Teams With Most .300-Hitters In A Season Since 1973
Posted by Steve Lombardi on August 14, 2011
Since 1973, which teams had at least 4 batters hit .300 or better in a season and were they qualified for the batting title?
Here is the list -
| Rk | Year | Tm | Lg | #Matching | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1995 | Cleveland Indians | AL | 6 | Carlos Baerga / Albert Belle / Kenny Lofton / Eddie Murray / Manny Ramirez / Jim Thome |
| 2 | 1999 | New York Mets | NL | 5 | Edgardo Alfonzo / Roger Cedeno / Rickey Henderson / Mike Piazza / Robin Ventura |
| 3 | 1997 | Boston Red Sox | AL | 5 | Nomar Garciaparra / Reggie Jefferson / Troy O'Leary / John Valentin / Mo Vaughn |
| 4 | 1996 | Colorado Rockies | NL | 5 | Dante Bichette / Ellis Burks / Vinny Castilla / Andres Galarraga / Eric Young |
| 5 | 1976 | Cincinnati Reds | NL | 5 | George Foster / Cesar Geronimo / Ken Griffey / Joe Morgan / Pete Rose |
| 6 | 2011 | Boston Red Sox | AL | 4 | Jacoby Ellsbury / Adrian Gonzalez / David Ortiz / Dustin Pedroia |
| 7 | 2007 | New York Yankees | AL | 4 | Robinson Cano / Derek Jeter / Jorge Posada / Alex Rodriguez |
| 8 | 2006 | Colorado Rockies | NL | 4 | Garrett Atkins / Jamey Carroll / Todd Helton / Matt Holliday |
| 9 | 2004 | St. Louis Cardinals | NL | 4 | Jim Edmonds / Albert Pujols / Scott Rolen / Tony Womack |
| 10 | 2003 | Boston Red Sox | AL | 4 | Nomar Garciaparra / Bill Mueller / Trot Nixon / Manny Ramirez |
| 11 | 2001 | Colorado Rockies | NL | 4 | Jeff Cirillo / Todd Helton / Juan Pierre / Larry Walker |
| 12 | 2001 | Seattle Mariners | AL | 4 | Bret Boone / Edgar Martinez / John Olerud / Ichiro Suzuki |
| 13 | 2001 | St. Louis Cardinals | NL | 4 | Jim Edmonds / Placido Polanco / Albert Pujols / Fernando Vina |
| 14 | 2000 | Kansas City Royals | AL | 4 | Johnny Damon / Jermaine Dye / Joe Randa / Mike Sweeney |
| 15 | 1999 | Cleveland Indians | AL | 4 | Roberto Alomar / Kenny Lofton / Manny Ramirez / Omar Vizquel |
| 16 | 1999 | Texas Rangers | AL | 4 | Juan Gonzalez / Rusty Greer / Rafael Palmeiro / Ivan Rodriguez |
| 17 | 1999 | Toronto Blue Jays | AL | 4 | Homer Bush / Tony Fernandez / Shawn Green / Shannon Stewart |
| 18 | 1998 | Colorado Rockies | NL | 4 | Dante Bichette / Vinny Castilla / Todd Helton / Larry Walker |
| 19 | 1998 | Houston Astros | NL | 4 | Moises Alou / Jeff Bagwell / Derek Bell / Craig Biggio |
| 20 | 1998 | New York Yankees | AL | 4 | Scott Brosius / Derek Jeter / Paul O'Neill / Bernie Williams |
| 21 | 1998 | Texas Rangers | AL | 4 | Will Clark / Juan Gonzalez / Rusty Greer / Ivan Rodriguez |
| 22 | 1997 | Colorado Rockies | NL | 4 | Dante Bichette / Vinny Castilla / Andres Galarraga / Larry Walker |
| 23 | 1997 | Seattle Mariners | AL | 4 | Joey Cora / Ken Griffey / Edgar Martinez / Alex Rodriguez |
| 24 | 1996 | Cleveland Indians | AL | 4 | Albert Belle / Kenny Lofton / Manny Ramirez / Jim Thome |
| 25 | 1996 | Milwaukee Brewers | AL | 4 | Jeff Cirillo / John Jaha / Dave Nilsson / Kevin Seitzer |
| 26 | 1996 | New York Yankees | AL | 4 | Wade Boggs / Derek Jeter / Paul O'Neill / Bernie Williams |
