Carlos Lee’s RBI streak
Posted by Andy on July 23, 2007
Well, I started off wanting to see just how impressive or meaningful Shelley Duncan's start with the Yankees has been, and instead I learned something about Carlos Lee. Duncan has had at least 1 RBI in each of the three games he's played in since he came up, with 3 HR and 7 RBI overall.
Using the PI Batting Streak finder, I set it to years 2000 to present, set only for the start of a player's career, and then most consecutive games with at least 1 RBI.
The results:
StreakStart Streak End Games AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SO BB SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Teams +-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Carlos Lee 2000-04-03 2000-04-07 5 20 5 10 2 0 2 9 2 2 0 0 .500 .545 .900 1.445 CHW Shelley Duncan 2007-07-20 2007-07-22 3 12 3 4 0 0 3 7 4 2 0 0 .333 .429 1.083 1.512 NYY Jeff Salazar 2006-09-07 2006-09-10 3 9 5 5 1 0 0 5 1 4 1 0 .556 .643 .667 1.310 COL Jason Bay 2003-05-23 2003-08-27 3 11 3 4 2 0 1 3 2 2 0 0 .364 .462 .818 1.280 SDP-PIT Reed Johnson 2003-04-20 2003-05-17 3 9 3 5 2 0 1 3 2 0 0 1 .556 .636 1.111 1.747 TOR Hideki Matsui 2003-03-31 2003-04-02 3 14 0 4 2 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 .286 .267 .429 .696 NYY Jason Tyner 2000-06-05 2000-06-08 3 11 0 3 0 0 0 3 2 1 0 1 .273 .308 .273 .581 NYM Brian Daubach 2000-04-05 2000-04-07 3 8 3 5 0 0 3 5 0 1 0 0 .625 .667 1.750 2.417 BOS Chris Singleton 2000-04-03 2000-04-05 3 14 3 4 1 1 1 4 1 1 0 0 .286 .333 .714 1.047 CHW
This is a pretty mixed list, in the sense that getting an RBI in 3 or 5 straight games at the start of one's career doesn't necessarily mean all that much as far as future prospects. To be fair, a lot of players get excluded from such a streak because maybe their first appearance is as a pinch-runner or a pinch-hitter and their RBI opportunities are significantly lessened.
Certainly, we'd all be happy to have Carlos Lee, Jason Bay, or Hideki Matsui on our favorite team. But history shows that such streaks are not very meaningful.
For the decade of the 90s here are the leaders for the same career-starting streak:
+-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Mike Lansing 1993-04-07 1993-04-11 5 26 6 12 2 0 2 8 1 1 0 0 .462 .481 .769 1.250 MON Yamil Benitez 1995-09-16 1995-09-19 3 9 2 5 0 1 1 3 0 0 0 0 .556 .556 1.111 1.667 MON Shane Andrews 1995-04-27 1995-04-29 3 10 3 5 2 0 2 5 4 1 0 0 .500 .545 1.300 1.845 MON Dean Palmer 1991-06-26 1991-06-28 3 12 2 5 0 0 2 7 2 1 0 0 .417 .462 .917 1.379 TEX Pete Coachman 1990-08-18 1990-08-20 3 14 1 6 1 0 0 4 3 0 0 0 .429 .429 .500 .929 CAL Eddie Williams 1990-07-12 1990-07-17 3 14 2 4 1 0 2 3 1 0 0 0 .286 .286 .786 1.072 SDP
Three Expos top the list. The best of this bunch turned out to be Dean Palmer, and even he didn't live up to expectations.
The 80s don't look much better:
StreakStart Streak End Games AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SO BB SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Teams +-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Jesse Barfield 1981-09-03 1981-09-06 4 15 1 4 1 0 1 6 2 1 1 1 .267 .313 .533 .846 TOR Dan Graham 1980-05-10 1980-05-16 4 16 3 9 0 0 2 5 2 1 0 0 .563 .588 .938 1.526 BAL Mike Ramsey 1987-04-06 1987-04-08 3 12 2 5 0 1 0 3 4 0 0 0 .417 .417 .583 1.000 LAD Rey Quinones 1986-05-17 1986-05-20 3 10 4 3 2 0 0 4 2 3 0 1 .300 .462 .500 .962 BOS George Bjorkman 1983-07-10 1983-07-13 3 10 1 4 0 0 1 7 1 1 0 0 .400 .455 .700 1.155 HOU Stan Papi 1980-05-30 1980-06-08 3 10 1 5 0 1 1 6 2 0 0 0 .500 .500 1.000 1.500 DET Joe Lefebvre 1980-05-22 1980-05-24 3 8 2 4 0 0 2 5 2 1 0 0 .500 .556 1.250 1.806 NYY
Barfield is the cream of the crop here. I hadn't even heard of a couple of these guys, which is rare for me.
The best players ever to have such a streak was found in the 1970s:
StreakStart Streak End Games AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SO BB SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Teams +-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Ron Cash 1973-09-04 1973-09-10 4 16 4 8 0 1 0 4 1 0 0 0 .500 .471 .625 1.096 DET Danny Ainge 1979-05-21 1979-05-23 3 10 4 6 0 0 0 3 1 1 0 0 .600 .636 .600 1.236 TOR Ramon Aviles 1979-05-04 1979-05-07 3 9 3 5 2 0 0 4 1 1 0 0 .556 .600 .778 1.378 PHI Paul Molitor 1978-04-07 1978-04-09 3 16 4 7 0 0 1 7 0 0 0 0 .438 .438 .625 1.063 MIL Ruppert Jones 1976-08-01 1976-08-07 3 12 2 4 1 1 0 5 1 1 0 1 .333 .385 .583 .968 KCR Jim Rice 1974-08-19 1974-08-23 3 9 0 2 0 0 0 4 1 0 0 0 .222 .250 .222 .472 BOS Gomer Hodge 1971-04-06 1971-04-11 3 4 1 4 2 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 1.000 1.000 1.500 2.500 CLE Al Gallagher 1970-04-07 1970-04-09 3 12 2 6 1 1 0 3 1 0 0 0 .500 .462 .750 1.212 SFG
We have three awesome players on this list: Molitor, Rice, and Danny Ainge (although it was the NBA where Ainge was awesome!)