By Tom Ruane
Or not, as the case may be.
From time to time, I will do a small (and sometimes not so small) piece of baseball research utilizing Retrosheet's data and post the results to SABR-L, Retrolist or both. Since I haven't been able to find a way to get these posts formatted correctly (gmail or yahoo don't seem to know about typewriter fonts) or to include links into Retrosheet's web-site, I thought it might be a good idea to collect the disparate pieces into one place, with the formatting and links added.
Once I started to do this, the original article quickly got too big and so I created several more:
Fun With Retrosheet Data, the Sequel Fun With Retrosheet Data, Episode 3 Fun With Retrosheet Data, Episode 4 Fun With Retrosheet Data, Episode 5 Fun With Retrosheet Data, Episode 6 Fun With Retrosheet Data, Episode 7
I hope at least some of this is of general interest and, as always:
Thanks for your patience.
A note on the scope of the data presented in these articles:
As of this writing, the data used in these articles does not include any of the Negro Leagues that are now considered by MLB to be part of the "Major Leagues" as of December 2020. These leagues are the Negro National League from 1920 to 1931 and 1933 to 1948, the Eastern Colored League from 1923 to 1928, the 1929 American Negro League, the 1932 East-West League, the 1932 Negro Southern League, and the Negro American League from 1937 to 1948.
This omission is not in any way a reflection upon the major league status of those leagues (or for that matter any additional leagues that may come under the Major League umbrella in future years), only that I did not have access to data associated with these leagues while I was researching and writing these articles. In light of this, any data presented in this article, as well as my use of the term "major leagues," should be viewed in light of this omission.
List of Articles (starting with most recent)
Three-Out Innings with No Official At-Bats (April 16, 2023) ERA Qualifiers and the Number of Batter-Pitcher Matchups (November 7, 2021) Fun With Batting Orders (August 5, 2021) Most Consistent Pitchers (May 11, 2021) The Most Homogeneous Batting Orders (May 6, 2021) Most Consistent Hitters (April 25, 2021) Pitchers Doing Random Things In The Most Consecutive Games (February 2, 2021) Players Doing Random Things In The Most Consecutive Games (January 24, 2021) Extra-Inning Season and Career Batting Records (October 19, 2019) Extra-Inning Single Game Batting Records (September 29, 2019) Second (and third) Generation Major League Players (September 14, 2019) Perhaps the Most Improbable Comebacks From 1901 to 2018 (May 13, 2019) Runs Produced By The Most and Fewest Hits (September 12, 2018) Changes In Pitch Outcomes: 1988-2016 (July 2, 2017) Fun with a Team's OPS (June 20, 2016) A Look at Run Differentials (June 18, 2016) Starting Pitching Lines (May 24, 2015) The Greatest Incomplete Starts (May 20, 2015) Most Surprising Pitching Performances (July 5, 2014) Both Starting Pitchers Making MLB Exits (May 26, 2014) Both Starting Pitchers Making MLB Debuts (May 19, 2014) The Age of Starting Lineups (May 5, 2014) Hot Starts to Careers, the Pitching Edition (April 29, 2014) Hot Starts to Careers, the Batting Edition (April 28, 2014) Hard to Hit Pitchers (April 5, 2014) Unique Batting Lines (August 26, 2012) Come-From-Behind Wins and Losses (July 8, 2012) A Tour of Team Pitching Logs (July 7, 2012) A Tour of Team Batting Logs (July 5, 2012) Consecutive Winless Starts (June 23, 2012) Low-Hit Clusters (June 19, 2012) When Winning Streaks Collide (June 14, 2012) Defensive Juggling (May 8, 2012) Incomplete Games By Position (April 8, 2012) A Look at Triple-Crown Leaders (December 19, 2011) Do Only Slow Runners Ground into a Lot of DPs? (December 15, 2011) The Homering-est Teammates (and Multiple Debuts) (December 12, 2011) Multiple Hitting Streaks (November 29, 2011) The Most Exciting Games (October 28, 2011) League Leaders With the Fewest Games Played (October 14, 2011) Nelson Cruz Made Me Do It (October 15, 2011) Players With The Highest Percentage of Post-Season Homers (October 7, 2011) Doubling Their Home Runs (September 27, 2011) Top Hitting Streaks By Batting Order and Defensive Position (September 27, 2011) Come-From-Behind Batting Champions, An Update (September 26, 2011) Best Career Marks By Park (September 24, 2011) Come-From-Behind Batting Champions (September 23, 2011) Best Career Hitters By Lineup Position (September 18, 2011) Best Hitters By Lineup Position (September 16, 2011) More Than You Ever Wanted to Know About 1-0 Games (September 15, 2011) Best/Worst Month for a Team's Pitchers (September 14, 2011) Batters Supporting Starting Pitchers (September 10, 2011) Most Strikeouts Between Hits Allowed... And Then Some (September 5, 2011) Double-Digits In Strikeouts and Hits Allowed (September 3, 2011) Bases-Loaded Plate Appearances (August 31, 2011) Palindromic At-Bat Line (August 27, 2011) Most At-Bats With the Bases Loaded (August 25, 2011) Starting Infields, Then And Now (August 24, 2011) Easy schedule runs (July 15, 2011) Parity Comes to MLB (May 29, 2011) Two .400 Hitters on a Team (May 3, 2011) Pitcher versus Team (July 22, 2010) Expected Pitcher Match-Ups (July 21, 2010) Consecutive Starts With IPs greater than or equal to Hits (July 19, 2010) Consecutive Starts With Ks greater than or equal to IPs (July 17,2010) Pitcher Match-Ups (July 16, 2010) Most Blown Saves Combo (June 3, 2009)
Originally appeared on SABR-L (Item# 077533) and Retrolist (#8994) on June 3, 2009.
In light of the recent news over Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte breaking Dennis Eckersley and Bob Welch's "record" for most saves by a pitching combo, I thought it might be interesting to see who holds the record for the most blown saves by a pitching combo, at least during the Retrosheet era. Here's what I found:
11 John Montefusco/Gary Lavelle - 1975(3) 1978(5) 1979(2) 1980(1) Bruce Hurst/Bob Stanley - 1982(1) 1983(5) 1984(2) 1985(1) 1988(2) 10 Earl Wilson/Dick Radatz - 1962(3) 1964(4) 1965(2) 1966(1) Vida Blue/Rollie Fingers - 1972(1) 1974(3) 1975(1) 1976(5) Doc Medich/Sparky Lyle - 1973(2) 1974(3) 1975(1) 1979(2) 1980(2) John Candelaria/Kent Tekulve - 1977(1) 1980(2) 1981(1) 1982(3) 1983(2) 1984(1) Ron Darling/Jesse Orosco - 1983(1) 1984(3) 1985(3) 1986(2) 1987(1) 9 Larry Jackson/Lindy McDaniel - 1959(1) 1960(3) 1961(1) 1962(3) 1964(1) Don Drysdale/Ron Perranoski - 1961(1) 1963(1) 1964(4) 1965(1) 1966(1) 1967(1) Ken Holtzman/Phil Regan - 1968(4) 1969(1) 1970(2) 1971(2) Don Sutton/Jim Brewer - 1969(5) 1970(1) 1971(2) 1974(1) Bob Moose/Dave Giusti - 1970(2) 1972(2) 1973(4) 1975(1) Randy Jones/Rollie Fingers - 1977(3) 1978(1) 1979(4) 1980(1) Ron Guidry/Rich Gossage - 1978(3) 1979(1) 1980(1) 1981(1) 1982(3) Ron Guidry/Dave Righetti - 1984(2) 1985(2) 1986(2) 1987(1) 1988(2) Tom Gordon/Jeff Montgomery - 1989(2) 1990(3) 1991(1) 1992(1) 1993(1) 1995(1) Roger Clemens/Jeff Reardon - 1990(3) 1991(3) 1992(3)
Now this only includes those games for which we have play-by-play data so we may be missing a couple from the early years.
The highest single-season mark is 6 by Mike Moore and Matt Young in 1986. All 6 of those occurred in a 19-start stretch starting on July 9th.
And where's the saves top two rank:
5 Bob Welch/Dennis Eckersley - 1989(2) 1991(1) 1993(1) 1994(1) 5 Andy Pettitte/Mariano Rivera - 1995(1) 1997(1) 2003(1) 2007(2)
Originally appeared on SABR-L (Item# 080810) on July 16, 2010.
While I was writing my article on the 1940s, I noticed that Whit Wyatt and Mort Cooper faced each other five times in 1942. I wondered if that was a lot and did a quick study to see what pitchers faced each other the most times in a season. I ended up not using what I found in my article, but thought that the subscribers to this list might be interested in some of the results.
So... here are the pitchers who faced each other the most times in a season:
# Year Pitchers 13 1877 Tommy Bond (BOS N) and Terry Larkin (HAR N) 12 1878 Tommy Bond (BOS N) and Will White (CIN N) 12 1878 Tommy Bond (BOS N) and Terry Larkin (CHI N) 12 1877 Tommy Bond (BOS N) and Jim Devlin (LOU N)
This is pretty much what you would expect, since there were only six teams in the NL during 1877 and 1878 and the same pitcher usually started almost every game. Tommy Bond, for example, started all but four of Boston's games in 1877 and 1878.
Here are the last time there were 5-11 matchups between the same pitchers in a season:
# Year Pitchers 11 1878 Terry Larkin (CHI N) and The Only Nolan (IND N) 10 1886 Mickey Welch (NY N) and Jim McCormick (CHI N) 9 1891 Amos Rusie (NY N) and Bill Hutchinson (CHI N) 8 1890 Amos Rusie (NY N) and Adonis Terry (BRO N) 7 1959 Lou Burdette (MIL N) and Robin Roberts (PHI N) 6 2004 Adam Eaton (SD N) and Jeff Weaver (LA N)
The seven matchups between Burdette and Roberts were notable in that they were the most in the majors since 1891.
By the way, the last time two pitchers met at least five times with one of the teams winning all of the games was in 1961 when Whitey Ford started against Don Mossi five times and the Yankees won them all. Ford only picked up the win in two of the games, however.
I also looked at what pitchers were involved in the lowest scoring matchups. Of the pitchers with at least five games in a season against one another, the pairs involved in the lowest scoring games were:
# Year Runs Pitchers 5 1908 17 Christy Mathewson (NY N) and Andy Coakley (CIN N) 5 1916 18 Babe Ruth (BOS A) and Walter Johnson (WAS A) 5 1903 19 George Mullin (DET A) and Casey Patten (WAS A) 7 1884 28 Old Hoss Radbourn (PRO N) and Charlie Buffinton (BOS N) 5 1914 20 Walter Johnson (WAS A) and Rankin Johnson (BOS A)
Radbourn beat Buffington three times in the space of six days that August by a combined score of 6-0.
Rankin Johnson jumped to the Chicago Whales of the Federal League that summer, no doubt to get away from Walter Johnson, who had defeated him three times (all shutouts) by early July.
And finally, I looked at what pitchers faced each other the most times over the course of their careers. Here are the most common matchups:
# First Last Pitchers 40 1880 1887 Jim McCormick (20) and Mickey Welch (18) 39 1871 1877 Al Spalding (33) and Bobby Mathews (6) 39 1871 1876 Al Spalding (24) and Dick McBride (12) 37 1871 1876 Al Spalding (26) and George Zettlein (11) 36 1880 1889 Mickey Welch (26) and Pud Galvin (9)
The number in parenthesis are the number of games won by each pitcher's team. Here are the most matchups since 1900:
# First Last Pitchers 23 1903 1916 Mordecai Brown (12) and Christy Mathewson (11) 21 1952 1964 Warren Spahn (14) and Bob Friend (7) 21 1915 1927 Pete Alexander (14) and Lee Meadows (7) 19 1902 1908 Jack Chesbro (9) and Doc White (8) 18 1950 1960 Robin Roberts (11) and Don Newcombe (7)
Originally appeared on SABR-L (Item# 080818) on July 17, 2010.
With his start last night, Stephen Strasburg has now begun his major league career with eight consecutive starts where his strikeouts have been greater than or equal to his innings pitched. I was wondering how unusual that was and, at least during the Retrosheet Era, there were three other pitchers who managed to do this. Here they are:
# Pitcher Year IP SO 8 Herb Score 1955 64 78 10 Dwight Gooden 1984 58.1 80 18 Kerry Wood 1998 114.1 167
But what about the longest streaks at any point in a starting pitcher's career? Here they are (again, since 1920):
# Pitcher Year(s) IP SO 20 Dwight Gooden 1984-1985 150.1 196 19 Randy Johnson 1999 148.0 206 19 Randy Johnson 2001 134.1 205 18 Kerry Wood 1998 114.1 167 17 Pedro Martinez 1999-2000 125.1 201 16 Pedro Martinez 1997-1998 118.2 164 15 Pedro Martinez 1999 111.2 161
After beginning his career with a streak of ten games, Dwight Gooden had three straight starts with fewer strikeouts than innings pitched before starting that streak of twenty straight games. His record in those three games was 2-0 with two earned runs allowed in 24 1/3 innings.
Finally, here are the longest streaks if we also include relief appearances (and for the purposes of this study, I am ignoring any outings in which the pitcher failed to retire a batter):
# Pitcher Year(s) IP SO 38 Brad Lidge 2004-2005 42.2 77 30 Eric Gagne 2003-2004 34.1 57 26 Billy Wagner 1999-2000 28.1 43 23 Jose Valverde 2006 28.1 46 22 Chad Fox 1997-1998 27.2 41 22 Billy Wagner 2001 21.0 34
Strasburg's streak reached nine games before ending on August 10th.
Originally appeared on SABR-L (Item# 080850) on July 19, 2010.
After my previous post, Cappy Gagnon suggested I do a similar study of pitchers with the most consecutive starts where his innings pitched was greater than or equal to his hits allowed.
Here are the top streaks I found (since 1920):
# Pitcher Year(s) IP H 29 Hal Newhouser 1945 260.0 194 25 Gaylord Perry 1973-1974 225.1 138 23 Luis Tiant 1967-1968 195.1 110 23 Gaylord Perry 1972 211.0 140 22 Nolan Ryan 1974-1975 191.2 108 22 Pedro Martinez 1999-2000 171.0 99 21 Bob Turley 1954-1955 168.1 100 21 Greg Maddux 1992 166.1 107 21 Jason Bere 1993-1994 131.2 92 20 Tom Seaver 1971-1972 170.0 104 20 Nolan Ryan 1972-1973 167.2 90 20 J.R. Richard 1979-1980 166.0 85 20 Mike Scott 1986 155.2 95
And list of consecutive starts that meet our criteria from the start of their careers:
# Pitcher Year(s) IP H 18 Pete Alexander 1911 174.2 128 13 Burt Hooton 1971-1972 98.0 61 12 Butch Wensloff 1943 104.1 71 12 Rick Ankiel 1999-2000 69.0 51 11 Vic Raschi 1946-1947 89.1 70
Yes, that Butch Wensloff. And I know I said that these lists were since 1920, but we also have the 1911 NL and so have the start of Alexander's career as well.
Here are the longest streaks if we include relief appearances:
# Pitcher Year(s) IP H 44 Rafael Soriano 2007-2009 46.1 20 36 Joe Nathan 2007-2008 37.2 22 31 Hal Newhouser 1945 261.2 194 31 Keith Foulke 2003 36.1 15 28 Billy Wagner 2005 28.1 11 28 Brad Lidge 2007-2008 28.0 13 28 Jeff Zimmerman 2001 29.2 11 26 Vincente Romo 1968 65.1 31 26 Francisco Cordero 2007 24.2 7
Zimmerman's streak was still going at the end of his career and Romo's streak came at the beginning of his.
And here's the flip side of the coin, the pitchers with the most consecutive starts with hits greater than or equal to innings pitched:
# Pitcher Year(s) IP H 22 Jaime Navarro 1999-2000 113.0 176 21 Dutch Henry 1923-1927 122.1 177 21 Art Nehf 1925-1927 114.0 169 21 Vern Kennedy 1940 129.2 183 21 Bill Lee 1975-1977 110.2 155 21 Livan Hernandez 2007-2008 123.1 186 20 Clarence Mitchell 1928-1929 154.2 205 20 Phil Collins 1931-1932 134.0 204
Those were the last 22 starts of Navarro's career.
If you include relief outings, here's the updated list:
# Pitcher Year(s) IP H 23 Slim Harriss 1926-1927 115.2 160 23 Les Sweetland 1930 108.2 181 23 Vern Kennedy 1940 135.0 189 23 Hap Collard 1930 93.1 161 22 Tommie Sisk 1964 28.0 56 21 Livan Hernandez 2007-2008 123.1 186 20 Paul LaPalme 1951-1952 42.0 69 20 Zach Duke 2007-2008 110.0 166
Both of the 1930 pitchers on this list (as well as Phil Collins above) helped the Phillies that year allow nearly 1200 runs. For Collard, those were the last games of his career. On June 5th, he allowed only seven hits in a complete game victory, raising his record to 4-1 with a 1.87 ERA. His ERA over his last 23 games was 8.58.
Originally appeared on SABR-L (Item# 080875) on July 21, 2010.
Last week I wrote a post listing the most frequent pitcher matchups in major league history. Today, I'd like to look at this from a slightly different angle: what pitchers should have faced each other the most often? So I went through and determined the expected number of matchups for each possible pair of starting pitchers (all 690,550 of them). It's probably best to see how I did this by looking at an example.
In 1949, Don Newcombe started 31 of the Dodgers 156 games, meaning that he had a 31/156 (.1987) chance of starting any single game. The Dodgers played the Braves 22 times that year, giving Newcombe a total of 4.372 expected starts against them (22 x .1987). Warren Spahn started 38 of the Braves 157 games. So if you multiply the chance of him starting a random Braves game 38/157 (.2420) by the number of Newcombe's starts that we calculated earlier, you end up with their expected matchups that year: 1.058.
If you repeat this exercise for every year both pitchers were in the National League (1949-51 and 1954-60), you end up with a total of 9.57 times they were expected to meet during their careers. How often did they actually meet? Twice. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. First, here are the highest number of expected match-ups:
# First Last Pitchers 40.26 1871 1877 Al Spalding and Bobby Mathews 37.29 1871 1876 Al Spalding and Dick McBride 35.99 1871 1876 Dick McBride and Bobby Mathews 33.90 1879 1885 Pud Galvin and Jim McCormick 32.99 1871 1876 Al Spalding and George Zettlein
This time around, the first and last columns indicate the first and last years in which the two pitchers could have faced each other. Like the similar list in my previous post, this one is dominated by National Association pitchers. The top five since 1900:
# First Last Pitchers 15.51 1948 1965 Warren Spahn and Robin Roberts 14.88 1967 1987 Phil Niekro and Don Sutton 13.71 1951 1965 Warren Spahn and Bob Friend 13.22 1900 1910 Christy Mathewson and Vic Willis 13.16 1902 1915 George Mullin and Eddie Plank
Without beating this approach to death, I would like to provide two more lists. Here are the pitchers who faced each other more often than you would expect:
Act Exp Diff First Last Pitchers 23 9.89 13.11 1903 1916 Mordecai Brown and Christy Mathewson 40 28.90 11.10 1880 1887 Jim McCormick and Mickey Welch 17 6.84 10.16 1905 1913 Christy Mathewson and Lefty Leifield 19 8.85 10.15 1901 1909 Jack Chesbro and Doc White 14 3.86 10.14 1945 1954 Preacher Roe and Herm Wehmeier
And the "least" list:
Act Exp Diff First Last Pitchers 7 15.10 -8.10 1884 1892 Pretzels Getzien and Mickey Welch 2 9.57 -7.57 1949 1960 Don Newcombe and Warren Spahn 4 11.17 -7.17 1912 1926 Pete Alexander and Wilbur Cooper 11 18.02 -7.02 1880 1887 Tim Keefe and Jim McCormick 5 11.94 -6.94 1912 1926 Hooks Dauss and Walter Johnson
I'm not sure why Mickey Welch kept ducking Pretzels Getzien, but Warren Spahn was well-known for avoiding Brooklyn during the mid-1950s. From 1954 to 1957, he pitched only 3 2/3 of his 1081 1/3 innings against the Dodgers.
