Worst OPS+ in a season with 15 triples
Posted by Andy on March 9, 2009
If I told you that a given player hit 15 triples in a season, you'd probably think (as I would) that the guy was probably a pretty good offensive player. A guy with 15 triples is often good for at least 25, maybe 35 or 45, doubles, and usually has double-digit stolen bases and scores at least 80 runs.
But here are the 27 guys since 1901 to have a season with at least 15 triples and an OPS+ below 100:
Cnt Player **OPS+** 3B Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB R H 2B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Positions +----+-----------------+--------+--+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+ 1 Alfredo Griffin 69 15 1980 22 TOR AL 155 696 653 63 166 26 2 41 24 2 58 4 10 5 8 18 23 .254 .283 .349 .632 *6 2 Cristian Guzman 70 20 2000 22 MIN AL 156 690 631 89 156 25 8 54 46 1 101 2 7 4 5 28 10 .247 .299 .388 .687 *6 3 Dave Brain 70 15 1903 24 STL NL 119 496 464 44 107 8 1 60 25 0 0 0 7 0 0 21 0 .231 .270 .319 .589 *65 4 Hobe Ferris 78 15 1901 26 BOS AL 138 564 523 68 131 16 2 63 23 0 0 6 12 0 0 13 0 .250 .290 .350 .640 *4/6 5 Jose Reyes 81 17 2005 22 NYM NL 161 733 696 99 190 24 7 58 27 0 78 2 4 4 7 60 15 .273 .300 .386 .686 *6 6 Willie Wilson 83 15 1987 31 KCR AL 146 653 610 97 170 18 4 30 32 2 88 6 4 1 9 59 11 .279 .320 .377 .697 *8/D 7 Don Gutteridge 83 15 1938 26 STL NL 142 584 552 61 141 21 9 64 29 0 49 0 3 0 9 14 0 .255 .293 .397 .690 *56 8 Charlie Gehringer 86 17 1926 23 DET AL 123 517 459 62 127 19 1 48 30 0 42 1 27 0 0 9 7 .277 .322 .399 .721 *4/5 9 Rabbit Maranville 86 20 1924 32 PIT NL 152 640 594 62 158 33 2 71 35 0 53 0 11 0 0 18 14 .266 .307 .399 .706 *4 10 Jackie Tavener 87 15 1928 30 DET AL 132 529 473 59 123 24 5 52 33 0 51 4 19 0 0 13 8 .260 .314 .406 .720 *6 11 Rabbit Maranville 88 15 1922 30 PIT NL 155 747 672 115 198 26 0 63 61 0 43 2 12 0 0 24 13 .295 .355 .378 .733 *64 12 Charlie Grimm 88 17 1921 22 PIT NL 151 611 562 62 154 21 7 71 31 0 38 2 16 0 0 6 8 .274 .314 .409 .723 *3 13 Joe Cassidy 90 19 1904 21 WSH AL 152 616 581 63 140 12 1 33 15 0 0 4 16 0 0 17 0 .241 .265 .332 .597 *6589/7 14 Hobe Ferris 93 16 1905 30 BOS AL 142 558 523 51 115 24 6 59 23 0 0 0 12 0 0 11 0 .220 .253 .361 .614 *4 15 Ray Lankford 94 15 1991 24 STL NL 151 615 566 83 142 23 9 69 41 1 114 1 4 3 4 44 20 .251 .301 .392 .693 *8 16 Russ Scarritt 94 17 1929 26 BOS AL 151 593 540 69 159 26 1 71 34 0 38 1 18 0 0 13 11 .294 .337 .411 .748 *79/8 17 Gino Cimoli 95 15 1962 32 KCA AL 152 606 550 67 151 20 10 71 40 2 89 2 8 6 12 2 1 .275 .323 .420 .743 *98/7 18 Bobby Byrne 95 17 1911 26 PIT NL 153 685 598 96 155 24 2 52 67 0 41 8 12 0 0 23 0 .259 .342 .366 .708 *5 19 Glenn Wright 96 18 1924 23 PIT NL 153 662 616 80 177 28 7 111 27 0 52 1 18 0 0 14 6 .287 .318 .425 .743 *6 20 Willie Wilson 97 21 1985 29 KCR AL 141 642 605 87 168 25 4 43 29 3 94 5 2 1 6 43 11 .278 .316 .408 .724 *8 21 Bill Bruton 97 15 1956 30 MLN NL 147 578 525 73 143 23 8 56 26 11 63 1 18 8 7 8 6 .272 .304 .419 .723 *8 22 Rabbit Maranville 97 15 1920 28 BSN NL 134 534 493 48 131 19 1 43 28 0 24 0 13 0 0 14 11 .266 .305 .371 .676 *6 23 Shano Collins 97 17 1915 29 CHW AL 153 650 576 73 148 24 2 85 28 0 50 6 40 0 0 38 19 .257 .298 .368 .666 9387 24 Red Murray 97 20 1912 28 NYG NL 143 603 549 83 152 26 3 92 27 0 45 8 19 0 0 38 0 .277 .320 .413 .733 *97 25 Whitey Alperman 97 16 1907 27 BRO NL 141 591 558 44 130 23 2 39 13 0 0 12 8 0 0 5 0 .233 .266 .342 .608 *456 +----+-----------------+--------+--+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+ Cnt Player **OPS+** 3B Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB R H 2B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Positions +----+-----------------+--------+--+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+ 26 Jim Rivera 98 16 1953 30 CHW AL 156 639 567 79 147 26 11 78 53 0 70 6 13 0 15 22 15 .259 .329 .420 .749 *8/9 27 Gus Suhr 98 16 1932 26 PIT NL 154 654 581 78 153 31 5 81 63 0 39 2 8 0 0 7 0 .263 .337 .398 .735 *3
All but a handful of these come from before 1960, and most are from before 1940. That's not too surprising. Triples were a lot more common back then, so you'd expect to see a higher fraction of players get 15 in a season, and therefore more below average hitters achieving that mark as well.