| 27 | 1994 | New York Yankees | AL | 4 | Wade Boggs / Don Mattingly / Paul O'Neill / Luis Polonia |
| 28 | 1986 | Cleveland Indians | AL | 4 | Tony Bernazard / Joe Carter / Julio Franco / Pat Tabler |
| 29 | 1980 | St. Louis Cardinals | NL | 4 | George Hendrick / Keith Hernandez / Ted Simmons / Garry Templeton |
| 30 | 1977 | Cincinnati Reds | NL | 4 | Dan Driessen / George Foster / Ken Griffey / Pete Rose |
| 31 | 1975 | Cincinnati Reds | NL | 4 | George Foster / Ken Griffey / Joe Morgan / Pete Rose |
.
Note: The 2011 Red Sox, of course, is through yesterday's games.
August 14th, 2011 at 4:09 pm
I fully expected the 1993 Blue Jays to be on this list. They are one of the first teams that come to mind when I think of offensive juggernauts.
August 14th, 2011 at 4:21 pm
The '93 Jays only had 3 or 4, depending on whether you count Fernandez: Olerud (.363), Alomar (.326) Fernandez (.306) and Molitor (.332) Next closest was Devon White at .273. Fernandez spent the first 10 weeks with the Mets and his .306 BA was during his games with the Jays. Overall that year he was .279.
August 14th, 2011 at 4:48 pm
I wouldn't think of the 1999 Mets when thinking of this list. They also had John Olerud who hit .298 with a .427 on base percentage. They also had some great defense players on that team with Ventura, Ordonez and Olerud. They had a mediocre/lousy starting staff that year.
August 14th, 2011 at 5:31 pm
On August 18 (or 19th??), 2009 the Los Angeles Angels had all 9 players in their starting Lineup all batting .300 or over when they played at/against Cleveland
One of the Angel Coaches took a Picture if the Angel Lineup on the Big Cleveland Scoreboard, but I couldn't find via Google.
Here's the Article:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/240226-the-los-angeles-angels-of-anaheim-tie-75-year-old-record
August 14th, 2011 at 5:46 pm
And here is the BB-Ref.com Box Score of the Game:
There was no other batters in the game for the Angels that day on August 18, 2009.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CLE/CLE200908180.shtml
Unfortunatley by seasons end less that 6 weeks later only Eybar & Morales were over .300 and almost all the rest of the Angles were in the .290's
August 14th, 2011 at 6:01 pm
So in 99, Homer Bush hit .320
Wow, would've never guessed.
What an era it was though, his OPS + was only 96, despite his managing 35 extra base hits in 128 games played, which isn't THAT weak.
August 14th, 2011 at 7:03 pm
I didn't remember the 1997 Red Sox having five regulars who hit .300.
August 14th, 2011 at 7:14 pm
@6, Jimbo....
Homer Bush! wow... and speaking of Homer, why wasn't he in the AL rookie of the year voting for 1999? I mean, his OBP was a bit shabby but overall, he put up some pretty decent numbers that year.
In years 1997-98, he only accumulated 89 plate appearances over 55 games. Gregg Jefferies accumulated 124 plate appearances over 35 games from 1987-88, placed 6th in ROY voting in 1988 then 3d in 1989 after his first full season.
So, with less plate appearances for Homer, should he have been given some look for ROY votes in 1999? Competition in the voting wasn't too stiff that year.