Originally appeared on SABR-L (Item# 080885) on July 22, 2010.
Yesterday, I mentioned that Warren Spahn only faced Don Newcombe twice in his career. But of course Spahn's managers weren't ensuring that their ace lefty avoided Newcombe. No, they didn't want Spahn pitching against Brooklyn's predominately right-handed hitting lineup.
Which got me to wondering which pitchers faced other teams both more and less than you'd expect. I computed the expected number of starts against each team the way I described in my previous post.
Let's start with the highest number of starts against a single team:
# First Last Team Pitcher 115 1942 1965 STL N Warren Spahn 108 1942 1965 NY N Warren Spahn 105 1907 1927 DET A Walter Johnson 100 1939 1963 NY A Early Wynn 99 1907 1927 CHI A Walter Johnson 96 1911 1930 CIN N Pete Alexander 96 1912 1933 PIT N Eppa Rixey 95 1942 1965 CIN N Warren Spahn 95 1942 1965 PIT N Warren Spahn 94 1907 1927 NY A Walter Johnson
This is not too surprising. Walter Johnson and Warren Spahn played all or most of their careers in one eight-team league and started 666 and 665 games, respectively.
And the highest number of expected starts:
# First Last Team Pitcher 96.41 1907 1927 DET A Walter Johnson 96.29 1907 1927 STL A Walter Johnson 96.05 1907 1927 CHI A Walter Johnson 95.65 1907 1927 CLE A Walter Johnson 94.84 1907 1927 NY A Walter Johnson 93.52 1907 1927 BOS A Walter Johnson 93.25 1907 1927 PHI A Walter Johnson 91.53 1942 1965 PIT N Warren Spahn 91.45 1942 1965 BRO N Warren Spahn 91.35 1942 1965 PHI N Warren Spahn 91.12 1942 1965 CHI N Warren Spahn 90.76 1942 1965 STL N Warren Spahn 90.57 1942 1965 CIN N Warren Spahn 90.00 1942 1965 NY N Warren Spahn
Again, since most teams played each of their opponents about the same number of times, this makes sense.
So which pitchers faced a team much more than you'd expect?
Act Exp Diff First Last Team Pitcher 64 38.02 25.98 1944 1954 STL N Preacher Roe 115 90.76 24.24 1942 1965 STL N Warren Spahn 45 21.77 23.23 1898 1918 BOS A Nick Altrock 49 26.71 22.29 1941 1954 STL N Dave Koslo 78 55.75 22.25 1948 1964 CLE A Billy Pierce 70 48.03 21.97 1953 1966 LA N Bob Buhl 92 70.13 21.87 1901 1917 DET A Eddie Plank 76 55.36 20.64 1948 1964 NY A Billy Pierce 47 26.37 20.63 1937 1952 STL N Ken Heintzelman 54 34.76 19.24 1939 1949 CHI N Rip Sewell
For eight of these pitchers we have box scores for their entire careers. Here's how they did against those teams compared to the rest of their opponents:
Pitcher Team W L ERA W L ERA Preacher Roe STL N 28 20 3.70 Others 99 64 3.34 Warren Spahn STL N 64 41 3.00 299 204 3.11 Dave Koslo STL N 24 21 3.60 68 86 3.67 Billy Pierce CLE A 37 29 3.13 174 140 3.29 Bob Buhl LA N 30 21 3.00 136 111 3.67 Billy Pierce NY A 25 37 3.94 186 132 3.13 Ken Heintzelman STL N 19 22 3.99 58 76 3.92 Rip Sewell CHI N 36 19 2.84 107 78 3.64
The only righties on the list, Buhl and Sewell, were also the only ones who pitched much better against these teams, but I'm not sure how significant this is. For one thing, it seems clear that Pierce pitched a lot against the Yankees and Indians because they were the two other strongest teams in the league, not because he dominated them. Roe, Spahn, Koslo and Heintzelman all pitched left-handed and were probably spotted against the Cards to neutralize Musial and Slaughter, among others.
The pitchers who seemed to avoid certain teams:
Act Exp Diff First Last Team Pitcher 21 47.71 -26.71 1953 1966 CIN N Bob Buhl 17 42.71 -25.71 1908 1920 PHI N Slim Sallee 66 91.45 -25.45 1942 1965 BRO N Warren Spahn 9 32.52 -23.52 1952 1962 BRO N Vinegar Bend Mizell 15 37.48 -22.48 1923 1937 BOS A Rube Walberg 18 39.90 -21.90 1952 1963 BRO N Harvey Haddix 52 72.67 -20.67 1901 1917 CLE A Eddie Plank 5 25.66 -20.66 1937 1944 CIN N Cliff Melton 7 24.79 -17.79 1941 1956 PIT N Johnny Schmitz 38 55.53 -17.53 1948 1964 WAS A Billy Pierce
We've seen four of these pitchers on the other list, which is what you'd expect (if you pitch more against one team, you've got to pitch less against others). Again, we've got the complete careers covered for eight of these. This should look familiar:
Pitcher Team W L ERA W L ERA Bob Buhl CIN N 4 12 5.59 Others 162 120 3.43 Warren Spahn BRO N 24 37 3.28 339 208 3.07 V.B. Mizell BRO N 1 6 6.32 89 82 3.76 Rube Walberg BOS A 10 9 3.11 145 132 4.24 Harvey Haddix BRO N 7 7 3.64 129 106 3.63 Cliff Melton CIN N 4 3 2.05 82 77 3.47 Johnny Schmitz PIT N 4 5 3.42 89 109 3.56 Billy Pierce WAS A 21 13 2.88 190 156 3.30
Both Buhl (the only righty) and Mizell pitched poorly against the teams they avoided. And I'm guessing that Pierce missed out on facing the old Senators because his managers didn't want to waste him on such a weak team.
Originally appeared on SABR-L (Item# 082888) and Retrolist (#10111) on May 3, 2011.
After 29 games, both Matt Holliday and Lance Berkman of the Cardinals are batting over .400. This got me to wondering about the last time (or times) a team had two players hitting .400 or more at least thirty games into a season (only counting players with at least 3.1 plate appearances per game played).
Here's what I came up with since 1918:
Games Date Team Players 30 5- 5-1997 ATL N Jeff Blauser (.406/.308) Michael Tucker (.400/.283) 30 5-21-1932 NY A Tony Lazzeri (.422/.300) Bill Dickey (.404/.310) 35 5-30-1931* PHI A Mickey Cochrane (.417/.349) Al Simmons (.403/.390) 101 8- 4-1930 PHI N Chuck Klein (.405/.386) Lefty O'Doul (.400/.383) 30 5-17-1927 PHI A Ty Cobb (.417/.357) Al Simmons (.413/.392) 35 5-23-1926 NY A Joe Dugan (.414/.288) Bob Meusel (.400/.315) 82 7-11-1925 DET A Ty Cobb (.410/.378) Harry Heilmann (.404/.393) 31 5-26-1924 BOS A Ike Boone (.402/.337) Joe Harris (.402/.301) 56 6-12-1921 DET A Harry Heilmann (.429/.394) Ty Cobb (.401/.389) 49 6-13-1921 STL N Rogers Hornsby (.413/.397) Austin McHenry (.404/.350) * - after the first game of a double-header.
The second number in parenthesis following each player's name is his final batting average that year.
Originally appeared on SABR-L (Item# 083165) and Retrolist (#10160) on May 29, 2011.
In looking at the standings the other day, I noticed that there didn't seem to be many great or terrible teams so far this year, especially in the AL, where most of the teams are within a couple of games of .500. This got me to wondering if this was out of the ordinary or simply something I hadn't noticed before. To investigate this, I determined the difference between each team's wins and losses after their first fifty decisions and calculated the average difference to determine league parity.
Here are the seasons with the smallest average difference after fifty decisions:
Year Teams Diff 1959 16 4.50 1944 16 4.88 1968 20 4.90 1975 24 5.00 1947 16 5.12 2011 30 5.27 1974 24 5.33
And here are the years with the least parity:
Year Teams Diff 1876 8 19.25 1884 28 15.86 1875 7 15.71 1879 8 14.50 1883 16 14.00 1872 2 14.00
And the same list since 1900:
Year Teams Diff 1907 16 13.00 1953 16 12.00 1911 16 11.62 1906 16 11.12 1955 16 11.12 1931 16 11.00
I also decided to look at parity by league. Here are the leagues with the greatest parity after 50 decisions:
Year LG Teams Diff 1944 AL 8 2.50 1959 AL 8 3.00 1974 AL 12 3.00 1947 AL 8 3.50 1915 NL 8 3.75 1932 NL 8 3.75 1968 NL 10 3.80 1926 NL 8 4.25 1943 AL 8 4.25 1983 AL 14 4.29 2011 AL 14 4.29
And the leagues since 1900 with the least parity:
Year LG Teams Diff 1907 NL 8 15.25 1903 NL 8 13.50 1906 NL 8 13.00 1946 AL 8 12.75 1913 AL 8 12.75 1955 AL 8 12.50 1909 NL 8 12.50
So the current year is nothing too earth-shaking, but I was hoping some might find this interesting anyway.
Originally appeared on SABR-L (Item# 083495) on July 13, 2011.
Gary Collard, noting that the Rangers entered the All-Star break by playing 16 of 19 games against last place teams, wondered what the record was for most consecutive games versus over and under .500 teams.
I thought it might be interesting to look at four groups:
1) under .400, 2) under .500, 3) over .500 and 4) over .600.
Here's what I found:
1) Starting on August 11, 1885, the Chicago White Stockings played a record 23 straight games against opponents with a winning percentage under .400. During the streak, they played only Buffalo, Detroit and St. Louis. It ended when they faced Boston (which entered the game with a none-too-impressive winning percentage of .406). Chicago went 20-2-1 during the streak.
The longest such streak since 1900 is nineteen and it was done four times:
Team Year Start-End Record NY N 1904 9-3 to 9-17 15-3-1 NY A 1929 5-17 to 6-4 11-8 CAL A 1966 4-30 to 5-18 11-8 SF N 2004 5-21 to 6-10 13-6
2) The Chicago White Sox played 51 straight games against losing teams from May 27 to July 10, 1966. The streak ended when they hosted the third-place Indians in the first game following the All-Star break. Ironically, the Sox went only 22-28-1 while playing losing teams, and 45-32 afterwards. No teams are close to their streak, the second longest being a run of forty straight games by the San Francisco Giants in 1986. It ran from July 3rd to August 17th and, like the White Sox, the Giants had a losing mark (19-21) while it lasted.
3) The top five teams with the most consecutive games played against winning teams:
# Team Year Start-End Record 52 NY A 1991 7-16 to 9-8 19-33 51 WAS A 1916 7-11 to 8-31 22-28-1 50 BOS A 1908 7-2 to 8-29 25-25 48 PHI A 1908 7-7 to 8-29 21-25-2 48 WAS A 1908 7-7 to 8-29 22-23-3
At the end of the streak by the 1916 Senators, the only other team in the AL with a losing record was the 27-94 Philadelphia Athletics. And the three streaks from 1908 are due to the practice of scheduling long road and home trips between the eastern and western teams. In 1908, all of the western teams had winning records.
4) The longest stretch of games against teams with a winning percentage higher than .600 was 27 by the Philadelphia Quakers in 1884. From May 20th to June 19th, they went 6-21 against Boston, Providence and New York. Entering the games of May 20th, those three teams had a combined record of 37-5. Philadephia had been in fourth place at the start but was in seventh place at the end of the run.
The record since 1900 is 21, by the 1998 Tigers from April 3rd (which was the first game of the second series of the year) to 30th. Given how early in the season it was, a few more wins here and there might have short-circuited the streak, but Detroit went 5-16 in the games.
Originally appeared on SABR-L (Item# 083863) and Retrolist (#10306) on August 24, 2011.
John Matthew was wondering when the last time a complete infield started for two different teams. I couldn't find any examples between 1918 and 2010. Last two teams that started three-quarters of the same infield was the 2008 Mets (April 12th) and the 2005 Marlins (April 13th) with Delgado, Castillo and Easley at first, second and short. They missed at third with Wright (Mets) and Lowell (Marlins). The dates in parenthesis correspond to the first time that particular infield started a game that season.
Other teams with a three-quarter match include:
2007 STL N and 2003 ANA A (Kennedy- 2B, Spiezio - 3B and 1B, and Eckstein - SS) 2006 LA N and 2000 SF N (Kent - 2B, Mueller - 3B and Martinez - SS) 2004 MIL N and 2003 ARI N (Overbay - 1B, Spivey - 2B and Counsell - 3B) 2004 STL N and 2002 PHI N (Mabry - 1B, Anderson - 2B and Rolen - 3B) 2003 SF N and 1997 COL N (Galarraga - 1B, Young - 2B and Perez - SS) 1991 PHI N and 1988 SD N (Kruk - 1B, Ready- 2B and Thon - SS) 1981 SF N and 1980 HOU N (Leonard - 1B, Morgan - 2B and Cabell - 3B) 1981 SF N and 1980 HOU N (Bergman - 1B, Morgan - 2B and Cabell - 3B) 1981 OAK A and 1978 NY A (Johnson - 1B, Doyle - 2B and Stanley - SS) 1979 NY A and 1971 CLE A (Chambliss - 1B, Nettles - 3B and Stanley - SS) 1974 MON N and 1967 LA N (Fairly - 1B, Hunt - 2B and Bailey - 3B) 1973 DET A and 1970 WAS A (Howard - 1B, Rodriguez - 3B and Brinkman - SS) 1973 HOU N and 1970 CIN N (May - 1B, Helms - 2B and Stewart - 3B) 1962 NY N and 1958 LA N (Hodges - 1B, Neal - 2B and Zimmer - 3B) 1961 LA A and 1958 WAS A (Aspromonte - 2B, Yost - 3B and Bridges - SS) 1961 STL N and 1956 NY N (White - 1B, Schoendienst - 2B and Spencer - SS) 1952 DET A and 1951 BOS A (Dropo - 1B, Hatfield - 3B and Pesky - SS) 1938 BOS A and 1935 PHI A (Foxx - 1B McNair - 2B and SS, and Higgins - 3B) 1933 CIN N and 1930 STL N (Bottomley - 1B, High - 3B and Adams - SS) 1928 BOS N and 1925 STL N (Hornsby - 2B, Bell - 3B and Cooney/Freigau - SS)
The teams fielding the exact same starting outfields:
1977 SEA A and 1976 CAL A (Stanton, Collins and Lopez) 1971 CHI A and 1970 WAS A (Reichardt, Stroud and Maye) 1953 PHI A and 1950 CHI A (Zernial, Philley and McGhee) 1953 STL A and 1952 DET A (Lenhardt, Groth and Wertz) 1932 CIN N and 1929 STL N (Hafey, Douthit and Roettger)
Originally appeared on SABR-L (Item# 083866) and Retrolist (#10308) on August 25, 2011.
In today's game with the A's, the Yankees had 16 plate appearances with the bases loaded (and finished with a ML record three grand-slams). I wondered if this was a lot and so looked through all the play-by-play files that Retrosheet has released. Among those games (all 115688 of them), this ties the Red Sox on April 7, 2006 for the most. No other team had more than 13 plate appearances with the bases loaded. Of course, there are many games we are missing, but I thought this might be interesting anyway.
Here's the top 8 (not including 2011):
PA Game Team Score 16 2011- 8-25 BY A 22- 9 16 2006- 4- 7 BOS A 14- 8 13 1959- 4-22 CHI A 20- 6 13 1962- 6-28 LA A 19- 7 13 1985- 9- 1 CHI N 15- 2 13 1995- 6- 8 CAL A 10- 8 13 1998- 7-31 OAK A 12- 2 13 2004- 7-26 OAK A 14- 5 13 2007- 6- 8 FLO N 14- 8
Originally appeared on SABR-L (Item# 083877) on August 27, 2011.
Stew Thornley was wondering about the frequency of palindromic at-bat lines (where the at-bats for a team's lineup are the same backwards and forwards). This is not that uncommon, having happened 1065 times from 1918 to 2010. It happened 18 times in 2010, the last being on September 9, 2010 when Kansas City's lineup had 4 4 4 3 4 3 4 4 4 at bats.
A few interesting cases:
Date Team Line 8-27-1999 NY A 3 5 4 0 4 4 4 0 4 5 3 5-30-1985 DET A 2 4 1 2 3 4 3 2 1 4 2 9- 6-1922 NY N 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
And on April, 20, 1983 both the Rangers (5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5) and Orioles (4 4 4 4 3 4 4 4 4) had palindromic (although not very interesting lines).
Originally appeared on SABR-L (Item# 083896) and Retrolist (#10326) on August 31, 2011.
It is well-known that Roger Maris was not intentionally walked once during his record-setting 1961 season. What is less well-known is that none of his 61 home runs that season were hit with the bases loaded. This is not too surprising, considering that he got up only twice all season with the sacks jammed. Much of this had to do with the fact that he hit third most of the year, but it didn't help that manager Ralph Houk batted his two worst-hitting regulars, Bobby Richardson and Tony Kubek, at the top of the lineup.
The top three spots in the lineup are the worst when it comes to batting with the bases loaded. The data from Retrosheet's released PBP games (1921-22 NL, 1948-1955 incomplete and 1956-2010 complete):
Pos BL TOT BL% 1 19828 1111402 1.784 2 19784 1085451 1.823 3 18970 1059960 1.790 4 23597 1036153 2.277 5 28059 1012065 2.772 6 30038 986448 3.045 7 26398 959627 2.751 8 24819 931815 2.664 9 25853 903716 2.861
But even taking into account his place in the batting order and the poor on-base percentages of the hitters in front of him, Maris' number of plate appearances with the bases loaded was extremely low. Among those with 500 or more plate appearances, here are the lowest marks:
Player Year Team BL PA MIS BL% Billy Williams 1962 CHI N 2 699 0 0.286 Roger Maris 1961 NY A 2 698 0 0.287 Luis Castillo 2003 FLA N 2 676 0 0.296 Rusty Staub 1969 MON N 2 673 0 0.297 Omar Vizquel 2005 SF N 2 651 0 0.307 Rafael Palmeiro 1989 TEX A 2 632 0 0.316 Hubie Brooks 1983 NY N 2 624 0 0.321 Bobby Adams 1952 CIN N 2 544 150 0.368 Manny Sanguillen 1975 PIT N 2 537 0 0.372 Tony Oliva 1968 MIN A 2 528 0 0.379 Bob Watson 1971 HOU N 2 514 0 0.389 Billy Williams 1967 CHI N 3 712 0 0.421
"MIS" contains the number of plate appearance in the season for which we are currently missing play-by-play data.
Although they didn't make the cutoff, the most plate appearances in a season for which we have data for a player without getting up even once with three runners on was 373 by Tom Veryzer for the 1977 Tigers (Marv Staehle was one behind with 372 for the Expos in 1970). And Paul Molitor got up only once with a chance at a grandslam in 458 chances with the Brewers in 1990.