Of more interest are some of the more recent seasons.
We've talked a lot recently about Alfredo Griffin. Just search on his name on this blog for more. Christian Guzman's struggles were well-documented as well, although he had a fairly solid year last year for the Nats.
Check out #3, Dave Brain. He had 15 triples, but just 8 doubles and 1 HR. This was in 1903, and I'm guessing that this anamoly has something to do with ground rules at his home park. (Somebody out there must know?)
Jose Reyes' 2005 performance was also interesting. He was hurt mainly by the fact that he didn't walk much at all.
Two other recent players on there are Ray Lankford in 1991, and Willie Wilson, who appears twice.
March 9th, 2009 at 8:27 am
No, special ground rules - just monstrous dimensions:
Left field: 470 ft. (1893), 380 ft. (1909); shoot the chutes at the left field foul pole and in right center: 625 ft. (1896); deepest left center: 520 ft. (1893), 400 ft. (1909); center field: 500 ft. (1893), 435 ft. (1909); right center: 330 ft. (1893), 320 ft. (1909); right field: 290 ft. (1893); backstop: 120 ft. (1893); foul territory: huge.
Source: http://www.ballparks.com/baseball/national/robiso.htm
March 9th, 2009 at 11:10 am
The park probably has something to do with it (spacious outfields in general are the major reason for all the triples back then). But I'm not sure that Robison Park was terribly unique in this regard. Brain didn't double and triple in such odd ratios in other seasons, and St. Louis didn't hit an extraordinary number of triples compared to the rest of the league. I'd say it's mostly a fluke.
Guzman has had a weird career. When I first saw him I thought he was one of the worst players I had ever seen. Really ugly swing. (Not that surprising since I think he didn't start playing baseball until his teens.) But he improved and was having quite a good season in '01, when I believe he hurt his shoulder. I don't know if that was the only reason, but his performance slowly declined after that, and his career appeared to be on the verge of ending until he suddenly started hitting .300. I have no idea what his future holds.
March 9th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
anyone here know what the heck shoot the chutes is? i wrote to that website (in #1) about this ballpark a few years back and they didn't know the answer.
March 9th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
What do you mean? Shoot means aim, and chute is define as any sort of long, narrow space. So the phrase "shoot the chutes" means to aim for the long alleys in the outfield where you can hit the ball a long distance. Pretty straightforward.
March 9th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
I wouldn't consider a spacious power alley a "chute," and most descriptions of field dimensions don't give commentary on how one should approach hitting there. I found an explanation here: http://tinyurl.com/ck74hm. It appears a couple sections of fence were missing, and the ball could just roll on through.
March 9th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Getting completely off-topic, but this is just another one of those things that shows people who complain about steroids ruining the "sanctity" of the numbers don't know anything about baseball history. I mean, you had parks with 600-foot outfields, missing fences, etc etc etc. How would anyone ever think all these numbers could be easily compared UNTIL steroids came along?
March 9th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Maranville's season in 1922 really isn't that bad. He was durable (747 PA), reliable (.295 BA, .355 OBP) and came around to score plenty (115 runs). Toss in all those triples, and you wonder why his OPS+ is so low. Then you see the 0 HR and just 26 2B (out of 198 hits), and that his BA and OBP were barely above league average, and you realize he was mostly punchless, but fast. So team him up at the top of the lineup with Max Carey, which they did, and all you need is a strong 3-4-5 to build a great lineup. Their 3-4-5 was nothing special, though.
March 10th, 2009 at 1:15 am
Plus Maranville was supposedly a superb shortstop. Altogether, that's definitely an above-average season (he finished 7th in MVP voting).