Players who’ve batted under .210 and over .290 in different seasons
Posted by Andy on April 22, 2011
Using the new two-tiered search feature, I generated a list of players who have had at least one season with a batting average under .210 as well as at least one season with a batting average over .290. In each season, the player had to have enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title.
This particular question has been asked by a lot of readers over the years. I think many folks noticed that Mark McGwire did it by hitting .201 in 1991 and .312 in 1996.
Anyway, now it's easy to answer, and here are the 30 guys since 1901 to do it:
Rk | Yrs | To ▾ | |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Aaron Hill | 2 | 2007 |
2 | Nick Punto | 1 | 2006 |
3 | Mark McGwire | 2 | 1998 |
4 | Scott Brosius | 1 | 1998 |
5 | Jim Sundberg | 1 | 1977 |
6 | Don Buford | 2 | 1971 |
7 | Brooks Robinson | 4 | 1965 |
8 | Al Lopez | 2 | 1933 |
9 | Charlie Jamieson | 11 | 1930 |
10 | Joe Dugan | 4 | 1925 |
11 | Bill Wambsganss | 2 | 1923 |
12 | Steve O'Neill | 3 | 1922 |
13 | Eddie Ainsmith | 1 | 1922 |
14 | Ralph Young | 2 | 1921 |
15 | Howie Shanks | 1 | 1921 |
16 | Clyde Milan | 7 | 1920 |
17 | Shano Collins | 2 | 1920 |
18 | Zip Collins | 1 | 1915 |
19 | Dode Paskert | 2 | 1912 |
20 | Bobby Byrne | 1 | 1910 |
21 | Jimmy Sheckard | 3 | 1905 |
22 | Frank Isbell | 1 | 1905 |
23 | Bill Bradley |
4 | 1904 |
24 | Freddy Parent | 3 | 1904 |
25 | Jimmy Williams | 2 | 1902 |
26 | Ossee Schrecongost | 2 | 1902 |
27 | George Barclay | 1 | 1902 |
28 | Deacon McGuire | 1 | 1901 |
29 | Billy Maloney | 1 | 1901 |
30 | Ducky Holmes | 1 | 1901 |
The additional columns are number of qualified seasons with a batting average over .290 and the most recent season that was achieved.
Eagle-eyed readers will notice that Mike Schmidt's name is missing from this list. He hit .196 in 1973 but must have just barely missed the cutoff to qualify for the batting title.
So I made a second list. Click here to see guys who have batted both under .200 and over .280 in seasons with at least 400 plate appearances. It includes Carlos Pena, Mike Pagliarulo, Mike Schmidt, and Reggie Jackson as recent entries.
April 22nd, 2011 at 9:37 am
I'm astonished Nick Punto hit over .290. I'm almost surprised he slugged over .290, really.
April 22nd, 2011 at 10:14 am
Anytime Ossee Schrecongost's name comes up, it's a good thing.
April 22nd, 2011 at 11:16 am
The first name I thought of was George Scott, but in his horrible (.171) 1968 season, he fell short of plate appearances-not to mention hits- to qualify for the batting title.
April 22nd, 2011 at 11:19 am
@3 I thought the same thing about Mike Schmidt, but he had only 443 PA in his rookie year when he hit .196
April 22nd, 2011 at 11:39 am
#4, I did address Schmidt in the final paragraph along with another list.
April 22nd, 2011 at 1:55 pm
Has anyone ever had both a .300 season?
April 22nd, 2011 at 2:12 pm
Just wondering how Bill Bradley is on the list. He hit under .210 3 times (.196, .187, and .186) but had 233, 220, and 376 plate appearances in those seasons (1910, 1915, 1909) respectively. In 1909, when he had 376 PAs, the Indians played 153 games. In the other two years his teams played 152 and 153 games.
April 22nd, 2011 at 2:32 pm
@7
Back in the early part of the 20th century the requirement for the batting title was less than 400 AB. Ty Cobb won the 1914 title with 345 AB.
April 22nd, 2011 at 3:04 pm
Did anyone find the largest spread?
I noticed Scott Brosius did it in consecutive years hitting .304 with a 127 OPS+ in 1996 then .203 with a 53 OPS+ in '97. Ouch.
April 22nd, 2011 at 3:40 pm
I wonder what the all time biggest average drop in one season is. Tip O'Neill managed to drop exactly 100 BA points from 1887 to 1888 and still lead the league both times (which is pretty cool). Fred Dunlap lost 152 points after 1884, but you can't really count the UA as a major league, I don't think. Does anybody know? Has anyone dropped, say, 160 points in BA from year to year and still had enough AB to qualify for the title?
April 22nd, 2011 at 3:58 pm
Norm Cash dropped from .361 in 1961 to .243 in 1962 - a 118 point drop with enough appearances to qualify each year.
April 22nd, 2011 at 4:27 pm
@10
George Sisler hit .420 in 1922, missed the entire 1923 season due to sinusitis and vision problems and returned in 1924 and hit .305, a drop of 115 points.
April 22nd, 2011 at 5:10 pm
[...] From Andy K. and B-R, the post title say it all. Link [...]
April 23rd, 2011 at 12:15 am
@7 / @8, re: historical requirements to qualify for the batting title -- The B-R info is here:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/about/leader_glossary.shtml#min_req
April 23rd, 2011 at 7:23 pm
This is my first post on this blog -
Anyway, just wanted to mention Roy Campenella's 105 point drop from 1953 (.312) to 1954 (.207) - looks like he didn't have enough PA to qualify in '54.
Also, his OPS+ dropped 80 points (from 154 to 74). George Sisler dropped 79 points (from 170 to 91) and Norm Cash dropped just 65 points (from 201 to 136).