By comparison, Manny Mota of the Dodgers got up with the bases loaded in 20% of his 60 plate appearances in 1976. Among players with 500 plate appearances, here are those with the highest percentage with the bases loaded:
Player Year Team BL PA MIS BL% Vern Stephens 1950 BOS A 45 588 105 7.653 Vern Stephens 1949 BOS A 41 647 65 6.337 Jason Varitek 2007 BOS A 32 518 0 6.178 David Segui 2000 TEX-CLE 39 634 0 6.151 Sam Chapman 1949 PHI A 31 513 161 6.043 Pedro Feliz 2004 SF N 32 531 0 6.026 Jorge Posada 2006 NY A 32 545 0 5.872 Scott Brosius 2000 NY A 30 519 0 5.780 Jason Varitek 2003 BOS A 30 521 0 5.758 Manny Trillo 1975 CHI N 34 613 0 5.546 Paul Sorrento 1996 SEA A 30 542 0 5.535 Brian McCann 2007 ATL N 30 552 0 5.435 Walt Dropo 1950 BOS A 28 519 90 5.395
The top percentages among players with 400-499, 300-399, 200-299 and 100-199 plate appearances:
Player Year Team BL PA MIS BL% Benito Santiago 2003 SF N 33 434 0 7.604 Pete Incaviglia 1993 PHI N 26 402 0 6.468 Mike Greenwell 1987 BOS A 29 456 0 6.360 Julio Becquer 1960 WAS A 24 312 0 7.692 Greg Dobbs 2007 PHI N 27 358 0 7.542 David Bell 2003 PHI N 24 348 0 6.897 Daryle Ward 2001 HOU N 17 235 0 7.234 Lee May 1980 BAL A 17 239 0 7.113 Wil Cordero 1996 BOS A 15 213 0 7.042 Hal McRae 1972 CIN N 12 105 0 11.429 Ramon Martinez 2007 LA N 15 147 0 10.204 Julio Zuleta 2001 CHI N 12 118 0 10.169
Here are the career leaders (3000 plate appearances minimum):
Player BL PA MIS BL% Vern Stephens 157 3302 3939 4.755 Jason Varitek 245 5589 0 4.384 Carl Furillo 244 6167 855 3.957 Jorge Posada 265 6763 0 3.918 Rey Ordonez 133 3407 0 3.904 Jeff Francoeur 128 3444 0 3.717 Robinson Cano 137 3732 0 3.671 Todd Benzinger 114 3106 0 3.670 Adam Everett 110 3003 0 3.663 Sam Mele 116 3168 629 3.662
The leaders with a 100 and 1000 plate appearance minimum:
Player BL PA MIS BL% Roy Halladay 15 136 0 11.029 Julio Becquer 49 1027 0 4.771
And the career trailers:
Player BL PA MIS BL% Bobby Adams 33 3237 1294 1.019 Chuck Hinton 58 4455 0 1.302 Vince Coleman 80 5970 0 1.340 Ron LeFlore 68 4872 0 1.396 Wally Backman 52 3708 0 1.402 Willie Stargell 127 9027 0 1.407 Tom Veryzer 44 3098 0 1.420 Billy Williams 152 10519 0 1.445 Ellis Valentine 49 3392 0 1.445 Shannon Stewart 90 6205 0 1.450
The most career at-bats without a bases-loaded plate appearance was 399 by Bob Martyn.
It should be obvious that players on good hitting teams get up in these situations a lot more than those on poor hitting teams. Here is a list of the teams with the highest percentage of plate appearances with the bases loaded along with their runs scored per game.
Year Team BL PA MIS BL% G R R/G 1950 BOS A 227 5416 906 4.191 132 890 6.74 1948 BOS A 199 4791 1493 4.154 118 677 5.74 1948 PHI A 153 3873 2176 3.950 101 439 4.35 1949 BOS A 221 5670 583 3.898 141 795 5.64 1993 DET A 249 6505 0 3.828 162 899 5.55 1949 PHI A 176 4616 1433 3.813 118 575 4.87 2006 NY A 245 6455 0 3.796 162 930 5.74 2000 SF N 241 6418 0 3.755 162 925 5.71 2005 BOS A 239 6403 0 3.733 162 910 5.62 2004 SF N 241 6466 0 3.727 162 850 5.25 2007 BOS A 239 6426 0 3.719 162 867 5.35 1951 BOS A 229 6213 0 3.686 154 804 5.22
Note: the games (G) and runs scored (R) columns only count those games with play-by-play data.
And here is the flip-side:
1972 CAL A 68 5640 0 1.206 155 454 2.93 1957 KC A 69 5655 0 1.220 154 563 3.66 1981 TOR A 49 3887 0 1.261 106 329 3.10 1983 SEA A 76 5907 0 1.287 162 558 3.44 1966 STL N 79 5964 0 1.325 162 571 3.52 1976 MON N 82 5996 0 1.368 162 531 3.28 2002 DET A 81 5920 0 1.368 161 575 3.57 1973 CLE A 86 6179 0 1.392 162 680 4.20 1967 CIN N 87 6015 0 1.446 162 604 3.73 1966 CHI A 88 6021 0 1.462 163 574 3.52 1921 PIT N 87 5947 0 1.463 154 692 4.49 1999 ANA A 91 6132 0 1.484 162 711 4.39
The teams on these two lists don't have a lot of overlap, with only the two highest scoring teams on the second list (the 1921 Pirates and 1999 Angels) scoring more runs than the lowest scoring team (the 1948 Athletics) on the first.
Originally appeared on SABR-L (Item# 083917) and Retrolist (#10330) on September 3, 2011.
Normally strikeout pitchers are also difficult to hit, but on August 30th, CC Sabathia struck out ten batters in the first five innings only to give up his tenth hit with one out in the next frame. That got me to wondering about the quickest any pitcher ever reached double-digits in both strikeouts and hits allowed.
So I looked at all of Retrosheet's released play-by-play accounts. These now cover 118475 games (complete from 1956-2010, missing 65 to several hundred games each year from 1948-1955, as well as about 2/3 of the NL games from 1921 and 1922).
What did I find? Well, here is the list of the quickest pitchers to do this:
Player Team Date IP H SO IP H R ER BB SO DEC Scott Sanderson CHI N 6- 5-1987 5 10 10 5.1 11 2 2 0 10 L Joey Hamilton SD N 7-28-1996 5 11 10 5 12 7 7 4 10 L Curt Schilling BOS A 4-18-2005 5 11 10 5 11 5 5 2 10 W Juan Marichal SF N 4-24-1964 5.1 10 10 9 13 5 5 3 13 W Chris Bosio SEA A 4-18-1993 5.1 10 11 6 10 6 6 2 12 ND David Cone NY A 9-13-1998 5.1 10 10 5.2 10 4 4 2 11 L Bartolo Colon ANA A 6- 4-2005 5.1 10 10 6 10 5 5 1 11 W CC Sabathia NY A 8-30-2011 5.1 10 10 6 10 2 2 2 10 W Jimmy Haynes OAK A 8-18-1998 5.2 10 10 5.2 11 4 4 1 10 W David Wells TOR A 6-11-2000 5.2 10 10 7 12 3 3 2 11 ND Brandon Webb ARI N 7-15-2007 5.2 10 10 5.2 11 4 3 2 10 L
I have included both his innings pitched, hits and strikeouts at the point he first reached ten or more in both categories as well as his final line for the game.
Men were men back in the 1960s and Juan Marichal completed his game, reaching thirteen in both categories. No other pitcher on the list above made it past the seventh inning, but then again, all of the other games took place during the last twenty-five years, when pitchers weren't expected to throw 150 or more pitches in a game.
Leaving aside how quickly they did it, how common has it been for a pitcher to rack up ten or more strikeouts and hits allowed? From 1918-2010, it happened 320 times. Here are the pitchers who did it the most often:
Player # First Last Bob Gibson 9 9- 7-1962 10- 4-1972 Dazzy Vance 8 5- 2-1923 7- 4-1931(1) Jim Bunning 8 5-21-1957 9-24-1966 Steve Carlton 7 6-27-1969 8-29-1983(1) Randy Johnson 7 9-28-1990 9-19-2003 Gaylord Perry 6 9- 1-1967 4-20-1982 Mickey Lolich 6 9-14-1969 8-24-1974 Juan Marichal 5 4-24-1964 6-11-1967 Sam McDowell 5 8- 5-1965 7- 6-1970 Bert Blyleven 5 9- 5-1971 7-13-1985 Mark Langston 5 4-12-1987 6-20-1990
Three pitchers in the 10-10 club combined for thirty or more hits allowed plus strikeouts:
Player Team Date IP H R ER BB SO Tom Cheney WAS A 9-12-1962 16 10 1 1 4 21 W Dazzy Vance BRO N 5- 2-1923 10 15 6 6 4 15 ND Randy Johnson SEA A 6-24-1997 9 11 4 4 0 19 L
After writing the post on pitchers who had a lot of strikeouts and hits allowed, I was wondering which pitchers had the most strikeouts between hits allowed. For this study, I only looked at games from 1956-2010 so the results below aren't conclusive, but hopefully some will find them interesting anyway.
Here are the pitchers since 1956 with 20 or more strikeouts between allowing hits:
Pitcher SO IP Start End Nolan Ryan 27 16.1 1973- 7-15 1973- 7-19 Mike Scott 24 17 1986- 9-20 1986-10- 2 Nolan Ryan 22 14 1973- 5-12 1973- 5-19 Bryan Harvey 21 10.2 1989- 8- 6 1989- 9- 8 Nolan Ryan 21 13.1 1990- 6- 6 1990- 6-16 Nolan Ryan 20 14.1 1973- 8-29 1973- 9- 3 Nolan Ryan 20 11.1 1991- 5- 1 1991- 5- 8 Billy Wagner 20 9 1999- 5-20 1999- 6-12 Pedro Martinez 20 10 1999- 9-10 1999- 9-15 Eric Gagne 20 11.2 2003- 7-27 2003- 8-17
It's probably not too surprising that Nolan Ryan dominates this list, since he struck out more men and pitched more no-hitters than anyone else. His first two entries on the list include his two no-hitters from 1973, games in which struck out 17 and 12. His last streak from that year doesn't feature a no-hitter but does contain a one-hitter where the only hit of the game came with one out in the top of the first. His other two entries on the list contain his sixth and seventh no-hitters, 14 and 16-strikeout performances, and were thrown when the pitcher was 43 and 44-years-old.
One other no-hitter was critical to a pitcher making this list, Nolan Ryan's teammate Mike Scott's pennant-clinching victory over the Giants in 1986, while the remaining starting pitcher above, Pedro Martinez, started his streak during a 17-strikeout one-hitter against the Yankees.
And here is the other end of the spectrum, the pitchers with more than 30 hits allowed between strikeouts:
Pitcher H IP Start End Rick Langford 40 18.1 1983- 5- 4 1984- 9- 9 Lew Burdette 37 24 1961- 5-23 1961- 6-10 Bob Shaw 35 28.1 1960- 8- 7(2) 1960- 8-27 Milt Pappas 34 21.2 1973- 7-29(1) 1973- 8-28 Glenn Abbott 34 25.1 1984- 5- 5 1984- 7-27(2) Wilbur Wood 33 18.2 1978- 7-13 1978- 8- 4 Scott Bailes 32 16.1 1988- 7-10 1988- 7-28 Bill Swift 32 18 1988- 8- 6 1988- 8-31 Bob Stanley 31 14.2 1979- 7-22 1979- 8-14 Lary Sorensen 31 24.2 1980- 6-16(1) 1980- 7- 2
Unlike the first list, this one will change dramatically once we include the years before 1956, since the strikeout rates were much lower then. Rick Langford streak covered two injury-plagued years as he tried to recover from throwing 28 complete games as a member of the 1980 Oakland A's. By contrast, Lew Burdette's run came in the middle of an 18-win season, although he did lead the league in hits, runs and earned runs allowed. Bob Stanley's entry on the list above also occurred during a successful season, although it occurred during a five-start winless streak in the middle of a 16-win campaign. Milt Pappas was less than a year removed from his no-hitter (and near perfect game) when he started his streak, part of a career-ending run of fourteen straight starts in which he failed to strike out more than two batters. Their appearance on this list also signaled the end of the line for Glenn Abbott and Wilbur Wood.
And while I was (sort of) on the subject, I figured it might be interesting to look at the most strikeouts between walks. Here are the pitchers with more than 40:
Pitcher SO IP Start End Curt Schilling 56 44 2002- 5-13 2002- 6- 8 Greg Maddux 53 71.2 2001- 6-20 2001- 8-12 Pedro Martinez 49 42.1 2000- 8- 2 2000- 9- 4 Dennis Eckersley 47 51.2 1989- 8-22 1990- 6-12 Koji Uehara 46 38 2010- 7-19 2011- 4-15 John Smoltz 45 39 2003- 7-24 2004- 6-11 Eric Gagne 43 29 2002- 5- 4 2002- 7- 3 Javier Vazquez 43 54.2 2005- 4-25 2005- 6- 9 Bret Saberhagen 41 47.2 1994- 5-10 1994- 6-13 Greg Maddux 41 51.1 1995- 6- 3 1995- 7-13 Luke Gregerson 41 33 2010- 4-14 2010- 6-20
This is an impressive group of players, with NL Pitchers of the Year (Curt Schilling and Greg Maddux), Cy Young Award Winners (Pedro Martinez and Greg Maddux), and All-Star relievers (Dennis Eckersley and Eric Gagne).
For a much less impressive list, here are the most walks between strikeouts:
Pitcher BB IP Start End Mike Chris 20 11.2 1982- 5-19 1982- 9- 4 Lance Rautzhan 17 4.1 1979- 4-23 1979- 6- 3 Mark Wohlers 17 4.1 1998- 6- 9 1998- 8- 5 Bill Parsons 16 6.2 1973- 4-17 1973- 5-16 Mike Parrott 16 18.1 1979- 4-27 1979- 5-11
Chris and Rautzhan were fringe pitchers who battled control problems throughout their short careers. Rautzhan broke his streak by striking out two batters in his final major league appearance. Wohlers, on the other hand, had been a top relief pitcher who was in the middle of a two-year bout with the Steve Blass disease. Speaking of Blass, at the same time the Pirate's right-hander was mysteriously losing his ability to throw the ball over the plate, Bill Parsons, a promising 24-year-old pitcher coming off consecutive 13-win seasons, was doing the same for the Brewers. Had he been a more prominent player, a pitcher's sudden lack of control could be known today as the Bill Parsons' disease. Mike Parrott was the most successful pitcher on the list above, moving into the starting rotation in the middle of his streak, on his way to the best season of his short career, a 14-12 mark with a Mariners team that lost 95 games.
And, since the road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom, the most hits between walks:
Pitcher H IP Start End Bill Fischer 100 84.1 1962- 8- 3 1962- 9-30 Greg Maddux 79 71.2 2001- 6-20 2001- 8-12 Paul Byrd 64 49 2007- 4-26 2007- 6- 6 Greg Maddux 64 60.2 2007- 7-28 2007- 9-18 Randy Jones 59 69 1976- 5-17 1976- 6-22 Tom Morgan 57 51 1958- 4-16 1958- 8-14 Rick Mahler 57 44.2 1988- 5-17 1988- 6-12 Bob Tewksbury 57 56 1993- 6-15 1993- 7-22
Fischer's streak lasted until the final inning he pitched in 1962. He followed up his first walk in nearly two months by throwing his first wild pitch in over three months. The second streak was also in second place on an earlier list. Maddux's other entry, as well as those by Byrd and Jones, came during the last winning season of their careers. After walking two batters in his first start of the season, Tom Morgan was moved into the bullpen and didn't walk another man for nearly four months. And the two batters he walked in that game were the last of his season. Rick Mahler's run came during an early season 7-game winning streak that left him with a 7-4 mark. Unfortunately, he finished the season by winning only 2 of his last 16 decisions.
Finally (and I'm sure those of you still paying attention saw this coming), the most walks between hits:
Pitcher BB IP Start End Dave Morehead 15 8.1 1964- 9- 2 1964- 9-30(2) Steve Barber 14 11.1 1967- 4-23(1) 1967- 5- 5 Felix Heredia 13 5.2 1998- 4-25 1998- 5-10 Bill Laxton 12 13 1974- 7-20 1974- 8-12 Brian Williams 12 9 1996- 9-21 1997- 6-11 Dave Coggin 12 9 2002- 7-20 2002- 8- 3 Dontrelle Willis 12 7 2007- 9-30 2008- 4- 5
Morehead's streak included a start against the Angels during which he was removed in the bottom of the third inning while pitching a no-hitter after walking his fourth batter of the inning and seventh of the game. And Barber owes his appearance on this list to a combined no-hitter, which he lost when two of his ten walks came around to score in the top of the ninth inning.
In a broadcast a few days ago, a Yankee announcer mentioned that Robinson Cano had hit 12 home runs this year in games started by Ivan Nova. This got me to wondering about the record (at least from 1918-2010) for the most HRs, RBIs and so on for a batter in games started by the same pitcher. And that got me to wondering about career records as well. The career mark for the most at-bats by a batter in games started by the same pitcher should have been obvious, but I must admit to being a little surprised.
Before I get rolling I would like to say that I don't think any of what follows is particularly significant. Players may notice that some players seem to hit better or worse for a particular starting pitcher, but I think it's most likely random. I seriously doubt that any batter is changing his approach at the plate because of their team's starting pitcher that day. There may be reasons for a batter to do better or worse in these situations. If the weather behaves and the schedule is stable, it's possible that a pitcher could line up against a series of good (or bad) pitchers in a row. And on occasion a pitcher (think Warren Spahn and Brooklyn) may avoid playing in a park or against a team. But, once again, almost all of what follows is random variation.
One more thing: while working on this piece, some of it seemed familiar. So I apologize in advance if someone else has done a similar study in the past. It happens.
Okay. First things first, here are the batters who have the most home runs in a season during games started by a single pitcher:
Batter Pitcher Year Team G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OBP SLG Hack Wilson Pat Malone 1930 CHI N 35 136 52 9 0 20 58 .382 .481 .890 Mo Vaughn Tom Gordon 1996 BOS A 34 137 49 2 0 19 48 .358 .447 .788 Ken Griffey Jeff Fassero 1997 SEA A 34 130 48 7 0 18 41 .369 .458 .838 Mike Schmidt Steve Carlton 1976 PHI N 35 136 38 4 1 17 37 .279 .381 .699 Javy Lopez Russ Ortiz 2003 ATL N 30 113 45 10 0 17 33 .398 .430 .938 Barry Bonds Russ Ortiz 2001 SF N 32 109 34 4 2 17 32 .312 .476 .853
Hack Wilson's entry above also represents the most RBIs. In second place is the 50 runs Al Simmons drove in when Lefty Grove was the starting pitcher in 1929. Helped by Mo Vaughn, Tom Gordon got the best run support on the staff of the 1996 Red Sox. The team scored an average of 7.18 runs in his 34 starts, compared to only 4.41 in teammate Roger Clemens' games, which goes a long way to explaining why Gordon was able to post a better won-lost record (12-9 to 10-13) despite an ERA nearly two runs higher. And despite his .853 slugging percentage for Ortiz, Bonds actually hit slightly higher for the other Giant starters.
