Fewest career HR for a guy with a 40-HR season

Posted by Andy on April 15, 2011

Yesterday, Sean rolled out a new feature. I didn't quite get it at first but Raphy gave me a Google-chat based tutorial and now I see the awesomeness of it all.

Basically, you can base a PI search on the results of a previous PI search. Even more basically, it means you can do one search to identify a group of players, and then do another search among just that group of players.

This is particularly useful for looking up a search that combines both season and career totals, or both season and individual game totals, or both career and individual game totals.

Here's an example.

Here's a list of most 40-HR seasons. That's a basic PI search, the kind of stuff we were posting 4 years ago. I did it by using a Batting Season Finder, 40+ HR, sort by players with the most seasons in their careers. Then I clicked on 'Share', and 'link', and I renamed it "40 HR season", then created the link.

Then, I went back to the PI Batting Season Finder. Down at the bottom, there's a dropdown menu to use only the players from a selected report, so I selected by "40 HR season" report. Then I did a new search totaling for careers, ranked in ascending order for home runs.

Among the 125 guys to have at least one 40-HR season, here are the ones with the fewest career HR:

Rk	Player	HR	From	To	Age	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	RBI	BB	IBB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos	Tm
1	Jose Bautista	116	2004	2011	23-30	745	2765	2357	358	578	125	11	340	330	11	560	.245	.344	.455	.799	59/873D4	TOT-PIT-TOR
2	Mark Reynolds	122	2007	2011	23-27	573	2322	2015	331	489	100	10	354	263	14	777	.243	.334	.484	.818	*5/349	ARI-BAL
34	Davey Johnson	136	1965	1978	22-35	1435	5465	4797	564	1252	242	18	609	559	57	675	.261	.340	.404	.744	*43/65	BAL-ATL-PHI-TOT
4	Adrian Gonzalez	169	2004	2011	22-29	869	3677	3208	493	911	188	9	532	420	96	664	.284	.368	.506	.874	*3/D9	TEX-SDP-BOS
5	Richard Hidalgo	171	1997	2005	22-30	987	3927	3459	531	929	214	19	560	358	25	737	.269	.345	.490	.835	*987/D	HOU-TOT-TEX
6	Travis Hafner	178	2002	2011	25-34	951	3887	3291	531	924	221	10	609	501	73	781	.281	.385	.516	.901	*D/3	TEX-CLE
7	Jim Gentile	179	1957	1966	23-32	936	3479	2922	434	759	113	6	549	475	54	663	.260	.368	.486	.854	*3	BRO-LAD-BAL-KCA-TOT
8	Al Rosen	192	1947	1956	23-32	1044	4374	3725	603	1063	165	20	717	587	9	385	.285	.384	.495	.879	*5/3647	CLE
9	Prince Fielder	195	2005	2011	21-27	847	3563	2997	481	841	168	8	550	463	85	675	.281	.386	.537	.923	*3/D	MIL
10	Todd Hundley	202	1990	2003	21-34	1225	4305	3769	495	883	167	7	599	453	63	988	.234	.320	.443	.763	*2/7D	NYM-LAD-CHC
11	Phil Nevin	208	1995	2006	24-35	1217	4703	4188	584	1131	209	6	743	449	30	1019	.270	.343	.472	.814	532D/79	DET-ANA-SDP-TOT
12	Brady Anderson	210	1988	2002	24-38	1834	7737	6499	1062	1661	338	67	761	960	59	1190	.256	.362	.425	.787	*879/D	TOT-BAL-CLE
13	Rico Petrocelli	210	1963	1976	20-33	1553	6170	5390	653	1352	237	22	773	661	61	926	.251	.332	.420	.752	65/D43	BOS
14	Wally Post	210	1949	1964	19-34	1204	4397	4007	594	1064	194	28	699	331	28	813	.266	.323	.485	.808	*97/8	CIN-PHI-TOT-CLE
15	Tony Batista	221	1996	2007	22-33	1309	4959	4568	625	1146	226	17	718	287	27	790	.251	.299	.453	.752	*56/4D3	OAK-ARI-TOR-TOT-BAL-MON-MIN-WSN
16	Dick Stuart	228	1958	1969	25-36	1112	4363	3997	506	1055	157	30	743	301	34	957	.264	.316	.489	.806	*3/75	PIT-BOS-PHI-TOT-CAL
17	Hal Trosky	228	1933	1946	20-33	1347	5747	5161	835	1561	331	58	1012	545	0	440	.302	.371	.522	.892	*3/496	CLE-CHW
18	Carlos Pena	230	2001	2011	23-33	1083	4331	3647	559	876	172	20	654	589	37	1141	.240	.351	.488	.839	*3/D7	TEX-TOT-DET-BOS-TBD-TBR-CHC
19	Kevin Mitchell	234	1984	1998	22-36	1223	4696	4134	630	1173	224	25	760	491	87	719	.284	.360	.520	.880	*75/D9638	NYM-TOT-SFG-SEA-CIN-CLE-OAK
20	Ben Oglivie	235	1971	1986	22-37	1754	6598	5913	784	1615	277	33	901	560	105	852	.273	.336	.450	.786	*79D/38	BOS-DET-MIL

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/15/2011.