August 14th, 2011 at 7:16 pm
Yesterday, if you had to name the four Brewers from the 1996 team, as a bar bet, would you have been drinking for free or would you be buying the next round?
August 14th, 2011 at 7:22 pm
@9,
Got Seitzer .... i'd be buying a round though
August 14th, 2011 at 7:28 pm
I actually remember when Gregg Jefferies came up to the Mets, he made it public that he would be challenging Rose's hits record. Couldn't believe my ears.
August 14th, 2011 at 7:31 pm
Cleveland jumps up to seven if you allow Sandy Alomar Jr. to catch instead of Tony Pena. Alomar hit .300 on the nose and played only slightly less than Pena.
By the way, not one of those regulars hit .250 in that season's World Series against Atlanta.
August 14th, 2011 at 7:46 pm
Sandy Alomar didn't have enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title.
August 14th, 2011 at 7:51 pm
I think Bush was on the '98 Yankees most, if not all, of the season. His gamelog and minor league record supports this. So he was not eligible for ROY in '99 based on service time.
August 14th, 2011 at 8:26 pm
How about those 86 Indians. For Carter and Bernazzard it was their only .300 season. And Tabler only ever had 2, that year and the next. And then Franco in there just to make it an interesting group.
August 14th, 2011 at 8:43 pm
@4
The picture of the scoreboard with the 9 .300 hitters is here:
http://angels.ocregister.com/2009/08/19/the-300-club-this-is-what-it-looked-like/33871/
August 14th, 2011 at 11:01 pm
@9 got Jaha, but that's it. Assumed Vaughn hit .300, and guessed Listach since I couldn't think of many others.
August 14th, 2011 at 11:13 pm
The 1980 Cardinals had a pitching staff that threw a lot of complete games. Their bullpen was a mess. By early June, they hired Whitey Herzog, and by 1981 they hired Bruce Sutter. On 10/20/1982, they were World Champs.
August 14th, 2011 at 11:24 pm
@3 and '99 Mets
The following year, the Mets had only two .300 regulars, had a team OPS 21 points lower, a team ERA+ almost the same (107 vs. 104), and won 3 fewer games. But, those 2000 Mets were NL champs (albeit via the wildcard route).
August 14th, 2011 at 11:31 pm
The 2001 Cardinals had a 5th .300 hitter in J.D. Drew. He was their most frequently used right-fielder, but had only 443 PA.
August 14th, 2011 at 11:33 pm
Wow! Mike Young had 3 walks today and drove in his 80th run. This from a guy that almost never walks.
August 15th, 2011 at 12:42 am
So...it looks like the steroid era lasted from 94/95 to 2007...very interesting list.
August 15th, 2011 at 1:38 am
DavidRF -- thanks for that picture. That is a thing of beauty.
August 15th, 2011 at 1:59 am
@19 Doug,
The '99 Mets compared to the 2000 Mets is interesting.
The 2000 team had Alfonzo & Piazza having great seasons and Hampton, Leiter and Benitez having great seasons. Alfonzo should have done much better in the MVP voting in 2000, I think he finished in 15th place. He should have finished at least in the top 5.
Benitez was great during the regular season but couldn't hold the lead in the 9th inning in game one of the WS. A lot is made of the O'neil walk but all he had to do was get Luis Polina & Jose Vizcaino out and the Mets would have been up 1-0.
The 1999 team had 3 great performances by Ventura, Olerud and Alfonzo with a very good season by Piazza. Then they had a player like Ordonez who was great with the glove but horrible with the bat. Then you had Henderson and Cedeno who were very good with the bat but horrible on defense. They had a very good bullpen with Benitez & Wendell but the starting pitching was kind of mediocre. It was a strange team as well because they had such a great defensive infield but the outfield defense was terrible.
August 15th, 2011 at 2:58 am
@16.