And here are the batters who hit the highest percentage of their homers (ten minimum) for a single starter:
Batter Pitcher Year Team G AB H 2B 3B HR TOT PCT Gus Bell Murry Dickson 1951 PIT N 34 139 53 12 2 10 16 .625 Carlos Beltran Pedro Martinez 2005 NY N 28 110 32 2 0 10 16 .625 Julio Franco Jason Bere 1994 CHI A 24 95 37 5 1 12 20 .600 Brooks Robinson Mike Cuellar 1970 BAL A 39 146 46 7 0 10 18 .556 Johnny Blanchard Whitey Ford 1961 NY A 18 54 16 0 0 11 21 .524 Don Baylor Dave Righetti 1983 NY A 27 110 43 9 1 11 21 .524
Julio Franco's 20 home runs in 1994 represented his career high. His next highest mark was 15, or only three more than he hit in Bere's starts that year.
The leaders in hits, doubles and triples:
Hits: Batter Pitcher Year Team G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OBP SLG George Sisler Urban Shocker 1922 STL A 35 139 71 15 4 3 30 .511 .564 .741 Rod Carew Dave Goltz 1977 MIN A 37 151 71 14 7 1 24 .470 .515 .675 Joe Sewell George Uhle 1923 CLE A 44 163 69 15 3 1 46 .423 .515 .571 Charlie Jamieson George Uhle 1923 CLE A 43 185 68 10 4 1 22 .368 .435 .481 Buck Weaver Red Faber 1920 CHI A 38 158 66 13 1 1 23 .418 .446 .532 Doubles: Batter Pitcher Year Team G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OBP SLG Johnny Frederick Watty Clark 1929 BRO N 38 156 58 21 2 7 24 .372 .413 .667 Joe Medwick Bob Weiland 1937 STL N 34 137 50 20 1 7 34 .365 .396 .679 Gee Walker Tommy Bridges 1936 DET A 34 140 54 19 1 4 28 .386 .399 .621 Triples: Rogers Hornsby Bill Doak 1920 STL N 36 142 57 13 9 2 37 .401 .441 .662 Max Carey Wilbur Cooper 1923 PIT N 38 158 47 8 9 2 18 .297 .343 .500 George Brett Rich Gale 1979 KC A 31 135 51 8 9 5 30 .378 .421 .681
Unlike the HR lists, these will be very different once we have data extending back further than 1918. For example, Chief Wilson (at least according to my back-of-the-envelope calculations) hit thirteen triples in games started by Howie Camnitz of the Pirates in 1912. And in 1883, Chicago White Stockings third-baseman Ned Williamson had to have hit more than 21 of his league-leading 49 doubles in support of at least one of his team's two starting pitchers.
Gee Walker hit 55 doubles for the 1936 Tigers, despite missing 20 games that season, including four of Tommy Bridges starts. Charlie Gehringer hit 60 doubles that season to lead the league. It was the sixth (and last) time that a player would hit as many as 60 doubles in a season and, at least according to at-bats per doubles, he was only the second most prolific doubles-hitter on his own team. Buck Weaver missed Red Faber's last start in 1920. Two days earlier, he had been one of the White Sox players suspended as a result of the conspiracy to throw the 1919 World Series.
The leaders in the batting average (minimum 75 plate appearances):
Batter Pitcher Year Team G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OBP SLG Rogers Hornsby Johnny Stuart 1924 STL N 19 69 45 10 2 4 19 .652 .714 1.029 Bill Terry Clarence Mitchell 1930 NY N 16 72 43 6 1 5 18 .597 .613 .917 George Sisler Urban Shocker 1922 STL A 35 139 71 15 4 3 30 .511 .564 .741 Stan Musial Al Brazle 1948 STL N 23 91 46 9 4 8 22 .505 .559 .956 Don Mattingly Dennis Rasmussen 1984 NY A 22 93 47 8 0 2 20 .505 .520 .656
And slugging percentage:
Batter Pitcher Year Team G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OBP SLG Barry Bonds Jason Schmidt 2002 SF N 24 68 33 8 1 10 29 .485 .657 1.074 Carlos Pena Andy Sonnanstine 2007 TB A 22 69 26 3 0 15 35 .377 .551 1.072 Manny Ramirez John Burkett 2002 BOS A 21 79 38 9 0 12 26 .481 .544 1.051 Babe Ruth Waite Hoyt 1926 NY A 28 91 40 8 2 14 35 .440 .568 1.033 Rogers Hornsby Johnny Stuart 1924 STL N 19 69 45 10 2 4 19 .652 .714 1.029 Rogers Hornsby Allen Sothoron 1925 STL N 20 75 37 6 3 9 25 .493 .582 1.013
After Carlos Pena, the next fewest games for a player hitting 15 or more homers in a pitcher's starts was 25, by Sammy Sosa, who hit 16 homers to support rookie Kerry Wood for the Cubs in 1998. And Ruth's 1926 statistics do not include the four home runs he hit with Hoyt starting in that year's World Series, including three in one game.
Here are the batters with the biggest positive difference between their slugging percentage with and without the pitcher starting for their team:
Batter Pitcher Year Team G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OBP SLG SEAS DIFF Carlos Pena Andy Sonnanstine 2007 TB A 22 69 26 3 0 15 35 .377 .551 1.072 .627 (+.446) Sid Gordon Clint Hartung 1949 NY N 23 91 37 11 1 11 25 .407 .471 .912 .505 (+.407) Manny Ramirez John Burkett 2002 BOS A 21 79 38 9 0 12 26 .481 .544 1.051 .647 (+.404) Darrell Evans Frank Tanana 1985 DET A 19 69 25 2 0 12 25 .362 .457 .913 .519 (+.394) Chris Burke Andy Pettitte 2006 HOU N 23 70 28 10 0 6 17 .400 .450 .800 .418 (+.382)
And the biggest negative difference:
Batter Pitcher Year Team G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OBP SLG SEAS DIFF Jason Bay Oliver Perez 2004 PIT N 22 70 6 0 0 0 3 .086 .214 .086 .550 (-.464) Harmon Killebrew Bert Blyleven 1970 MIN A 24 82 14 2 0 0 4 .171 .327 .195 .546 (-.351) Ralph Kiner Preacher Roe 1947 PIT N 21 77 16 4 0 1 6 .208 .330 .299 .639 (-.340) Ralph Kiner Murry Dickson 1950 PIT N 21 75 10 3 0 2 7 .133 .323 .253 .590 (-.337) Carlos Beltran Pedro Martinez 2006 NY N 19 69 12 3 0 1 14 .174 .289 .261 .594 (-.333)
Yes, that's the same Carlos Beltran who a year earlier had hit over 60% of his home runs in Pedro's starts.
A brief digression before we move on to the career lists. The appearance of George Uhle in two of the entries on the "most hits" lists got me to wondering about the pitchers who got the most support from all of their teammates. So here is a short list showing the pitchers who teammates got the top marks in various categories (with a minimum of twenty starts for the averages):
CAT Pitcher Year Team G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OBP SLG RPG
R George Uhle 1923 CLE A 44 1542 295 502 97 24 15 274 .326 .407 .449 6.70
Carl Mays 1921 NY A 38 1392 294 456 79 27 33 271 .328 .395 .494 7.74
H George Uhle 1923 CLE A 44 1542 295 502 97 24 15 274 .326 .407 .449 6.70
Carl Mays 1921 NY A 38 1392 294 456 79 27 33 271 .328 .395 .494 7.74
2B George Uhle 1922 CLE A 40 1374 229 427 109 24 6 210 .311 .379 .438 5.72
George Uhle 1923 CLE A 44 1542 295 502 97 24 15 274 .326 .407 .449 6.70
3B Wilbur Cooper 1923 PIT N 38 1321 166 377 51 37 10 150 .285 .331 .403 4.37
Wilbur Cooper 1924 PIT N 35 1228 194 376 48 36 14 180 .306 .355 .438 5.54
HR Whitey Ford 1961 NY A 39 1367 218 372 52 8 67 207 .272 .342 .469 5.59
Freddy Garcia 1999 SEA A 33 1138 202 326 51 9 66 197 .286 .369 .521 6.12
RBI George Uhle 1923 CLE A 44 1542 295 502 97 24 15 274 .326 .407 .449 6.70
Carl Mays 1921 NY A 38 1392 294 456 79 27 33 271 .328 .395 .494 7.74
AVG F. Fitzsimmons 1930 NY N 29 1065 233 373 52 22 28 218 .350 .398 .519 8.03
Ray Benge 1930 PHI N 29 1093 196 375 64 5 29 183 .343 .400 .490 6.76
OBP Schoolboy Rowe 1940 DET A 23 810 170 263 58 17 22 156 .325 .409 .520 7.39
George Uhle 1923 CLE A 44 1542 295 502 97 24 15 274 .326 .407 .449 6.70
SLG Curt Schilling 2004 BOS A 32 1166 219 363 86 7 60 216 .311 .383 .551 6.84
Jamie Moyer 1997 SEA A 30 1062 218 339 66 3 52 214 .319 .395 .534 7.27
RPG Chuck Stobbs 1950 BOS A 21 775 171 243 46 6 29 170 .314 .402 .501 8.14
F. Fitzsimmons 1930 NY N 29 1065 233 373 52 22 28 218 .350 .398 .519 8.03
Monte Pearson 1936 NY A 31 1165 249 364 77 21 34 233 .312 .399 .502 8.03
Monte Pearson 1939 NY A 20 719 156 226 39 13 26 144 .314 .406 .513 7.80
Once again, these will look very different when we have data prior to 1918. Even the HR record will fall, since Larry Corcoran started the majority of the White Stockings' games in 1884, when the team played their games in homer-friendly Lake Front Park. The bad news is that the extremely short right-field fence there caused him to lead the league in home runs allowed with 35, setting a major league record that would last until 1948. The good news is that his teammates supported him with 70 of their own in his home starts. So even if he wasn't the beneficiary of a single road homer that season (and I didn't check), he still would eclipse Whitey Ford's mark above.
On to the career marks. Here are the batters who have hit the most career home runs in support of a pitcher:
Batter Pitcher First Last G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OBP SLG Mike Schmidt Steve Carlton 1972 1986 432 1491 384 61 6 105 280 .258 .375 .518 Eddie Mathews Warren Spahn 1952 1964 416 1507 402 69 13 95 268 .267 .378 .519 Jimmie Foxx Lefty Grove 1925 1941 331 1218 403 61 19 92 286 .331 .430 .639 Mickey Mantle Whitey Ford 1953 1967 369 1256 376 59 9 92 243 .299 .419 .580 Harmon Killebrew Jim Kaat 1959 1973 379 1338 359 48 5 91 266 .268 .389 .516 Babe Ruth Waite Hoyt 1919 1930 265 921 337 66 18 86 256 .366 .495 .757 Eddie Mathews Lew Burdette 1952 1963 317 1182 347 44 13 86 229 .294 .398 .571 Babe Ruth Herb Pennock 1919 1933 271 920 324 57 10 85 247 .352 .499 .713 Willie McCovey Juan Marichal 1960 1973 359 1177 352 50 12 84 233 .299 .414 .576 Willie Mays Juan Marichal 1960 1972 365 1307 385 52 15 83 237 .295 .388 .548
These are all batters who hit at least 500 home runs and played on one team for a long time with a top starting pitcher.
And here are the career leaders in other categories (400 plate appearances minimum for the averages):
CAT Batter Pitcher First Last G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OBP SLG
H Richie Ashburn Robin Roberts 1948 1959 406 1620 482 54 18 7 121 .298 .384 .366
Nellie Fox Billy Pierce 1950 1961 358 1457 450 54 18 7 135 .309 .362 .385
2B Charlie Gehringer Tommy Bridges 1930 1942 295 1152 383 91 16 36 200 .332 .410 .533
Lou Brock Bob Gibson 1964 1975 347 1453 443 85 21 21 116 .305 .352 .436
3B Edd Roush Dolf Luque 1918 1926 194 734 255 43 28 7 99 .347 .398 .511
Sam Rice Walter Johnson 1918 1927 251 1038 346 59 26 4 137 .333 .385 .452
Bill Terry Carl Hubbell 1928 1936 254 998 351 59 26 13 143 .352 .406 .502
Earl Averill Mel Harder 1930 1939 254 973 337 65 26 40 184 .346 .426 .590
Willie Davis Claude Osteen 1965 1973 304 1255 353 51 26 16 134 .281 .305 .402
RBI Mel Ott Carl Hubbell 1928 1943 373 1341 389 64 15 79 305 .290 .405 .537
Jimmie Foxx Lefty Grove 1925 1941 331 1218 403 61 19 92 286 .331 .430 .639
AVG Paul Waner Erv Brame 1928 1932 89 358 144 29 8 8 56 .402 .470 .595
Chuck Klein Phil Collins 1929 1933 95 393 157 29 6 22 99 .399 .457 .672
OBP Barry Bonds Jason Schmidt 2001 2006 118 340 114 22 2 38 95 .335 .546 .747
Ted Williams Willard Nixon 1950 1958 115 381 142 32 4 27 86 .373 .514 .690
SLG Barry Bonds Russ Ortiz 1998 2007 123 399 138 24 3 52 113 .346 .492 .812
Babe Ruth Carl Mays 1918 1923 136 482 181 43 13 43 156 .376 .501 .786
David Ortiz Curt Schilling 2004 2007 91 350 124 24 2 41 99 .354 .446 .786
Once again, few of the entries above are really surprising. These are all top hitters being paired, except in the averages categories, with star pitchers. Since being teammates for a long time was a prerequisite for racking up impressive counter stats, I got to wonder which batters had the most at-bats with a single starting pitcher. By now, many of you have probably figured out the answer, but here's the list:
Batter Pitcher First Last G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OBP SLG Warren Spahn Warren Spahn 1946 1965 641 1820 356 57 6 33 183 .196 .237 .288 Steve Carlton Steve Carlton 1965 1986 669 1717 346 49 6 13 140 .202 .222 .260 Red Ruffing Red Ruffing 1924 1947 538 1631 442 84 11 32 217 .271 .305 .395 Richie Ashburn Robin Roberts 1948 1959 406 1620 482 54 18 7 121 .298 .384 .366 Greg Maddux Greg Maddux 1986 2008 708 1587 271 35 2 5 84 .171 .190 .205
It turns out that the only player a pitcher can count on being in all of his games is himself. It's surprising that Richie Ashburn had more at-bats in Robin Roberts' starts than Roberts himself. Red Ruffing, an excellent hitting pitcher, hit 84 doubles in his starts, only one behind Lou Brock, who was second on the "most doubles" list above.
In case you're wondering why the game column doesn't exactly match the number of the games started by each pitcher, it only includes those games where the pitcher actually got to the plate.
Cy Morong told me something recently that I hadn't heard before: during September, 1969, the New York Mets' pitchers allowed only three home runs in over 270 innings pitched. He wondered if any other teams had months like this. I got to wondering about that as well, so I went and figured home run allowed rates (per nine innings) in each month for all the teams from 1920 to 2010. Here is a list of the fewest and most during each decade (with a minimum of 150 innings):
----------- Fewest ----------- ------------ Most ------------
Decade Month Team IP HRA HRA/G Month Team IP HRA HRA/G
1920s 9-1921 CIN N 217 0 0.000 6-1928 BOS N 218 37 1.528
1930s 9-1935 CIN N 234 1 0.039 6-1939 PHI A 244 42 1.549
1940s 6-1943 PIT N 269.2 3 0.100 6-1949 CIN N 232.1 33 1.278
1950s 9-1954 BAL A 188 2 0.096 8-1957 CIN N 261.2 50 1.720
1960s 9-1969 NY N 272.1 3 0.099 7-1962 KC A 253.1 56 1.990
1970s 9-1974 CAL A 234 6 0.231 8-1977 SEA A 243.1 55 2.034
1980s 5-1981 HOU N 273 5 0.165 6-1987 BAL A 246.2 50 1.824
1990s 4-1992 BOS A 169 4 0.213 4-1994 MIN A 220.2 49 1.999
2000+ 9-2008 TOR A 231 9 0.351 7-2004 SEA A 239 55 2.071
Since 1935, only the 1954 Orioles had a lower HRA rate than those 1969 Mets. I'm not sure if it's significant or not, but the majority of the teams on the "fewest" list were from September and the "most" list featured twice as many teams from June as the next highest months. Four other teams since 1920 allowed only a single home run in a qualifying month. Three of them were from 1920 (the Pirates in May, the Reds in July, and the White Sox in September) and the Reds again, in June, 1927.
The record for the most home runs allowed in a month was 57 by the Kansas City Athletics in May, 1964. Three teams allowed 56, the one on the list above as well as the Colorado Rockies in both July, 1999 and August, 2002.
Of course, never one to leave well enough alone, I thought I'd generate a similar list for hits allowed. Here it is:
----------- Fewest ----------- ------------ Most ------------
Decade Month Team IP H H/G Month Team IP H H/G
1920s 5-1920 BRO N 253 199 7.079 7-1925 BOS A 256.1 383 13.447
1930s 5-1935 NY N 234 185 7.115 9-1930 PHI N 232.2 384 14.854
1940s 5-1943 DET A 245.2 172 6.301 7-1940 STL A 247.2 340 12.355
1950s 9-1958 DET A 241 174 6.498 7-1954 PHI A 261.2 341 11.729
1960s 5-1968 CLE A 265.1 160 5.427 7-1961 CHI N 256.1 324 11.376
1970s 5-1972 CLE A 202 142 6.327 7-1970 STL N 256.2 328 11.501
1980s 4-1981 OAK A 190 128 6.063 8-1988 NY A 258.2 352 12.247
1990s 4-1991 BOS A 163 125 6.902 4-1994 MIN A 220.2 312 12.725
2000+ 9-2010 SF N 232.1 151 5.849 4-2006 MIN A 205 276 12.117
Only the 1968 Indians and 2010 Giants had a month with less than six hits allowed per nine innings. The Indians used five starting pitchers in May of 1968 and they all pitched well:
Pitcher G GS CG SHO IP H HR R ER BB SO W L ERA Stan Williams 6 4 2 1 35.2 20 2 5 3 6 32 3 1 0.76 Luis Tiant 7 7 6 3 60 35 3 10 7 17 58 5 2 1.05 Sonny Siebert 6 6 4 2 48 23 0 8 7 22 34 4 1 1.31 Sam McDowell 7 7 5 1 61 39 4 16 10 21 76 5 2 1.48 Steve Hargan 6 6 2 1 43 33 3 11 11 15 25 2 2 2.30
Even in the Year of the Pitcher, this was quite a performance. One thing to note in this era of bloated pitching staffs: those five pitchers accounted for all but 17.2 of the innings pitched during that month.
At the other end of the spectrum, the Year of the Hitter was not kind to the Phillies' pitchers. In September of 1930 they set the high-water mark since 1920 for the most hits allowed per game with 14.854. The second most? Those same Phillies during July with 13.759. The 452 hits they allowed that month (in 295.2 innings) was the most in a month over the last 91 years. In fourth place (with 424 hits) was their effort in August.
