Fewest games in a season to reach 100 RBI
Posted by Andy on July 27, 2007
When Arod recently got to 100 RBI in, I think, 99 games, there was a lot of talk about how he was the third Yankee to do this, following two no-names called Gehrig and DiMaggio.
It got me to thinking about an unrelated stat, which is fewest games played in a complete season while also reaching 100 RBIs. If you don't limit the search to 2006 and earlier, Arod's current season shows up since he has 100 RBIs already, but we're not talking about reaching 100 RBIs in the fewest games.
Anyway, here's the list (1901-2006):
Cnt Player G RBI Year Age
+----+-----------------+---+---+----+---+
1 Ken Williams 102 105 1925 35
2 Rudy York 104 103 1937 23
3 Albert Belle 106 101 1994 27
4 Al Simmons 106 108 1927 25
5 Kirby Puckett 108 112 1994 34
6 Jeff Bagwell 110 116 1994 26
7 Joe Carter 111 103 1994 34
8 Bill Dickey 112 107 1936 29
9 Frank Thomas 113 101 1994 26
10 Zeke Bonura 116 100 1937 28
11 George Brett 117 118 1980 27
12 Manny Ramirez 118 122 2000 28
13 Al Simmons 119 107 1928 26
14 Manny Ramirez 120 107 2002 30
15 Joe DiMaggio 120 126 1939 24
16 Chick Hafey 120 107 1930 27
17 Ty Cobb 121 102 1925 38
18 Jeffrey Hammonds 122 106 2000 29
19 Dick Allen 122 101 1970 28
20 Hal Trosky 122 104 1939 26
This is pretty heavily weighted toward recent seasons, but it's a bit of a red herring. In the strike-shortened season of 1994, five players (those listed above) had 100 RBIs when the strike hit, giving them what appear to be seasons in which they missed a lot of games (which they didn't.) Other than those 5 times, the rest of the top 20 are fairly well spread out over the history of baseball.
George Brett's 1980 season is the most memorable for me, but the name that sticks out the most here is....Jeffrey Hammonds!!!
July 27th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Also of interest is that Rudy York had 103 RBIs in 1937 with only 417 PAs. Thats efficiency.
July 28th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
That's an interesting stat. My friend and I thought of a stat, so anyone who reads this comment back and say what you think:
It's called the "Production Factor", and here's some key points in it:
-Players get as many points as the percentage of hits, runs and RBI they get for their team.
-If a player has a homer that drove in 3 of the 4 runs for his team, give him only 75 points, don't give him credit for scoring himself and driving in himself, because that would suggest he drove in 4 runs.
Here's an example:
2 Days ago, Scott Posednik was 2-4 with 1 run scored and an RBI. The White Sox scored 4 runs on 4 hits.
This means Posednik get 50 points for hits (2 out of 4 is 50%), and 25 for his run (1 out of 4= 25%) and 25 points for his RBI. So Posednik ends up with 100 points, and very good score.
Also visit my blog:
http://baseballstuff.mlblogs.com
July 29th, 2007 at 8:22 am
Is ARod really just the third Yankee to get to 100 RBI in less than 100 games? I thought I read that he was the first Yankee to do so since both Gehrig and DiMaggio did it in 1937, but it seems like Ruth would've done it in at least one season....
July 29th, 2007 at 8:49 am
It would be interesting to find the guys who requird the fewest games (or team games), or PAs, to get to 100 RBI in a season. I went through Ruth's sheets and found four seasons where he got to 100 RBI in less than 100 TEAM games:
1921: 100th RBI on 7/30, 92nd team game
1926: 100th RBI on 7/27, 98th team game
1931: 100th RBI on 7/27(1), 94th team game
1932: 100th RBI on 7/29, 99th team game
July 29th, 2007 at 8:52 am
Trent,
Clearly you are correct. The stat I reported is a stat I heard given when Arod reached that mark, but it's pretty obviously wrong. Thanks for the correction.