DavidRF's link to the picture of the As lineup on 8/19/2009 also included the link below.
http://angels.ocregister.com/2009/08/19/updating-the-300-or-better-note/33841/
This link details correspondence from Elias indicating that, before the Angels, the the last time a team started nine .300 hitters was in the game below, which is especially interesting since the lineup below includes the starting pitcher.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET193409090.shtml
Only one of the nine Detroit players in this game failed to finish the season at .300 (and it wasn't the pitcher).
August 15th, 2011 at 2:59 am
@25.
The first sentence above should read "DavidRF's link to the picture of the Angels lineup ..."
August 15th, 2011 at 4:14 am
I was looking at Paul Koerko's stats and the fact that he is 8 HR's away from 400 and should get there shortly, and I predict that he will finish his current contract in 2 years at about 460 - 470 HRs. I think that his career stats at that point put him on par with Willie Stargell and a ticket to the HoF. He has very similar stats to Stargell minus about 700 strike outs.
August 15th, 2011 at 4:44 am
That Indians team was sick.
Jim Thome
Manny Ramirez
Eddie Murray
Albert Belle
Thats a pretty huge career HR total for 4 men on the same team. Over 2000 homers.
Lofton and Vizquel and Baerga to set the tables, not bad.
August 15th, 2011 at 9:25 am
That 99 Met team had an infield with a combined 8 dWAR. I think by several other standards and measures they are considered the best ever.
August 15th, 2011 at 9:36 am
only 5 teams Pre-1994:
Big Red Machine (3) and future champs 1980 Cards.
Then there is the 1986 Indians. That is interesting.
August 15th, 2011 at 12:29 pm
@29 Duke,
An 8 dwar just for your infield, (Ordonez, Ventura, Olerud and Alfonzo) is just insane! The odd thing about that '99 Mets team is that the outfield had a dwar of negative (-5.7) with Henderson, Cedeno, McRae and Bonilla. So that team had a very odd mix of one of the greatest fielding infields of the last 50 years and one of the worst fielding outfields of the last 50 years.
The closest I could find to match that '99 Mets infield were the 1975 Orioles with a 6.9 with Robinson, Belanger, Grich and May
And the 1973 Orioles had a 6.8 with Robinson, Belanger, Grich and Bowell.
Most of the late 60's/early 70's Orioles had seasons in the 5dwar range but that was just basically Belanger and Robinson.
The 1982 Cardinals had a 5.2 dwar with O. Smith, Hernandez, Herr, and Oberkfel.
August 15th, 2011 at 2:10 pm
can anyone guess the team with the highest OPS+ since the 1931 Yankees?
August 15th, 2011 at 2:22 pm
@27
how did Joe Adcock do in his hall balloting? that would seem a more appropriate comparison than Stargell.
August 16th, 2011 at 12:08 am
Despite spending his prime during a decent scoring era, Adcock never scored more than 77 runs in a season. Pretty shocking for a good player known far more for his offensive capabilities than his defense. Part of that is because he only topped 140 games twice in his career. Still. He has the 28th highest career ratio of RBI to R (min 3000 PA), one of only four to top 1000 RBI. Every single one of the 32 players to average at least 1.35 RBI/R rates as a below average baserunner (per B-R WAR).
Anyway. I am surprised to see that Adcock never received a single HOF vote. He's not deserving but he was a very good player. It probably hurt him that he only played 170 games total during the Braves' back-to-back pennants in '57-58. He's not too dissimilar from contemporary Roy Sievers, who picked up just a handful of votes in two years on the ballot. Or Vic Wertz, who consistently got 2 to 5 votes for 9 seasons.
August 16th, 2011 at 12:28 am
@33 I'm not writing about Joe Adcock, I'm writing about Konerko.
August 16th, 2011 at 9:44 am
You are writing about a player who has Joe Adcock as his "most similar" player in terms of similarity score.
I recognize the limitations of this "score". But I defy you to find me a HOF player who, at age 35, had a "most similar" player who never got a single hall of fame vote.