One more list and then I promise to stop. Strikeouts:
----------- Fewest ----------- ------------ Most ------------
Decade Month Team IP SO SO/G Month Team IP SO SO/G
1920s 7-1922 BOS A 265.2 42 1.423 5-1924 WAS A 202 107 4.767
1930s 5-1930 CIN N 237 41 1.557 6-1933 NY A 269.1 175 5.848
1940s 9-1944 CIN N 318 67 1.896 6-1946 DET A 229 173 6.799
1950s 7-1951 PHI A 278.2 65 2.099 8-1959 LA N 234.1 193 7.413
1960s 7-1969 SD N 230 90 3.522 7-1968 CLE A 249 227 8.205
1970s 4-1977 MIL A 153 49 2.882 9-1971 NY N 268 234 7.858
1980s 8-1981 MIL A 198 56 2.546 4-1987 HOU N 189.2 181 8.589
1990s 4-1990 OAK A 177.2 71 3.597 8-1998 HOU N 263.1 272 9.296
2000+ 8-2003 DET A 260 119 4.119 8-2002 CHI N 265.1 286 9.701
Given how much this aspect of the game has changed over the last 90 years, it is perhaps easy to overlook the 1959 Dodgers. At the end of that season, the team owned five of the top seven highest monthly rates since 1920: August (shown above), September (7.396), July (7.031), May (6.640) and April (6.618). Only the Phillies that May (6.730) and the 1946 Tigers (also shown above) prevented them from sweeping the top five spots. Of course, the 1960s revolutionized the strikeout and by the end of that decade, the Dodgers' top month from 1959 would be only the 37th highest.
The 1998 Astros were the first team to average more than a strikeout an inning over the course of a month. They were led by a rent-a-pitcher, Randy Johnson (61 strikeouts in 46 innings) and Shane Reynolds (51 strikeouts in 40.2 innings). At the close of the 2010 season, that 1998 Astros team was still on the list of highest averages since 1920. Five of the top seven places, however, were held by Cubs teams from the last decade:
Month Team IP SO SO/G 8-2002 CHI N 265.1 286 9.701 9-2006 CHI N 248.1 263 9.532 8-1998 HOU N 263.1 272 9.296 5-2001 CHI N 245 253 9.294 8-2003 ARI N 252.1 256 9.131 8-2003 CHI N 250 253 9.108 4-2001 CHI N 213 215 9.085
The 2001-2003 editions of the Cubs were led by Kerry Wood and Mark Prior, while their performance in September of 2006 was an example of strikeout by committee. Fifteen different Cub pitchers had ten or more strikeouts that month, with only Rich Hill having more than two dozen.
Joe Posnanski recently wrote a column about 1-0 games. Now there probably isn't a better sports columnist/blogger/whatever than Joe working today, but something (perhaps a sense of restraint) caused him to restrict his study to the last fifty years and complete games. Well, restraint has never been my strong suit, so I decided to look at 93 years (1918-2010) of all 1-0 games. Of course, even with this expanded range, we are still missing most of the Deadball Era, which was the mother-lode of 1-0 games. Still, hopefully some of what I found will be of interest.
Let's start with a list of the players with the most 1-0 games pitched:
Player First Last G GS CG SH GF SV IP H HR ER BB SO W L Hoyt Wilhelm 1952 1969 34 1 1 1 27 7 55.1 29 1 4 14 47 3 4 Nolan Ryan 1970 1992 30 30 14 11 0 0 243.1 90 1 7 103 274 14 9 Fergie Jenkins 1967 1982 26 26 19 11 0 0 216.2 127 2 11 50 163 12 13 Bert Blyleven 1971 1989 26 26 24 15 0 0 232 156 1 8 46 191 15 10 John Franco 1984 2005 26 0 0 0 20 11 28.1 16 0 3 13 20 2 3 Greg Maddux 1987 2008 26 26 12 11 0 0 220.1 114 1 3 36 148 16 3 Walter Johnson 1918 1926 25 22 21 17 3 0 230 132 0 7 38 116 17 7 Tom Seaver 1967 1985 25 25 14 8 0 0 220.1 114 3 8 47 178 10 8 Steve Carlton 1968 1985 25 25 14 12 0 0 214.1 123 1 8 55 164 12 9 Jim Bunning 1957 1971 24 24 8 4 0 0 198 113 6 15 46 157 6 15 Gaylord Perry 1964 1983 24 24 17 12 0 0 216.2 126 1 7 41 129 13 8 Don Sutton 1967 1986 24 23 11 9 1 0 205.1 123 2 7 47 155 10 7 Trevor Hoffman 1993 2009 24 0 0 0 20 16 24.1 22 1 2 10 22 1 3
I have eliminated the runs allowed column above, since in 1-0 games runs allowed are almost always equal to games lost. I say "almost" because of the game between the Yankees and White Sox on June 20, 1940. The game was apparently won by Chicago on a run-scoring double by Bob Kennedy with one out in the bottom of the eleventh. The Yankees, however, protested a ruling earlier in the game on a disputed catch, and less than two weeks later, the protest was upheld and the game declared a no-decision. The statistics for the game, except for Johnny Rigney's win and Monte Pearson's loss, counted. And that's how Pearson gave up a run in a 1-0 game with no defeat to show for it.
It's not too surprising that a reliever pitched in the most 1-0 games given the lack of complete games in the last couple of decades, but I didn't expect it to be one who pitched back in the days when men were men and pitchers liked to finish what they started. Wilhelm did start one of these games and it was the best one of his career, a no-hit win over Don Larsen and the Yankees.
Nolan Ryan made the most 1-0 starts during these years, completing 14 of 30 games, setting highs in walks and strikeouts along the way. Blyleven completed 24 of his 26 starts and allowed the most hits. Here are the leaders in 1-0 wins:
Player First Last G GS CG SH GF SV IP H HR ER BB SO W L Walter Johnson 1918 1926 25 22 21 17 3 0 230 132 0 7 38 116 17 7 Dean Chance 1962 1971 22 22 16 13 0 0 185.2 91 1 5 63 133 16 5 Greg Maddux 1987 2008 26 26 12 11 0 0 220.1 114 1 3 36 148 16 3 Bert Blyleven 1971 1989 26 26 24 15 0 0 232 156 1 8 46 191 15 10 Nolan Ryan 1970 1992 30 30 14 11 0 0 243.1 90 1 7 103 274 14 9 Gaylord Perry 1964 1983 24 24 17 12 0 0 216.2 126 1 7 41 129 13 8 Fergie Jenkins 1967 1982 26 26 19 11 0 0 216.2 127 2 11 50 163 12 13 Steve Carlton 1968 1985 25 25 14 12 0 0 214.1 123 1 8 55 164 12 9 Sandy Koufax 1960 1966 14 14 10 10 0 0 117 58 1 3 21 124 11 3 Jerry Koosman 1968 1985 22 20 11 9 1 0 177 114 0 3 40 124 11 4
It's sort of incredible that Walker Johnson is at the top of this list, considering we are missing the bulk of his career. The years we are missing include 71 of his 110 shutouts and he still had 17 of these wins, all of them complete games. Greg Maddux has the highest winning percentage among pitchers with at least ten wins. The most wins for any undefeated pitcher is seven and it's been done three times:
Tex Hughson 1943 1947 7 7 7 7 0 0 63 22 0 0 16 42 7 0 Zane Smith 1985 1992 9 7 5 5 0 0 64.2 30 0 0 8 34 7 0 Johan Santana 2004 2010 7 7 1 1 0 0 53.1 26 0 0 10 61 7 0
Here are the loss leaders:
Player First Last G GS CG SH GF SV IP H HR ER BB SO W L Jim Bunning 1957 1971 24 24 8 4 0 0 198 113 6 15 46 157 6 15 Fergie Jenkins 1967 1982 26 26 19 11 0 0 216.2 127 2 11 50 163 12 13 Robin Roberts 1948 1965 20 19 13 7 1 1 158.1 103 3 10 33 78 7 11 Si Johnson 1931 1946 14 14 10 4 0 0 120.2 79 1 9 29 40 4 10 Bob Gibson 1959 1975 20 19 15 9 1 0 165 105 3 8 41 132 9 10 Bert Blyleven 1971 1989 26 26 24 15 0 0 232 156 1 8 46 191 15 10
One pitcher lost as many as seven 1-0 games without a win:
Player First Last G GS CG SH GF SV IP H HR ER BB SO W L Ken Johnson 1962 1967 8 7 1 0 1 1 52 29 2 5 9 39 0 7
And the leaders in 1-0 saves:
Player First Last G GS CG SH GF SV IP H HR ER BB SO W L Trevor Hoffman 1993 2009 24 0 0 0 20 16 24.1 22 1 2 10 22 1 3 Troy Percival 1996 2004 14 0 0 0 13 13 15 3 0 0 4 16 0 0 Mariano Rivera 1998 2010 17 0 0 0 16 13 19.1 9 0 1 4 18 2 1 Dave Smith 1982 1990 16 0 0 0 15 12 15.1 4 0 1 2 11 1 1 Lee Smith 1982 1993 20 0 0 0 19 12 22.2 11 0 0 6 20 1 0
So much for the career records. Here are the pitchers from 1918 to 2010 who set the single season marks for most 1-0 games pitched:
Player Year Team G GS CG SH GF SV IP H HR ER BB SO W L Bullet Joe Bush 1918 BOS A 8 7 6 5 1 0 65 34 0 1 18 28 5 2 Wilbur Wood 1968 CHI A 8 0 0 0 4 2 9 3 0 0 3 2 1 1 Mike Adams 2010 SD N 8 0 0 0 0 0 8 4 0 0 1 9 1 0
The tops in innings pitched:
Player Year Team G GS CG SH GF SV IP H HR ER BB SO W L Walter Johnson 1918 WAS A 7 5 5 4 2 0 69 42 0 3 10 30 4 3 Bullet Joe Bush 1918 BOS A 8 7 6 5 1 0 65 34 0 1 18 28 5 2 Dean Chance 1964 LA A 7 7 5 5 0 0 58 33 0 1 18 51 6 1
I discussed Johnson's 1918 season in another article, but his seven 1-0 games included wins of eighteen and fifteen innings.
In addition to the two pitchers listed above, two others had five 1-0 wins:
Player Year Team G GS CG SH GF SV IP H HR ER BB SO W L Walter Johnson 1919 WAS A 6 6 6 5 0 0 57 38 0 1 11 26 5 1 Carl Hubbell 1933 NY N 5 5 5 5 0 0 54 29 0 0 3 36 5 0
Hubbell's season also included an eighteen-inning complete game win.
Three pitchers had five 1-0 saves, including two in 2010:
Player Year Team G GS CG SH GF SV IP H HR ER BB SO W L Troy Percival 2002 ANA A 5 0 0 0 5 5 5 1 0 0 2 5 0 0 Heath Bell 2010 SD N 6 0 0 0 6 5 6 6 0 1 2 8 0 1 Carlos Marmol 2010 CHI N 6 0 0 0 6 5 6 1 0 0 5 11 0 0
Vida Blue tied Dean Chance's mark of 51 strikeouts:
Player Year Team G GS CG SH GF SV IP H HR ER BB SO W L Vida Blue 1971 OAK A 5 5 4 2 0 0 47 24 0 2 6 51 2 2
His no-decision that year was one of the greatest games of his MVP season, with 17 strikeouts in 11 scoreless innings. Before the Oakland pitchers were done, they had fanned 26 Angel batters. Two of them, Tony Congliaro and Billy Cowan combined to go 0-16 with 11 strikeouts. Conigliaro was ejected from the game following his fifth strikeout and retired from baseball later that night.
And finally, three pitchers had five 1-0 losses in one season:
Player Year Team G GS CG SH GF SV IP H HR ER BB SO W L Roger Craig 1963 NY N 5 5 4 0 0 0 41 33 1 4 8 19 0 5 Jim Bunning 1967 PHI N 6 6 3 1 0 0 50.2 25 1 5 10 41 1 5 Fergie Jenkins 1968 CHI N 6 6 2 0 0 0 47 28 1 5 12 41 0 5
Craig went 5-22 for an awful Mets team, but Bunning had a winning record (17-15) and Jenkins won twenty games despite losing all five of these games.
Cliff Otto pointed out that Jacoby Ellsbury has a chance to lead the American League in both total bases and extra-base hits while batting primarily out of the lead-off spot this season. How rare would that be? Well, the short answer is that only two players since at least 1918 have led in both categories while hitting first, but a total of ten players have led in at least one. Here they are:
-------- Overall -------- ------- Lead-Off --------
Player Year Team H XB TB 2B 3B HR H XB TB 2B 3B HR
S. Stirnweiss 1945 NY A 195 64* 301* 32 22 10 190 63 295 31 22 10
Zoilo Versalles 1965 MIN A 182 76* 308* 45 12 19 182 76 308 45 12 19
Felipe Alou 1966 ATL N 218 69 355* 32 6 31 177 58 288 29 5 24
Tommy Harper 1970 MIL A 179 70* 315 35 4 31 177 69 312 34 4 31
Bobby Bonds 1973 SF N 182 77 341* 34 4 39 161 70 304 32 3 35
Juan Samuel 1987 PHI N 178 80* 329 37 15 28 106 49 198 23 9 17
Brady Anderson 1996 BAL A 172 92* 369 37 5 50 117 63 252 26 2 35
Alfonso Soriano 2002 NY A 209 92* 381 51 2 39 201 89 368 49 2 38
Grady Sizemore 2006 CLE A 190 92* 349 53 11 28 189 92 348 53 11 28
Alfonso Soriano 2006 WAS N 179 89* 362 41 2 46 159 79 318 38 2 39
That got me to wondering about the high-water marks in a variety of statistical categories for players hitting in each lineup spot. For the lists below I will be considering only the statistics for the player while they were batting in that place in the order.
So here are the single-season leaders from 1918 to 2010:
Hitting first: Player Year Team G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF SB CS AVG OBP SLG Maury Wills 1962 LA N 164* 695 130 208 13 10 6 48 51 1 57 2 7 4 104 13 .299 .347 .373 Willie Wilson 1980 KC A 157 701* 131 229 28 15 3 49 28 3 79 6 5 1 79 10 .327 .357 .422 Rickey Henderson 1985 NY A 141 546 145t 172 28 5 24 72 99 1 65 3 0 5 80 10 .315 .420 .516 Craig Biggio 1997 HOU N 156 614 145t 191 37 8 22 80 83 6 105 34 0 6 47 10 .311 .418 .505 Ichiro Suzuki 2004 SEA A 150 666 98 251* 21 5 8 58 46 19 59 3 2 3 33 11 .377 .418 .459 Craig Biggio 1999 HOU N 159 638 123 188 56* 0 16 73 88 9 106 11 5 6 28 14 .295 .386 .458 Earle Combs 1927 NY A 151 648 136 231 36 23t 6 65 62 31 2 12 15 6 .356 .414 .511 Dale Mitchell 1949 CLE A 136 598 78 191 16 23t 3 53 39 2 11 0 2 8 2 .319 .361 .438 Alfonso Soriano 2006 WAS N 131 541 102 159 38 2 39* 81 58 14 130 7 2 2 38 16 .294 .368 .588 Darin Erstad 2000 ANA A 156 675 121 239 39 6 25 100* 64 9 82 1 2 4 28 8 .354 .409 .541 Eddie Yost 1956 WAS A 142 503 94 119 17 2 11 54 150* 8 79 8 9 1 8 5 .237 .418 .344 Ichiro Suzuki 2002 SEA A 151 628 107 199 27 8 8 49 65 25* 60 5 3 5 30 15 .317 .383 .424 Bobby Bonds 1970 SF N 153 651 132 198 36 10 26 77 75 7 184* 2 0 2 48 10 .304 .377 .510 Ron Hunt 1971 MON N 112 396 70 120 17 2 5 36 44 1 27 46* 6 2 3 6 .303 .430 .394 Morrie Rath 1919 CIN N 138 537 77 142 13 1 1 16i 64 24 0 23* 17 .264 .343 .298 Johnny Temple 1959 CIN N 149 598 102 186 36 6 8 67 72 2 39 2 11 13* 14 3 .311 .380 .431 Rickey Henderson 1982 OAK A 144 532 118 143 24 4 10 51 116 1 94 2 0 2 130* 41* .269 .400 .385 Wade Boggs 1988 BOS A 91 349 79 133 28 4 3 35 72 10 19 1 0 4 1 2 .381* .484* .510 Kal Daniels 1987 CIN N 74 285 63 96 21 1 22 47 45 8 48 0 1 0 18 7 .337 .427 .649*
Now there's a lot of information packed into this chart, but hopefully it all makes sense. A "*" indicates a single-season leader; "t", a tie for the lead; and "i", that the data is incomplete. For the average categories, 300 plate appearances are required to qualify.
The two players on the list above with the fewest stolen bases are Ron Hunt and Wade Boggs, but since they are also the two players with the highest on-base percentages, it's clear that the Expos and Red Sox didn't mind having their bases clogged with slower runners at the top of the order.
Ellsbury currently has 86 RBIs when batting lead-off, so he has an outside chance of catching Erstad's mark, but he isn't close in any of the other categories.
Hitting second: Player Year Team G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF SB CS AVG OBP SLG Felix Millan 1975 NY N 162* 676 81 191 37 2 1 56 36 2 28 12 17 2 1 6 .283 .329 .348 Aaron Hill 2009 TOR A 158 682* 103 195 37 0 36 108 42 1 98 5 1 4 6 2 .286 .330 .499 Red Rolfe 1937 NY A 154 648 143* 179 34 10 4 62 91 53 1 1 4 2 .276 .366 .378 Lloyd Waner 1929 PIT N 151 662 134 234* 28 20 5 74 37 20 9 18 6 .353 .395 .479 Paul Waner 1932 PIT N 149 612 106 212 62* 10 8 80 53 23 2 8 13 .346 .400 .520 Jake Daubert 1922 CIN N 147 580 112 203 13 22* 12 68 52 1 20 3 27 3 13 17 .350 .404 .510 Eddie Mathews 1959 MIL N 145 582 117 180 16 8 46* 114t 78 1 70 3 3 2 2 2 .309 .392 .601 Alex Rodriguez 1998 SEA A 145 623 115 194 32 5 38 114t 41 0 110 9 3 4 42 11 .311 .360 .562 Joe Morgan 1973 CIN N 151 572 115 164 34 2 25 78 109* 3 61 4 3 4 67* 15 .287 .402 .484 Tony Gwynn 1992 SD N 127 519 77 165 27 3 6 41 46 12* 16 0 0 3 3 6 .318 .371 .416 Dan Uggla 2007 FLA N 147 591 110 146 48 3 31 87 65 0 158* 12 4 11 2 1 .247 .328 .496 Ron Hunt 1969 SF N 121 460 70 121 22 3 3 39 46 0 45 25* 12 3 9 2 .263 .360 .343 Ray Chapman 1919 CLE A 113 431 75 130 23 10 3 31i 31 38 3 51* 18 .302 .353 .422 Mark Loretta 2004 SD N 146 590 104 197 43 2 15 71 55 3 39 8 4 15* 5 3 .334 .389 .490 Charlie Hollocher 1922 CHI N 152 592 90 202 37 8 3 70 57 5 5 32 5 19 29* .341 .401 .446 Lefty O'Doul 1929 PHI N 101 417 100 168 24 2 21 76 53 12 4 11 2 .403* .475* .621 Alex Rodriguez 1996 SEA A 123 523 128 194 44 1 33 107 54 1 88 4 6 7 14 3 .371 .429 .648*
The only other second-place hitter with more than ten intentional walks was also Tony Gwynn, who was given eleven free passes in 1984. And whereever Ron Hunt hit in the batting order, he always got hit by a lot of pitches.
