.