Unsurprisingly, many of these guys are still active. (I could have chosen to ignore active players in my PI search, of course.) It seems pretty likely that Jose Bautista and Mark Reynolds will eventually pass Davey Johnson in career HR, putting Johnson back at the top of this list. I had no idea that Richard Hidalgo was second among retired players.

Anyway, this is a sweet new feature from Sean. Another thing I'll be doing with it is looking for pitchers who achieved both a particular pitching feat and a particular hitting feat--we get asked about that all the time, and now we have an automated way of searching for it!

This entry was posted on Friday, April 15th, 2011 at 6:40 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

18 Responses to “Fewest career HR for a guy with a 40-HR season”

Kelly Says:
April 15th, 2011 at 7:05 am
Nice list. Yeah, you definitely should exclude active players any time you're doing a list that compares players' entire careers....Anyway I figured Davey Johnson and Brady Anderson would be atop the list; I was right about Johnson but and it's interesting to see the names above Brady: Jim Gentile really only hit 179 dingers?
Jon Says:
April 15th, 2011 at 7:28 am
Where's Roy Hobbs?
Casey Says:
April 15th, 2011 at 8:11 am
i've always wondered what 20 game winner had the fewest career wins...how about that one?
Andy Says:
April 15th, 2011 at 8:15 am
That's a little tougher to do, Casey, because more than 200 pitchers have won 20 in a season. It can be done by breaking it up by years or some other criterion. I'll post it within a few days if someone else doesn't post it first.
Sean Says:
April 15th, 2011 at 8:27 am
Gentle Ben Ogilve of that super cool Brew Crew lineup.
Dr. Doom Says:
April 15th, 2011 at 8:55 am
Andy -

Will this type of search finally allow for us to cross-reference pitching/hitting feats? Like can you search all pitchers with a 100 innings and a sub-3.00 ERA, then search how many batted .250 or better? (Note: I don't care about the answer to this question, I'm just giving an example, and wondering if it's possible.) Or does the linking only allow for batting tables to be searched about batting? I'm curious because it seems like people ask about pitchers-as-hitters a lot on the blog, and I was wondering if this is a way to finally check some of that out.
Andy Says:
April 15th, 2011 at 8:59 am
Doom, yeah I mentioned that at the bottom of my original post.
dukeofflatbush Says:
April 15th, 2011 at 9:08 am
I expected to see Gorman Thomas and Richie Sexson on this list. Two of my favorite 'grip-n-ripper's- and two cool Brewers.
Mets Maven Says:
April 15th, 2011 at 10:22 am
@3
How about Jocko Flynn? He was 23-6 with the 1886 Chicago White Stockings. That was his only season in the bigs.
Richard Chester Says:
April 15th, 2011 at 11:27 am
@3

The Baseball Maniac's Almanac has a list of 6 20-game winners with the fewest career wins.

They are:

Henry Schmidt with 21 wins in 1903, 21 wins career-wise. (B-R stats show 22 wins)
Buck O'Brien with 20 wins in 1912, 29 career-wise.
Johnny Beazley with 21 wins in 1942, 31 career-wise
Bill James with 26 wins in 1914, 37 career-wise
Roscoe Miller with 23 wins in 1901, 39 career-wise
George McConnell with 25 wins in 1915, 41 career-wise
Dave Says:
April 15th, 2011 at 11:45 am
Can you do these things without having to share, link, then search over again?
Just on one search without having to go through multiple steps...
704_Brave Says:
April 15th, 2011 at 12:40 pm
Was thinking Ron Bryant on the 20 game winner question. Swimming pool accident pretty much ended his career after winning 24 at age 25 in 1973 for the Giants.
Ryan Says:
April 15th, 2011 at 2:39 pm
I'm surprised I don't see ol' Roy Hobbs on here.
Dave Says:
April 15th, 2011 at 2:53 pm
I just did a search for players that have 100+ HR for the Pirates and it gave me 20 players.
I redid the list for most HR in a season and it gave Barry Bonds as #1 even though his 73 HR did not come as a Pirate.

I guess I can redo the second list to say only as a Pirate or just for one team in their career.
Johnny Twisto Says:
April 15th, 2011 at 4:30 pm
Hobbs only hit 36 HR that season. Don't forget he had some nasty slumps mid-season.
Neil L. Says:
April 15th, 2011 at 5:33 pm
Well of course Bautista had to come out at the top of that list. Try setting the bar at a 50+ and see how short the list becomes.

However, I believe Jose will move to 3rd on the list by the end of this year.
Three Stat Gems » Stathead » Blog Archive Says:
April 15th, 2011 at 5:34 pm
[...] trio of stat nuggets from the B-R blog: The fewest career HR for a guy with a 40-HR season, the fewest plate appearances in a game by the winning team, and the case of a pitcher getting a [...]
DoubleDiamond Says:
April 16th, 2011 at 10:36 pm
@1 - Davey Johnson, Brady Anderson, Jim Gentile - all Orioles at some point in their career! And now Reynolds is one, too.

Anderson and Gentile had their 40+ homer seasons with Baltimore. Johnson's was with Atlanta.

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