Hitting third: Player Year Team G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF SB CS AVG OBP SLG Jim Rice 1978 BOS A 163* 677 121 213 25 15 46 139 58 7 126 5 1 5 7 5 .315 .370 .600 Vernon Wells 2003 TOR A 161 678* 118 215 49 5 33 117 42 2 80 7 0 8 4 1 .317 .359 .550 Babe Ruth 1921 NY A 152 541 177* 204 44 16 59 171* 144 82 4 4 17 13 .377 .511 .845 George Sisler 1922 STL A 140 583 133 243* 42 17 8 104 48 13 3 16 50 19 .417 .464 .588 Charlie Gehringer 1936 DET A 154 641 144 227 60* 12 15 116 83 13 4 3 4 1 .354 .431 .555 Heinie Manush 1928 STL A 149 618 99 232 47 20t 13 105 35 16 0 19 16 4 .375 .409 .579 Stan Musial 1946 STL N 156 624 124 228 50 20t 16 103 73 31 3 2 7 .365 .434 .587 Mark McGwire 1998 STL N 152 506 128 150 20 0 69* 145 162 28 155 6 0 4 1 0 .296 .469 .745 Babe Ruth 1923 NY A 152 520 151 205 45 13 41 130 170* 94 4 3 17 21 .394 .546 .767 Albert Pujols 2009 STL N 158 565 123 185 45 1 46 134 115 44* 64 9 0 8 16 4 .327 .443 .655 Mo Vaughn 2000 ANA A 148 569 83 153 29 0 31 102 73 9 168* 14 0 4 2 0 .269 .364 .483 Jason Kendall 1998 PIT N 103 374 66 121 22 2 7 56 37 2 39 23t 1 7 18 3 .324 .410 .449 Chase Utley 2008 PHI N 128 484 90 141 35 2 29 89 48 9 81 23t 1 6 9 1 .291 .378 .552 Eddie Collins 1923 CHI A 140 500 89 182 22 5 5 67 84 8 4 39* 49 29 .364 .459 .458 Andre Dawson 1983 MON N 154 622 100 186 35 9 32 111 36 11 78 8 0 18* 25 10 .299 .336 .539 Sam Rice 1920 WAS A 153 626 83 211 29 9 3 82 39 0 23 4 18 0 63* 30* .337 .380 .427 Rogers Hornsby 1922 STL N 94 394 92 172 31 11 30 101 31 3i 27 0 8 1 9 10 .437* .477 .799 Barry Bonds 2002 SF N 78 223 71 84 14 2 30 64 109 32 27 8 0 0 3 1 .377 .591* .861*
It seems a little odd seeing Jason Kendell as a number three hitter, but a dozen or so years ago he was the best hitter the Pirates had. And as incredible as Hornsby's 1922 performance above was, Barry Bonds had an OPS in 2002 from the third spot that was more than 175 points higher.
Hitting fourth: Player Year Team G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF SB CS AVG OBP SLG Justin Morneau 2008 MIN A 163* 623 97 187 47 4 23 129 76 16 85 3 0 10 0 1 .300 .374 .499 Al Simmons 1932 PHI A 154 670* 144 216 28 9 35 151 46 76 1 0 4 2 .322 .367 .548 Lou Gehrig 1936 NY A 155 579 167* 205 37 7 49 152 130 46 7 3 3 4 .354 .478 .696 Joe Medwick 1937 STL N 156 633 111 237* 56 10 31 154 41 50 2 1 4 .374 .414 .641 Joe Medwick 1936 STL N 155 636 115 223 64* 13 18 138 34 33 4 3 3 .351 .387 .577 S. Jackson 1920 CHI A 145 569 105 218 42 20t 12 122 56 14 7 16 9 12 .383 .445 .591 Rogers Hornsby 1920 STL N 149 589 96 218 44 20t 9 93 60 50 3 8 12 15 .370 .431 .559 Jim Bottomley 1928 STL N 148 576 123 187 42 20t 31 136 70 54 3 17 10 .325 .401 .628 Hack Wilson 1930 CHI N 155 585 146 208 35 6 56* 191* 105 84 1 18 3 .356 .454 .723 Barry Bonds 2004 SF N 139 371 127 135 27 3 45 101 226* 115* 41 9 0 3 6 1 .364 .608* .817 Ryan Howard 2007 PHI N 137 517 93 139 26 0 46 132 104 34 197* 5 0 7 1 0 .269 .392 .586 Andres Galarraga 1998 ATL N 151 553 103 168 27 1 44 121 63 11 146 25* 0 5 7 6 .304 .396 .595 Stuffy McInnis 1923 BOS N 154 607 70 191 23 9 2 95 26 12 0 37* 7 8 .315 .343 .392 Juan Gonzalez 2001 CLE A 140 532 97 173 34 1 35 140 41 5 94 6 0 16* 1 0 .325 .370 .590 Eric Davis 1986 CIN N 89 304 73 91 13 2 22 57 52 5 75 1 0 2 58* 8 .299 .401 .572 Edd Roush 1920 CIN N 105 407 62 146 14 13 4 75 32 16 2 16 29 17t .359 .408 .486 Ross Youngs 1921 NY N 137 499 90 163 24 17 3 104 72 1i 46 1 9 9 21 17t .327 .406 .461 Bill Terry 1930 NY N 107 439 94 180 31 10 15 90 33 21 0 13 6 .410* .451 .629 Babe Ruth 1920 NY A 99 320 113 126 24 8 39 103 100 57 3 3 13 9 .394 .541 .884*
The Reds of the late 1980s had a core of young players that included Barry Larkin, Eric Davis and Kal Daniels. Daniels appeared on the first of our lists, setting the mark for the highest slugging percentage among lead-off batters in 1987, and Davis cracked the clean-up list courtesy of his 58 steals in only 89 games a year earlier. For a moment, it looked like Daniels and Davis might someday give Cincinnati the first pair of 40-40 teammates.
Stuffy McInnis might look out of place above, with his two home runs and 37 sacrifice hits, but the Braves that year had the weakest hitters in the league and someone had to bat fourth. It was also 1923 and the longball was still only just catching on around the majors. Two homers was actually a pretty good showing for McInnis; he had hit a total of only six the previous nine years.
Hitting fifth: Player Year Team G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF SB CS AVG OBP SLG Robin Ventura 1998 CHI A 157* 585 84 154 30 4 21 91 79 15 109 1 1 3 1 1 .263 .350 .436 Carl Furillo 1950 BRO N 150 607* 99 186 30 6 18 102 40 5 37 5 3 8 3 .306 .354 .465 Jimmie Foxx 1932 PHI A 154 585 151* 213* 33 9 58* 169* 117 96 0 0 3 7 .364 .470 .749 John Olerud 1993 TOR A 144 500 101 182 50* 2 21 97 107 30 58 7 0 7 0 2 .364 .477 .598 Hi Myers 1920 BRO N 135 506 74 153 31 19* 2 66 27 49 1 33 9 10 .302 .339 .451 Norm Cash 1961 DET A 156 531 117 191 22 8 40 131 122* 19 84 9 2 2 11 5 .360 .485 .657 Barry Bonds 1993 SF N 120 404 96 139 29 4 31 86 100 33* 60 1 0 5 22 9 .344 .471 .666 Ed Sprague 1996 TOR A 153 571 87 141 35 2 35 97 60 3 141* 12 0 6 0 0 .247 .328 .499 Don Baylor 1986 BOS A 137 501 76 119 20 1 24 79 49 6 100 31* 0 5 3 4 .238 .340 .425 Stuffy McInnis 1920 BOS A 134 510 48 154 19 2 2 69 18 18 2 39* 6 10 .302 .328 .359 Barry Bonds 1991 PIT N 143 491 94 146 26 5 24 115 101 25 70 4 0 13t 43 13 .297 .412 .517 J.T. Snow 2000 SF N 87 322 49 99 21 2 11 69 34 4 77 4 0 13t 0 1 .307 .367 .488 Ben Chapman 1931 NY A 130 523 107 167 26 10 16 113 66 64 4 6 56* 22 .319 .400 .499 Bernie Friberg 1924 CHI N 136 477 64 133 18 3 4 78 65 51 5 21 18 26* .279 .371 .354 Lou Gehrig 1930 NY A 85 326 95 143 28 12 29 111 58 38 3 7 8 8 .439* .527* .865*
You're probably wondering just how great the top of the 1932 Athletics lineup must have been if Jimmie Foxx hit no higher than fifth. Well, Al Simmons batted cleanup and you can see his record on the previous list: 216 hits, 35 homers, 151 RBIs. Not bad. Mickey Cochrane hit third and was considered one of the games top stars. The real puzzler was in the top two spots, where Connie Mack had players like Max Bishop, Doc Cramer, Mule Haas and Dib Williams share the duties. Even with Bishop getting his normal 100+ walks and Cramer hitting well over .300, the team still got below average production out of the first two spots in the lineup. Not that it mattered all that much: they still scored nearly 1000 runs and a few dozen or so more wouldn't have been enough to close the gap between them and the championship New York Yankees.
Similarly, it's hard to see the logic behind Bob Shawkey's decision to bat Tony Lazzeri clean-up and Lou Gehrig fifth for most of 1930. Gehrig hit a ton out of the five spot, but that was probably just a coincidence, and as soon as Joe McCarthy took over as New York's manager, he moved Gehrig back to his usual place and had Ben Chapman bat fifth instead. Today, someone with Chapman's offensive profile would have been put at the top of a lineup without much thought, but in addition to all of his stolen bases, he hit the third most home runs on the team that year and so batted behind Ruth and Gehrig instead.
During his time with the Pirates, Barry Bonds had hit primarily lead-off and fifth. He didn't settle into the clean-up spot until his last year there and even then he would move between fourth and fifth depending upon the opposing starter. So what happened when he signed the big contract with the Giants before the 1993 season? He batted fifth.
Hitting sixth: Player Year Team G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF SB CS AVG OBP SLG Joe Sewell 1921 CLE A 154* 572 101 182 36 12 4 93 80 18 11 20 7 6 .318 .412 .444 H. Kelly 1922 NY N 149 584* 94 192* 31 8 17 105 32 1 64 3 7 7 12 3 .329 .363 .497 Troy Glaus 2000 ANA A 134 473 102* 135 34 0 39* 85 93* 5 143* 1 0 0 11 8 .285 .404 .605 Hank Greenberg 1934 DET A 114 441 89 148 48* 5 18 102 50 70 1 8 9 5 .336 .404 .590 Howie Shanks 1921 WAS A 136 498 80 156 23 17* 6 66 53 35 2 23 11 9 .313 .382 .464 Glenn Wright 1925 PIT N 135 539 86 170 28 9 16 110t 27 27 0 13 2 7 .315 .348 .490 Tony Lazzeri 1926 NY A 148 565 76 154 26 14 17 110t 52 96 2 16 16 7 .273 .336 .458 Ken Singleton 1983 BAL A 136 460 49 130 21 3 16 75 92 18* 74 1 2 2 0 2 .283 .402 .446 Jason Kendall 1997 PIT N 98 337 47 104 26 3 5 38 28 1 36 22* 1 5 10 5 .309 .393 .448 Lu Blue 1925 DET A 128 451 76 140 16 7 3 85 71 22 3 30* 19 4 .310 .408 .397 Jim Piersall 1956 BOS A 125 476 62 139 28 4 13 78 40 1 38 1 8 10* 6 7 .292 .342 .450 Garry Maddox 1978 PHI N 85 308 27 87 15 1 6 35 27 10 45 2 1 2 24* 3 .282 .342 .396 Austin McHenry 1921 STL N 122 470 72 170 33 6 12 89 30 3i 43 2 9 5 19t .362 .402 .534 Denver Grigsby 1924 CHI N 108 377 52 112 17 2 3 41 28 46 5 11 8 19t .297 .354 .377 Riggs Stephenson 1929 CHI N 99 365 63 136 30 5 9 81 54 15 4 11 8 .373* .459 .556 Roy Cullenbine 1946 DET A 74 242 50 88 17 0 14 45 63 27 1 0 3 .364 .497* .607 Walker Cooper 1947 NY N 77 298 48 98 15 5 26 89 16 25 2 3 1 .329 .367 .674*
This is the first lineup spot where the leader in games played was not from the 162-game era. All this means is that the back end of the modern lineup is not nearly as stable as the front end.
Either baseball people didn't know that Roy Cullenbine had hit .364 when batting sixth in 1946 or they weren't nearly as superstitious back in the good old days as we've been led to believe, because the next year Cullenbine hit second, third and seventh. He had no at-bats at all from his happy spot in the order. And his batting average fell from a career-high .335 to a career-ending .224. No one seemed to notice that Cullenbine also hit 24 home runs or walked 137 times in 1947. By some modern metrics (like WAR), he was one of the ten most valuable position players in the league that year, but by one traditional metric that mattered a whole lot at the time (batting average), he was one of the worst.
The 2000 Anaheim Angels had one of the most productive first and sixth-place hitters in history (Darin Erstad and Troy Glaus) and still finished with the third-best offense (and record) in their four-team division.
It seems a little odd seeing Jason Kendell as a number six hitter, but a dozen or so years ago....
Hitting seventh: Player Year Team G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF SB CS AVG OBP SLG Jackie Tavener 1926 DET A 156* 533 65 141 22 14 1 58 52 53 1 28 8 7 .265 .331 .364 Charlie Grimm 1922 PIT N 151 582* 65 172 28 14 0 78 42 2 15 3 6 4 6 10 .296 .344 .392 Pinky Higgins 1933 PHI A 150 560 85* 177* 34* 12 13 98 61 53 2 5 2 7 .316 .385 .489 Charlie Grimm 1921 PIT N 146 550 61 150 21 17* 6 66 29 1 36 2 10 3 6 6 .273 .310 .405 Howard Johnson 1987 NY N 124 437 68 117 17 1 28* 81 61 14 90 5 0 2 23 7 .268 .362 .503 Ken Keltner 1938 CLE A 143 550 84 153 31 9 25 111* 32 69 3 7 4 3 .278 .321 .504 Willie Kamm 1925 CHI A 144 485 76 134 31 2 6 84 83* 31 4 36 10 12 .276 .386 .386 Ed Herrmann 1972 CHI A 94 296 20 76 6 0 9 35 38 18* 28 3 0 4 0 0 .257 .343 .368 Bo Jackson 1988 KC A 89 327 50 82 11 2 18 45 19 3 102t 1 1 2 24 5 .251 .292 .462 Jose Hernandez 2002 MIL N 76 263 41 74 12 1 13 36 29 2 102t 2 0 1 1 2 .281 .356 .483 Chet Lemon 1983 DET A 112 380 59 91 15 4 20 55 40 1 50 14* 1 4 0 4 .239 .331 .458 Topper Rigney 1922 DET A 155 536 68 161 17 7 2 62 68 44 1 38* 17 8 .300 .380 .369 Ray Knight 1986 NY N 85 297 34 79 14 2 8 48 34 2 42 3 1 8t 2 0 .266 .339 .407 Rey Quinones 1989 PIT N 54 195 18 43 9 0 3 27 11 1 32 1 3 8t 0 2 .221 .256 .313 Shawon Dunston 1991 CHI N 82 297 38 80 14 4 8 28 14 2 41 0 3 8t 12 3 .269 .295 .424 Cliff Heathcote 1923 CHI N 94 318 38 82 12 3 0 21 21 21 2 10 28* 11 .258 .308 .314 Cliff Heathcote 1924 CHI N 73 241 43 71 13 5 0 28 19 14 1 8 20 15* .295 .349 .390 Charlie Grimm 1923 PIT N 103 380 62 137 19 11 6 68 27 28 0 5 4 5 .361* .403 .516 Harlond Clift 1935 STL A 74 249 54 85 15 2 10 49 54 23 2 4 0 2 .341 .462* .538 Gabby Hartnett 1930 CHI N 102 385 65 137 23 3 26 93 43 46 1 11 0 .356 .422 .634*
As we approach the bottom of the lineup, we start seeing smaller numbers and more partial years. Charlie Grimm made the list in three successive years. In the last, he had his batting average over .400 in late May, earning him an eight-week promotion to sixth-place. By then, his average had dropped to .360 and he was moved back down to seventh. Given his relatively low spot in the batting order, you might think that the Pirates that year had an historically great offense, but Grimm was actually one of their better hitters. Among the regulars, he had the highest batting average and only Clyde Barnhart had a higher OPS.
Harlond Clift had a pretty extreme split in 1935. Here is his batting both in and out of the seventh spot:
G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF SB CS AVG OBP SLG
Seventh 74 249 54 85 15 2 10 49 54 23 2 4 0 2 .341 .462 .538
Not Seventh 63 226 47 55 11 2 1 20 29 16 4 1 0 1 .243 .338 .323
Most of those other at-bats were while leading off so either this is simply a coincidence or Clift really didn't like hitting first.
Hitting eighth: Player Year Team G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF SB CS AVG OBP SLG Tommy Thevenow 1926 STL N 156t 563* 64 144 15 5 2 63 27 26 1 17 8 .256 .291 .311 Ed Brinkman 1971 DET A 156t 515 39 119 18 2 1 37 43 7 54 7 6 5 1 4 .231 .296 .280 Wally Schang 1921 NY A 132 422 77t 134 30 5 6 55 80* 35 6 6 7 4 .318 .433 .455 Billy Myers 1939 CIN N 144 483 77t 135 15 6 9 53 67 85 0 21 4 .280 .367 .391 Jim Levey 1932 STL A 150 559 59 156* 30 8 4 62 21 47 4 11 6 4 .279 .310 .383 Steve O'Neill 1919 CLE A 123 396 45 115 35t 7 2 23i 50 20 5 10 4 .290 .377 .429 Steve O'Neill 1920 CLE A 126 413 53 134 35t 5 2 45 60 31 3 12 2 3 .324 .414 .448 Eddie Ainsmith 1919 DET A 106 356 42 98 17 12* 3 18i 42 30 1 12 9 .275 .353 .416 Del Crandall 1955 MIL N 114 383 48 93 15 2 22* 55 34 11 49 1 5 5 0 0 .243 .303 .465 Babe Dahlgren 1939 NY A 143 527 71 125 18 6 15 89* 57 53 2 13 2 3 .237 .314 .380 Adolfo Phillips 1967 CHI N 140 443 65 119 19 7 17 70 79 29* 92 6 5 2 24 9 .269 .385 .458 Ron Karkovice 1993 CHI A 127 399 59 91 17 1 19 52 29 1 125* 6 11 4 2 2 .228 .288 .419 Dave Valle 1993 SEA A 122 382 45 101 18 0 13 63 46 4 52 16* 6 4 1 0 .264 .364 .414 Tim Foli 1982 CAL A 128 444 44 113 13 2 2 52 12 1 19 2 22* 6 1 4 .255 .274 .306 Dick Hall 1954 PIT N 76 255 30 62 8 3 2 24 28 6 38 0 0 9t 3 1 .243 .308 .322 Dale Berra 1984 PIT N 124 403 27 88 13 0 7 46 31 7 68 1 5 9t 1 3 .218 .270 .303 Freddie Patek 1977 KC A 138 446 67 118 21 6 5 57 37 2 77 5 13 7 52* 12 .265 .323 .372 Freddie Patek 1976 KC A 131 405 54 98 18 3 1 43 49 5 58 2 13 6 46 14* .242 .323 .309 Marv Owen 1934 DET A 85 305 44 106 18 6 3 53 39 20 3 4 2 1 .348* .427 .475 Johnny Bassler 1924 DET A 120 375 43 129 20 3 1 67 62 11 3 12 2 1 .344 .441* .421 Jesse Barfield 1985 TOR A 86 288 55 84 16 7 16 53 38 4 76 4 0 2 9 6 .292 .380 .562*
Most of the players on this list were weak-hitting infielders or catchers. Dahlgren, of course, was Lou Gehrig's replacement at first and although he hit poorly, especially for a first-baseman, his statistics don't look so bad near the bottom of the order.
Jesse Barfield hit eighth in 1984 against most righties and was usually moved up to fourth or fifth in the lineup against left-handers. Which is unusual, because he really didn't have much of a platoon differential that year.
Hitting ninth: Player Year Team G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF SB CS AVG OBP SLG Alfredo Griffin 1983 TOR A 160* 525* 60 131 22 9* 4 47 26 0 44 3 11 3 8 11 .250 .287 .349 Harold Reynolds 1987 SEA A 157 517 72t 145 31 8 1 34 38 0 34 2 8 5 59* 19* .280 .329 .377 Kevin Elster 1996 TEX A 146 479 72t 123 30 2 21* 92* 50 1 130 2 15 11* 4 1 .257 .323 .459 Gary Disarcina 1998 ANA A 146 511 68 149* 37* 3 2 53 20 0 43 8 11 3 10 7 .292 .327 .387 Brian Downing 1975 CHI A 135 411 56 100 11 1 7 41 73* 4 74 3 11 6 13 4 .243 .357 .326 Ozzie Guillen 1990 CHI A 157 515 61 144 21 4 1 58 25 8* 37 1 15 5 13 17 .280 .311 .342 Benji Gil 1995 TEX A 127 413 35 91 20 3 9 46 26 0 146* 1 10 2 2 4 .220 .267 .349 Einar Diaz 2001 CLE A 104 333 37 91 24 1 4 44 11 0 36 13* 7 0 1 2 .273 .322 .387 Mark Belanger 1975 BAL A 132 392 38 86 9 1 3 27 33 0 50 0 21t 0 12 2 .219 .280 .270 Bob Boone 1982 CAL A 126 422 34 104 16 0 4 50 33 2 32 0 21t 5 0 2 .246 .298 .313 Bob Meacham 1985 NY A 129 396 58 84 14 1 1 34 43 1 87 5 21t 2 22 7 .212 .296 .260 Roberto Kelly 1989 NY A 108 354 55 117 17 3 6 41 31 1 70 4 5 0 32 11 .331* .391* .446 Trot Nixon 1999 BOS A 99 313 58 90 20 5 15 49 46 0 52 3 2 8 2 1 .288 .376 .527*
These are all American League players from the DH era. I was a little surprised that the 1989 Yankees, a team with an average offense, could afford to bat Roberto Kelly ninth most of the year. On the other hand, whenever they moved him out of that spot, he pretty much stopped hitting, posting a .184/.275/.299 line elsewhere.
Just about all the offenses in the league that year were average. The Yankees' 698 runs scored ranked seventh (out of 14 teams) in the league. Had they scored nine fewer runs, however, they would have ranked eleventh and fourteen more runs would have moved them into a tie for fourth. That got me to wondering if this offensive parity was at a historic level that year. Here's the list of the leagues with the smallest average difference between each team's runs scored per game and the league average:
Year LEAG TEAMS DIFF 1974 AL 12 .1213 1915 NL 8 .1501 1958 NL 8 .1605 1989 AL 14 .1813 1989 NL 12 .1848 1918 AL 8 .1897 1983 NL 12 .1948 1915 FL 8 .1988
So the 1974 American League can boast of having the most consistently mediocre offenses. And the leagues since 1900 with the greatest disparity:
Year LEAG TEAMS DIFF 1931 AL 8 .7623 1930 AL 8 .7468 1950 AL 8 .7308 1921 AL 8 .7219 1932 AL 8 .7132 1901 NL 8 .6990 1929 AL 8 .6894 1948 AL 8 .6597
But I digress. Here's what the ninth place list looks like if we exclude all games with the DH:
Player Year Team G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF SB CS AVG OBP SLG Cesar Izturis 2008 STL N 87* 284* 32* 71* 8 3 1 19 23* 1 18 4 3 1 11* 5t .250* .314* .310* Red Ruffing 1928 BOS A 53 115 12 38 13* 1 2 18 3 12 0 6 0 .330 .347 .513 Erskine Mayer 1918 2 tms 28 79 9 15 1 5* 0 7 6 17 0 4 0 .190 .247 .329 Wes Ferrell 1931 CLE A 44 113 24 37 6 1 9* 29t 10 19 0 2 0 .327 .382 .637x Wes Ferrell 1935 BOS A 64 140 25 49 4 1 7 29t 20 14 0 8 0 .350 .431 .543 Smoky Burgess 1967 CHI A 38 30 2 5 0 0 2 6 7 4t 2 0 0 0 0 0 .167 .324 .367 Rick Monday 1983 LA N 34 25 1 6 1 0 0 3 6 4t 10 0 0 0 0 0 .240 .387 .280 Kurt Bevacqua 1985 SD N 23 18 2 4 1 0 0 4 5 4t 5 0 0 1 0 0 .222 .375 .278 Dave Hansen 2001 LA N 46 37 4 8 5 0 0 4 11 4t 10 0 0 1 0 0 .216 .388 .351 Daryle Ward 2007 CHI N 37 31 1 8 3 0 0 4 7 4t 8 0 0 0 0 0 .258 .395 .355 Wilbur Wood 1972 CHI A 49 125 8 17 0 0 0 7 6 0 65* 0 13 0 0 0 .136 .176 .136 Jason Kendall 2008 MIL N 42 145 16 42 12 1 0 15 12 0 12 6* 1 1 2 2 .290 .366 .386 Urban Shocker 1926 NY A 41 76 6 13 1 0 0 4 10 20 2 20t 0 .171 .284 .184 Urban Shocker 1927 NY A 31 54 6 13 1 0 0 10 7 12 3 20t 0 .241 .359 .259 Steve Rogers 1983 MON N 36 82 5 12 1 0 0 2 1 0 27 1 20t 0 0 0 .146 .167 .159 Roy Oswalt 2006 HOU N 32 66 3 10 1 0 1 8 4 0 15 0 20t 0 0 0 .152 .200 .212 Javier Vazquez 2009 ATL N 37 68 6 12 3 0 0 3 3 0 14 0 20t 0 0 0 .176 .211 .221 Bob Keegan 1954 CHI A 31 74 5 8 2 1 0 6 4 0 10 0 1 4t 0 0 .108 .146 .162 Warren Spahn 1959 MIL N 39 103 11 24 1 0 2 8 3 0 28 0 1 4t 0 0 .233 .245 .301 Denny Lemaster 1964 MIL N 38 67 2 9 1 0 0 6 4 0 25 1 7 4t 0 0 .134 .184 .149 Juan Pierre 2009 LA N 50 61 10 17 1 1 0 2 6 0 5 2 3 1 1 5t .279 .357 .328 Walter Johnson 1925 WAS A 36 97 12 42 6 1 2 20 3 0 6 1 6 0 0 1 .433x .455x .577
Izturis owes his appearance atop several of these categories to Tony LaRussa, who decided to bat his pitcher eighth much of 2008 (and during other years as well). I was surprised that Izturis' 87 games played was the highest, since several relievers have pitched in more than 90 games, but it turns out that they often appear lower in the batting order. For example, in Mike Marshall's record-setting 1974 season, he entered the game in the last spot only 70 times.
Izturis ended up leading in all the average categories by default, since no other player had even 200 plate appearance in the final spot. If you lower the bar to 100 plate appearances, "x" marks the leaders.
After my last post, a few of you might have seen this one coming. What follows are a series of charts of career leaders in various offensive categories by lineup position. Once again, this covers all games played from 1918 to 2010.
Hitting first: Player G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF SB CS AVG OBP SLG Rickey Henderson 2886* 10793* 2244* 3020* 507 66 293* 1100* 2140* 56 1649* 94 29 66* 1384* 331* .280 .401 .420 Pete Rose 2313 9500 1524 2924 517* 95 117 803 1048 132 746 70 25 47 125 101 .308 .379 .419 Earle Combs 1072 4516 941 1470 236 127* 46 490 546 209 10 51 77 55 .326 .399 .465 Ichiro Suzuki 1561 6711 1038 2222 255 71 89 552 449 152* 676 45 27 29 379 88 .331* .375 .430 Craig Biggio 1564 6334 1128 1800 426 32 181 686 704 54 1059 182* 35 41 238 82 .284 .370 .447 Brett Butler 1858 7253 1198 2091 250 109 46 501 992 19 792 31 111* 45 483 231 .288 .374 .372 Max Bishop 1220 4385 949 1191 231 34 41 368 1131 435 28 94 40 47 .272 .424* .368 Alfonso Soriano 770 3339 573 960 221 13 197 457 224 40 742 41 5 19 161 49 .288 .338 .538*
The notation is pretty much the same as in my last post: "*" means the batter led in that category; "t", that he tied for the lead. For average categories, a 1000 plate appearances minimum was used. If the leader had less than 2000 plate appearances, the leader with at least 2000 is marked with an "x".
Rickey Henderson's domination in this category was not surprising. He came to the majors as a leadoff hitter and stayed there his entire career. The role of a leadoff hitter (fast, gets on base) hasn't really changed much over the last few decades and Henderson fit that description even as his skills began to erode late in his career.
Hitting second: Player G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF SB CS AVG OBP SLG Nellie Fox 1713* 6941* 974* 2025* 275 81* 26 568 549 19 150 113* 161 40 53 54 .292 .352 .366 Billy Herman 1262 5147 783 1553 325* 61 38 517 478 290 18 124 41 .302 .363 .411 Ryne Sandberg 1223 4934 814 1437 237 51 186* 601 430 32 717 16 22 34 204 54 .291 .348 .473 Derek Jeter 1270 5188 939 1627 268 35 133 656* 525 16 876 83 51 22 195 41 .314 .384 .456 Joe Morgan 1136 4238 762 1145 205 41 112 428 787* 19 465 23 34 29 349 77 .270 .385 .417 Tony Gwynn 899 3643 557 1231 197 33 57 352 276 60* 169 11 18 14 120 54 .338 .385 .457 Jay Bell 1335 5172 853 1417 284 50 135 576 607 14 962* 38 139 38 68 44 .274 .352 .427 Mule Haas 745 3041 532 914 183 37 35 342 272 206 10 175* 4 12 .301 .360 .420 Omar Vizquel 1567 6180 924 1714 279 47 50 597 637 4 643 29 159 64* 263 92 .277 .344 .362 Ozzie Smith 1533 5962 849 1600 253 45 15 510 673 22 374 16 159 42 404* 98* .268 .342 .333 Lefty O'Doul 335 1327 304 482 85 13 45 179 158 40 9 18 13 .363* .434* .549 Ellis Burks 275 1071 230 331 62 13 68 193 124 1 207 9 6 3 27 12 .309 .384 .582* Wade Boggs 644 2534 426 859 158 12 38 317 372 16 208 4 9 26 8 6 .339x .421x .456 Alex Rodriguez 502 2084 430 667 138 11 118 391 192 2 371 25 13 17 104 25 .320 .381 .567x
The role of a number two hitter is less well-defined than that of the lead-off batter and almost all of these hitters moved around in the lineup, with the fast ones spending time batting first (or even eighth) and the ones with power sliding down into the third, fourth or fifth spot.
Hitting third: Player G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF SB CS AVG OBP SLG Stan Musial 2225* 8534* 1584 2875* 597* 149* 383 1509 1256 136 485 40 31 35 65 25 .337 .423 .576 Babe Ruth 1744 6116 1645* 2112 347 90 553* 1628* 1574* 974 29 74 84 97 .345 .481 .703x Albert Pujols 1238 4627 965 1538 341 12 341 975 758 213* 499 60 0 47 72 27 .332 .429 .632 Ken Griffey 2017 7731 1374 2240 414 34 530 1514 1044 207 1390* 71 5 81 155 50 .290 .376 .558 Minnie Minoso 1105 4156 734 1252 215 63 113 672 516 22 348 123* 51 33 137 98 .301 .392 .465 Eddie Collins 965 3573 607 1204 172 47 21 490 572 89 18 173* 189 82 .337 .431 .429 George Brett 1907 7349 1151 2266 486 91 250 1207 848 185 667 24 6 97* 138 60 .308 .377 .501 Cesar Cedeno 1071 4109 640 1187 250 30 125 577 394 56 515 33 13 44 363* 102* .289 .352 .456 Rogers Hornsby 846 3275 731 1262 259 58 170 720 440 3 248 9 90 1 31 32 .385* .459 .656 Ted Williams 1541 5446 1296 1870 352 39 388 1289 1445 116 500 31 1 17 19 13 .343 .482* .636 Mark McGwire 376 1283 303 366 50 1 166 355 355 59 382 13 0 13 3 0 .285 .441 .714*
Babe Ruth and Ken Griffey are the only batters with 500 or more home runs at a single lineup position. Power hitters tended to move from year to year between third, fourth and fifth in the order.
Hitting fourth: Player G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF SB CS AVG OBP SLG Eddie Murray 2041* 7675* 1148 2233* 391 26 348 1340 996 181 1001 15 1 88* 80 29 .291 .370 .485 Lou Gehrig 1545 5790 1392* 1998 376 107 383* 1512* 1125* 508 32 55 74 83* .345 .454 .645 Joe Medwick 1413 5764 951 1879 410* 87 160 1083 329 422 20 35 32 .326 .364 .511 Jim Bottomley 1525 6028 988 1883 390 122* 183 1158 535 485 31 147* 47 15 .312 .371 .509 Barry Bonds 852 2581 656 819 160 12 242 615 954 359* 376 39 0 25 89 18 .317 .503* .670 Fred McGriff 1826 6719 1001 1935 335 16 364 1224 974 140 1363* 27 1 56 51 29 .288 .378 .505 Carlos Delgado 1393 5052 916 1448 353 12 347 1112 847 148 1191 127* 0 66 9 5 .287 .398 .567 Eric Davis 602 2103 385 588 96 11 115 392 316 35 536 14 2 19 165* 28 .280 .374 .500 S. Jackson 301 1150 192 421 76 36 20 217 125 25 11 39 21 12 .366* .433 .547 Babe Ruth 541 1842 466 629 131 38 148 488 442 271 14 28 37 20 .341 .472 .695* Ted Williams 459 1604 387 577 124 23 95 386 418 4 132 7 4 1 4 4 .360x .494 .643
Babe Ruth and Ted Williams also appeared on the previous list.
Hitting fifth: Player G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF SB CS AVG OBP SLG Harry Heilmann 1090* 4096* 726* 1453* 292* 77* 111 762* 455 268 20 132* 59 32 .355* .422 .545 Jimmie Foxx 828 3022 672 986 179 52 203* 738 540* 468 3 49 26 33 .326 .429* .621* Barry Bonds 533 1809 360 550 115 12 108 371 373 90* 269 13 1 26 142* 46 .304 .421 .560 Pat Burrell 608 2151 321 545 119 9 122 409 369 24 599* 13 0 20 2 3 .253 .363 .487 Don Baylor 821 2976 456 777 131 9 122 445 286 41 426 121* 4 39 85 36 .261 .346 .434 Robin Ventura 929 3355 511 909 172 9 159 615 534 81 577 11 8 42* 16 20 .271 .369 .470 Bob Meusel 747 2904 434 908 219 47 75 600 209 337 9 92 78 62* .313 .361 .498
Barry Bonds was walked intentionally more than any other fourth and fifth-place batter. Of course, intentional walks didn't exist during Harry Heilmann and Jimmie Foxx's day, but it is surprising how few players spent a long time hitting fifth.
In order to get some idea of how the top players moved around the lineup, here is a chart of all the players from 1918-2010 with at least 2500 starts along with the percentage of their starts at each lineup position:
Pete Rose 3437 66.9 23.5 9.4 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Carl Yastrzemski 3228 0.0 0.2 61.3 26.0 7.2 4.4 0.6 0.3 0.0 Hank Aaron 3173 0.0 2.7 56.8 37.4 1.7 0.8 0.5 0.0 0.0 Cal Ripken 2982 0.0 0.3 51.8 10.2 17.5 13.1 5.7 0.9 0.3 Eddie Murray 2973 0.0 0.0 8.8 68.6 16.5 3.1 3.0 0.0 0.0 Rickey Henderson 2890 99.5 0.1 0.3 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Barry Bonds 2848 15.4 0.9 35.5 29.6 18.3 0.2 0.1 0.0 0.0 Stan Musial 2843 0.0 1.4 78.0 11.9 6.4 2.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 Dave Winfield 2830 0.0 0.2 21.6 51.8 21.0 3.7 1.4 0.2 0.0 Willie Mays 2821 2.3 4.3 68.4 15.3 4.0 4.1 1.5 0.2 0.0 Robin Yount 2815 9.4 38.0 19.9 10.6 5.4 2.6 6.2 4.9 3.1 Brooks Robinson 2790 3.5 0.2 9.5 19.4 24.2 24.7 14.0 4.6 0.0 Craig Biggio 2723 57.3 27.5 8.3 0.0 1.2 1.3 0.7 3.7 0.0 Rafael Palmeiro 2713 0.4 10.1 34.6 34.6 16.8 2.9 0.5 0.0 0.0 Omar Vizquel 2696 10.5 57.5 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.7 9.2 22.0 Frank Robinson 2680 0.2 3.9 32.9 52.4 8.3 1.5 0.7 0.0 0.0 George Brett 2662 5.0 5.4 71.5 6.9 4.0 2.8 0.6 2.4 1.5 Paul Molitor 2650 59.2 5.0 32.7 0.5 0.2 1.2 0.5 0.6 0.0 Reggie Jackson 2646 0.0 3.7 27.2 44.1 12.4 9.9 2.2 0.5 0.0 Al Kaline 2630 0.0 3.8 55.4 30.4 3.5 6.2 0.8 0.1 0.0 Harold Baines 2579 0.0 0.0 43.2 19.2 20.4 11.0 5.2 1.0 0.0 Ken Griffey 2545 0.2 2.7 79.1 8.9 6.3 2.1 0.7 0.0 0.0 Luis Aparicio 2539 50.3 33.1 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.7 4.5 11.3 0.0 Mel Ott 2538 0.5 1.1 27.6 46.7 20.3 3.5 0.4 0.0 0.0 Rusty Staub 2509 0.2 3.4 45.0 30.1 11.5 6.4 2.8 0.6 0.0 Gary Sheffield 2507 0.4 3.0 68.7 19.3 3.7 3.2 0.8 0.4 0.5
Rickey Henderson is the only player with more than 80% of his starts at one position.
Hitting sixth: Player G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF SB CS AVG OBP SLG Charlie Grimm 894* 3351* 381 962* 177* 27 30 443 240 172 14 120* 26 10 .287 .337 .383 Tony Lazzeri 751 2791 423* 803 154 55* 83 502* 346 390 8 62 85 40* .288 .368 .472 Graig Nettles 859 2983 386 750 105 12 143* 423 350 33 393 20 3 28 14 11 .251 .331 .438 Gene Tenace 675 2126 317 518 88 9 105 329 459* 29 453 39 12 18 17 26 .244 .385 .442 Ed Bailey 505 1719 223 451 60 6 84 277 266 37* 279 12 10 18 11 12 .262 .362 .451 Jorge Posada 629 2222 345 645 147 3 115 420 364 29 523* 25 0 14 10 8 .290 .394x .514x Bill Freehan 473 1674 188 425 67 10 58 191 160 13 220 49* 9 11 5 9 .254 .335 .410 Benito Santiago 687 2542 287 676 110 17 89 347 149 16 484 13 12 31* 39 21 .266 .306 .428 Garry Maddox 736 2745 320 783 132 24 55 326 131 33 320 10 12 27 104* 37 .285 .317 .411 George Selkirk 278 962 199 314 59 16 50 254 190 99 16 9 26 13 .326* .445* .577* Bill Dickey 499 1839 246 564 94 21 61 347 204 67 9 11 12 10 .307x .379 .480
New York Yankee players from the 1920s and 1930s hold the career marks for most caught stealing from the fourth (Lou Gehrig), fifth (Bob Meusel) and sixth (Tony Lazzeri) spots. And Babe Ruth was only six away from making it a clean sweep of slots three through six.
Hitting seventh: Player G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF SB CS AVG OBP SLG Charlie Grimm 979* 3623* 440* 1098* 169* 70* 44 520* 255 3 181 12 62 7 26 29 .303 .350 .425 Javy Lopez 454 1582 191 457 70 7 84* 260 85 14 258 24 3 13 1 7 .289 .332 .501 Jimmy Dykes 784 2681 327 728 144 27 32 385 359* 290 35 66 22 21 .272 .365 .381 Clay Dalrymple 527 1566 112 367 44 13 31 169 216 50* 198 13 33 13 1 8 .234 .330 .338 Jose Hernandez 469 1510 197 402 65 10 68 229 130 14 474* 8 8 8 13 13 .266 .326 .458 Chet Lemon 445 1496 226 400 80 15 60 195 159 11 245 36* 6 10 6 19 .267 .350 .461 Ossie Bluege 778 2691 352 724 116 29 19 362 319 204 32 104* 58 30 .269 .353 .355 Ken Reitz 770 2828 206 735 153 8 43 323 112 35 334 24 19 29* 5 8 .260 .291 .365 Lance Johnson 362 1308 175 375 38 40 5 121 94 13 73 3 5 4 84* 23 .287 .335 .388 Cliff Heathcote 290 929 116 257 42 14 1 88 58 53 4 24 1 60 37* .277 .322 .355 Robinson Cano 247 961 134 324 72 9 27 132 51 8 104 4 2 6 3 8 .337* .371 .515* Gene Tenace 281 806 129 204 28 2 45 139 190 12 184 22 2 9 6 5 .253 .405* .460 Bill Dickey 562 2012 259 666 121 30 46 375 169 82 5 28 12 9 .331x .384 .490 Willie Kamm 627 2112 291 613 130 30 14 331 321 162 8 87 45 33 .290 .386x .400 Gabby Hartnett 602 2086 288 628 124 27 75 356 241 227 12 43 8 1 .301 .377 .494x
Charlie Grimm is the leader in games, at-bats and hits from both the sixth and seventh spots in the batting order. Gene Tenace and Bill Dickey also make an appearance on both lists.
Hartnett has the highest slugging percentage among both seventh and eighth-place hitters (1500 plate appearance minimum).
Hitting eighth: Player G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF SB CS AVG OBP SLG Al Lopez 1484* 4499* 449 1163* 145 36 35 487* 463 395 9 77 32 1 .259 .329 .330 Jim Hegan 1459 4349 502* 993 172* 42* 81 466 415 64 694* 4 65 13 15 22 .228 .295 .343 Del Crandall 833 2642 299 644 92 11 109* 352 256 88 266 11 32 25 11 11 .244 .310 .411 Rick Ferrell 954 2939 319 789 147 19 6 341 470* 150 4 45 9 8 .268 .370 .338 Leo Cardenas 767 2563 267 670 101 24 39 257 232 91* 468 10 25 18 12 20 .261 .323 .365 Jason LaRue 417 1280 142 292 65 4 45 161 126 33 380 52* 12 10 11 3 .228 .320 .391 Ray Schalk 997 3038 359 786 123 24 7 344 395 208 28 117* 67 26 .259 .349 .322 Mike Matheny 774 2483 222 601 119 4 41 279 186 52 492 29 41 27* 4 10 .242 .299 .343 Freddie Patek 693 2160 264 519 86 21 17 233 208 27 329 14 58 21 158* 52* .240 .308 .323 Spud Davis 550 1492 130 478 82 4 29 207 142 101 7 26 0 .320* .382 .439 Wally Schang 536 1532 244 456 78 25 18 199 315 152 22 36 23 10 .298 .424* .416 Gabby Hartnett 456 1419 191 429 99 11 61 279 177 0 165 9 24 1 12 3 .302 .383 .517* Johnny Bassler 701 2113 236 651 92 13 1 299 405 70 10 88 10 6 .308x .422x .365 Earl Smith 628 1847 191 557 90 18 42 291 202 11 85 11 39 2 15 7 .302 .373 .438x
Catchers dominate this list. It seemed that batting a catcher last, even a good hitting catcher, was fashionable in the first few decades of the live ball era. I thought it might be interesting to look at the percentage of starts by position in each of the lineup spots for the 1920s. Here's the list:
POS 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th P 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 100.0 C 0.1 0.9 1.3 1.7 4.1 9.9 15.1 66.9 0.0 1B 5.7 6.2 11.1 26.4 21.0 16.4 11.3 2.0 0.0 2B 14.5 22.5 14.7 6.8 8.6 12.5 15.6 4.8 0.0 3B 8.4 18.4 8.1 6.2 15.0 19.0 18.5 6.3 0.0 SS 12.3 18.0 1.8 4.2 4.7 11.4 28.5 19.0 0.0 LF 15.4 8.3 18.9 25.2 18.7 10.8 2.6 0.2 0.0 CF 26.8 13.9 20.0 12.9 12.9 9.5 3.7 0.4 0.0 RF 16.9 11.8 24.1 16.7 14.9 10.7 4.7 0.3 0.0
And a similar table for the 1980s:
POS 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th P 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 100.0 C 0.2 1.9 1.1 5.9 9.6 15.3 27.3 26.7 12.0 1B 1.9 6.6 23.3 26.7 17.7 14.1 7.6 1.9 0.3 2B 22.7 25.3 5.5 0.7 2.6 5.4 10.6 16.7 10.5 3B 5.1 11.5 10.8 10.3 13.4 17.2 17.0 10.6 4.1 SS 9.1 16.8 6.4 1.6 1.4 3.6 8.3 30.8 22.0 LF 19.6 10.1 16.2 14.4 17.5 12.3 6.8 2.3 0.8 CF 33.8 14.8 13.8 6.1 7.6 8.1 7.8 5.4 2.6 RF 5.7 10.8 17.1 17.5 18.6 14.9 9.9 4.3 1.3 DH 3.6 4.1 10.8 31.3 21.5 16.9 8.6 2.5 0.7
Hitting ninth: Player G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF SB CS AVG OBP SLG Ozzie Guillen 1185* 3940* 459* 1053* 170* 45* 21 405* 124 14* 290 2 97 37* 83 72* .267 .287 .349 Rick Dempsey 766 2084 261 496 107 6 42t 216 247* 0 337 12 31 17 7 9 .238 .320 .356 Mike Bordick 763 2387 265 617 102 11 42t 278 215 1 315 28 52 23 35 30 .258 .324x .363 Lefty Grove 613 1366 119 202 27 5 15 121 104 594* 2 103 1 1 .148 .209 .208 Gary Disarcina 858 2957 369 791 153 16 23 296 127 0 239 32t 58 16 41 36 .268x .303 .353 Einar Diaz 408 1301 147 349 75 4 14 119 55 0 129 32t 24 4 15 7 .268 .313 .364 Tom Glavine 674 1319 90 245 25 2 1 90 99 0 328 2 215* 3 1 0 .186 .243 .210 Julio Cruz 433 1297 171 309 44 10 11 127 157 1 183 6 11 15 96* 27 .238 .320 .313 George Uhle 641 1310 166 379 57 19 9 161 98 108 4 34 6 8 .289* .341 .382 Wes Ferrell 489 1088 168 306 52 12 38 192 119 172 0 40 2 .281 .352* .456* Greg Gagne 660 1961 243 503 109 17 39 213 103 1 381 11 40 19 56 34 .257 .295 .389x
Weak-hitting middle-infielders and catchers from the DH-era top most of the categories here, although some pitchers manage to lead in strikeouts, sacrifice hits as well as the average categories.
Trent McCotter sent me a note yesterday pointing out that Matt Kemp has very nearly closed a recent 19-point gap in the NL batting race as part of his three-prong effort to capture the triple-crown. Which got us to wondering about the largest deficits overcome by batting champions. Since 1918, here they are:
Days
ToGo Gap Date Leader AVG Champion AVG
1 .0042 10- 2-1976 Ken Griffey .3375 Bill Madlock .3333
2 .0065 9-27-1935 Joe Vosmik .3514 Buddy Myer .3449
4 .0103 9-25-1935 Joe Vosmik .3514 Buddy Myer .3411
6 .0097 9-22-1958 Pete Runnels .3235 Ted Williams .3138
8 .0086 9-23-1944 Bob Johnson .3286 Lou Boudreau .3200
10 .0105 9-19-1935 Jimmie Foxx .3513 Buddy Myer .3408
11 .0116 9-18-1926 Eddie Brown .3351 Paul Waner .3235
12 .0138 9-17-1926 Eddie Brown .3339 Paul Waner .3201
13 .0138 9-21-1925 Tris Speaker .3902 Harry Heilmann .3764
9-14-1931 Chuck Klein .3448 Chick Hafey .3309
14 .0217 9-13-1931 Chuck Klein .3437 Chick Hafey .3220
16 .0271 9-11-1931 Chuck Klein .3437 Chick Hafey .3166
22 .0235 9-12-1925 Tris Speaker .3888 Harry Heilmann .3653
28 .0262 9- 7-1981 Richie Zisk .3542 Carney Lansford .3280
29 .0219 9- 2-1967 Frank Robinson .3307 Carl Yastrzemski .3088
32 .0220 9- 1-1976 Hal McRae .3515 George Brett .3296
33 .0307 8-25-1931 Bill Terry .3484 Chick Hafey .3176
36 .0388 8-22-1931 Chuck Klein .3465 Chick Hafey .3077
39 .0403 8-19-1931 Bill Terry .3485 Chick Hafey .3082
42 .0343 8-18-2002 Mike Sweeney .3552 Manny Ramirez .3209
43 .0339 8-17-1968 Tony Oliva .3041 Carl Yastrzemski .2702
44 .0499 7-20-1918 Heinie Groh .3608 Zach Wheat .3109
47 .0600 7-17-1918 Heinie Groh .3649 Zach Wheat .3049
50 .0829 7-14-1918 Heinie Groh .3659 Zach Wheat .2830
In general, the missing days are very similar to the previous entries (same players, similar or smaller gaps).
One thing I should point out right at the beginning is that I used the modern standards for qualifying for these kinds of things. So if you go looking for Paul Waner's name at the top of a list of 1926 NL batting average leaders in most reference works, you'll find him listed behind four part-time players who, while they did manage to appear in at least 100 games, wouldn't come close to meeting the current criteria of 3.1 plate appearances per game. So if this kind of historical revisionism bothers you (and I know it drives some people crazy), whenever I use the words "batting title," "batting champion" or the like, please pretend that I substituted a phrase like "batting average leader by modern standards" instead.
And one more thing I should point out is that this batting-average-centric post is in no way an endorsement of that particular measurement. People do care about batting average out of line with its importance, and when it looks like someone might be able to win the first triple crown since 1967, people perhaps care more about batting average (and RBIs) than reason tells them they should.
Now where were we?
Bill Madlock went 4-4 on the last day of the 1976 season to overtake Ken Griffey, who was sitting out the game. Once word of Madlock's preformance reached the Reds, the right-fielder was rushed into the game only to strike out in his two at-bats. Of course, that is only the record since 1918. On the last day of the 1910 season, Nap Lajoie got eight straight hits, most of them very questionable, against the Browns in a double-header to make up a .0078 deficit and slip past Ty Cobb. It's a famous story and doesn't need retelling here, but one of the outcomes of those hits gifted to Lajoie on the last day of the 1910 season was that Ty Cobb was officially credited with two more hits than he actually had. Which means that major league baseball picked the wrong hit by Pete Rose to celebrate and he actually broke Cobb's hit record three days earlier.
Ted Williams went 12-19 in his final four games of 1958 to raise his average fourteen points and win his last batting title. At the time, it must have been heart-breaking for teammate Pete Runnels. After all, Williams had already led the league in batting average six times; how many chances was Runnels going to get? The story had a happy ending, however, partly because of a rule change. After the games of September 25, 1960, Runnels had a .317 average. This was higher than anyone in the American League except Ted Williams, who had picked up the last two singles of his career that day to boost his average to .318. Up to that point, he had played in 111 games that year, more than enough to qualify for the title by the standards of the 1920s or 1930s. Fortunately for Runnels, the rules had been changed in the meantime, and Williams' 383 plate appearances at the end of that day were not close to qualifying. So Williams played in only two more games, hitting a homer in his final at-bat, and Runnels had the first of what would turn out to be two batting crowns.
Bob Johnson played in three straight All-Star games during the Second World War, each time representing a different team, and seemed poised to lead the AL in average in 1944 when Lou Boudreau strung together six straight multi-hit games to overtake him in the final week. Johnson had a pretty good year in 1945 as well, but he had the misfortune of playing left-field for the Red Sox, who had a pretty good left-fielder returning from the war, and he was released.
Tris Speaker was hitting .391 when he was hit by a pitch on August 20, 1925. The injury relegated him to occasional pinch-hitting duty the rest of the way. While he was sidelined, Harry Heilmann had a hot streak for the ages. It began on September 13th with four hits, and ran through a six-hit day that closed out season. During those final 21 games, Heilmann had 46 hits in 83 at-bats, good for a .554 average. Speaker could only sit back and watch while his lead evaporated, disappearing for good only on the last day of the season.
Chuck Klein and Bill Terry were in the midst of a close batting race at the end of the day on September 5, 1931. Klein had a one-point lead, but he also had one serious disadvantage. His team, the Phillies had just completed their last home game of the season, and Klein was only a great hitter within the very friendly confines of Baker Bowl. So things were looking up for Bill Terry and, sure enough, Klein slumped during that final road-trip, his average dropping ten points to finish at .337. But Terry still ended up in an incredibly close batting race, it just didn't include Chuck Klein. Chick Hafey, who was hitting under .300 as late as July 26th, wasn't even among the league leaders until he collected 27 hits in 39 at-bats during a 12-game stretch in September. Hafey had a slim lead entering the final day of the season, but he almost lost it entirely when he went 2-8 in the final double-header. Terry couldn't take advantage, however, going 1-4 to finish at .3486 to Hafey's .3488. Had Hafey one more or Terry one less at-bat, the results would have been reversed. The Giants attempted to play one more game that day, but it was called due to darkness in the middle of the fourth with New York ahead 6-0. I'm not sure whether Terry had collected a hit before the game ended, but a single hit in two at-bats would have also given him the title.
Most of these are stories of a hitter who got incredibly hot down the stretch. But in the case of Richie Zisk, it's a story of a hitter going extremely cold. Despite hitting over .300 twice early in his career with the Pirates, I doubt many thought of Zisk as a .354 hitter, his average at the end of play on September 7, 1981. The pendulum would swing back the other way after that, however, and a .174 average over the final four weeks dropped his average over forty points, below Carney Lansford, Tom Paciorek, and four others.
I pointed out in another article how the 1918 baseball season almost came to a close in late July. Heinie Groh probably wished it had, since it would have meant a batting crown, albeit in an abbreviated season. Instead, he stuggled in August while Zach Wheat finished off a 26-game hitting streak that raised his average from .275 to .334 and helped him narrowly edge Edd Roush (Groh slipped down to third) for the title. In that same article, I also discussed a host of "what-ifs" that might have given Roush the title instead.
Carl Yastrzemski makes two appearances on the list above, coming from far behind to take batting titles in consecutive years. He used strong final months of the season to win both. The first gave him the American League's first triple crown since 1966, and the second spared the league the embarrassment of a season without a .300 hitter. I wondered if Yastrzemski had a habit of hitting well in the final month of the season, but his career splits show that he actually hit better during June.
During 2002, both Mike Sweeney and Manny Ramirez missed at least a month of the season with injuries, making it somewhat easier for Ramirez to close the 34 point gap that existed on August 18th. As a matter of fact, two big games helped Ramirez raise his average 25 points in a week, and that, combined with a huge September, was enough to bring him his only batting title.
And finally, Hal McRae and George Brett's battle for the batting championship is well-known today for the controversy surrounding Brett's decisive hit in his final at-bat. After the game (actually, even during the game), McRae accused Minnesota Twins' manager Gene Mauch of ordering left-fielder Steve Brye to play too deep, permitting Brett's fly-ball to fall (and eventually be scored an inside-the-park home run). Which brings us full circle, since those questionable hits that Lajoie received back in 1910 supposedly were the result of Browns' manager Jack O'Connor ordering his third-baseman, rookie Red Corridon, to play too deep.
John Pastier was wondering (among other things) about the record for the most days leading the league in batting average without winning the title. Here's the list:
Player Year LED DNL DNQ First Last Pete Reiser 1942 131 36 0 5-11 9-24 Lenny Dykstra 1990 125 37 10 5-11 9-14 Larry Walker 1997 124 57 0 4-10 9-19 John Kruk 1992 117 64 0 4- 7 8-27 Tony Cuccinello 1945 115 18 34 5- 1 8-27 Jimmie Foxx 1929 110 63 0 4-17 9-12 Tommy Holmes 1945 106 61 0 4-22 8-31 Mike Piazza 1996 105 77 0 5-26 9-25 Stan Musial 1958 104 63 0 4-23 9-11 Jeff Burroughs 1978 100 78 0 4-27 9- 6
Where LED is the number of days leading the league, DNL the number of days not leading the league, DNQ the number of days not qualifying (again, by modern standards), and First and Last contain the first and last dates they led the league.
And the flip side, the leaders who were in front of the pack for the fewest days.
Player Year LED DNL DNQ First Last Harry Heilmann 1925 2 165 7 6- 5 10- 4 Ellis Burks 1996 4 177 0 9-26 9-29 Ted Williams 1958 4 152 9 9-13 9-28 Lou Boudreau 1944 5 153 8 9-27 10- 1 Buddy Myer 1935 5 158 3 8-13 9-29 Enos Slaughter 1942 5 162 0 4-23 9-27 Willie Mays 1954 6 161 0 9-20 9-26 Lew Fonseca 1929 8 166 0 9-29 10- 6 Chick Hafey 1931 8 17 110 9-19 9-27 Paul Waner 1926 9 92 66 9-21 9-29
We discussed some of these in the original article and of course, some of the entries on each list are paired. So when Foxx faded down the stretch in 1929, Fonseca eventually grabbed the title, Reiser lost his lead at the end of 1942 to Slaughter, and Piazza was passed by Ellis Burks in 1996,
John also wondered about the closest three-way batting races. Between 1918 and 2010 (and once again, using the modern standard of 3.1 plate appearances per game), the closest races:
Year League Gap Players 1991 NL .00213 Tony Pendleton (.31911) Hal Morris (.31799) Tony Gwynn (.31698) 2003 AL .00268 Bill Mueller (.32634) Manny Ramirez (.32513) Derek Jeter (.32365) 1976 AL .00275 George Brett (.33333) Hal McRae (.33207) Rod Carew (.33058) 1935 AL .00323 Buddy Myer (.34903) Joe Vosmik (.34839) Jimmie Foxx (.34579) 1944 AL .00325 Lou Boudreau (.32705) Bobby Doerr (.32479) Bob Johnson (.32381) 1940 NL .00335 Stan Hack (.31675) Johnny Mize (.31434) Jim Gleeson (.31340)
Note: this does not include the 1931 NL race, which officially included three batters within a single percentage point. One of these, however, was Jim Bottomley, who appeared in only 108 games and would not have qualified under modern standards.